CharlieCard Discount Book.

Via BostonTweet.

The Executive Office of Transportation says that, effective immediately, student CharlieCards on the T are now good until 11 p.m. on weekdays - three hours longer than before, in a program aimed at letting kids participate in after-school programs that run late.

The office also says it is looking at creation of a new Youth Pass - available to anybody through age 21.

The T reports CharlieCard users can now renew or replenish their cards online, by setting up a MyCharlie account.

The new system lets monthly pass holders have their cards get renewed automatically and lets users get replacement CharlieCards for lost or stolen cards. T General Manager Dan Grabauskas said:

With this new technology, customers who register their CharlieCard receive a replacement free of charge. That was a legitimate customer concern that today is an issue of the past.

Doug reports how he got two monthly express-bus passes for the price of one, thanks to a quirky card vending machine.

This morning, NONE of the faregates at North Station subway were accepting monthly passes. Instead, they had a single CSA manning the 'Reduced Fare' faregate, and you flashed your pass at them as you went through.

Also, the ticket machines were apparently not accepting debit cards today, as the single CSA at the gate was yelling to people who were having problems with the machines. And yes, there were no other CSAs in sight near the machines to actually help those people who had trouble.

Let's say you're using the toilet and as you get up, but before you flush, you realize your CharlieCard has somehow fallen into the bowl. Do you retrieve it?

ArsTechnica reports Dutch researchers claim to have broken the encryption used to protect information on CharlieCards and similar systems:

... The group at Radboud carried out its investigation with the help of Ghost, a tag emulator, reader, and eavesdrop device that they built for around 40 euros. ...

The company that makes the CharlieCard system has come out with a more secure encryption system, but it's more expensive and making it backwards compatible with older readers actually introduces more vulnerabilities, ArsTechnica writes.

Maybe a slight exaggeration, but this completely caught me off guard. Charlie Card = Discount Card, and the discounts aren't bad at all.

"Just show your CharlieCard to save!

Take a look through our new CharlieCard Discount Book below - it's packed with deals you can't pass up - from arts and entertainment options, restaurants, retail stores, health and fitness services, and more! Plus, most of the listings are easily accessible by the T.

-If you don't have a CharlieCard, you can purchase a pre-loaded card here, pick one up from our MBTA Customer Service Agent, or get one at our T sales offices at Back Bay, Downtown Crossing, Harvard, North Station and South Station. And start enjoying great service and great deals while using your CharlieCard!"

www.mbta.com/riding_the_t/CharlieCard_Discount_Book/

And please no bitching about how the MBTA could have used the money elsewhere, it's likely this didn't cost them a dime.

Seems the software behind CharlieCard readers was built in Microsoft Visual C++. And guess what? It's not immune from crashing. Zeroday posts the photographic proof from the Central Square station.

Associated Press reports they can now talk about their own documents, the ones the MBTA put into the public record, on insecurity at T stations and with the CharlieCard and CharlieTicket system.

Via Dave Wieneke.

Electronic Frontier Foundation: The Court found that the MBTA was not likely to prevail on the merits of its claim under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Dan Kennedy: [N]ot much of a victory for the First Amendment:

... It makes a mockery of the principle that prior restraint is to be reserved only serious issues of national security, obscenity and incitement to violence.