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An ID Number for Everything
jon323456 writes "Put this in your privacy pipe and smoke it. According to news.com, MIT researchers have cooked up a new barcode that has enough dataspace to include a unique serial number for everything. And in combination with RFID tags...."
Damn man, MIT must be slipping. I could give you uniqueness using only 64-bits.
So could any coder who cut his teeth on machine language.
We need to stop teaching Perl/Python/Java as a first language. Make the uber-generation deal with opcodes and registers. Assembler will put hair on your chest boy!
The point is, bits aren't cheap. If we're going to set standards for their allocation, let's let somebody who knows what they're doing do it. Yes?
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
It takes all those PhDs to figure out that a really, really big number can hold lots of information.
Now I can start tagging my subatomic particle collection!
To start with, let's give each of those ID chips a number! Oh wait... now there are no numbers left for all my other stuff!
If you had read the article, then you would have noticed that it said that the current 12 digit barcode is running out of room, and that they are having to move to a 14 digit barcode system in the next year. It also said this new system would take around a decade to catch-on, because obviously the cost of printing a bar code on an already existing bit of paper on the product is a lot less than creating a little microchip/transmitter/thingy.
It has been shown that IPv6 will provide 4 IP numbers per square centimetre of space on earth. That should be enough to cover all products. My proposal would be to make the UPC the same as a IPv6 number, and then make the barcode show the item's IPv6 address. Network configuration would be simplified - just scan the barcode - and the item wouldn't need a UPC *and* a IPv6. They would be the same. That would simplify marketing and tracking as well, items such as coke cans and underwar could simply be ping:ed on the net. No need to bother with those RFID tags.
These people looked deep within my soul and assign me a number based on the order in which I joined.
-- Homer J. Simpson.
There will be a huge fight against these in terms of the privacy issues -- tracking cars, for example.
Yeah, imagine how awful it would be if every car had a unique identifier associated with it. You could be identified wherever you go by anyone with access to the right equipment.
Ever heard of a license plate?
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Um, Gillette wasn't the one taking photos of customers. It was Tesco. Gillette just happens to make the Mach 3 razors which were being watched.
You'll always have a need to do a physical audit.
Well, the raw tag number is unique within any given state, but looked at nationally, each number could have up to 50 duplicates, ignoring the state of origin. Besides, what can you tell from a license plate itself? There's a much more serious issue in the automotive industry; the VIN.
The VIN is truly unique; no two cars have the same number. They are unique amongst a common manufacturer, and unique amongst all automotive manufacturers. Every car, truck, minivan, SUV, etc. has one of these numbers, often written in multiple places, and oftentimes PHYSICALLY STAMPED in the material of the car so as to prevent fraud (it's illegal to remove this privacy-infringing device!)
These numbers are not protected at all; they're prominently displayed on the dash of all vehicles equipped with them, so that anyone simply walking past your car can look in and record the number. From it, they'll know what manufacturer produced your car, the car's series, its body style, engine type, emissions, what model year it is, what factory it was produced in, and on top of that, A SIX-DIGIT UNIQUE IDENTIFIER!
This problem has existed for decades, and few people actually know the evils that lurk inside! This must be stopped! Stand up to your car manufacturers, tell them you WILL NOT BUY another vehicle from them until this travesty is corrected!
(Peace out, yo.)