[ExI] will work for food

[spike]

> ...On Behalf Of Adrian Tymes
> Subject: Re: [ExI] will work for food
> 
> 
> --- On Wed, 4/14/10, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
> > Idea: if all the products have
> > RFID tags, the checkout process is greatly simplified...
> 
> That's been tried...Problems:
> 
> 1. Shoplifters can and will wear clothes that foil RFID.  
> Foil is, in fact, sometimes the means to this end.  Or they 
> can swap tags for expensive items w/ones for cheap items, 
> which both lets them pay less and messes up inventory...

Solution: foil detectors.  Foil bends magnetic fields in a predictable way,
easily detected by airport-style security systems.  Alternate solution:
all-plastic shopping carts, package all the products without metals, and
stock the shelves with only known-electromagnetic signature metalspassing
thru an airport-ish metal detector.

Regarding swapping tags, I disagree.  RFIDs can be placed deep within the
packaging or on the product in such a way that it cannot be found, so tiny
are they.  The RFIDs can be placed on the product at the factory (cheaper
that way) before being placed into that maddeningly clever and intricate
modern plastic packaging that is so difficult to penetrate it actually
introduces a safety risk to the consumer: they resort to razor blades to
extricate the product, and if that fails, small improvised explosives.

Some of us use self-checkout at Home Despot.  When the cart is passed thru
the metal detector and all the RFID tags are read, the weight of the cart is
also measured, and compared with the sum of the weight of the cart and all
the stuff the RFID thinks is in that cart.

Properly done, tag swapping is actually solved by this technology rather
than introduced.

> 2. Getting legit shoppers set up, so the RFID that says "this 
> customer is legit and here's the account number to charge" 
> always scans and doesn't set off security alarms.  If you've 
> got a 1% false negative on this, that's still way too high 
> for many people...

Hmmm, OK solution: the customer doesn't have RFID, but rather pays for the
products in the usual way, with a credit or debit card.

...
>  
> > the shopping cart knows where to go, so the employee need not worry 
> > herself with reading, thinking, knowing where anything is located.
> 
> Why use an employee?  Why not track-mounted robots (possibly 
> ceiling tracks, to be out of the way of customers)?...

Good idea.  Employees could be used as a transition technology.

...
> 
> > The RFIDs on
> > everything could be used to tell the customers where to find the 
> > object they need, without having to ask the stoned employees.
> 
> Assuming you know what to ask for.  A human might know that 
> "burrito wrappers" means "tortillas", but a computer won't 
> know that unless someone (probably some human) tells it 
> specifically, and so on for all other variations on food 
> terms.  Not a problem for you and me who are used to coming 
> up with alternate search terms (all hail Google), but this 
> might be a problem for many people...

Sure, but it is also a solution, for the computer can learn, and once it
does it never forgets.  Furthermore it is taught by a free volunteer
customer base.  It can learn arbitrarily many languages, dialects and slang.
For instance if you were asked where to find cock socks, would you know to
direct the prole to the condoms?  The computer would learn, and never forget
forever and ever amen.


> 
> > It has a lot of "stick
> > it to the man" in it, since the Searses and Macyes would be 
> crushed in the stampede right past their businesses.
> 
> Unfortunately, whoever's running the supply chain for this 
> new store becomes "the man" by definition...

I have a solution for that too.  In the US we arrange tax advantages that go
to "minority owned business" and women qualify as minorities.  Consequently
a lot of small mercantile oriented businesses are female owned and operated.
These would be directly in the line of fire of WWFF, so the equal
opportunity crowd can sleep at night knowing that by shopping at WWFF they
stick it to the man and stick it to the woman equally.

> > The democrats could set up a table
> > out front to register voters in stunning hordes.
> 
> Which would prevent it from operating in Republican-owned areas...

Easy solution: have WWFF owned by democrats.  Recall that one seldom sees
voter registration drives by republicans: those guys are already registered,
have been since Roosevelt's new deal.

...
> > The libertarians would
> > like it because there are so few rules.
> 
> Now here's an idea: get the Libertarian Party to sponsor 
> wide-scale voter registration drives.  Boost their numbers, 
> by giving people a cheap way to express discontent with both parties.
> 
> ...or would they not have the resources to advertise 
> themselves, even for cheap?

Never work for libertarians Adrian: we might win.  Then what would we do?
No one knows of course, it has never happened.  Uncharted waters.

Regarding the name WWFF, I have been struggling to introduce a T in there
somehow, in order to have the acronym suggest a familiar and comforting
catchphrase.  The Latin based languages sometimes switch the order of noun
and adjective, so you might have something like "Will Work, The Food For" or
maybe get at the charitable angle with "Will Work To Feed Family" which
could then be shortened to "Work To Feed."  Alternately we could explore the
notion of mom, dad and kids all laboring there, suggesting the name "Work
The Family."  Of course then we lose the whole ad board army.  Open to
suggestion.  The notion is that this might work great for a huge mercantile
where most of the employees are stoned and many of the customers have large
cellulite-inflated body parts hanging comically and/or provocatively from
their flimsy excuse for clothing.

spike

ps It just occurred to me that the reason I am getting so few responses in
my continuing job search is that potential employers are googling my email
address and finding posts such as this one.  Normal rocket scientists just
don't write this kind of stuff, they really don't.  Rather than being a
gawking customer, I may soon find myself working stoned and nekkid at the
local WTF.


Kewallllll!