So Google is pushing their new android platform for mobile devices. I have downloaded the API but I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet. If the big G follows the pattern of the past it will probably be pretty easy to work with. I am pleased with this development. I have many reasons ($10,000,000us is not the least of them) one of the biggest is the fact that it is open source. I think having a project that is open to the community of developers is the best way of ensuring a good product. Essentially this gives a good chance that your product will play well with others, an idea shunned by many.

It has always seemed to me that by making your product only work with your other products that you are cutting yourself off from a valuable portion of market share. If you make your product the best, then allow EVERY one to use it than people will love you. If you tell people it’s the best then force them to use it they will resent you. Well actually a lot of people will follow your lead regardless. There will always be the few that are interested in their own way though.

We’ll be right back!

I’ve been thinking about RFID tags a lot lately. Evidently the problem most people have is the surreptitious use of the things. Example, your car has an RFID tag in it that allows the mechanics to figure out when the last time it came in for service. Well what if I wanted to find out too? what’s to stop me? Not much other than the cost. RFID readers are about $4,000, a hefty sum for a prank. Now I have just started looking into them so for all I know you can pick up a reader for a price an order of magnitude less but still. Ultimatly it is a matter of frequency you need something that can transmit a certain frequency and read the data returned. I guess that’s not that hard, IF you know the frequency. I don’ t know enough to say if there is a standard frequency or if there are multiples. but it is interesting to me,, *ambles off to read about RFID*

Oh yeah zombies. The other fear is that something WITH a tag retains its data when you are done with it. but apparently there is a type of RFID tag that ‘dies’ after a set time. Think about the tags at like best buy or someplace. Those are RFID and those can be disabled. Same thing, just give the end user a means of wiping the data when they are done. (these tags are often called zombie tags)

Aliens,,,, I don’t have anything on aliens sorry. Other than I kinda want a headcrab