it looks like they are canceling it to focus on the use of the same technology in the warehouses and distribution centers instead, and waiting for the cost to come down before using the RFIDs in the stores
"The cost" of deploying RFID on store shelves is incredibly high - not because of the cost of the technology, but because of the costs involved in fighting people like us who don't want to see it happen without adequate privacy safeguards.
Like most corporation decisions, the true cost of a change is incurred by the PR department, the legal department, the operations managers, and the people who train low-level workers - not by the actual cost of the technology itself.
We may not see RFID in our lifetimes if we have groups organized to mount a "big brother inside" style campaign at the slightest whiff of seeing the tags enter consumer products.
The long-awaited release 4.5 is finally here! We have been hard at work
providing the features you need to run a fast, stable, and secure system
derived from the venerable 4.4BSD. Here are some of my favorite new
features in release 4.5:
New ATAPI driver. Our new ATAPI driver supports UDMA-133 on all
major chipsets, and has been tweaked to interact well with the latest
DVD-RW and DVD+RW drives. Coupled with a new revision of the soft update
code, you can rest assured that your data is safe.
Better NTFS support. Release 4.5 includes the ability to
natively read and write to NTFS 5.0 filesystems, making it easy to retrieve
your important files when you upgrade from Windows 2000 or XP.
Better wireless support. FreeBSD has been updated to support
all major 802.11b and 802.11a chipsets. The IEEE spanning bridge
kernel module has been updated to fully implement software-based wireless
access points - another FreeBSD first.
POSIX capabilities. The support for least-privilege mechanisms
in the kernel has been greatly improved by Roger Watson's recent work.
Most binaries that were formerly setuid root now use capabilities instead,
which provides a level of local security that has only been dreamt of on
other unices.
Better soft updates. Our soft updates filesystem code has been
further improved. Soft updates set the standard for data integrity and
performance. Why use a clunky, slow, unstable journaling filesystem like
reiserfs when you can use a proven winner instead?
Improved Linux emulation support. For those of you who prefer
the stability of a BSD to the bleeding-edge trainwreck of Linux, this is a
way to have your cake and eat it too. We have tested thousands of free and
commercial products for Linux, including Netscape, Oracle 9i, and even
TuxRacer, and have fixed all known incompatibilities.
Java support. We now include a native, Free software Java VM
and compiler. This removes the last roadblock to the use of FreeBSD in the
enterprise.
We hope that you take the time to take release 4.5 out for a spin. If you
run into any trouble, please feel free to join our mailing
list and ask for help.
Slashdot Mirror
"The cost" of deploying RFID on store shelves is incredibly high - not because of the cost of the technology, but because of the costs involved in fighting people like us who don't want to see it happen without adequate privacy safeguards.
Like most corporation decisions, the true cost of a change is incurred by the PR department, the legal department, the operations managers, and the people who train low-level workers - not by the actual cost of the technology itself.
We may not see RFID in our lifetimes if we have groups organized to mount a "big brother inside" style campaign at the slightest whiff of seeing the tags enter consumer products.
- New ATAPI driver. Our new ATAPI driver supports UDMA-133 on all
major chipsets, and has been tweaked to interact well with the latest
DVD-RW and DVD+RW drives. Coupled with a new revision of the soft update
code, you can rest assured that your data is safe.
- Better NTFS support. Release 4.5 includes the ability to
natively read and write to NTFS 5.0 filesystems, making it easy to retrieve
your important files when you upgrade from Windows 2000 or XP.
- Better wireless support. FreeBSD has been updated to support
all major 802.11b and 802.11a chipsets. The IEEE spanning bridge
kernel module has been updated to fully implement software-based wireless
access points - another FreeBSD first.
- POSIX capabilities. The support for least-privilege mechanisms
in the kernel has been greatly improved by Roger Watson's recent work.
Most binaries that were formerly setuid root now use capabilities instead,
which provides a level of local security that has only been dreamt of on
other unices.
- Better soft updates. Our soft updates filesystem code has been
further improved. Soft updates set the standard for data integrity and
performance. Why use a clunky, slow, unstable journaling filesystem like
reiserfs when you can use a proven winner instead?
- Improved Linux emulation support. For those of you who prefer
the stability of a BSD to the bleeding-edge trainwreck of Linux, this is a
way to have your cake and eat it too. We have tested thousands of free and
commercial products for Linux, including Netscape, Oracle 9i, and even
TuxRacer, and have fixed all known incompatibilities.
- Java support. We now include a native, Free software Java VM
and compiler. This removes the last roadblock to the use of FreeBSD in the
enterprise.
We hope that you take the time to take release 4.5 out for a spin. If you run into any trouble, please feel free to join our mailing list and ask for help.