Month: November 2003

RFIDs aren’t evil. At least one sushi restaurant, Pintokona, in Tokyo knows this. Every plate is embedded with an RFID tag, allowing managers to see who made it, what it is, how much it costs, and how long has it been sitting on the conveyor belt. Customers are billed quickly and they always know that what they’re eating is fresh.

To be honest, I don’t get the whole scare over RFID tags. They track what you purchase? So do barcodes and receipts. They can build a personal profile of what you buy? They already do that with debit cards, credit cards and frequent shopper programs like AirMiles. Afraid of getting more junkmail? Stop signing up to in-store contests and sweepstakes.

Other people can find out what and where you buy? Only if they’re within a five metre radius. And if you don’t think retailers aren’t going to encrypt their tags…well, let’s just saying making sure their competitors don’t steal their precious marketing data is about as important as maintaining your privacy to keep your business.

Perhaps the best compromise would be to have RFID tags removed upon item purchase, like anti-theft tags on clothing. This might be ideal, since RFID tags cost a lot more than a printed UPC code.

Besides, if Walmart knows you like Shampoo Brand X, maybe they’ll buy more of it. Having a greater idea of what is and what is not in stock reduces the need for stockpiling, which can translate to lower prices. RFID tags on perishables makes sure you don’t go home with a mislabelled, rotten goods. Isn’t that a good thing?

The County of Los Angeles has recently decreed that the ubiquitous tech term “master/slave” was a “discriminatory influence”, which I guess is the politically-correct way of saying “we think it’s offensive”. Any computer manufacturer, supplier or contractor wanting to do business with the county now must have this term stricken from any equipment documentation.

Hope no one tells them about “dip switches”. Or male/female connectors. Or the killing of child processes. Or the juicier UNIX commands like “touch”, “finger” and “kill”.

Boeing is already sketching details for their next jumbo jet, the unofficially-called Boeing 7E7 Dreamliner. The 7E7 concept offers some radical new design ideas, such as the sharkfin-like vertical stabilizer and slender nose cone. The interior has high, arched ceilings, big clamshell-esque overhead bins and oversized electro-transparent windows. Even the washroom gets a window.

The main program team has recently been relocated to Boeing’s massive Everett, Washington plant. Everett currently assembles the 747, 767 and 777 in the largest building by volume on earth, although Boeing has not decided on whether final 7E7 assembly will be there as well.

There is some speculation that the final product will be called the 787 or even the 808, to appease the Asian market. While Boeing marketing has always used the 7×7 nomenclature for their jumbo jets, calling the Dreamliner the 808 could give it a boost in Asia sales. To Chinese, the number 8 signifies prosperity and is considered the luckiest number you can possibly get.

When I was at the Everett plant in September, someone asked why all the planes were called 7-something-7. Apparently, it’s simply because the marketers thought it sounded nice. The numbers don’t really mean anything; the 747 carries the most passengers of any of the other jets, although the 777 is longer.