Adrian wrote ... > (Hey, I've got a good idea! Why not force everyone to carry a mobile > phone with a GPS chip, so the government can see how long each is in > the pub? Unfortunately, I'm afraid that 20 years from now that may > not sound so funny).
*** I'm not so certain about the <20 years> because your mobile has already got the [dis]advantage of being easily traced down to the local cell unless you habitually turn it off when not making calls; the software already exists and the PTB already use this facility to trace/track people they are interested in :-( > In any case, the Continuous Cruiser problem is about mooring, not > navigating. *** If *all* the available 'free' moorings were laid end-to-end, and if *all* the boats were laid in a second line alongside the first - which would actually be longer? *** Earlier Laurence mentioned 'barcodes', but these are easily copied; speaking personally I would be much more concerned about the use of RFIDs because, at least one website has recently discussed the option of installing interrogators inside road furniture to check up on passing traffic. *** The real problem is that, like padlocks, all security systems are only useful for one thing - <keeping the innocent out> because the rest of the world will soon find a way to overcome them. As 'Cowzilla' wrote recently in the Inquirer: <http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/09/03/mythbusters-rfid-sho w-axed> "ANYTHING that can be encrypted, or ciphered CAN and WILL have it's methodology broken by someone else, or many others. Period, end of story. Never gonna change. It's in the very nature of the design. You have to design a cipher system of some sorts that has a way to be read again by some other person(s). Hence every information security measure is designed to be undone. It's only a matter of time." [BTW, any 'neurotics' reading this should either Google <RFID> or look it up in 'Liberty' LOL!] Trevor
