Bi Fold Programs: Fill & Download for Free

We do persist, all of us I’m afraid, in mixing types (as Bertrand Russel liked to say) and I am as guilty as the next. Your question, a common one, indeed, assumes cause & effect whereas, in this particular case, they are one and the same. Reproduction does not represent a separate and distinct function from life itself. It is, in fact, the very definition of life. The very origin of life (yes, I remember it so vividly … LOL) was the reproduction of a chain of molecules … a redox reaction (simply put) that quite suddenly bridged the boundaries of the inorganic to the bio-organic, most probably having occurred in the sea and/or in one or more watery or water-like environments. The sea did not begin to fill up with living organisms and then all within began to reproduce. The reproduction part came first; what we call organisms followed at some distant point in time. The evolution and extraordinary diversity resulting in the processes of reproduction continues to rank among the most intense subjects, still unresolved, of Biological inquiry. Simple in concept, yes, but understandably difficult to contemplate due to its bi-fold nature, the fact remains that if the object is living, it necessarily reproduces (statistically …i.e., population-wise at any rate … as not every individual organism reproduces for one reason or t’other) and if it reproduces, it is necessarily living. regardless in what form or state in which it might appear. Reproduction is the state of living and vice-versa. There is no magical ‘drive’ or compulsion as such but rather a natural consequence of life itself.

There is some contention, but the first use was by American Express in Chicago in 1970.How The CIA, And A Wife’s Unique Use Of An Iron Helped Invent The Payment Card Magnetic StripIt was early spring in 1960 and IBM was tasked by the Central Intelligence Agency to create a computerized system with access control to track employees at its facilities. Forrest C. Perry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_Parry) an engineer and inventor at IBM’s Rochester, Minnesota technology center took up the challenge.Forrest approached the problem from what now appears to be quite obvious. However in 1960, his ideas where very cutting edge. Forrest was very active in researching technology of high speed Data Storage Tape drives and quickly saw a vision of a plastic card with a bit of magnetic tape situated across the back. His first attempts proved that the idea had merit. He constructed a box with a Magnetic Tape Reading Head from an IBM Data Tape Drive inside. That was the easy part, the hard part was working to adhere the Tape to the card. Forrest tried a few dozen glues and none allowed for the tape to be applied full wrinkle free or in some cases just gum up the works.Frustrated Forrest went home late that day and complained to his wife Dorothea about how his day was filled with ways to adhere a very thin magnetic tape strip on to the back of a plastic card. Dorothea thought for a minute and chuckled as she may have solved his problem while Ironing his crisp ”IBM White” shirts.Dorothea asked for a sample card and tape strip that Forrest brought home. She adjusted the Iron’s setting, just right and gently arranged the magnetic tape and card with an overlay of a folded Pillow case to diffuse the heat. She applied even pressure for about 3 minutes and presented to Forrest the very first true version of the Magnetic Strip Payment Card.The next day Forrest showed his new creation to his manager, Jerome Svigals and it was a hit. IBM did not patent the technology and spent many years refining the process. They were later able to incorporate the magnetic strips on cardboard tickets for London’s Underground and California’s Bay Area Rapid Transit system. They freely gave this technology away to any company that could use it as it sold many IBM computers needed to process the information. Airlines became very large users of this technology for boarding passes. Jerome stated that for every dollar spent on the research, they received $1500 in computer sales.A Disapproving Mom Almost Stopped The Magnetic Strip On The Credit CardJerome and Forrest became cheerleaders for the technology within IBM and was granted time to present new ideas to the Board Of Directors in May, 1969. They wanted to enhance the Credit Card that was becoming very popular at the time. Forrest had approached a few bankers and was rebuffed as they saw no reason to invest huge amounts of money in new unproven technology (rings of familiarity today). The presentation to the Board went quite well and had an impact on the 5 Bankers that sat on IBM’s board. However Thomas J. Watson Jr. was actually not so convinced and pulled over Jerome and whispered that “Mom doesn’t like Credit Cards”. This was a bit of a shock to Jerome but soon Thomas approved the project.The First Public Use Of A Magnetic Strip Credit CardIn late 1969 IBM created the first ISO based standards for the density and tracks for the magnetic strip. In 1970, a joint pilot project by American Express, American Airlines and IBM took places at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. American Express issued 100s of new cards to frequent travelers in the Chicago area and allowed for electronic payment for tickets and other services using these new cards.In 1973 IBM officially announced products to read and program magnetic strip cards for use as bank cards and employee ID cards. During the 1970s there was a growing adoption for the technology. However it was not until 1980 that Bankamericard/Visa and MasterCharge adopted this technology to a large degree. The primary hindrance was the $2 cost per card. However the growing rate of credit card fraud really justified the extra cost.Merchants Originally Did Not CarePrior to automatic electronic credit card authorization, merchants needed to look up “bad” numbers on the Combined Warning Bulletins published bi weekly by the Card companies. It took almost 5 years to get any real adoption at large merchants. The adoption came when Visa and MasterCard lowered rates by 75% and payment turn around to a few days rather then a few weeks to jump start the process. This drove credit card acceptance to expand from a few very large merchants to millions of merchants in the space of just a few years. By 1995, 95% of all retail business’s accepted credit cards. Today it is nearly 100%.First IBM Credit Card Authorization system.From An Ironing Board To SquareIn the early days Banks were very poor at marketing electronic card acceptance (this is still true) to merchants and out of desperation, finally adopted a model where independent companies could market card acceptance on behalf of the banks.From the late 1980s on up to today, 95% of all merchant accounts are sold by non bank entities, independent companies. In the latest incarnation, companies like Google and Square today stand on the shoulders of people like Forrest C. Perry and his wife Dorothea and her Ironing Board._____Here is some history on how the first technology of the Payment Card, Embossing came about:How did credit cards become plastic cards with embossing?

None, that is unless you are caught spending more than six months in the US as a so called tourist and have no obvious monetary support. In any case, many foreigners have abuse the system by staying six months and going out of the country for a few days and then coming back and getting another six months (which means they are working illegally and going to college without a Student Visa). Even if they have rich relatives that can support them, they cannot abuse the Bi/B2 visa privileges. or any other visa for that matter as they are subject to deportation. The same abuses have happened with the Visa Waiver Program (VWP). When caught, and it happens very often, the traveler looses all entry privileges and the visa is cancelled and refuse entry, the same for the VWP. Back in the 1990’s Argentina among other countries were caught abusing the VWP and were disqualified from using the program because young Argentinians were coming to work without a work visa and thought they were no going to be found. Many visitors from many nationalities have abused their visas and as such they visa are cancelled and they are deported. It is a chronic problem but that is why we have US Customs and Border Protection and the US Border Patrol working side by side and trust me, they earn their salary ten fold.