Gary wrote:
It's got a magnetic strip on the back...I wonder what's encoded
there...

At a guess, the certificate number and your name. If it's encoded in a
standard format, there is room for at least (basically) 40 numbers-only
characters and 79 numbers-or-letters characters. If it's a "narrow"
stripe - about 5/16" or 8 mm wide - that's all it's got. If it's a
"wide" stripe - about 1/2" or 13 mm wide - there is an additional track
of 107 numbers-only characters. Reference
http://www.repairfaq.org/filipg/LINK/F_Phrack_Mag.html .

A few years back, I got a card reader and hooked it up to my PC and
looked at was on my cards. Credit cards follow a fairly standard format
but other cards vary. I had a driver's license with a mag stripe and it
had the driver's license number in the numbers-only field and my name in
the numbers-or-letters field. If I remember right, there was also some
kind of location in the numbers-or-letters field - not my complete
address but a zip code or county abbreviation, something like that.

One problem with trying to read the data on your own cards is that if
you don't own the hardware yourself or you don't know how to hook it up,
you have to really, really trust whoever owns the hardware or is helping
you hook it up.

Matt Roberds