Yes, but you've got it backwards. The RFID tag in the merchandise is the transmitter broadcasting the data to the scanner device (such as a security gate). The better/more powerful the scanner, the better the range (hence the 1cm-1m variance), but it is still highly limited by the tag itself.
Where in Sask do YOU live? 'Cuz where ever it is, it ain't where I live. Maybe I just know too many people who work at the JD office on McDonald, but every house I go to has JD toys. Mostly scale replicas of heavy farm equipment. Ditto for everything with the Redhead logo on it. Shirts, hats, jackets, etc. Hell, my dad works for the government and he has a Redhead Equipment bomber jacket.
For anyone who lives outside Regina, SK - most people you meet here will have one of the following types of jobs:
Government. Anything ranging from lowly civil servant to Director of Something or Other
SlackTel. The local phone company is a HUGE employer.
Call center. CIBC, SecurTek, Sears, Staples, Quill, Canada Life, etc. The list goes on. You Americans don't realize just how many call centers we have here. I don't know for sure, but I think Regina has more call centers per capita than any other city in North America. Even if we don't, we still have a LOT. Pat Fiacco seems to love 'em, that's why there's at least another 3-4 planned.
Farm equipment sales/service/etc. We have farms here. That's about it. Farmers have to buy their tractors somewhere.
McJobs. This includes fast food, retail, etc.
By the way, does any other Regina resident here REALLY hate the Gap for opening the floodgates? I mean, we were relitively safe from the clone-like clothes until they showed up. Now we have an Old Navy opening up not that far from the Vic Square and Americal Eagle Outfitters moving in on the lower level of the Cornwall. Am I the only one who was happy with WOT/Tiki room?
To answer your questions...
Depending on the frequency Walmart uses, possibly. If they use RFID inthe 300KHz range, then the maximum pickup distance is (supposedly) 1cm to 1m. Pretty high range for most things I buy at Walmart (batteries, blank CD's, CD wallet, etc. I buy my CD's or DVD's elswhere, simply because Walmart doesn't, and probably never will, carry the Ataris, Lucky 7, or Fahrenheit 451. Thank you A&B Sound). If they use the 1GHz plus range, they could get - in practice - 15m plus (theoretically 300m and more). They'll probably keep to the lower end of the spectrum. That means you have a good chance of finding the tags in larger things like TVs, furniture, etc so you can simply remove them. As for any portable electronics, good luck. Even if you could find 'em, would you really want to crack 'em open to get them out? I tend to be pretty brave with a screwdriver, but there is NO WAY I'm opening up my brand-new digital camera. In either case, the tags will be in the packaging for the first little while. For clothes, you could just zap 'em in the microwave for 2-3 seconds. There are companies out there already embedding RFID in clothes, so Walmart will grab that soon. I saw a link on an earlier story to a company that was advertising they would be putting tags in all their clothes, but I'm too damn lazy to look it up right now.
As for a consumer-level way to disable them(as opposed to removal and destruction), I doubt it. If everyone could buy a small, easy-to-use device to disable these things, it would screw up any inventory control they had in mind. You could walk around a store and essentially turn off all their security tags. Walmart will try hard to make sure such a device does not fall into the hands of the likes of us. Before anyone argues that point, look how well companies have kept devices off the market that disable the currently wide-spread tags. Sure, you can get 'em, but it ain't easy (read: easy enough for my boss to do it).
But what's to worry about -- we all trust corporations to do the right thing, even if it means they have to give up a potential revenue stream. Right? *cricket chirp*
Not exactly. A DMCA subpoena does not need a judge to sign off on it, just a court clerk. It's widely regarded that a court clerk will sign off on a subpoena for a cookie and a warm blanket. Basically, it's about the same amount of paperwork needed to bring a lawsuit against someone. In otherwords, you fill out a form, pay a filing fee and some guy behind a counter stamps it. A Canadian court desicion to force a company to hand over information that would otherwise go against the privacy laws requires an act by the Canadian Supreme Court. Even then, it's usually the police that have to be making the request. Up here, we take an individuals' right to privacy VERY seriously. Right now, the privacy laws don't apply to many companies becuase of the industry they are in, but many are complying with it just so they get used to it before they have to. Because if they wait until 2004 to impliment their compliance policies and goof up (because what new policy doesn't?), they can be hit HARD.
Ain't Canadian law great? I mean, we still have fair use, and soon, federal bill C-6 (Canada's VERY strict privacy laws -- link is to the Office of the Privacy Commisioner, the body assigned to enforment) will apply to all ISPs! Right now, they apply to federally regulated idustries (telecomunations, finance, insurance, etc). So if your phone company is your ISP, they aren't allowed to give out your information unless a court says they have to -- or if they have your EXPLICIT consent to do so.
In 2004, these same laws will apply to EVERY company that collects your information for any reason other than "artistic or journalistic purposes". IE: Unless they are a news reporting agency, they can't give out your info without a court order, and those are more difficult to get up here. I take a lot of comfort in that. And if the RIAA tries to sue me, not only is the burden of proof on them, we have a "loser-pays" court system.
True, we pay that f***ing levy on blank CD media, but if you can prove you don't use it to copy music illegaly (like educational or archival purposes), you can get that refunded. We also get to make fun of Americans in a dry, sarcastic fashion! We're also home to the funniest SNL comedians and superior beer. And since we exported Celine Dion to Vegas, what's not to love a-boot Canada? Except Hamilton. We're sorry for Hamilton, ONT. That ond the cold. And the taxes. And a senile PM that won't retire. And SARS. And Mad Cow. And West Nile. And a very expensive but (thankfully) useless gun registry the police refuse to enforce. And Anne Murray.
Dang, I'm starting to wonder if I should move to Switzerland.
Ay, there's the rub. Of course a COMPANY needs to comunicate in a secure fashion. But a person? Why would a person need privacy? Don't you realize that if we let people talk without the government being able to listen in, they might plan a bombing?
Turning down the sarcasm (but not the jaded cynisism) a bit, it doesn't take alot for me to image an **AA-type organization getting pissy about this. They've demonstrated in the past how they feel they have not only the right, but the obligation to police us (the public). Should there be a widely-available, free system where people can trade information (be it text messages, files, etc.) without being snooped, then there will be those what wonder what these people have to hide. I think we can all agree that the current political/corporate climate is "those who do nothing wrong have nothing to hide". There's nothing wrong makin' time with my girlfriend, or suffering from the ill effects of some spicy mexican, but that doesn't mean I want anyone else watching. The unfortunate reality is that many people no longer agree with me. "For security's sake" is the salvo invoked at every turn, and those who don't agree are dissidents. In a few years time, I'm afraid, we may encounter another era where dissident equals terrorist. As for piracy, the lawmakers tend to believe what they're PAID to believe. Unless we have a massive, wide-spread attack of common sense (yeah, that'll happen), our only hope is that the PAC's (such as the RIAA/MPAA) run out of money before we run out of rights.
From Parent: No one goes on Kazaa looking for the latest version of Mozilla.
I did. The Mozilla mirrors were tanked out, so I got it off Kazaa lite. I've also used Kazaa to get the latest versions of BF1942 Desert Combat, as well as various versions of GNU/linux. I do have some "illegal" copies of music, but I only keep the stuff I intend to buy. Everything else gets deleted. If the RIAA wants to sue me, they can f***ing try it. I live in Canada - the loser not only pays the court costs, but the burden of proof is on the plaintiff (IIRC from 10th grade social class). In either case, the RIAA must HATE people like me. I only buy music if I can hear the WHOLE disc. Same goes for movies: I have a collection of about 100+ DVD's, and the vast majority of them I downloaded bootlegs before I bought them. As for the movies I downloaded and DIDN'T buy? I deleted them. If they ain't worth the scratch to own legit, they ain't worth the drive space.
PS: There is one notable exception where I kept music from an album I did not buy - it was a Chris DeBurg CD a friend of mine wanted VERY badly for her birthday. I looked EVERYWHERE for a copy (including HMV custom orders, independant stores and Amazon), but it had been out of print for years. Needless to say, Kazaa was the only place I could find that stuff.
PPS:I still wonder exactly WHY a 19-year-old girl wanted a Chris DeBurg CD, but mine is not to question the hot redhead...
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, but you've got it backwards. The RFID tag in the merchandise is the transmitter broadcasting the data to the scanner device (such as a security gate). The better/more powerful the scanner, the better the range (hence the 1cm-1m variance), but it is still highly limited by the tag itself.
For anyone who lives outside Regina, SK - most people you meet here will have one of the following types of jobs:
- Government. Anything ranging from lowly civil servant to Director of Something or Other
- SlackTel. The local phone company is a HUGE employer.
- Call center. CIBC, SecurTek, Sears, Staples, Quill, Canada Life, etc. The list goes on. You Americans don't realize just how many call centers we have here. I don't know for sure, but I think Regina has more call centers per capita than any other city in North America. Even if we don't, we still have a LOT. Pat Fiacco seems to love 'em, that's why there's at least another 3-4 planned.
- Farm equipment sales/service/etc. We have farms here. That's about it. Farmers have to buy their tractors somewhere.
- McJobs. This includes fast food, retail, etc.
By the way, does any other Regina resident here REALLY hate the Gap for opening the floodgates? I mean, we were relitively safe from the clone-like clothes until they showed up. Now we have an Old Navy opening up not that far from the Vic Square and Americal Eagle Outfitters moving in on the lower level of the Cornwall. Am I the only one who was happy with WOT/Tiki room?Depending on the frequency Walmart uses, possibly. If they use RFID inthe 300KHz range, then the maximum pickup distance is (supposedly) 1cm to 1m. Pretty high range for most things I buy at Walmart (batteries, blank CD's, CD wallet, etc. I buy my CD's or DVD's elswhere, simply because Walmart doesn't, and probably never will, carry the Ataris, Lucky 7, or Fahrenheit 451. Thank you A&B Sound). If they use the 1GHz plus range, they could get - in practice - 15m plus (theoretically 300m and more). They'll probably keep to the lower end of the spectrum. That means you have a good chance of finding the tags in larger things like TVs, furniture, etc so you can simply remove them. As for any portable electronics, good luck. Even if you could find 'em, would you really want to crack 'em open to get them out? I tend to be pretty brave with a screwdriver, but there is NO WAY I'm opening up my brand-new digital camera. In either case, the tags will be in the packaging for the first little while. For clothes, you could just zap 'em in the microwave for 2-3 seconds. There are companies out there already embedding RFID in clothes, so Walmart will grab that soon. I saw a link on an earlier story to a company that was advertising they would be putting tags in all their clothes, but I'm too damn lazy to look it up right now.
As for a consumer-level way to disable them(as opposed to removal and destruction), I doubt it. If everyone could buy a small, easy-to-use device to disable these things, it would screw up any inventory control they had in mind. You could walk around a store and essentially turn off all their security tags. Walmart will try hard to make sure such a device does not fall into the hands of the likes of us. Before anyone argues that point, look how well companies have kept devices off the market that disable the currently wide-spread tags. Sure, you can get 'em, but it ain't easy (read: easy enough for my boss to do it).
But what's to worry about -- we all trust corporations to do the right thing, even if it means they have to give up a potential revenue stream. Right? *cricket chirp*
In 2004, these same laws will apply to EVERY company that collects your information for any reason other than "artistic or journalistic purposes". IE: Unless they are a news reporting agency, they can't give out your info without a court order, and those are more difficult to get up here. I take a lot of comfort in that. And if the RIAA tries to sue me, not only is the burden of proof on them, we have a "loser-pays" court system.
True, we pay that f***ing levy on blank CD media, but if you can prove you don't use it to copy music illegaly (like educational or archival purposes), you can get that refunded. We also get to make fun of Americans in a dry, sarcastic fashion! We're also home to the funniest SNL comedians and superior beer. And since we exported Celine Dion to Vegas, what's not to love a-boot Canada? Except Hamilton. We're sorry for Hamilton, ONT. That ond the cold. And the taxes. And a senile PM that won't retire. And SARS. And Mad Cow. And West Nile. And a very expensive but (thankfully) useless gun registry the police refuse to enforce. And Anne Murray.
Dang, I'm starting to wonder if I should move to Switzerland.
The touch screen jacks the price. Ever look into buying one of those things? Nasty.
Ay, there's the rub. Of course a COMPANY needs to comunicate in a secure fashion. But a person? Why would a person need privacy? Don't you realize that if we let people talk without the government being able to listen in, they might plan a bombing?
Turning down the sarcasm (but not the jaded cynisism) a bit, it doesn't take alot for me to image an **AA-type organization getting pissy about this. They've demonstrated in the past how they feel they have not only the right, but the obligation to police us (the public). Should there be a widely-available, free system where people can trade information (be it text messages, files, etc.) without being snooped, then there will be those what wonder what these people have to hide. I think we can all agree that the current political/corporate climate is "those who do nothing wrong have nothing to hide". There's nothing wrong makin' time with my girlfriend, or suffering from the ill effects of some spicy mexican, but that doesn't mean I want anyone else watching. The unfortunate reality is that many people no longer agree with me. "For security's sake" is the salvo invoked at every turn, and those who don't agree are dissidents. In a few years time, I'm afraid, we may encounter another era where dissident equals terrorist. As for piracy, the lawmakers tend to believe what they're PAID to believe. Unless we have a massive, wide-spread attack of common sense (yeah, that'll happen), our only hope is that the PAC's (such as the RIAA/MPAA) run out of money before we run out of rights.
Have you tried, you know, not downloading it at work?
I thought it was just me! Now I have proof it wasn't, so that means I can stop taking those pills! Screw you, Dr. Beaterman!
from parent: who said a flag was going to replace your freedom?
That's his SIG.
No one goes on Kazaa looking for the latest version of Mozilla.
I did. The Mozilla mirrors were tanked out, so I got it off Kazaa lite. I've also used Kazaa to get the latest versions of BF1942 Desert Combat, as well as various versions of GNU/linux. I do have some "illegal" copies of music, but I only keep the stuff I intend to buy. Everything else gets deleted. If the RIAA wants to sue me, they can f***ing try it. I live in Canada - the loser not only pays the court costs, but the burden of proof is on the plaintiff (IIRC from 10th grade social class). In either case, the RIAA must HATE people like me. I only buy music if I can hear the WHOLE disc. Same goes for movies: I have a collection of about 100+ DVD's, and the vast majority of them I downloaded bootlegs before I bought them. As for the movies I downloaded and DIDN'T buy? I deleted them. If they ain't worth the scratch to own legit, they ain't worth the drive space.
PS: There is one notable exception where I kept music from an album I did not buy - it was a Chris DeBurg CD a friend of mine wanted VERY badly for her birthday. I looked EVERYWHERE for a copy (including HMV custom orders, independant stores and Amazon), but it had been out of print for years. Needless to say, Kazaa was the only place I could find that stuff.
PPS:I still wonder exactly WHY a 19-year-old girl wanted a Chris DeBurg CD, but mine is not to question the hot redhead...
True. The rest of us use Kazaa :-)
Crap. Now I have to reliquish my title as "Pop Culture King", 'cuz I have NO IDEA who Crazy Eddie is.
At least I can still identify a Simpsons episode strictly from a single unique quote... And now I see why I'm single...
I agree completely. The amendments they added later really are crap. Honestly, do we really need those pesky 13th (ratified 1865), 15th (ratified 1870) and 19th (ratified 1920) ammendments?
Really, though, I do think the 18th (ratified 1919, repealed 1933) should stay dead.