Tagged (the other sort)

Meesa bin tagged by HMHB

1. Pick up the nearest book of at least 123 pages.
The Reavers by George MacDonald Fraser.

A hilarious borders burlesque by the bestselling author of The Flashman Papers.

2. Open the book to Page 123 and quote the 5th sentence.
"For plainly Operation Heretic had developed a stutter, with La Infamosa, the impostor and Clnzh in the grip of huskies who might well, Fray Bentos reasoned, be plain-clothes rozzers, a theory supported by the presence of whistle-blowing lawmen."

3. Post the next 3 sentences.
"What had gone wrong he couldn't guess, but it called for swift evasion on his part - his hopes for the prize spot were up the spout, anyway. With a mutter of "Ah'm outa heah!", the clerkly conspirator rushed through the orchestra, dropping his small change in the pianist's glass, and disappeared behind the curtain shielding the secret stair to the Priest's Hole Suite."

4. Tag 5 people.
errrm...
Madame Cyn
Yellow Box of Doom
The Gnomad
El Casareño Inglés
An Englishman in Dubai

]}:-{>

Tagged

Hospitals sometimes stick them on newborns to prevent baby-snatching; Alzheimer's sufferers sometimes wear them. Supermarkets use them for stock control. RFID tags are so cheap that there's one on pretty much every item of hard goods. Any attempt to get the product out of the door without going through the checkout will result in alarm bells and awkward questions.

Dubai RTA's Salik tags use the same technology. Assuming the tag reader is working the system can tell who's passing through the toll gate. Conspiracy theorists might like to speculate on how many Salik tag readers are dotted around Dubai recording vehicle movements, even if they're not being totted up at Dh4 a pop. If Virgin Megastore can give away a tag free with each DVD, what's with the RTA needing to relieve the punters of Dh100? Blatant profiteering, perhaps?

However, for once this is not a tirade against the RTA. Neither is it an attack on the Virgin empire.

My experience last August got me thinking about using RFID technology in airport baggage handling. No, I'm still not having a dig at Sir Richard. The paper tag is all fine and dandy with its bar code on the luggage and a copy on the boarding card, and this is great for ensuring that a bag gets put in the correct pile for loading into the belly of Speedbird 666.

But what if a particular item goes astray? What if a specific bag needs to be located now? With the airport version of a Salik gantry in the baggage hall and an RFID tag on the luggage, the system ought to know exactly where each and every bag is located. Typing the tag number into the computer should very quickly result in "The item you seek is in the third pile from the left." or "That particular bag arrived in Manila two hours ago and is even now getting dizzy on the baggage reclaim carousel. Such a shame you're in Murmansk."

Imagine the advantage in a security situation. After checking in his bags, Osama bin Laden is apprehended. It would presumably be extremely useful if airport security could precisely locate his luggage immediately.

Meanwhile, I try my utmost to travel with carry-on only. This works fine provided I'm willing to travel without nail scissors or anything else sharper than a wax crayon.

]}:-{>

The wonderful thing about Taggers

I'm told that having been tagged by Keefieboy I should now tell my readers five things that you didn't know about me:-

1. I've owned seven different motorcycles, with an average engine size of 628cc.

2. My first movie appearance was in the extremely low-budget post-Apocalypse B movie Death Run.

3. I'm a qualified powerboat handling instructor.

4. I own a sword, and I know how to use it.

5. I once played the eponymous Orpheus, in the Underworld. That's the one with the can-can.