Don't hate me...I love the idea. Once people get them into products (cell phones apparently being one of the first) the applications of MEMS are endless. Maybe a coffee maker that has a working self-start timer? Mine never does.
But to quote the article...
"The Millipede advantage is not only more data in less space but also a lower cost-per-megabyte for consumers than flash. A 64 megabyte flash media card today costs around $100. A consumer could one day buy a postage-stamp-sized 5-10-gigabyte Millipede for potentially a lower price."
How many companies are going to make this cost effective? Of course, the cost will drop eventually to make way for even more advanced technologies, but in the mean time will I be paying an exorbitant cost for something that is more than what I need? Cell phones are one thing, servers & data storage another, but how about how much my mechanic will charge me to replace one of these if they go into a car?
"unless they have every bill checked for every transaction to a central database or something.."
Ok, the cost of not only the chips, but the checking, rechecking, cost to merchants for the technology to check when accepting (if applicable)...At some point, the monitary cost of all of this is going to exceed the face value of the money this technology is going into.
Some versions of Outlook DO ask if you are sure you want to open the attachment. And guess what, users still open them. No amount of warning is going to keep some users from opening an email that shows a return address from a best buddy.
As for going after the people who are "dumb enough" to open attachments....Isn't that like saying that we shouldn't arrest arsonists just because someone was stupid enough to be asleep in the house when it burned down?
Kids or not, people make choices about their behavior. If you aren't old enough to make a good choice about where to put your efforts, you shouldn't have the right to take away other people's effort by creating viruses. Virus writers should be pursued to the maximum extent.
My experience with corporate management is that it comes down to the lack of understanding and education. How many managers call their IT people to teach them how to attach a file (in Outlook the paperclip icon) to an email??
I once brought up security as an issue and was told not to mention it again. Something about techs always wanting to spend money on useless "latest & greatest" ideas that wern't important. No amount of explaining helped or changed any minds.
When these managers get their teenagers to finally tell them what is going on (that good security is worth the pittance in extra cost) maybe we'll finally get something done.
My hope is that the people who were polled to come up with this list were rating the Microsoft Passport with "Impact meter: 8" as a warning, not a subtle endorsement. The Presence Technology rating of 7 scares me. I don't want people to be able to track my every move, and shouldn't have to pay for the right to be left alone. Isn't this a little to close to the conspiracy theory of the government implanting chips at birth? I have never been one to take that sort of thing seriously, but I want to know I can keep on eating and breathing technology without some hacker knowing my life.
All of the integration is nice except where non-techies are in the home. How many people have small children or spouses that aren't tech savy? I would hate to have my telephone, home theater, or anything else connected only to have it crashed by someone trying to figure out how to dial the phone.
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Don't hate me...I love the idea. Once people get them into products (cell phones apparently being one of the first) the applications of MEMS are endless. Maybe a coffee maker that has a working self-start timer? Mine never does. But to quote the article... "The Millipede advantage is not only more data in less space but also a lower cost-per-megabyte for consumers than flash. A 64 megabyte flash media card today costs around $100. A consumer could one day buy a postage-stamp-sized 5-10-gigabyte Millipede for potentially a lower price." How many companies are going to make this cost effective? Of course, the cost will drop eventually to make way for even more advanced technologies, but in the mean time will I be paying an exorbitant cost for something that is more than what I need? Cell phones are one thing, servers & data storage another, but how about how much my mechanic will charge me to replace one of these if they go into a car?
"unless they have every bill checked for every transaction to a central database or something.." Ok, the cost of not only the chips, but the checking, rechecking, cost to merchants for the technology to check when accepting (if applicable)...At some point, the monitary cost of all of this is going to exceed the face value of the money this technology is going into.
Some versions of Outlook DO ask if you are sure you want to open the attachment. And guess what, users still open them. No amount of warning is going to keep some users from opening an email that shows a return address from a best buddy. As for going after the people who are "dumb enough" to open attachments....Isn't that like saying that we shouldn't arrest arsonists just because someone was stupid enough to be asleep in the house when it burned down?
Kids or not, people make choices about their behavior. If you aren't old enough to make a good choice about where to put your efforts, you shouldn't have the right to take away other people's effort by creating viruses. Virus writers should be pursued to the maximum extent.
My experience with corporate management is that it comes down to the lack of understanding and education. How many managers call their IT people to teach them how to attach a file (in Outlook the paperclip icon) to an email?? I once brought up security as an issue and was told not to mention it again. Something about techs always wanting to spend money on useless "latest & greatest" ideas that wern't important. No amount of explaining helped or changed any minds. When these managers get their teenagers to finally tell them what is going on (that good security is worth the pittance in extra cost) maybe we'll finally get something done.
My hope is that the people who were polled to come up with this list were rating the Microsoft Passport with "Impact meter: 8" as a warning, not a subtle endorsement. The Presence Technology rating of 7 scares me. I don't want people to be able to track my every move, and shouldn't have to pay for the right to be left alone. Isn't this a little to close to the conspiracy theory of the government implanting chips at birth? I have never been one to take that sort of thing seriously, but I want to know I can keep on eating and breathing technology without some hacker knowing my life.
All of the integration is nice except where non-techies are in the home. How many people have small children or spouses that aren't tech savy? I would hate to have my telephone, home theater, or anything else connected only to have it crashed by someone trying to figure out how to dial the phone.