02 Mar 2004
Do Your $20 Bills Explode In the Microwave?

Check this out: complete with photos.

I'm not too keen on the idea of RFID tags in general, but putting them in money would seem, on the surface, to be a logical anti-counterfiting measure. Until you consider that these new bills would probably defeat the purpose of other RFID tags used at retail to detect theft.

After repeatedly setting off RFID scanners in a truck stop, the author discovered the culprit was a wad of $20's in his back pocket. In a paranoid attempt to keep the government from tracking him, he attempted to fry the embedded chips in his microwave, with interesting results.

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

SCO Says They'll Sue A Linux User Tomorrow

I would like to offer some advice to the target of this suit, courtesy of Rudyard Kipling:

We never pay anyone Danegeld,
No matter how trifling the cost.
For the end of that game
Is oppression and shame,
And those who would play it are lost.

InfoWorld is reporting that SCO intends to sue a Linux using company. Ordinarily, this would not be newsworthy, as they have not followed through on past threats. However, this time, they have given themselves a concrete deadline--tomorrow. While they claim that it will be one of the "top 1,000" companies, they apparently have yet to decide which company to actually sue. Perhaps they need more practice playing darts?

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

RSS Web-Feeds, The Next Big Thing?

I think it's already a pretty big thing: I get all my news from RSSS (and associated format) feeds - it really cuts down on wading thru useless information to get at what I need/want to know. The integrated newsreader (aggregator) was what first interested me in blogging.

Yahoo! carries an Associated Press editorial about RSS-based news feeds, and how they are pushing the spam-ridden e-mail and advertising-ridden web-pages aside and consolidate information from multiple sites. Slashdot itself is mentioned by the author as one of his sources.

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link