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WIRED is RFID Spelled Sideways (sort of)....

WIRED magazine is one of my favorites (and I hear the big guy likes it too). They somehow manage to work a little humor in with all their hi tech gadget idolatry.

As an earlier investor in RFID (bad investment that was) I loved their off the wall take on “Ten Top Uses for RFID Tags.”

1. Saguaro cacti. There is a landscaping black market, and on it, these succulent cacti sell for more than $1,000 each. Arizona’s Saguaro National Park plans to use RFIDs to track hot (read: stolen) cacti.

2. Indian elephants. New Delhi forest department requires pet jumbos
be chipped to prevent trafficking. No parades until implanted.

3. Surgical sponges. One out of every thousand or so intra-abdominal surgery patients “retains” a sponge. Oops! With Smart Sponges, docs can find stowaways by passing a wand over the body. Beep Beep, there it is!

4. Mexicans. Security firm Xega uses GPS chips to track kidnapped people ─ a pretty big market in a nation where 6,500 were abducted last year.

5. Pirelli tires. A chip inside the new Pirelli Cyber Tyre transmits info on road conditions and friction coefficients to the car’s computer. Rolling rolling rolling……

6. Clubbers. At Barcelona’s Baja Beach Club, VIPs are injected with
RFIDs linked to debit accounts, making wallets passé. Handy when all
you’re wearing is a thong. “Charge it to my forearm please”.

7. Tokyo. The largest city in Japan aims to blanket itself with microchips ── from bus stops to restaurants. Tourists may soon get maps, schedules, tips, and other info just by waving their cell phones. Do you know how many cell phones are in Tokyo?

8. Police badges. The Blackinton SmartShield badge hides an ID chip, preventing knockoffs. Good idea or great idea: Remember TERMINATOR 3? “I’ll be baaaaaaack”

9. Inmates. Forced to release prisoners due to overcrowding, Britain wants to chip them on their way out. Cops would know if, say, a felon enters a school, bank, hash den, etc.

10. Kitty doors. Kitty flaps are great ─ until you find a possum hanging from your towel rack. The (RFID Enabled) Pet Porte waves through only pre-approved critters.

Thanks WIRED

Call It What You will.

Job cuts are in the headlines everyday. Layoffs have become leading news on business channels and in newspapers everywhere. Where they were once big news, they have become as commonplace as "economic forecasting".

Some of the more creative Managers and companies have developed a number of head scratching euphemisms which seem nonsensical. Here are a few of my favorites:

─ “De-verticalization”
─ “Synergy related headcount adjustment goal”
─ “Surplusing”
─ “Dynamic rightsizing”

Worst Brand Extensions Ever...........

Marketers are not as clever as they'd like to think. Many make huge mistakes under the overall banner of “Branding” and "brand extensions". There has been a rash of really bad, poorly thought out brand extensions lately. BusinessWeek cited some of the Best and Worst of the lot.

Here are a few of the more dubious ones. Hooters Airlines, Cheetos lip balm, and Precious Moments coffins.

Some of the absolute worst brand extensions of 2008 included: Disney Sleeping Beauty executive fountain pens (cheap at just $l,200), Burger King underwear (that's creepy), and Coca-Cola’s RPet clothing sold at Wal-Mart.

Free Perking

What's the best perk you've ever heard of?

When it comes to "golden parachute perks" typically given to corporate executives who have jumped the shark, the big ones almost always tick off the great unwashed masses, as well as the ones who have gone before them who ask, "Why didn't I think of that?" Consider Jeff Misner, who departed as Continental Airlines’ C.F.O. in August, 2008. His perk: free parking for the rest of his life at Jacksonville International Airport. Nice.

How Much Does A Stamp Cost?

United States Postal Service Postmaster General John Potter's total pay during the past fiscal year was $857,459. Of that total, $135,000 was listed as a "performance bonus".

I have nothing I can add to that.

Google is way ahead of us.

Google is actually a little ahead of its own set schedule to have all of the world’s information organized in less than three hundred years. Helping make this happen are the proliferation of online translation tools, rapid digitalization of content (old and new) and Google's own proprietary technologies.

Happy 2309 !!!