Here's Google latest plan to take over the galaxy with the power of their fully armed and operational server fleet: let you tag everything you want, from your dog to a book to your cellphone to your car keys, and have it controlled at all times using RFID. According to a report on the Daily Mail:

Talking with Google's VP of engineering Douglas Merrill, the Daily Mail talks about "one plan, which has already tentatively started, entails making literally everything in the world accessible at the click of a button. For now, this means every book, piece of music, film, TV and radio broadcast, official document and photograph. But eventually, far-fetched as it sounds, Google boffins believe it can be extended to people and their personal belongings."

I can see how useful this could be. However, and even while Google's VP of engineering Douglas Merrill says "it is quite impossible for individuals or corporations to manipulate Google's search system to their advantage," I feel this path could get quite dangerous down the line.

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[The RFID Guardian is a personal, battery-powered RFID firewall that manages tags "within physical proximity of a person," blocking them from answering queries—and possibly getting snooped. Better yet, it can clone your chips so you can switch the signal off and on at your command. The latest version is totally open with a wiki, source code bank and bug-tracker, making an already fantastic tool—given the proliferation of RFID chips Hitachi has just rolled out a worryingly small RFID chip, measuring an impressively tiny 0.15 mm x 0.15 mm x 0.0075 mm. The chip packs in a 128-bit ROM, which is able to store a 38-digit number. Hitachi previously held the title for world's smallest RFID, but the now second place tag was comparatively large at 0.4 mm x 0.4 mm.

The reduction in size was achieved by utilizing the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) process, where the transistor is formed directly on the silicon base. It may be disparaging to know that an RFID chip, measuring 0.15mm x 0.15mm x 0.0075 mm, holds the title for world's smallest item in that category, whilst simultaneously being far larger than your winky. Hey, at least your twinkle can memorize 38-digits... oh, it can't? Why do you wake up in the mornings? [Nine digits, that's a hell of a lot of numbers to remember--especially if you suffer from what many of my elderly relatives call "senior moments." And forget about trying to explain contact lists and voice dialing, it's all witchcraft as far as they are concerned. This T-Phone concept from designer Jeong-Kyun Nam aims to make things a little easier with its unique RFID badge dialing system. Each badge can be programed to remember someone's number, and a picture slot makes identifying the correct badge easy. To make a call, all Grandma has to do is place the correct badge onto the call button and press. The phone will read the info and then dial the number.

If this phone were ever put into production, the easy to read buttons and large badges would make it easy for anyone with impaired vision to operate the device. Still, I can't help but envision old folks leaving these badges at every Denny's restaurant in town. [Credit card companies are dragging their old hairy asses into an uncertain future, finally and begrudgingly offering the convenience of payments without signature to locations everywhere. Here's the latest evidence of that from bloodsucking Visa, with its Visa Micro Tag that lets you make micropayments without touching anything, where you nonchalantly wave this sky-blue keyfob and stave off payment for those burgers and fries until the gombeen man comes a-knocking once again.

Oh, you'll pay for this indirectly; merchants will have to pay for these little trinkets, too—but at least the mini-RFID transmitters will further speed up purchases under $25 that used to require the exchange of filthy, dangerous cash. Never mind that we had a device similar to this stuck to our car's rear window to pay for gas ... eleven years ago. [Soon you'll be able to skip the lines at Korean McDonald's. Instead, just sit down, pull out your cellphone and pop in an RFID adapter to place an order. All you need is a phone that is compatible with the RFID adapter and can download the McDonald's ordering application. The idea of a fully autonomous Mickey D's is getting closer and closer every day. [KoreaTimes v