Sunday, December 1, 2002

Broadband heralds big changes. Teachers and doctors in the UK need to be ready for a culture change to make best use of broadband, say experts. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition] There are great cost savings to be had by putting online the mountain of paperwork, often duplicated, associated with the health service. But this will require a radical culture change, argued Mike Wilkinson from the Department of Health's head of the Medical Leadership Project. "Without good leadership the tools and products won't be used," he said at a recent broadband conference. 6:47:26 AM

San Jose Mercury News: Technology predictions for 2012. Mike Langberg makes five big technology predictions for life ten years from now in 2012. Most interesting is his prediction regarding RFID: Stores without doors will rely on RFID, or radio-frequency identification, tags to keep track of inventory and payment. These tiny semiconductors communicate a small amount of information, such as a product serial number, when queried by inexpensive transmitter/receivers. Only recently selling for several dollars, RFID chips should cost only a few cents next year and will be smaller than a grain of rice. In 2012, RFID chips will sell for less than a penny and be printed onto packaging and price tags -- the beginning of the end for cash registers. You walk into a store, put what you want in a bag and walk out the door. An RFID transmitter/receiver in the entryway instantly totals up your purchases and makes a deduction from the RFID credit card in your wallet. If nothing else, RFID could have spared Winona Ryder her recent and very embarrassing shoplifting arrest. [Scott Loftesness] 5:01:38 AM

Speaking Mind to Mind. Back in 1974, Ray Ozzie realized that the computer was a medium that enabled communication with people mind to mind, regardless of their physical well-being. By Ray Ozzie Written with Glenn Rifkin. [New York Times: Technology] 4:54:33 AM

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