here's ~retro from May 28, 2011 ~and mmm thoughts...

Internet of things.

I think I am gonna change the flow of this blog for the duration of summer. My summer life looks to be pretty boring, and I don't think chronicaling my days is very much fun. I may still do a little bit of that occasionally, but not every day. So today, I'll just post about something I have discovered that is of interest to me. The internet of things.

The internet of things is an idea of having everyday objects tagged with some identification device. I think the most popular device in this idea is an RFID tag. This is a device that responds to radio signals and contains an identifying piece of information. Anything could be tagged in this way, for example, that stylish coffee mug you picked up at 7-11 to save some change while getting that daily cup of joe. Let's say you have one of those all to common smart phones with GPS capability. Well the phone could have an app to detects any of these RFID tags and can record the location, using GPS, of any object having one of these RFID tags.

So if you lose something, just bring up an app on your phone, or even a webpage that records all of your possessions (with an RFID tag) and their location, and no sweat, you will never lose anything again.

There's other things this internet of things could support too. For example, these tags could include sensors, so if something breaks, say your toaster, or the lifespan of something has expired, you'd be alerted to the problem, or the need for a replacement.

This could make things more efficient too, such as the production of something by a company. They could get an idea of how much of something to produce, based on the usage and functionality of something, such as the lifespans of those lawnmowers, or whatever really.

Of course, this would provide an avenue for big brother to gain immense information about all of us. I think there's no way out of this tho, as this would just be a part of the evolution of technology. But also along that path, the idea of having everyone's 'smart phone' or whatever track everyone's stuff, not only their own.

I've found a bit of information saying that these RFID tags would cost about 20 bux a piece now, making the transition a bit expensive. But say the cost drops to about 5 bux a piece. What do you think? Would this be worth it for the convenience and the benefits? Or would this just be a way for big brother to gain too much information?

and that was copy/ pasted straight out of '11 :D

yay .txt's

~peace
-db