mordant wit

A Malaysian businessman has lost a finger to car thieves impatient to get
around his Mercedes' fingerprint security system. Accountant K Kumaran,
the BBC reports, had at first been forced to start the S-class Merc, but
when the carjackers wanted to start it again without having him along, they
chopped off the end of his index finger with a machete.

The fingerprint readers themselves will, like similar devices aimed at the
computer or electronic device markets, have a fairly broad tolerance, on
the basis that products that stop people using their own cars, computers or
whatever because their fingers are a bit sweaty won't turn out to be very
popular.

They slow thieves up a tad, many people will find them more convenient than
passwords or pin numbers, and as they're apparently `cutting edge' and
biometric technology is allegedly `foolproof', they allow their owners to
swank around in a false aura of high tech.