RFID Application

I've been thinking again about RFID tags because one of my clients is producing a very large line of collectible "urban vinyl" items. I suggested to them that it might be interesting to imbed an RFID tag into each one so they can be authenticated. Not sure whether it is necessary to serialize each product, but I'm sure it would be cheaper to just create a passive tag with the company ID on it and some sort of encription.

I also am curious if it is possible to create a tag that can withstand the rotocasting process, which involves enough heat to cure the plastic. The other issue is, if you put the tag into the roto mold with the liquid plastic, can you be assured that the tag won't show through the surface of the vinyl somewhere when you pull it out of the roto mold?

In any case, I think that the whole idea of RFID stuff is pretty fascinating. Some people however, are using this new technology as a means to get their names in the paper or just to make noise. I guess I question people who try to twist "right to privacy" to mean the right to anonymity.

Where in fact did this "right to privacy" come from anyway. If you live in a small town where everyone knows who you are and what stores you shop in and how often you buy ice cream at the town's only ice cream parlor, then you accept it and live your life. If you can't handle that, you move to the country. I suppose you could also move to a big city where no one knows you and you can live your life secure in the knowledge that no one really knows or cares how many times a week you buy Starbucks or fill your gas tank. So what?

I'm curious about people who are all up in arms about RFID tags on clothes or RFID tags in student id cards. What are they so paranoid about? They seem totally unconcerned about walking into a store in full view of other people, many of whom may know them including the people who work in the store. But the minute that there exists a technology to identify who you are, they go absolutely berserk and yell foul. These people don't walk around in disguise. They don't hire people to do their shopping for them for fear of being recognized. They don't remove the license plates off their cars for fear of someone tracking their vehicle around town. And they certainly must know that every place they visit on the internet leaves tracks.

So what is this all about? I think it is more about the freedom to screw up without someone catching you. Or maybe about the freedom to do things that you are ashamed of without other people finding out. I think that if you were to lead an open and honorable life and are honest in your dealings with others, then you should have nothing to hide. I know that's oversimplifying things, but never the less I think that is the real force behind all this uproar about RFID.

Of course, I don't intend to get one of those things implanted on my backside, no siree.

Inspiration in the Shower

After a long hiatus, I’m back. Don’t know how often I will be able to pontificate thusly, but I will try to do better this year. Call it a new year’s resolution. No don’t, that will jinx it.
This morning I was taking a shower and noticed for the second time in two days a strange background noise over the shower. I stopped for a moment to listen carefully and it seemed like some sort of really low frequency pulsation. Like yesterday, I passed it off as either the city trash truck idling on the street outside, or the periodic noise from the oil refinery about a mile away towards the harbor.
However, today when I turned off the shower and opened the door to grab a towel, I noticed that the noise almost went away. Curious. I shut the door again and it came back. The strange thing is not that my shower acts as a sort of acoustic amplifier for these strong low frequency sounds, but that this is the first time I have identified it. You see, I have lived in this house for 25 years.
Does this mean that my powers of perception have increased dramatically? That my mental acuity has actually improved over the last 25 years? Most people I know seem to be going the other direction. Perhaps my mental growth just makes it seem like all of them are getting more scatterbrained. That must be it. Ok, let’s move on.
The topic today is my ongoing frustration with by my AV system. My wife got me a DVD recorder for Christmas so I can transfer to disk all my aging family video tapes. Interestingly, it wasn’t that long ago that I transferred my old 8 and 16 mm film movies to tape. In any case, the challenge of hooking up the DVD player/recorder to my system was formidable.
The problem is that my receiver is only designed to select among various inputs, not among outputs. The hang-up is when you have these on-screen menus that you need to access. If I want to select my satellite box as the source, I can’t see the on-screen menus from the DVD recorder to operate the record functions if it is hooked to the amp like a typical video source. I came up with a solution but I had to compromise some functionality and it is totally non-intuitive for the rest of the family. If my system was even slightly smart, I could configure it according to what I want to do. Then I just choose “Record DVD from Satellite” and the little computer in the receiver would do all the routing for you.
The other big payoff is that non-technical people in my house (basically everyone else) could watch a movie or record a DVD with ease, leaving me at peace.
It’s time the big AV manufacturers starting putting some money into the brains of their equipment instead of just the brawn. Who really needs a thousand watts in their family room anyway? I also look forward to the day when all you need to do is to plug a single small fiberoptic cable from each unit to the receiver/controller. Then you can press one button and the brain polls each unit, configures everything, names the sources and destinations, all automatically. No more morass of wires, no more engineering degree required to hook up your system.
If they’re putting microprocessors in running shoes, it’s high time that AV systems got some brains. Truth is, I don’t trust my growing mental powers to be able to keep up with the rate of change in complexity I’m having to deal with.

Networks Attempt to Disprove Human Nature

In a desperate move to maintain their ad revenues, the big networks just released “research” that claims that the impact of DVR’s is much less than earlier forecast. By using the fact, probably true, that people tend to watch more TV when they have a DVR, they postulate that they will also watch more ads. They even found three people who say they like watching the commercials and rarely skip over them.

The fact is, I agree that I watch TV more since I bought a DVR. The ease of recording shows without having to hassle with tapes is one of the biggest advantages of owning a digital video recorder. Then, of course, the ability to watch shows recorded earlier whenever you want also lets you watch your favorite shows at times when there is usually nothing on.

But for me, half the pleasure of watching a show is being able to watch it without the maddening commercial breaks that seem to come more frequently and last longer than ever. The continuity of a drama can be totally destroyed by stupid perfume ads or worse, the ones for precription drugs that end with all the gory side effects that you “may” experience. I’m sure that the writers and directors of a romantic drama don’t really appreciate a poignant scene being followed by an ad that includes the words “anal leakage.”

That said, I always skip through commercials when I’m watching a pre-recorded show. It’s not just that I don’t like having to sit through ads for stuff I don’t want; it’s that I like saving the time. I can now watch a show in 25-30% less time than it takes in real time. When I’m watching live TV upstairs, I’m constantly reaching for the remote to skip commercials only to be disappointed that I can’t.

So good luck networks in convincing your advertising agencies that DVR’s have little impact on the hours people spend watching commercials. In my house it just isn’t true.

Peer Pressure

Among my many neurotic behaviors, I get really annoyed when people use the restroom and don’t wash their hands. The thought of grabbing the door handle after the last guy who shook himself off and didn’t wash up, really turns me off. I start thinking how brainless the people are who design restrooms with doors that swing inward requiring a handle. At least if the door pushes outward, you can use your elbow or push on a part of the door that most people would not place their hand.

You’ve no doubt seen piles of paper next to the exit door where people carry out their paper towel to use to grab the door handle, or just to push the door with. Thoughtful proprietors provide a trash can right there for us neurotic people to toss the paper in after we've opened the door.

Granted, you can’t expect every establishment to be able to accommodate a door that opens out, or some arrangement where you don’t need a door at all (the ideal solution by the way), so what is the solution?

Being a techno nerd geek sort of guy, I of course came up with one. It’s very simple, you just leverage peer pressure. Peer pressure is an extremely powerful motivator. No one wants the whole bar to know that they didn’t wash their hands after using the restroom, right?

So, all you have to do is install some kind of system, maybe a series of sensors – proximity sensors, IR sensors, pressure sensors in the floor, whatever – that determine if you went to the sink and washed your hands before leaving. If you don’t, a strobe goes off above the door along with a “woop” sound or something else appropriate for the venue and the guy slinks back to his seat. After that no woman will go near him.

To protect your business from lawsuits brought by Neanderthals, you put a sign in the bathroom warning people that this establishment requires you to wash your hands before leaving, as a courtesy to other patrons – or else.

I’m telling you, the kind of people who insist on not washing their hands either will change their behavior or not return to your establishment. The place will get a reputation for caring about courtesy and cleanliness, word will spread, other places fill follow suit, the death toll from influenza will pummet.

I don’t think anyone has invented the technology to make this work yet, but it is certainly an interesting challenge, don’t you think?

Stupid Uniden Phone

How come my phone still has the IQ of a tree stump? All it has are the same basic functions that a phone had 20 years ago, but with a built in answering machine that is digital rather than the magnetic tape variety of old. Yes it is wireless so you can carry it around, but that doesn’t make it any smarter, just a little more convenient. Yes it has an intercom function, but that’s not exactly rocket science either, and by the way, we had intercoms 20 years ago too.

I’ve said this before, but here it is again. I want a phone that I can program to not ring during certain parts of the day without my having to mess with it. Is that too much to ask? I just want the damn built in answering system to operate like an automated message system – i.e. I want it to intercept all the calls between, lets say 11 pm and 7 am and politely tell the caller that I’m not available during such and such hours because I’M SLEEPING and please leave a message. I also want the option of offering the caller the power to ring through anyway, if it is an emergency, like if my wife or daughter are in trouble or something.

Since each extension is also coded, I see no reason why my automated message system couldn’t be programmed to ask the caller which extension (person) they want to talk to and just ring that extension if that’s how I want to set it up. This is all totally possible and would cost nothing since the microprocessor and digital memory are already there and the space required to save a couple messages like that would be minimal. So why hasn’t it happened yet? Am I the only person who has ever wanted this kind of functionality? I doubt it.

My current Uniden wireless phone has a base unit with a built-in answering system and three additional extensions and sells for about $100 at places like Costco. It has an intercom feature that is useful if you have a big house, and caller ID so you can answer each call in a different tone of voice depending on whether you like the person or not.

What are the engineers and marketing geniuses at Uniden waiting for? Huh? Will someone please pass this request along to the right genius?

Thank you, I’m going to bed now. Please don’t call me until tomorrow after 7.