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Corporate Fallout Detector
BandwidthHog writes "MIT student shows off Corporate Fallout Detector. Acts and looks kinda like a Geiger counter, but it's a UPC scanner with an internal, updateable database of corporate misdeeds, with both Pollution and Corporate Ethics modes. I want one."
So... I scan a product. :: beep beep ::
And I get free, instant, corporation level blackmail?
Sweet.
I assert that my comment is only my opinion, not that of any employer, past, present or future.
While this kid makes a funny point, one thing that's missing is the fact that a UPC barcode only links to the manufacturer or wholesale distributor of the finished good. Taking the trail back into the supply chain to contract manufacturers and raw materials suppliers would probably yield more enviro-nastiness than you'd find in consumer-oriented companies.
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
It's a good thing that Enron and Worldcom products can't be barcoded, because the thing would explode if it scanned any of those...
The guy in that video was handling that Diet Coke bottle and that 3M spray can without any sort of protection at all, and those readings were through the roof!
I give him two to four hours, tops. Oh, what a brave sacrifice for research. I hope his suffering isn't prolonged needlessly.
So, what happens if you scan one of these detectors with another detector?
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
They can. But they can also try to make it better. I, for one, think it's good to see students thinking of social instead of financial progress. As far as I know, that' the whole point of science.
Does really seem to show much, but the original site /.'d...
google cache
<article text>
Corporate Fallout Detector
The Corporate Fallout Detector reads barcodes off of consumer products, and makes a noise similar to a gieger counter of varying intensity based on the social or environmental record of the company that produces the product.
I came up with the numbers by correlating several online bardcode databases with a pollution database and a corporate ethics database. Of course the data produced by this approach is subjective and inaccurate at times, but that's part of why I built it: It's difficult for consumers trace corporate actions through the maze of corporate ownership, and find who is really responsible. This helps create an environment where consumers have difficulty making informed purchasing decisions.... without the use of "special tools"...
The case is made from a discarded steel computer case, cut on a waterjet cutter and bent with a metal brake. Inside is a SaJe microcontroller and a Wasp barcode scanner.
Click on the thumbnails at left for larger images.
</article text>
Thats great. Another MIT dweeb attempts to take the moral high ground. Meanwhile MIT sit on an entire Class A address block, as entire countries are forced to switch to IPv6. Got a scanner for that fallout?
I can't remember where it was -- might have been an interview -- but he envisioned something like a UPC scanner for your Palm Pilot. You'd point it at stuff in the grocery store and get a short summary of the good and bad about it. He said something like, "How would it affect people's buying habits if it said 'sure, these peas are 60 cents cheaper, but they'll give your kids liver cancer'?"
Carousel is a lie!
I built a corporate fallout detector, scanned a copy of SCO OpenServer, and the damned detector blew up!
Ths is a STUPID idea as far as summarizing the result as a single-magnitude noise from a "geiger counter." Companies are large and complex--there aren't just "bad ones" and "good ones." there are interrelationships, hidden subsidiaries, and every manner of nonsense. put another way--remember that stuff about the brent spar oil platform that was sunk? it turns out that royal dutch shell was actually right and the (largely german) "environmentalists" didn't understand the science or engineering.
the point is that under the current 'geiger counter', you'd get, say, one loud crack for royal dutch shell. under a more nuanced system, which is what is required, you'd have some way of making your own judgement based on your own values and understandings rather than somebody elses. no, it wouldn't be perfect, but it would be a hell of a lot better than the current cartoon idea.
(incidentally, would nike get a big "crack?" as well? because nike's labor practices are seen as either laudable or despicable, depending on who you talk to).
Not sure how one goes about 'programming' ethics though. I imagine delegating your ethical decisions to a beeper also raises a whole lot of new ethical questions!
Would it measure ego in ESRs, RMSs, SCOs, or Perens?
What's the conversion rate between those units anyway?
Impossible. That would suggest that /. members were trying to read an article before posting a well-informed comment.
Surely not... (looks out of windows to check for low-flying pork)
Do some homework. The P.T. Nikomas Gemilang factory in Indonesia, which makes a large portion of Nike's shoes, pays its workers well below the poverty line for that country. Workers at that factory have to leave their homes and live alone in low-rent housing because they can hardly afford to feed themselves, let alone take care of a family. In this case Nike's practices are despicable in the context of the local economy.
The first response I hear to a statement like this is: "Should Nike just pull out then, and leave all those people unemployed and starving?" No, of course not. But that doesn't mean i like to see a wealthy american corporation exploiting the poorest of the poor. I will vote with my dollars by not buying their shoes, spread the word, and hope that other moral people can overcome the ocean of advertising in front of them and do the same.
In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane. -Oscar Wilde