This is one of the scary stories I remember from Sunday school about the ‘Last days’ spoken of in the book of Revelations 16:16-18

16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads,

17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.

This is one of those scary parts of the Bible. Well where am I going with this ????? To RFID. ( a not of warning for the non-geeky person – This post may make your brain fry) RFID is an old technology that has been brought back from the backburner, due to the reduction in its cost and the ability to mass produce it.

So what do we use RFID for? It can be used for a wide variety of uses mania to store the data on stuff that it is attached to. RFID consists of a small chip and a antenna and is wafer thin. RFID would allow the scanners to read the data in the chip from more than 20 feet away. RFID is going to be used to replace Bar codes. The various scenario’s that they can be used for are : Checkout at shops – All you would have to do is to run your cart through a scanner without taking out a single object. Stores can know when a product has to be reordered. It can be used to make sure that the product is not out of date. It can be use to authenticate people by embedding these chips in people (connection to the revelation story).

Whats so bad about it? It is actually a very good technology which would make our lives very simple. The trouble lies with the privacy issues involved with it. Using the chips in the products we buy it would be very easy to track us. Big corporations can use it to see the buying habits of each individual customer. In spite of the corporations commitment not to do so there have been a couple of incidents already where they have tried to do it. And frankly using it to authenticate people will bring about macabre incidents of missing limbs. So you could have credit cards that can be read when they are in your pockets without you taking it out.

Whats so good about it? Shorter lines in stores. The stores will never be out of stock. You won’t get outdated products. Your turkey with a RFID can tell your oven how it wants to be cooked. You can keep track of your pets and kids (helps in Mexico where kidnappings are the order of the day).

The company that is leading this foray into the new technology is aptly called Alien. Companies like Walmart and GM are lending the corporate support to this endeavor.

Quote for the day

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”

-Albert Einstein, “Science, Philosophy and Religion: a Symposium”, 1941

Its the end of another week. Time seems to fly sometimes and iterations not fast enough. I guess most of you all in the American continent watched the debate yesterday between the devil and the deep sea (President Bush and Senator Kerry). Whatever maybe the outcome of the November poll I must applaud this part of the democracy that allows the candidates to come face to face and state their case. I wish I could say the same for the state of politics in India. If this debate were to be held in India there would be so much bad (not that there is none over here) and I could get physical.

From politics to Chinese food. I just don’t understand the word ‘spicy’ from the people who serve Chinese to an Indian like me. More often than not I am disappointed by the amount of spice in spicy food. (For those of you who don’t know me, I am South Indian and I like my food blazing hot). A word of advice to other spice loving souls out there if they say its spicy and it looks pinkish with lots of oil around it don’t go for it. I don’t know why I am ranting off about Chinese food, may it is because of the heartbreak given me by a Etheopian restaurant that was not where it was supposed to be ( this after I had walked 2 miles to get to it). If any of the famished soul (in California) really wants good spicy Chinese food go to any of the numerous Indian restaurants that specialize in Indian Chinese …

On to some good stuff wnat a free ipod well go to this website. I have it from a good source that this is genuine.