Attention Wal-Mart shoppers, there will no longer be barcodes to scan at the cash register when you get in line to purchase something.

Nope, make way for the RFID technology, or Radio Frequency Identification chips - they will be embedded into clothing, food, and other products.

The thing is, from what I have read thus far, that the chips can communicate with "other" chips, say for instance like a big database computer system at Wal-Mart's Bartonville, Ark. headquarters...if a product is lost or stolen.

I still have more reading to do on it, but I'll hopefully have a story about it next week.

Until then, check out these links as it relates to the RFID chips:

RFID overview
http://www.stoprfid.org/rfid_overview.htm

More RFID links
http://www.nolajbs.net/news/

A good friend of mine is actually on the RFID email list at Yahoo. He's a big researcher into spyware, security and electronic parasites. From what he tells me, the big problem with RFID right now is that the cost still has to go down some in order for them to be affordable en masse, although that's certain. The other problem the RFID-ers are having is trouble trying to maintain such a huge database as Wal-Marts'. That's hundreds of millions of items a year that have to recorded. No doubt they'll get that worked out in the next few years too, so enjoy it while it lasts.
Better yet, avoid stores that use this $%@t!
Benetton tried to do this last year, but didn't because it p.o.ed so many people. There was even a site, http://boycottbenetton.org. So, boycotting companies that use this stuff will work, as long as it's done before it gets widely accepted.

i don't want chips in my chips!!

It should also be mentioned that these chips are used quite a bit already, just not for this purpose yet.

Hot Topic: Keeping Track
Radio-frequency ID (RFID) tags can track products from the factory to your doorstep and could someday be as ubiquitous as the bar code. The prospect of RFID tags on everything makes some privacy advocates cringe, but companies developing the technology maintain that both companies and consumers will benefit. Get the big picture, tonight on "Tech Live."
Watch today at 10 a.m., 1 p.m., and 6 p.m. Eastern

http://www.techtv.com/news/shownotes/story/0,24195,3468046,00.html

see ppl it isnt that big of a deal just watch the show if u have cable or satelite and it will be explained

Oh and it wont be put on food or anything else besides clothes for a very long time (or so it said on the show)

quote:

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"...that no man [or woman, child] will be able to buy, sell, without the Mark of the Beast."

It's all economics, people. It's leading up to the implantable microchip that will go under your skin - if you don't get one, you don't buy or sell, or you die.

It's all coming together.

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The mark of the beast is the number 666. What are you talking about? microchips have nothing to do with the number 666. Infact, did you know that the book of revelations almost didn't make it into the bible, and for good reasons. The story actually comes from St. John's interpretations of the events in a very old jewish scroll. Did I mention he was drunk when he made his interpretations. The scrolls were merely written to be used as a tool to convince the jews that god would exact revenge on the persecutors of the jews that had caused them suffering. Little did the origional authors know that it would actually wind up in the christian bible.

WOW!!!!

Right Joey. I think I'll go have some meaningless sex.

Remember the Revelation verse where it talks about the Antichrist.

"...that no man [or woman, child] will be able to buy, sell, without the Mark of the Beast."

It's all economics, people. It's leading up to the implantable microchip that will go under your skin - if you don't get one, you don't buy or sell, or you die.

It's all coming together.

so now can they start doing the thing where you dont even have to go thru check out... you just walk thru something and it charges it to your credit or debit? i want that.. oooh you could even put your money in... sorry nm...oh yea.. and wal mart employs alot of cashiers... bad idea for now... nm.

I feel left out. I want to discuss my underwear too.

so i got my costume for "the music man" yesterday...i originally said the petticoats as a joke...and now i'm stuck wearing them. they suck, just so you know. (it's not a full set, but it's bad enough.)

anyways, back to the rfid stuff...

quote:

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That would mean that anyone who purchased a copy of, say, the Qu'ran or Marx's Das Kapital could be put under government surveillance for it.

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Or the Constitution. The FBI in some states (Arizona) considers "right-wing extremists," or "Constitutionalists" as terrorists. That's from actual FBI material.

Oh well, I have four pocket Constitutions, woo hoo.

quote:

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Our country is transforming into some kind of Orwellian nightmare.

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Sad to say, but it already is.


And Kharybdis, I'm going to use the little info you provided. I'll actually add that part now that you mentioned it.

Wow, thanks for that information, Joey. I'll have to keep updated on this technology. That's very frightening, especially the prospect of the government having access to that kind of consumer information. That would mean that anyone who purchased a copy of, say, the Qu'ran or Marx's Das Kapital could be put under government surveillance for it. I think these corporations are becoming far too agressive to begin with. What they're doing is prying into what should be private consumer information, enabling themselves to launch an all-out advertisement assault on the consumers and squeeze every last penny from their pocketbooks. Our country is transforming into some kind of Orwellian nightmare.

Oh, I didn't even pick up on that side of the argument, really.

Could be good for a follow-up, but the first couple of paragraphs will get people all crazed and possibly on the verge of "Oh my God!"


That is very good info, though.

quote:

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The tracking system, or RFID, couples radio frequency identification with miniaturized computers – enabling products to be identified and tracked anywhere at anytime.

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If they're just miniature computers hooked up to a transmitter, couldn't someone disable the tags with a dose of electromagnetic radiation? Or rather than ruining the chip, wouldn't it be possible to jam the signal from the tag?

I checked a website to see if my understanding is correct, and it seems that it is... go to http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid40_gci213940,00.html if you want a little more information. Also, if I'm incorrect, feel free to contradict anything or everything in this post.

Guys, this is my rough draft, but from all these links and crap, this stuff is just mind-boggling.

Feel free to pass it around if you like.

quote:

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Barcodes be gone

Microchips to be embedded in products

JOEY DAUBEN
The Ellis County Press
WAXAHACHIE – Attention Wal-Mart shoppers, there will no longer be barcodes to scan at the cash register – instead, those black and white bars will be replaced with embedded microchips, commonly referred to as Radio Frequency Identification.

The new technology, concocted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1999, has not been implemented on all products in every store – but that could soon change as more grocers, hardware stores and distribution centers jump on board.

The tracking system, or RFID, couples radio frequency identification with miniaturized computers – enabling products to be identified and tracked anywhere at anytime.

Upon a purchase, the cashier deactivates the RFID’s. When a product is returned, the RFID must be reactivated to be returned to inventory.

RFID features a numbering system called an electronic product code, which can provide a specific identification for any item.

Unlike the bar code, however, the code assigns a specific number to each specific product, thereby allowing computers to track selected products, like toothpaste or a ball point pen.

Once assigned, the number is transmitted through radio waves, or through the RFID tag in or on each product. The tags, according to InternetWeek.com’s Margie Semilof, are “somewhere between the size of a grain of sand and a speck of dust.”

The tags will also be embedded directly into food, clothes or prescription drugs. The technlogy has even given rise to what Proctor and Gamble have unveiled: refrigerators that report their contents to the supermarket for re-ordering, and interactive televisions that select commercials based on the contents of a home’s refrigerator.

This is all according to the MIT Auto-ID Center, a conglomerate of grocery and department store executives pushing this latest wave of new technology. Wal-Mart and other stores have hailed the new system as a deterrent to stolen merchandise.

However, the rising popularity of the RFIDs has consumer groups and “Big Brother” opponents worried.

“If consumers fail to oppose these practices now, our long-term prospects may look like something from a dystopian science fiction novel,” said Katherine Albrecht, Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering director. “Consumers might not even know they’re being surveilled since tiny RFID chips can be embedded in plastic, sewn into the seams of garments, or otherwise hidden.”

The Wal-Mart in Waxahachie currently uses the electronic tagging devices, according to signage in the store on Highway 77.
The next best thing

Marketing and technology experts working for the nation’s largest supermarket chains wanted something better – and cheaper – than the preferred savings cards available at many grocery stores.

That something better was RFID.

“While these [cards] did a better job of linking consumers and their purchases, loyalty cards were severely limited,” said John Stermer, Vice President of eBusiness Market Development at ACNielsen. “Where once we collected purchase information, now we can correlate multiple points of consumer product purchase with consumption specifics such as the flow, when and who of product use.”

And with Wal-Mart the most prominent, other stores like Target and Home Depot have started the process of replacing barcodes.

“Anyone with the right ‘code’ or ‘password’ for their purchase has the ability to reactivate the chip and know it’s location, thus can be used as a tracking device,” said RFID researcher and John Birch Society member Joe Molero.

Currently, there are no federal government regulations on the RFID technology, and that, Molero said, could be of use to the Department of Homeland Security, the nation’s new anti-terrorism agency.

“Anyone with the education knows what the DHS is capable of doing,” he said. “This is something people need to be made aware of.”

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oh, not all the time, darling. if i can, i try to wear a full set of petticoats. no, not really. but we can discuss my choice of undergarments at some other time.

Joey, how do you know she wears thongs?

Well, don't worry about Wal-Mart. Worry about the other stores, like Target and others, who will follow their lead.

The RFID tags might even save stores money -- well, it will save on security, that's for sure (why steal if they can track you?)

Anyway, tire companies, Gillette, some other stuff is startin to go this route.

George Orwell would have been proud.