News of the world

This blog is in the first case meant for myself so I don't forget interesting stuff. So you will find lots of useless topics, but there will certainly be also readings that might interest you. Lots of the items will go about my family, things we do or don't do but also about software, cars, gadgets, music, etc ... .

14 mrt 2005

Be careful where you put your fingers on !!!

Paying with your finger prints. Science fiction I hear you say ?
Not really, in Germany they have done some tests last year and they think the technology is mature enough to equip stores all over the region.

All customers have to do is register themselves for this service. They have to give their identity card and bank details and ... their finger prints of course. Now when these customers come to the cashier they don't have to look for coins or remember their code, they simply put their fingers on some sort of scanner which will compare them with the finger prints stored in the service's database. Since your finger prints are unique you won't be able to let someone else pay for your groceries. Unless you have chopped of someone elses fingers ;-).

So be careful of what you touch because someone might be debeting your account !

2 mrt 2005

Egg of mine (Ei van mij)

Use ordinary people, like you and me, to come up with new applications for a wireless city !

Hasselt, a city in Belgium, started this great initiative. Hasselt is one of the first cities in Belgium that went wireless (hotspots). And now an initiative is started to find applications that could use this wireless technology in the city.

They made a web site where you can subscribe and leave your idea (egg) behind. The top 100 ideas will be chosen, and as far as I understood will be developed and then tested by about 4000 people.

This is really a cool initiative, let it up to the people/consumers to decide what they want to do with technology.