Sorry, I couldn’t resist posting this article. Mitsubishi has developed a pint beer glass with an RF ID tag that can signal when it’s empty. Read the details in this Reuters article. That coupled with a device that let’s me ping the waitstaff when I need something would about complete my ideal restaurant experience. There’s a restaurant chain — Bubba Gump’s — that uses table signs to accomplish much of this. On each table rest the signs that read “Run Forrest Run” and “Stop Forrest Stop” that indicate whether or not you need assistance. Not much more I can say about that except that they make good margueritas.

While this article got a laugh from me, there is a serious concept here — the implications of pervasive RFIDs. RFIDs — radio frequency identification tags — have finally become inexpensive and small enough to use widely. These will find their way into warehouses to mark each inventory item uniquely and track the movements of those items. They could be used in place of bar codes that require scanning to be useful. Keep an eye on this technology — you’ll start seeing it pop up frequently.

This in from the Times Online:

Woman “expecting cloned baby”

A woman is pregnant with the world’s first cloned baby, it has been reported. The claim has been made by Rome fertility specialist Dr Severino Antinori at a conference in Abu Dhabi, according to a report in the Gulf News. The doctor’s office has refused to comment on the report. The Gulf News quoted Dr Antinori as saying: “Our project is at a very advanced stage. One woman among thousands of infertile couples in the programme is eight weeks pregnant. We have nearly 5,000 couples in this project now.”

I’m not sure what else to add to this. It was going to happen sooner or later.

I recently read a bit of decent fiction about just this subject. The problem is — if I post the book title and author, I’ll be giving away the enough of the story that it may discourage you from reading it. So I’ll leave it at this — if you e-mail me for the title and author of the book, I’ll be glad to give it to you.

This in from CNet — Brilliant Digital Entertainment, a digital advertising technology company, has been embedding software in the Kazaa distribution that could turn every computer running Kazaa into a network they control. John Borland’s article says that Brilliant Digital could host and distribute content through this network or use unused processing power for grid computing tasks. He reports later in the article that, while the announced plans are to make the network opt-in, that the terms of service actually allow Brilliant to use the computers without any payment to or permission from the user.

“You hearby grant (Brilliant) the right to access and use the unused computing power and storage space on your computer/s and or Internet access or bandwidth for the aggregation of content and use in distributed computing … The use acknowledges and authorizes the use without the right of compensation.”

Now there’s a little something to make your hair stand on end!

I’d say that this will cause a backlash against Kazaa and Brilliant Digital. No one likes the spyware or adware that gets dumped on your computer when you install someone’s software. But this is beginning to really step onto some shaky ground. Okay — show of hands — how many of you think it’s okay to have a piece of software installed on your computer that can use disk space and processing power for someone else’s use?

This week’s Doonesbury ought to be interesting. Looks like Garry Trudeau is about to launch a commentary on music sharing on the internet. Today’s strip already begins to make his point — that “pirated” music is “stolen goods”. As you have read in previous posts, I’m not certain that shared MP3 files are in fact “pirated copies” or “stolen goods” in quite the same way that walking out of a store with your pockets full of merchandise is.

I’m a long time Doonesbury fan, even if I don’t always agree with Mr. Trudeau. I’m looking forward to the rest of this series.

I’ve included today’s strip in this post because I believe that it is within the realm of “fair use” — it’s here to facilitate my commentary on this subject. I’m sure I’ll hear from the Doonesbury syndicator if I’m in error. The rest of the series will not be posted here, unless there is a particular comment that I intend to make about one of the strips.