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RFID Music Player
Posted by
timothy
on Tue Mar 22, 2005 08:14 PM
from the reuse dept.
from the reuse dept.
frazzydee writes "I know what you're thinking, RFID tags used to play music? Well, it turns out that we don't need to take out our tinfoil hats this time, because it turns out that are some constructive uses for the same RFID tags that we have all come to loathe. Since RFID tags can hold 1 kilobyte of data, somebody who goes by dividuum found that (s)he could use the tags combined with a reader to store and play back music. Dividuum used SID files- the same format used on Commodore 64s- and programmed everything in C. Pictures of the RFID device are available here."
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Speak for yourself (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't subscribe to slashdot groupthink.
I don't loathe any technology, only those that abuse it.
Re:Speak for yourself (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Exactly... (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally I think they're kinda cool... and coming from a data and human interaction focused business such as I am in, the things they can do to the betterment of people's experiences of things is supurb.
Parent
Re:Exactly... (Score:5, Funny)
We all do.
Parent
Resistance (Score:3, Funny)
Resistance is futile, etc, etc.
Re:Speak for yourself (Score:3, Funny)
I've got an RFID tag up your ass!
I don't loathe RFID tags (Score:5, Insightful)
I used an RFID card to get in and out of a city admin building all last week on site, it was much better than having to fumble for a different key for the umpteen different doors.
Technophobic dorks. Invasion of privacy, and all the other paranoias you have are all social problems, not technical ones.
Don't bitch about the tech, bitch about the people who would misuse it.
Nobody Really Loathes RFID (Score:5, Insightful)
It's just a technology like just about everything else. It doesn't automatically make it evil just because some bad guys might use it or there is "potential" for abuse.
Seriously, the RFID is evil meme is dead. Learn to deal with it.
1 kb (Score:4, Funny)
Re:1 kb (Score:3, Insightful)
Like everyone else at the time.... (Score:4, Funny)
http://www.soultracks.com/commodores.htm [soultracks.com]
Parent
Re:1 kb (Score:3, Informative)
Re:1 kb (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:1 kb (Score:3, Interesting)
Greetings!
This is what a Commodore-64 is!
Commodore 64 [oldcomputers.net]
Judging from your high UID and your apparent inexperience with the computers of 1982, I feel fully justified in blazenly assuming that 1 Kb of YOUR music is MORE than enough. 0.058 seconds of "Dad won't buy me a car, homework sucks" is exactly the right amount.
(Take it easy - I'
A name! (Score:5, Funny)
At least they credit someone named "Dividuum" rather than calling him "RFID software guy".
AFDB (Score:5, Funny)
Ha! You won't fool me! You're just trying to get me to take off my Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie [zapatopi.net]! Well, it won't work! I've had voices in my head a lot louder than you try! So if you think that you'll---
What? OK, Mom. I'll go take my meds now.
Re:AFDB (Score:3, Funny)
RFIDs can be made paper-thin and less than a centimeter square, so now they (you know who!) have put them inside every square foot of aluminum foil.
For a good tinfoil hat, you need to get aluminum foil which is at least twenty years old. I suggest going to the dump and digging down a few feet- dig until you get to the really ripe stuff, then it's just about five more feet! The dates of
Tinfoil hat? (Score:4, Funny)
I amazed that a site so full of educated geeks has never pointed this out.
Avant Garde (Score:5, Funny)
And now WWRD's Avante Garde corner features Herr Gerder VonStiffle's latest composition, "Fast Walk Through Walmart's Sporting Goods Section, #7"
Commdore 64 music (Score:4, Interesting)
Some interesting Commodore 64 music links:-
The HVSID Collection [c64.org] - Which is the main site for the collection of thousands upon thousands of Commodore 64 sid files.
Remix.kwed.org [kwed.org] Remixes of Commodore 64 tunes with real and modern synthesized instruments.
(Don't hammer their servers!)
I'm off to play "Lazy Jones" (aka ZombieNation)
Finally... (Score:3, Funny)
An actual usefull use (Score:4, Insightful)
The value of music (or video, or software, or any other intellectual property) isn't so much in the media it's stored on, but in owning the license to legally play it. As it stands, when somebody purchases music, be it on a CD or in mp3 format, maintaining the license to the work can be a pain.
CDs can break or be scratched to the point of being unplayable. Hard drives can be erased accidentally. Owners of the copy write do their best to prevent users to copy media because despite many users otherwise benign intent to transfer media to a different format or to archive owned media, there is no guarantee that they aren't copying the work for a more nefarious purpose.
Enter RFIDs. They're cheap, there portable and they can be owned. A person simply purchases the RFID for a work, and then that RFID is scanned any player in any format before the work can be played.
Taking your mp3 player filled with music you own on vacation? Simply wave it over your box of RFID tags, and viola! The player knows you are legally entitled to play the songs you copied onto it.
You could make as many perfect digital copies as you like of your CDs or even DVDs and it wouldn't matter. As long as the player is able to check the RFID tag for ownership, the media will play.
Granted there are some problems. As they are small, RFID tags would be easy to lose, and all sorts of issues come up when you consider online purchase of media where physical objects like RFIDs can't be used. But it's an idea, nonetheless.
RFID Readers & Tags (Score:3, Informative)
Phidgets [phidgets.com] is a company that sells these RFID readers and tags in an "off the shelf" manner. For a mere $90 CDN (almost nothing in USD), you can get a reader plus a whole set of tags (and of course the software to program against it with).
Huh? (Score:5, Informative)
Not all tags are that small, my company makes a series of tags that hold a *considerably* larger data package.
128K and up...
Suffering Christ in a thorn bonnet... (Score:4, Interesting)
And no, I'm not talking about 1337 case modders or overclockers. I'm talking about real hackers like this one. Doing hardware and software hacks that are done just for the sheer joy of doing them, and can be done because they CAN.
Mod me down as flamebait if you will. This is something very cool. Who the hell cares if it's practical. Neither is a machine that can turn ordinary dog biscuits into india ink. But the hack value is enormous.
(tip o' the pin to Bill Griffith... thanks, Griffy!)