Slashdot Mirror
Defense Department Drafts RFID Policy
Bob Wehadababyitsaboy writes "According to CNET News, the Department of Defense has announced its new policy of requiring all suppliers to use RFID chips in all goods supplied to the military by 2005, except on bulk commodities such as sand, grit or liquids. It claims that this move will help them streamline inventory and delivery of vital supplies around the world."
High-Powered Aircraft-Based RFID Transmitters
with Super-Sensitive Receivers...
The Easiest Way to Count Your Enemy's Resources
(Or are all these RFID's only in the packaging,
or only with the items they label until
they have been checked-in the first time?
These high-tech barcodes are becoming commonplace if you like it or not.
Just because products can be inventoried rapidly with RFID or barcodes doesn't necessarily mean that inventory control improves. There needs to be someone with a brain cell in the loop somewhere too.
As a mildly funny example, I'm pretty tired of the wholemeal pitta bread running out every day several hours before the white variety in our local supermarket. It's been happening for years, despite the perpetual roving hoards of clerks running up and down the isles with their little scanning machines. You'd think that better stock control would be used to help increase sales by ordering optimal amounts.
I bet you've all seen your own versions of this lack of a guiding intelligence in places, despite deployment of the latest technologies.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
But worse RFIDs are in cars and readable from over twenty feet away
So is your license plate! OH NO!