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RFID + Dart gun = DartMail!

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the late-than-never dept.

breon.halling writes "Snail mail? Too slow. Email? Too much spam. So what's left? DartMail! Tony Tang and Eric Pattison from the University of Calgary introduce a new (well, new as of January 2003) method of transferring files and possibly shooting your eye out. Using RFID and a toy dart gun, 'DartMail lets people physically shoot electronic information at others.' Be sure to check out the movie, too!"

41 of 238 comments (clear)

  1. Whats next ? by flyingace · · Score: 3, Funny

    Are they going to make Dart USB Media, Dart compactflash card, dart gigadrive... basically anything small enough to stick on a dart ?

    Talk about free flow of information...

    1. Re:Whats next ? by serutan · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hah! Way back around 1980 some computer technicians I worked with at Tektronix pioneered the InterDepartmental Ballistic Missile. Powered by freon, it flew about 100 ft, streaking over the heads of terrified cubicle inhabitants. They only did it once.

    2. Re:Whats next ? by MikTheUser · · Score: 2, Funny

      Talk about free flow of information...

      You mean free flight of information!

    3. Re:Whats next ? by lxs · · Score: 4, Funny

      Way back around 1980...Powered by freon

      So you're the one to blame for the ozone hole!

    4. Re:Whats next ? by martinoforum · · Score: 2, Funny

      That's not the scary part. THIS is the scary part.

      From TFA:

      "After being shot, the victim can pass the dart over his or her reader (although invariable this is a guy's thing), and see the file on the screen."

      The reader is a guy's "thing"!? I'm not having no goddamn RFID reader implanted in my thing just so people can fire darts at me!

  2. Drive by spamming by GatesGhost · · Score: 5, Funny

    now spammers can cap your ass in the streets. "get a bigger penis, muthafucka!"

    1. Re:Drive by spamming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Hopefully tracking and prosecuting those spammers will be easier then with emailtype spammers.

      We could go ahead and picture D.B.S. using spoofed license plates, zombie cars with automated targetting and tagging...

  3. Think bigger people by FerretFrottage · · Score: 5, Funny

    a potato gun with a message carved into the potato or a carrier pigeon and a canon just seem so much more obvious.

    --
    "Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
  4. Another Dupe... by drivinghighway61 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wow, another dupe, this time one over 1000 years old! Letters by arrow? That's new! Way to go editors...

    1. Re:Another Dupe... by grassy_knoll · · Score: 4, Funny


      Letters by arrow?

      ...thwwuuuup!

      Message for you sir....

      --
      A Human Right
    2. Re:Another Dupe... by SnprBoB86 · · Score: 2, Funny

      "you should not have died in vain!"

      "....um actually... I'm not dead yet"

      "well then you shall not have been mortally wounded in vain"

      "um, actually I think I might pull through..."

      --
      http://brandonbloom.name
  5. F=MA by BWJones · · Score: 2, Funny

    Aw, hell. F=MA right? Well, print your email out, wrap it around a brick and chuck that sucker at whomever you want to deliver the message to. Goes through windows, and gets peoples attention much better than a piddling little dart.

    --
    Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
    1. Re:F=MA by TrippTDF · · Score: 4, Funny

      Hey, the dartgun will go through Windows, too, assuming they write drivers for it.

      this horrible pun brought to you by Monday.

  6. looks like someone... by Datamonstar · · Score: 2, Funny

    ....threw a dart at that server...

    --
    The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.
  7. Shoot me!!! by pacoworld · · Score: 2, Funny

    Shoot me!!! Shoot me!!! Shoot me!!!

  8. Ooh by TupperTrenine · · Score: 3, Funny

    This is hilarious, I am quite literally watching the download speed of the video on their page dwindle down to nearly nothing. Ah, the power of the SlashDot effect

    1. Re:Ooh by flargleblarg · · Score: 3, Funny

      This is hilarious, I am quite literally watching the download speed of the video on their page dwindle down to nearly nothing. Ah, the power of the SlashDot effect.

      Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a website is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

  9. Next on the list: by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    RockMail (TM)!!!!

    Exchange messages with your friends by hurling special MessageRocks (TM) at them!

    Fun with concussions!

    Coming soon:

    VoiceMail (pat.pending)!!!!

    Communicate with your friends by using 'Words' (tm) that you issue from your 'Mouth' (TM)!!!!

    It's Audioriffic!

    --
    ____

    ~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey

  10. spam by Qick · · Score: 3, Funny

    I wouldn't want to get spammed by that...

  11. Hmmmm by rdavidson3 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I wonder if they make a BFG model?

  12. Obligatory Monty Python quote... by the_skywise · · Score: 4, Funny

    ]]]THUD[[[

    Message for you sir!

    1. Re:Obligatory Monty Python quote... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Prince: You got my note!

      Lancelot: ...I got a note..

  13. Unfortunate protocol interference... by lpangelrob2 · · Score: 4, Funny
    We've tried to implement this protocol at our company in parallel with PPTP, but unfortunately we experienced far, far too many dropped packets.

    Fortunately, we believe that better shielding on our PPTP routes will prevent further packet loss.

    --
    -Rob
    Marriage doesn't have to suck!
  14. Offline Messages? by Foolomon · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'll be ducking when they implement offline d-Mail. Imagine logging on to the network one morning only to be assaulted by a phalanx of darts coming from the server room...

  15. It's all fun and games... by sbowles · · Score: 4, Funny

    'Til someone losses a server!

    --
    You sly dog: you got me monologuing! - Syndrome
  16. Hrmph.. by dep01 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ehh.. I saw this on memepool this morning. Best of luck to the University of Calgary's lab web server...

    --
    "hey, could you pass me a paper towel? er.. I mean... DEPLOY ABSORBTION PANEL!"
  17. One Liners by Eberlin · · Score: 5, Funny

    DDOS attacks on people could get messy.
    The accuracy of the info is only as good as the person's aim.
    Packet-routing could be a bitch!
    Imagine the new-found creativity from those Punch-The-Monkey ads.
    "Are you saying I can dodge bullets?" "No, Neo, I'm saying you can READ them."
    The mailman can put his skills to use: BANG! BANG! You've Got Mail!!!

  18. New technology, old question by HangingChad · · Score: 4, Funny
    This here's the most powerful RFID dart gun in the world. From here I could blow your available disk space clean away.

    What you gotta decide is did I fire four RFID tags or five? See in all the excitement I kinda lost count.

    So, do ya feel lucky...punk? Well, do ya?

    --
    That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
  19. Not thinking big enough! by burgburgburg · · Score: 4, Funny
    Feed the RFID chip to a carrier pigeon, place the pigeon into a carved potato and then fire the whole thing out of a cannon.

    The systemic redundancy should deal with "packet loss".

    1. Re:Not thinking big enough! by stinky+wizzleteats · · Score: 4, Funny

      Feed the RFID chip to a carrier pigeon, place the pigeon into a carved potato and then fire the whole thing out of a cannon.

      I think you might have a problem with packet fragmentation in the RFC1149 implementation.

    2. Re:Not thinking big enough! by lxs · · Score: 2, Funny

      I think you might have a problem with packet fragmentation in the RFC1149 implementation.

      Who cares when it's raining grilled pigeons and baked potatoes?

  20. TOny Tang by Datamonstar · · Score: 3, Funny

    Damn, I wish my name was Tony Tang. I'll bet there's no end to the number of cool nicknames he's got.

    --
    The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.
  21. Re:xml tag? by MexicanMenace · · Score: 2, Funny

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <game>
    <tag>
    <it>you</it>
    </tag>
    </game>

  22. New AOL slogan by SensitiveMale · · Score: 5, Funny

    You've got INCOMING!!!!!!

  23. not new, just an adaptation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    we used to do the same thing with floppy disks between cubicles. Write the name of the person on it, toss it out there into the field of cubes. If a disk landed in your cube and was not destined for you then you were to give it another toss in the general direction of the person to whom it was addressed. Someone (Me) tried a rubber band launcher just for kicks but it really didn't work that well. Practice ended one day when a BOSS was beaned in the head with a flying disk.

    Seems to me those soft fabric frisbees would be good for this since they should fly further and not be such a shock to be hit with. Sew a pocket into the underside of it and put your disk, USB key, RFID tag, or whatever in it and give it a toss.

  24. Anyone have a dart with the video on it? by NetPoser · · Score: 0, Funny

    Anyone have a dart with the video on it?
    If you do please throw it my way.

  25. Can you imagine... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    ...the rate you could spam at with one of these? http://www.backyardartillery.com/machinegun/

  26. Guidelines for newbies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    "The world of networked computing can be a dangerous place. As such, there are several precautions you should take before connecting to the Internet for the first time- these include a virus scanner, firewall, and ballistic missile defence system.

    Please remember that e-mail is not secure, and neither is DartMail. In order to avoid unauthorised reading of your DartMail, post a photograph of the complete RFID dart to your intended recipient. Then, smash up the RFID dart with a hammer, so that it is in small pieces. This is called "encryption". Fire these pieces individually at your target. Using the photographic key, the intended recipient will be in a position to reconstruct the message into its original form. If you attach a postcard of Statton Island Ferry Terminal to the dart, this is technologically more advanced- it is Public Quay Encryption. Also, shut your curtains before firing the dart- this is a simplistic method of Pretty Good Privacy."

  27. Thanks.. really by 11011001 · · Score: 1, Funny

    I am a computer science student at this university and thanks to you guys I can't download my course notes for my midterm tomorrow. (/.'d) Great :P

  28. You got mail, BIOTCH! by iced_tea · · Score: 1, Funny

    We used to do something similar back in programming class back in high school. We Called it "You've Got Mail, BIOTCH!"

    We would cram various items (notes, paper, broken pencils, chalk) into your neighbors' cd-rom drives when they weren't looking or got up from their seat for a bathroom break.

    As soon as they sit down, you say "You got mail, BIOTCH!" and hope the teacher doesn't see the broken pencil sticking out of the CD-rom drive.

    It was definetly was worth an in-school suspension! =)

  29. Re:practical applications? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    "Gun control? We need bullet control! I think every bullet should cost 5,000 dollars. Because if a bullet cost five thousand dollars, we wouldn't have any innocent bystanders." --Chris Rock