Hacking of TouchID

Within the last week, Apple released their newest phone, the iPhone 5S. One of its main features is a fingerprint reader, called TouchID, that the user can use to unlock the device, purchase apps, and many other security-sensitive actions. They claim that the probability of a wrong finger registering a correct match was about 1 in 50,000. Also within the last week, a video was posted to YouTube where the subject sets the print with his index finger, then unlocks the device with an artificial print lifted from a glass, then applied to a piece of latex. This shows that with some CSI skills, anyone can unlock your locked iPhone. 

My first thought was that this is embarrassing for mankind. Some people are so bent on breaking the rules that the first thing they do with their brand new $600 phone is to hack into it. On the other hand, after some thought, I realized that this is beneficial to iPhone users. People who have very sensitive information on their phone need to know that it is possible to break into it. They can't rely on TouchID to protect them.

Even though it is possible, it's not easy. It takes materials, knowledge, and preparation. Unless you are currently a character of a spy novel, you shouldn't have to worry. 

Supply and Demand of Time

200 years ago, people had to hand wash their clothes. I've never done it, but I'm assuming a normal washing-machine-size load would've taken at least an hour or two to wash. With a couple loads to wash, washing your clothes could've been an all day task. It would seem that now that we have washers, we should have so much more free time. This same principle is true in other areas of life as well. Before computers, you had to hand write any essay or letter that you needed to write. Now I can type up a 10000 word dissertation with proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar in a matter of a few minutes. Before the Internet, research included making your way to local library, searching the shelves for books that might have the information that you needed, and then reading through all these books to find that information. It is pretty evident that because we have more time available to us, we value it less - exactly like the economics principle of supply and demand. If we had all of our current daily duties, but we also had to spend a couple hours washing our clothes by hand each week, we would value our time more, and spend less of it doing things that are of little worth, such as aimlessly surfing the Internet.