Friday, February 18, 2005

Great minds

I used this concept (the natural extension of linked databases for looking up customer information) in a parody bank commercial for ARTC back in 1997, but I have to admit that I've been topped. This new version, a flash animation commissioned by the ACLU, starts with a pizza order. (Heard it from Neal Boortz.)

You could think of it as a glimpse of the near future, if it makes you feel better, but the technology to do it is in place right now. And given the recent attempt to have public schools include your child's body fat index on his report card (not to mention having the kids wear radio frequency ID badges to track their movements), it's obvious that the inclination to use it in this manner is there too.

Ooh, that last story. "Nobody on this campus knows every student," the principal says. Well, who decided it was more efficient to have six hundred kids in an elementary school? (There's no law that says elementary schools have to be that big, but that's the current trend. Why? Because certain kinds of federal matching funds are only available to schools of that size, and most local school boards will jump through any hoop to get those matching funds. Don't get me started.)

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