Gigaflop Mac to RFID
Starting off this morning reading article from yesterday, R. Cringely about how Steve Jobs is going to take over the entertainment industry with the Mini Mac, what caught my eye though was:
Imagine a Mac Minicluster running Apple’s xGrid software. Start with a 16-port fast Ethernet switch and stack 16 Mac Minis on top. That’s a 720 gigaflop micro-supercomputer that costs less than $9,000, can fit on a bookshelf, and can be up and running in as little time as it takes to connect the network cables. High schools will be sequencing genes.
Got sidetracked though catching up on what Verisign was up to after having the unpleasant experience of trying to help someone move a domain name from Network Solutions to GoDaddy.com and realized they are they same company promoting RFID chips for tracking. Along the way, another company called EPCglobal Inc kept being mentioned, turns out they bought the entire MIT lab where RFID’s were invented, although their website takes pains to make like they are some sort of global standards when really it’s just a consortium of people that stand to make a lot of money from the devices. I guess it wasn’t too much of a surprise poking around to find a pdf document archived with the company Accenture written all over it.
Yup, that’s the same company that has taken over our BC Hydro and BC Gas being a major player in the RFID tracking business.