Writable RFID tags could be interesting. There could be a competition for creative re-writing what items you have apparently bought - or trying to take back a shirt which is relabelled as a six pack of albino tigers. (Okay, so the store probably reads a serial number not a text description, but its a nice thought!)
I also recall that one of the pros for this technology was that your fridge or garbage bin could read the tags and know if you ran out of an item - dosn't sound like they'll be disabled on leaving the store to me!)
How about an electronic wardrobe that reads your clothing tags and tells you what goes with what (and cross-references it to the weather)? Patent anyone?
I think you need to balance manned and unmanned missions. And don't forget, if the science you are interested in is studying the effect of spaceflight on the human body - well, I don't see an unmanned probe achieving much in this field!
And while I know the situations are very different, the old cliche about what the world would be like now if the explorers of 500 years or so ago had felt the same way still holds.
Perhaps the next reality TV show should be set on the space station?
Other than the magnetic strip not wearing out, what's the advantage? Unless its short-range enough that passers-by can't steal your money, you'll still have to present it to a reader (the article mentions 20cm)
Or perhaps they mean it can't be swiped (as in stolen.)
It could mean the end of shoplifting though, just use the security scanners to read the RF tags in what has been taken and then take the money straight off the card.
(Actually, that could be a great way to shop: pick things off the shelf, walk out and pay without having any queues at the checkout. Where's my patent lawyer?)
Of course, in the real world nobody uses obsolete equipment. And need I mention Three Mile Island, or the Sellafield fire, or the fact that when Chernobyl happened, the university I was at (in the UK) banned access to the top floors of the library because of the radiation levels in the air conditioning filters...
I liked the quote:
"But the truth is that all of the waste produced by all of the world's nuclear reactors could fit in a two-story building, on an area the size of a basketball court."
While that may be true, if you actually distribute it around (like, say, Chernobyl did) its not quite as safe.... And don't forget, if you've got a black hole you can fit, oh, everything in a singularity.
I would guess that as part of a systematic approach it would work: you target some fixed or limited mobility probes at areas you are interested in and let other blow around where they will. If they are cheap you could get limited data about a wide area, rather than a lot of info about a very small location.
Besides, there stands a chance that interesting things may be blown to the same places as the probes. Don't forget that the Earth was explored by wind power in the days of sail.
Plus you can get data on the wind from where they end up!
I thought that one of the requirements for granting patents was a demonstration of no prior art. So maybe another approach would be to have a central location (maybe on a patent office website) for people to register their ideas that they wanted to share but not be patented. This would timestamp the idea but also allow private companies to go ahead as normal with patents and making money without trying to do it by stealing other people's ideas! And incidentally give the patent office(s) somewhere to search for prior art.
There's a time and a place for everything. Its called the Universe.
Actually I think DNA is one of the most robust formats aganist errors, and evolution is the result of even the errors in this. I doubt that RAID is better than this. Also, pedantically, you can't correct an error before it appears, you can only prevent it or correct it after it has appeared!
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I also recall that one of the pros for this technology was that your fridge or garbage bin could read the tags and know if you ran out of an item - dosn't sound like they'll be disabled on leaving the store to me!)
How about an electronic wardrobe that reads your clothing tags and tells you what goes with what (and cross-references it to the weather)? Patent anyone?
You're a guppy?
And while I know the situations are very different, the old cliche about what the world would be like now if the explorers of 500 years or so ago had felt the same way still holds.
Perhaps the next reality TV show should be set on the space station?
Other than the magnetic strip not wearing out, what's the advantage? Unless its short-range enough that passers-by can't steal your money, you'll still have to present it to a reader (the article mentions 20cm) Or perhaps they mean it can't be swiped (as in stolen.) It could mean the end of shoplifting though, just use the security scanners to read the RF tags in what has been taken and then take the money straight off the card. (Actually, that could be a great way to shop: pick things off the shelf, walk out and pay without having any queues at the checkout. Where's my patent lawyer?)
Of course, in the real world nobody uses obsolete equipment. And need I mention Three Mile Island, or the Sellafield fire, or the fact that when Chernobyl happened, the university I was at (in the UK) banned access to the top floors of the library because of the radiation levels in the air conditioning filters...
I liked the quote: "But the truth is that all of the waste produced by all of the world's nuclear reactors could fit in a two-story building, on an area the size of a basketball court." While that may be true, if you actually distribute it around (like, say, Chernobyl did) its not quite as safe.... And don't forget, if you've got a black hole you can fit, oh, everything in a singularity.
Besides, there stands a chance that interesting things may be blown to the same places as the probes. Don't forget that the Earth was explored by wind power in the days of sail.
Plus you can get data on the wind from where they end up!
The advantage of chain mail is that its very difficult to spam.
Try Mitre 10, or Bunnings Warehouse. (For non-Australians, they are hardware stores...)
There's a time and a place for everything. Its called the Universe.
Its a SAT test - you might lose more points if you STAND ...
I'm ging to file a patent on this with the US Patent Office - don't see why they wouldn't accept this one on their past record!
Perhaps Microsoft is behind it all - they wouldn't like the implications of the headline "Peng Win" ...
No, he deals in porn. He thinks that everything can be turned on!
Actually I think DNA is one of the most robust formats aganist errors, and evolution is the result of even the errors in this. I doubt that RAID is better than this. Also, pedantically, you can't correct an error before it appears, you can only prevent it or correct it after it has appeared!
So you have to pay for the downloads of bug fixes, or else you have to pay for not downloading the bug fixes ...