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Wozniak Unveils WozNet

Posted by simoniker on from the track-your-spare-tags-with-tags dept.

dki writes "Steve Wozniak's WozNet is covered in an article at the New York Times today. His company Wheels of Zeus, mentioned previously on Slashdot last year, plans to create wireless networks that use GPS to track clusters of electronic tags within a 1- or 2-mile radius of a base station. The tags "will be able to generate alerts, notifying the owner by phone or e-mail message when a child arrives at school, a dog leaves the yard or a car leaves the parking lot.""

7 of 490 comments (clear)

  1. hi gnaa folks! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    how's it going?

  2. Some suggestions for the Linux community by JismTroll · · Score: -1, Troll

    Hi,

    I've always used Windowz and I consider myself an exceptional Visual
    Basic programmer, so I know computers pretty good. In fact I got an A-
    in my programming class last term. But I'm a little wary of how much
    power Microsoft has in the computer field. Many of my friends use
    RedHat and I've recently installed it on my machine at home. Although
    I haven't had as much chance to play with it as I'd like, I've been
    greatly impressed.

    This weekend I gave some thoughts to the things that are wrong with
    Linux. I hope no one minds having some flaws pointed out. I'd like to
    help make RedHat stronger so it can conquer MS. Hopefully RedHat will
    hear this (crossing fingers) and address these. I think with a little
    effort, RedHat's Linux can defeat Microsoft's Windows! :)

    To begin with, there are too many different flavors of RedHat.
    Browsing a list on Amazon, I saw they made varients under the
    codenames of Mandrake, Debian and Slackware, just to name a few. I
    know that I'm very new to RedHat so maybe this is obvious but it seems
    like RedHat should just sell a few different flavors of its operating
    system. Perhaps one for the desktop and one for a server? Could
    someone explain why RedHat produces dozens of different versions of
    Linux?

    Secondly did you know that anyone can view the source code to Linux! I
    think that RedHat shouldn't make its code available. After all, what
    keeps Microsoft from stealing RedHat's ideas and putting it into
    Windows? My friend says that FreeBSD stole the TCP/IP stack from DOS a
    long time ago and Microsoft is always looking for revenge for that.
    Plus it seems to me like RedHat is just giving away its ideas for
    free. And what keeps hackers or terrorists from tampering with the
    code and putting a virus in every computer?

    On a related note, why doesn't RedHat write Linux in assembly? My
    friend says that's what Microsoft does for Windows, and that's why
    Windows is faster and more stable than Linux.

    Next RedHat definitely should kill -9 (ha, ha!) the command line.
    Microsoft finally gave up DOS when Windows 2000 came out. I'm suprised
    that RedHat hasn't migrated away from...whatever its version of DOS is
    called (Bash, I think?) But maybe this is planned for a future
    release?

    Finally Linux needs games! RedHat will never be successful in the home
    without games. They should also tell M$ to release a version of Office
    for Linux too. And Internet Explorer!

    Have a nice day! Go Linux!!

  3. Why hasn't someone told me? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    That that fat faggot is still alive? He got beaten a thousand times by the stupid stick yet he keeps coming back. Just fucking die, you're worse than those GNU/Linux hippies for christ's sake. Now if you'll excuse me I have overpriced, underpowered fancy colored computers to sell while killing off all Macintosh third-party-developers.

    -Steve Jobs
    President, Apple Computer

  4. Re:where did I leave my keys? by hondo77 · · Score: -1, Troll

    ...and my wife's new wallet, since she lost her old one last week.

    --
    I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
  5. Double standard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll
    So let me get this straight. Walmart wants to implement a system for indexing store goods(RFID tags) which is good only up to a foot or so, and suddenly it is the end of civilization as we know it. But Mr. Wozniak wants to implement a system where you can track someone's every movement, and it's a Good Thing(tm)?

    Did I miss something here, or is this another Slashdot Geek double standard?

  6. Meh? by Esion+Modnar · · Score: 0, Troll
    Unless I'm misunderstanding something, what great value is there in knowing that somebody is within a 1 to 2 mile radius of a base station? If the base station is at the school, say, then the kid could be at school, at a nearby park, at the pool hall around the corner, etc.

    Of course, if they're not within that radius, they better be abducted by aliens from the Planet Zog, or they are so grounded!

    --

    They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
  7. Re:tracking everything by mickwd · · Score: 0, Troll

    Consider this: What if a paedophile managed to hack into the system, and then had instant access to the exact locations of thousands of children ? Maybe he can find one on their own, somewhere quiet.

    Given the level of fear over people using their credit card numbers on computers connected to the internet, I can't see people being happy with a device that broadcasts their child's exact location on any sort of public network, "encrypted" or otherwise.

    If I had children, I certainly wouldn't. And I would also want my children to have some sort of life, and the chance to enjoy the freedoms I did as a child.