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Homeless to be Implanted with Subdermal RFID Tags
An anonymous reader writes "Politech has the scoop on the Bush administration's plans to forcibly implant RFID tags into homeless people in participating U.S. cities. Here's an excerpt from the UPI article: "The miniscule RFID tags are no larger than a matchstick and will be implanted subdermally, meaning under the skin. Data from RFID tracking stations mounted on telephone poles will be transmitted to police and
social service workers, who will use custom Windows NT software to track movements of the homeless in real time... A second phase of the project, scheduled to be completed in early 2005, will wirelessly transmit live information on the locations of homeless people to handheld computers running the Windows CE operating system.""
No one Cares about the Homeless! /sarcasm)
So now we can use geocaching to find homeless people? Awesome!
When will they force the REST of us who AREN'T homeless to be tracked like our dogs? -Phyrebyrd
"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." -Thom
This is the most retarded April Fool's day yet. If you can't come up with your own stuff, at least link to people that do. Lucky for Slashdot that Paypal doesn't let you donate a kick in the ass.
That is how I read it.
How does CTRL-ALT-DEL work on windows CE?
with all these april fool's postings, I don't know what to believe anymore!
(huddles in corner wearing tinfoil hat whilst sucking on thumb)
Yeah, Bush is evil, but I really doubt he's that evil.
This sounds like someone's idea of a very bad joke.
To celebrate the occasion of my 1000th post, I will post no more forever on Slashdot. Goodbye.
You can defeat this plot by putting the homeless person in a microwave.
taken! (by Davidleeroth) Thanks Bingo Foo!
who will use custom Windows NT software
That's a joke all in itself.
I am invloved in an effort to produce an open source HMIS, so that if we are required to have tracking systems, at least they will be inexpensive and under the control of non-commercial entities. You can see a demo of the open HMIS at: homeless-mis.net It uses PHP and Postgres (or MS-SQL if you like that sort of thing....)
The idea of integrated information systems actually started with homeless advocates that wanted to improve services through coordinated service delivery. But, like any tool, HMISs can be mis-used, and sometimes you wonder what motiviates these federal requirements.
You had me up 'til then.
Yep. Running on NT is the giveaway. MS would not condone this unless it was on XP.
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
Bush should be implanted a RFID tag himself.
A telephone pole sized one.
Anally.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
Man, the april first articles are going from bad to worse!
What's next, Research showing Sco kill Mother Teresa?
Plese let it stop!
Relax folks, the workday is ending here in the CST and I don't need more articles to pass the time, tomorrow will be back to normal, no harm, no foul. Hell, I've even read more /. today than I usually do.
I like knowing that the crew here knows how to take a day off, unlike many of the rest of us.
-- In Soviet Russia, radio listens to YOU!
What do you mean, April Fool's joke?
Use Ctrl-C instead of ESC in Vim!
This is real news. I'm watching it on tv now, though there's no mention of NT or CE integration.
Turn on CSPAN if you don't believe me. Apparently the fifth cousin of an FBI detective that knew about 9/11 a few seconds before the first impact is homeless, and we suspect they're manufacturing WMD in secret rather than feed their own people.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
I sat through all of the crap that's been posted today due to AF, but this is just plain not in good taste. Invasion of privacy by RFID is safe to poach on - maybe one along the lines of Dilbert (PHBs using RFID to track workers) - but the subject of homelessness just plain isn't funny. Reminds me a bit of the TV show that paid homless folks to fight each other...
--- Bwah?
Why spend the money when it's cheaper to just ignore them like we do now?
I agree, apparently only people with absolutely no ability to be humorous are posting "april fools" articles today.....
Informative? Are the mods trying to make an April Fool's joke or are they just April Fools?
True story.
"Mid-morning on the 2nd" is still ~18 hours away. Hell, midnight is still nearly 9 hours away!
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
Step 1: Throw device with Windows CE out window.
Step 2: Purchase new device. Help economy.
Step 3: Windows CE has been restarted successfully.
For every karma whore there are four more people with mod points to kill.
When is it going to end that you keep shamelessly promoting your website in every April Fool's Slashdot thread? :^)
OK, I gotta stop reading these crap April Fool's discussions...
Although the story is an exaggeration of the actual program, which does not use RFID, there is a real program called Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) being developed by the Department of Housing and Development. From my cursory glance, it seems as though it's a program to collect data on homeless in the name of cutting down crime and assisting them, rather than full-on movement tracking (think of the infrastructure costs!). Anyhow, EPIC discusses it here
You know, dude, I don't think "paranoid" is the right word for it.
Les Miserables Volume 1 now up with my reading of
As a homeless open source developer, I find this whole idea extremely offensive. In fact...
crap, library's closing. bbl
Anybody who has ever been arrested, tried, convicted, of any misdemeanor or above should be tracked using this technology. It's just a good idea - we can keep an eye on criminals.
;>
Better, you could program the automatic doors of your home or office to not let in tagged criminals.
By storing the information in XML format, you can interactively query a RFIDed criminal to find out what their background is (violent vs. non-violent, type of theft, drug use, current income level, gender, SSN, credit history, etc.) and let your security system decide on the fly whether you want that particular entity on your premises.
In fact, governments, building owners, and residents could publish their specification for the type of people they will allow into their space -this will solve all sorts of social ills in the future. The Upper Eastside of New York City, for example, could specify:
<Entities_Allowed>
<Income minimum="50000"/>
<Convictions allowed="white_collar"/>
<Race allowed="caucasian,asian"/>
<Memberships disallowed="ACLU,NYCLU"/>
<Jokes onyou="april foools"
</Entities_Allowed>
Big Daddy, Johnny, Burp, Aunt Zelda, Scott, Slurp, Big Momma
...from Etch-a-Sketch for WinCE. So a reboot is as simple as shaking it!
Last year, the April Fool's day stories actually seemed real. They had thought behind them. This year's crop blows. Next thing you know we'll see a story about carbon nanotube dildos or something equally retarded...
Slashdot is proof that Sturgeon's Law applies to mankind.
This was obviously written by someone who works with homeless programs. PATH is a real program, funded under the McKinney grant, and they are actually deploying Palms to collect data on mentally ill homeless persons.
On any other day, I would actually have believed this for half a second. Clearly, there are big privacy issues with collecting any sort of information on people. The current requirements make me any many others very uncomfortable. The federal government has actually received quite a bit of push back over this issue, and the final rule has been delayed for more than a year as a result of the privacy concerns.
Thankfully, it look like HUD will be making significant concessions to address community concerns, that will result in a final requirement that better protects client privacy.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
This is not fucking funny. If this continues, I will stop reading slashdot.
I do have to say that this was the best one for the whole day, though. All the other ones were just, "Ugh...it's April Fool's isn't it?", but this one actually made me chuckle.
Netjak.com independent reviews of domestic & import video ga
I don't steal, I'm just employed by the "illegal services industry--" they pay cash only, so I don't have to worry about being tracked-- but I hear the government is horning in on our business these days; at least you can't outsource the black market.
"Anonymous cowards are just K-whores afraid of their accounts being modded down." - Bob the O (me)
The miniscule RFID tags are no larger than a matchstick and will be implanted subdermally, meaning under the skin
... but the kind I use are known as "Farmer's Matches", and they're huge!
Dude, I don't know about your matchsticks
-kgj
-kgj
If Upper Management wanted to tag homeless people, they'd be tagged already, and the only reason it might be done would be to soften the rest of the public up. Though, truthfully, I'd see it starting with prisoners, then parolees, then addicts who get free needles, then people receiving unemployment benefits. Then Islamics.
But even all of that would only be a psychological form of control; something purely to make you know that you're the dog and break down your spirit of rebellion. In truth, the 'real' threats, (regular people with jobs and pseudo-power), are already tagged. You carry one or two of them around with you in your wallet and you produce them for regular scanning. And beyond that, you'll probably be wearing a tag or two in your fancy GAP pants by the end of this year without even realizing it.
Anyway, all these April Fool's stories are giving me a stomach ache. Not a single one of them so far would be terribly out of place on a regular news day. That'll give anybody with a soul gastric problems.
-FL
The sub-moronic April fools submissions today are terrible. Be more creative please, at make the first three sentances sound believable.
Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
A recent article in the Dublin Times, by Jonathan Swift, added another dimension to this story.
Every state government in the United States is struggling with deficits and social program cutbacks. Once the RFIDs are implanted and the software tracking is in place the second phase of the program will be implemented. Republicans in state and federal government have proposed an expansion of the program to harvest the homeless. Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex) noted "For too long have the homeless had a free ride on the backs of taxpayers. This program will be self-supporting without additional government money". The product of this second phase will be served in resturants catering to wealthy clientele. A percentage of the profits will be used to support social services for those who are not harvested.
How does it taste? It varies from person to person.
Polling shows it'll play well in the midwest.
Yes, I know that you're continuing the political propaganda ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H alleged joke.
But, no, polling does not show it would play well in the midwest. Or with the right wing - especially the Christian Right. Even a trial balloon on this subject would result in a guaranteed loss for Bush in the next election.
FYI: There is nobody more rabidly opposed to implanted RFID tracking devices than a Christian Fundamentalist. While right-wingers in general are suspicious of programs that invade personal privacy (since they are perceived as mostly used, once instituted, by left-wingers to dump on their political enemies), an implanted I.D. chip plays directly into one of the Christian Fundamentalists' hot buttons.
An implanted RFID device is an indellible "mark" transmitting a number - the serial number of the device (which is used as an index to an external database of personal information) and/or any stored information (which is also encoded as a binary string, i.e. a number).
According to a Christian Fundamentalist, tagging people with a government-mandated indelible identification number is applying the "Mark of the Beast". (See the Book of Revalations.) The person who would cause that to occur as a government program is the Antichrist, it happens as the end times and final battle are approaching, anybody who lets it happen to him has signed up with the wrong side, etc.
This opposition to anything even approximating applying a number to people, especially if related to financial transactions (which includes aid programs) is SO strong that it has been a problem even during the rollouts of Social Security, the Income Tax, credit cards, ATM debit cards, and online banking services.
Bush and his administration have been clueless enough to do a number of things to tweak off their electoral base. But mandating an implanted I.D. number in the face of this well-known (on the right) hotbutton issue would be cluelessness far beyond the pale. Essentially ALL of his advisors would be SCREAMING at him if he gave the SLIGHTEST sign of being in favor of such a scheme.
Which is why you KNOW this is another (literally) damned April Fool joke.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
A few years ago, I went into a Sears to buy a new microwave oven. They had a display model that was really cheap, so I decided to buy it. The sale associate says "Whats your name" and I say "Why do you need my name? I'm paying cash for this" and he replies "Because the computer tells me to".
I ask "Does the computer tell you other things?" He doesn't get it. So I say "Jackie Brown" (just watched the movie the night before). He says "Huh? But..." but types it in anyway. Then he asks for my address. I reply "I don't have an address, I'm homeless." Mind you, I'm wearing nice clothes, driving a new car, etc. He asks "If you're homeless, then why do you need a microwave?" I respond "Because I don't have one." Increasingly frustrated, he says "I have to put something in." So I pick up a card and read the stores address to him. By this time a couple of other bored sales associates have come round. He doesn't like my answer, but types it in anyway. Then I pull a fat wad out of my pocket and peel off a hundred. And walk out with my oven.
-cp-
C:\> Ping 134847.homeless.us
Pinging 134847.homeless.us [216.116.96.206] with 32 bytes of Soylent Green
Reply from 216.116.96.206: SG=32 time=2234ms TTL=255
Reply from 216.116.96.206: SG=32 time=3239ms TTL=255
Reply from 216.116.96.206: SG=32 time=1348ms TTL=255
Reply from 216.116.96.206: SG=32 time=4382ms TTL=255
Ping statistics for 216.116.96.206:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% Loss),
Yep. A new way to feed people too. Cool.
Just add {In Space!} to anything.
til Leela implants me with my career chip!
Crisis is the rule, not the exception.
The man who has brought us unending war (and got cheered for it!), has pushed through $250 billion boondoggle of a unnecessary embroilment in Iraq, wants to amend the Constitution to ban gays from some normal rights forever, gave a huge tax break to all his buds while driving the deficit out of sight, wants to name American citizens enemy combatants without trial or counsel is not capable of tagging the homeless? Exactly what would he have to do that *would* convince you he is capable of this and much worse?
When it happens it will not be just the homeless though. Beep, BEEP!
I worked on one of the prototypes for this. One plan was to put a bottle of MD 20/20 at the end of a phone-booth sized room in the city, then the doors would shut on the homeless eprson in question, then someone sticks them with a prod, kind of like cattle.
-- Having a Creationist Museum is like having an Atheist place of worship
the current Barcodes which are hard to read on the grubby and/or ungroomed..
...and he grinned, like a fox eating shit out of a wire brush.
Actually, a "Republican" would do this if they thought it'd get them reelected. A Conservative wouldn't do this. Keep in mind that near-centrist left wing elements have come into the Republican party since the Democrats fell out of power, and don't forget that not all Republicans are Conservative Libertarian types.
But I agree...Democrats sUx0r.
we had a roaring economy, very low unemployment, relative world stability, a constantly improving world image, and everyone was succesful. Now let's take a look at Bush: record unemployment two full scale wars conflicts involving US troops in at least 4 other locales Gasoline headed towards 3 dollars a gallon Record budget deficit Record trade deficit Historically notable loss of civil liberties We have lost all credibility and good will in the international arena. We have fostered and increased hatred of our country in the Arab world Our currency is declining daily against the Euro, which should reduce our trade deficit with Europe but isn't because of the economic policies of Bush. Add to this the fact that he didn't win the popular election, consistently makes decision based on religion and even goes so far as to state that openly, and is now trying to silence all criticism and opposition to him through the FEC. He's doing a much better job apparently.