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April 6, 2006
Even HP's ads are looking wrong these days
Here is part of an HP ad that appeared today on InternetNews.com. What in the heck is this supposed to be? Did some marketing guy figure people would look at this evil cube and immediately want to put HP products in their homes?
(Click here to see the whole weird ad, and the rest of HP's ad campaign)
This image reminds me of the fact that HP has begun putting RFID tags inside their printers. For most people, this will be the first incursion of RFID into their homes.
RFID Journal describes the program:
"Speaking at last week's AIM Global Annual Showcase in Newport Beach, Calif., Chenneveau said HP would like to tag all printers sold in the United States -- as opposed to tagging the cardboard boxes in which the printers are packaged -- because there are more benefits for HP, such as the ability to trace a defective printer back to the source and correct the problem.... 'We're recording the DNA of the unit as we make it,' said Chenneveau.According to Chenneveau, HP tagged about 2.3 million of the 45 million printers it shipped worldwide last year. His company, he noted, has been paying about 25 cents for Gen 1 tags, but plans to move to second-generation EPC tags starting in April, which should cost less than 10 cents apiece."
Of course, the next obvious step would be for HP to link an on-board RFID spychip to the printer's power source to increase its read range. Then they could take a cue from the electric meter reader programs and set the spychip to broadcast data down the block.
(Hey, they asked me to invent, didn't they?)
Posted by Katherine Albrecht at April 6, 2006 6:27 AM
Comments
Plus you can put a printer in the microwave. The only practical way to stop this is copper mesh in your walls and ceiling.
Posted by: Noid at April 7, 2006 4:15 AM