Is this like some sort of "jacket" you put your already existing RFID card into that blocks signals unless told otherwise, or is it something that would have to be added to new cards?
From TFA:
Eventual plans call for the Guardian to be incorporated into cell phones and PDAs, but the current model is a pocket-sized device that runs on its own battery and provides a circular 1m field of control over RFID tags, jamming any tags that the user does not want read.
TFA goes on to explain exactly how it does it, but in a nutshell it has an internal list of RFID tags along with what it should do for each tag - block everything, only allow certain readers to access it, etc. If it's not allowed, then it blocks the RFID tag's response by jamming the signal.
But since it works by detecting and jamming the signals sent, and not by any physical connection or link to the RFID tags themselves, it should function with any pre-existing RFID tag.
Philip tells us in the blog, that Windows developers are writing on average of 5000 lines of code (which is *only* 1200 lines less than the national average of 6200 lines of code per year).
No, actually, he doesn't tell us that at all. From TFA:
... those quick on the draw with calculators will discover that, on average, the typical Windows developer has produced one thousand new lines of shipped code per year during Vista. Only a thousand lines a year.... Lest those of you who wrote 5,000 lines of code last weekend pass a kidney stone at the thought of Windows developers writing only a thousand lines of code a year, realize that the average software developer in the US only produces around (brace yourself) 6200 lines a year.
Rather than the paltry "1200 line" decrease suggested by the writeup, what we actually have is a 5000 line decrease, and the MS developers are on average each producing less than 17% of the national average. Most of this is probably due to various factors of bureaucratic bloat and Windows bloat in general, but if I had a company full of workers whose pace was less than 20% of the national average, I'd be gravely concerned.
Of course, it'd almost be fine if that 20% was QUALITY code, but, well... Consider the source. Reviewing its history, I somehow doubt that Windows code is in any way "bug-free" or "easily maintainable"...
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From TFA:
TFA goes on to explain exactly how it does it, but in a nutshell it has an internal list of RFID tags along with what it should do for each tag - block everything, only allow certain readers to access it, etc. If it's not allowed, then it blocks the RFID tag's response by jamming the signal.
But since it works by detecting and jamming the signals sent, and not by any physical connection or link to the RFID tags themselves, it should function with any pre-existing RFID tag.