Radio And Inventory Control By The Use Of RFID

By on September 4th, 2010

RFID is the acknowledged acronym for Radio Frequency IDentification. The basis of RFID technology is that every RFID chip or tag is capable of sending a radio signal on a frequency wholly unique to itself.

Therefore, every RFID tag must have its own unique frequency and the RFID tag readers must be sensitive enough to be able to differentiate between frequencies that are only a very minute bit different from its neighbouring tags. The difference can be infinitesimal.

Therefore, the technology has to be sensitive and selective, but not fragile, because the apparatus has to be used on the shop floor and by people who are often in a hurry and in weather that may be inclement.

In order for RFID to have the desired result, you have to have a tag, which is an upmarket kind of bar code and a radio receiver, often called a (tag) reader. However, whereas a bar code can only hold a small quantity of information and the bar code reader has to be pointed at it, an RFID tag can hold much more information and can be read from a hundred yards or more – even out of line of sight.

Passive tags will only divulge their details when asked to by a reader, whereas an active tag is constantly broadcasting its contents. Clearly, active RFID tags are more expensive than passive tags, because they have to have a long life battery.

These tags can be utilized to track goods from the moment they leave the manufacturer of the items they describe to the in-bay of the vendor. The tags can then be up-dated or renewed and put in the warehouse. Once there, RFID readers can keep management up to date about what goods are where and if the sell-by-date is approaching.

This has implications for the levels of stock that a company needs to hold, the quantity of goods sold cheap because the sell-by-date is too near and for theft, all of which should boost company profits more than paying for the cost of the tags, the readers, the printers and the programmes.

At the click of a mouse, managers will be able to read how much stock they have in real time and if this is all linked to the checkout cash registers, which are the most and least profitable articles. This makes reordering easy . Easy to the point of automation. For instance, when supplies of the top ten percent of the best selling products falls below 1,000 order 10,000 more. Automatically, no questions asked.

RFID has many other applications too. The ideas mentioned above can be applied to farm animals, a call centre’s IT hardware, a fleet of commercial vehicles, an record of household items, your pets, your car and even your garden furniture. Some people who work over a border are even having them put under their skin so that they do not have to wait at customs.

And do not forget that criminals on early discharge are also tagged. It is the same technology.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on quite a few topics, but is now concerned with the RFID asset management. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Active RFID Management.

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A Short History Of RFID Or Smart Tags

By on September 4th, 2010

As you perhaps already know, RFID is an acronym for ‘Radio Frequency Identification’ – it is the thing that makes ID tags work – but you probably only started hearing about it over the last couple of years. So, how much do you know about RFID? In this piece of writing, I want to take a short look at the history of this seemingly new invention, which has entered almost every facet of a city-dweller’s life and that of many livestock farmers as well.

The start of it all was in 1915, say some, when the British come up with a system called IFF, which is short for ‘Identification: Friend or Foe’. Whoever invented it, the first known installation of the IFF transponder was into the FuG German aircraft in 1940 in the course of the Second World War.

However, IFF does not identify enemy aircraft, it can only distinguish friendly aircraft. All others have to be treated with suspicion. The same type of technology is still in use in military and civilian aircraft today. The British managed to decode the FuG’s signals and reply properly, giving them a false positive, which gave them the drop in a dog fight.

At the end of the war and the beginning of the Cold War, Leon Theremin invented a system for the Soviet Union which retransmitted incident radio waves and other audio details. It is not genuine RFID, but it is credited with being a forerunner of RFID, because it was a passive device which was activated by an outside source.

In 1948, Harry Stockman wrote a paper entitled: “Communication by Means of Reflected Power”, in which he stated: “… considerable research and development work has to be done before the remaining basic problems in reflected-power communication are solved, and before the field of useful applications is explored”.

This was true. The difficulties were essentially threefold: the devices needed a lot of power to work properly; they were too big for use in anything but large items like aircraft and they were very expensive. However, people could already imagine uses for the technology when these three problems had been surmounted.

(In 2009, researchers at Bristol University stuck RFID units to live ants to track their movements).

The first modern predecessor of the RFID device was something that Mario Cardullo demonstrated to the New York Port Authority in 1971. It was a passive transponder which transmitted information employing power supplied by an external source. It’s proposed use was to identify ships to the Port Authority for the intention of collecting toll fees.

Steven Depp, Alfred Koelle, and Robert Freyman demonstrated a set-up in 1974 which used RFID tags. This has become the basis of the system which is now extensively used all around the world to collect toll charges on motorways and in car parks.

Charles Walton was granted the first patent to include the acronym RFID in 1983.

The principal user of RFID tags is the US Department of Defense and after that the civil aviation industry, although the manufacturing industry is catching up quickly with RFID tags being used to track goods from manufacture to point-of-sale.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on several topics, but is currently involved with the best RFID printer. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Active RFID Management.

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RFID – The Basics

By on September 4th, 2010

RFID is an acronym for ‘Radio Frequency Identification’. It involves the utilization of an article normally made of plastic or metal to identify an object in a similar way to bar codes identify items. In fact, they are used in a very similar way to bar codes and, at least for the immediate future, are normally together with bar codes.

However, RFID tags are a great deal more adaptable than a piece of paper with a few black stripes on it. RFID tags can be and are being sewn into clothing and inserted under the skins of animals and humans for ease of tracking. Many of the items you buy in supermarkets these days have RFID tags concealed in them, but do not try looking for them because they can be tiny. They could also be under the labels of those tins of beans on your shelf.

An RFID tag is used to be able to follow an item from manufacturer to consumer, but especially when it is in the warehouse or supermarket waiting to be sold. A tag reader will be able to transmit the tag’s information back to a computer to warn management that something is near its sell-by-date, for instance.

Tags in livestock permit the slaughterhouse to be able to track the animal back to a farm and hand this information on to the butcher. An RFID tag under your dog’s skin or your car’s bonnet will permit it to be found if lost or stolen.

There are basically two types of RFID tags: the passive sort and the active kind and there is a hybrid as well. The passive tag is similar to a bar code. It carries the same information and then more besides. Like a bar code, it can do nothing on its own, but when it is read it will disclose its data. These tag readers give the tag sufficient power to be able to reflect the information back to it.

The active tags have a battery and a transmitter built into them, so that they can actively transmit the data all the time and the hybrids will only broadcast when ‘switched on’ by a tag reader.

There is still some disagreement about how far away a tag reader can read a tag. In the case of a passive tag, it centres on the power that the reader can supply over a long distance. Most are intended to work over only a few inches or feet, but more powerful ones could be constructed. Active and hybrid tags actively broadcast, so they can be read from 100 metres (300 feet) or more.

These tags have been around for a very long time in one form or another, but certainly since the Second World War, when they were used to identify home-coming British planes to save them from the RADAR-directed anti-aircraft guns.

The trouble as far as many organizations are concerned, is that technology has progressed so much that the tags can be almost invisible and the readers could be anywhere, which invokes concerns for personal privacy.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on several topics, but is currently concerned with the best RFID printer. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Active RFID Management.

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Welsh Terriers

By on August 7th, 2010

Initially, Welsh terriers were bred for hunting rabbits, foxes and badgers, but public opinion and the decline in the lust for blood in general have gone against blood sports and so this native breed of Wales has become a show dog and a pet. Breeders attempt to outdo each other by breeding the Welsh terrier to have a denser wiry coat and deeper colouration. The Welsh terrier is also a popular pet because it is one of the most easy-going terriers.

The Welsh terrier is a fun loving dog. It just loves to run, chase and play, which makes it a smashing companion and a perfect pet. Welsh terriers require lots of exercise, so be prepared for plenty of walking, if you make your mind up to get one.

It is a good idea to ‘socialize’ your dog as soon as possible. This means that you should introduce your Welsh terrier puppy to children and other dogs at an early age. The more you encourage your dog to play with other dogs as a puppy, the less trouble you will have with your dog fighting or barking at other dogs and cats. It’s the same story with children. Children can play very roughly, and a dog could be forgiven for biting back, but it can be avoided by introducing your Welsh terrier puppy to children while it is still young. The child might learn respect, but the dog will learn forbearance.

The Welsh terrier is easily trained, if you like your dog to do tricks. it is an intelligent breed and, being former hunters, they are good at learning commands and tricks. Train your Welsh terrier with kindness and reiteration. They like to retrieve sticks and play with a ball. Many people train their Welsh terriers to catch a flying Frisbee too.

A Welsh terrier will groom himself quite meticulously, but you can help out by brushing him once a week in order to remove the dead and loose hair. This will also help cut down the amount of hairs dropping inside your house, although terriers in general, and wire-haired dogs in particular do not shed as much hair as soft coated dogs. You could also lend a hand by wiping him over with a moist cloth from time to time in order to pick up any dust on his coat.

A Welsh terrier is very active and very curious, so it is prudent to keep your dog in a yard that has been fenced off. However, the fence needs to be realistically high, because the Welsh terrier has an exceptional ability to jump due to its long legs.

The Welsh terrier is Britain’s oldest breed of dog, but it is now under pressure. The British kennel club registers only 300 Welsh terrier puppies a year, whereas it registers tens of thousands of puppies of other, more popular, breeds. The Welsh terrier is a strong-willed animal, so it does need a strong-willed and patient owner.

However. if you want a Welsh terrier and you persevere with it, you will never look back. They have a lot to give and, as with so many things in life, you only get out what you are willing to put in.

If you are interested in Welsh corgi puppies, or Wales in general, visit our website at Welsh Products Online

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Destroying Colonies Of Carpenter Ants

By on August 2nd, 2010

There are over 1,000 species of carpenter ants. The majority of of them are large, between a quarter of an inch and an inch long, and black, although there are red ones as well. There are even a few sorts in South East Asia which will explode if threatened, squirting a sticky substance out through their heads which immobilizes the attackers. The exploding carpenter ant dies.

Carpenter ants are said to do a lot of damage to timber, as they gnaw their way up the middle through its length. However, this is a popular myth, unlike termites, carpenters do not eat wood, they gnaw their way through it to get somewhere. They spit the chewed wood out. This is called frass and it can often be seen in heaps like sawdust. It is a good sign that carpenters are active in or around your house.

Carpenter ants like to travel through the length of damp or rotten dead timber in much the same manner as termites do although they do not consume the timber. Carpenters feed on dead insects, dead animals and honeydew from aphids and scale insects outside the home, but if they come inside your home they will be looking for dropped or uncovered food, especially anything sweet and sugary. Therefore, hygiene is an important factor in clearing carpenters out of your home.

These ants will walk up to a hundred yards while foraging, but they like to be near a recurring supply of food. A characteristic of carpenter ant colonies is that they may build satellite nests away from their main colony. This is often why they enter a home.

If they regularly find spilled food in the kitchen, they may make a nest in the wall to take advantage of it, especially if the window or door frame is a little rotten. Inside the home, they will probably nest in a cavity wall, outside the home they like to construct nests in decaying tree stumps.

It is no good spraying carpenter ants with insecticide if you want to get rid of them – particularly if you kill large numbers of them. This may seem odd, but the reason is that the colony will miss these workers and so the queen will increase her production of eggs to compensate it. If she over compensates, you are in a worse position that you were before spraying.

The only way to wipe out a nest of carpenter ants is to destroy the queen and the entire colony with poison. This is not difficult although it does take a bit of investigative work. Carpenters are most active between twilight and midnight, so put out honey on glass or sticky tape where they are active and follow them when they take it home.

Do not forget, they may have a number of nests in their colony. If you have to have light, wrap red cellophane over a normal flashlight, because ants can not perceive red light. When you have discovered their nests, put poison down outside each nest as indicated on the label. Do this for several days consecutively until you do not see anymore carpenter ants. If you are still getting them, you have missed a nest.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on quite a few subjects, but is currently involved with Getting Rid Of Carpenter Ants. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Killing Carpenter Ants.

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Why You Should Keep Your Koi Pond Clean

By on July 19th, 2010

The primary concern of any koi pond keeper, indeed of any fish pond keeper, it to preserve the pond water at a high level of hygiene. This basically means that you have to keep the nitrate and ammonia levels down. However, the fish will not help in this endeavour, and nor can they, since they live and defecate in their surroundings, the water. You can accurately say that the live in their own toilet bowl.

Therefore, it is up to you, as their benefactor, to keep their water as clean as possible. This is actually not so difficult and much or the decontamination process can be automated, leaving you, the owner, to only have to carry out routine, weekly tests.

The first check that you should carry out can be made on a daily basis if not more often, when you give food to your fish, does the water look clear? Is it green? Are there lots of leaves floating around in it? If it is clear enough to see the bottom of the pond, you are probably doing OK, but do not rely on that, wait for the weekly chemical check up.

Never forget that you have created an unnatural environment for your fish to live in. It is nearer to nature that a fish tank, but it is a long way from being a river or a lake. This is why the bigger your pond is, the simpler it will be to maintain, because the closer it will be to the real thing.

The smaller your pond, the more that you will have to depend on water filtration and oxygenation systems to keep the water crystal clear. One way of helping to maintain clear water is not to over feed. Most fish pond owners give far more fish food that the fish have need of.

This results in more excrement and more rotting food on the bottom of the pond. All this excess energy in the water is happily soaked up by algae, which will also suck the oxygen out of the water as it blooms. If you find yourself in this situation, the first thing to do is reduce the amount of feed and clean the sides of the pond of algae. If you do not, the lack of oxygen will stress out your fish and stressed fish are more prone to disease.

Keep the water in your pond circulating as much as you can, as this will reintroduce oxygen into the water that the fish, algae and plants have removed. The typical methods of doing this are to have a fountain, a waterfall and an aerator (or bubbler, like you see in fish tanks).

Another way of dealing with oxygen and algae problems is to not overstock your fish pond. Koi will breed freely, so if you just start your population off with a few fish, you will soon have many more. They know when there are too many of them and they will eat the fry or control the breeding in other ways. If you do all you can to give your fish a good milieu, they will do the rest.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many topics, but is at present concerned with fish pond accessories. If you are interested in a Solar Powered Pond Pump, please go to our web site now for some great deals.

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Caring For Your Fish Pond

By on June 26th, 2010

Do you like the sound of running water? Do you find the sound relaxing? Well, you can easily produce the sound of moving water in your own garden. You can put in a fish pond or a water garden. So, if you think that your garden needs landscaping, it might be a good idea to consider a fish pond or water garden.

People think that a fish pond takes lot of looking after, but that is not inevitably true. The truth is that the larger the fish pond, the less effort you have to put into it. This is because a big pond can create its own ecosystem, whereas a small fish pond needs help.

The ways that you can help a small fish pond be a decent environment for your fish are as follows:

Pond Filters – use a pond filter with a good pump. Do not forget that you could use a solar powered pump. It will save on the environment and on your purse. You should use a pond filter on a small pond, because the ecosystem cannot cope with all the plant waste of a small ornamental pond on its own. A pond pump will feed the filtration system and a waterfall or fountain if you wish.

Your pond filtration system should be left running twenty-four hours a day, but you can not just set it and forget it. Check that the pump is running daily and keep the filter as clean as needed for it to do its job. You may find that you have to clean it two or three times a week in the summer and autumn but only once a week in the winter and spring.

Leaf Netting: stop leaves from clogging up your pond in the autumn. The net should be poised a foot or so above the pond to prevent autumn leaves falling into the water and rotting.

Feeding: all fish should be fed fish food, not bread or scraps. Some fish ought to have specific fish food in order to preserve their colour. When you buy your fish, the salesperson should inform you what they eat. In general, the larger the pond the less trouble feeding becomes as they will eat natural food like insects, grubs, larvae and flies.

Fish need less food in the winter when they become semi-dormant and live off the fat reserves that they built up in the warmer months, so give food often in the summer and autumn, but less often in the winter. You must look to see if surplus food is left floating on the surface.

Winter: make sure that there is a hole in the ice so that the water can take in oxygen and the fish can feed if they wish to. You can buy a floating de-icer or some people float a round football in a hoola-hoop, which seems to work unless the temperature gets very low.

In fact, the hoola-hoop is a good idea all year round really. If you place the food in the hoop, it remains in one place and you can see if you have given too much. It also makes a nice site to see all the fish feeding in a shoal.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is now concerned with water garden pumps. If you are interested in a Solar Powered Pond Pump, please go to our web site right away for some extra special deals.

categories: fish,pond,water,home improvement,family,pets,animals,recreation,equipment,entertainment,outdoors,other,uncategorised,happiness

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Fleas And Other Parasites

By on June 21st, 2010

Fleas and other parasites ought to always be awarded the top priority by dog owners. Flea bite allergy in dogs is all too common and causes worry to many dog owners every year, especially in the summer, although all year round if your dog lives indoors with central heating. This is because flea bites often produce allergic reactions in the area bitten by the fleas, which is very often on the back just above the tail. In these cases, the affected skin becomes red and bald due to the dog’s continuous scratching of itself.

Heavy flea infestations can cause severe dermatitis in dogs, because the dog will scratch and scratch the area until he bleeds and can also introduce infection. If the flea bites cause an allergic reaction or even dermatitis in your dog, he/she really ought to be taken to the veterinary doctor as soon as possible, because usually, the dog will be experiencing extreme discomfort by this time.

The vet will sell you a cream to soothe the itching and reduce the inflammation and some powder or a spray to kill the fleas. Prevention is better than cure and medicated collars are available to treat and prevent an infestation of external parasites like ticks and fleas.

Besides fleas, other parasites like ticks and lice in addition to the internal parasites like hook worms, round worms, whip worms etc. can affect the health of your dog. For instance, if hookworm infects a dog, that dog will usually suffer from anaemia. The signs of anaemia become more evident depending on the degree of infection by the hookworm.

Hookworm larvae will pass directly through the skin into the internal body and cause severe problems inside the infected dog. These dogs may show cuts on their paws and on their skin because of dermatitis. Often, skin rashes result too in these cases and the affected animal may also have diarrhoea, which is flecked with blood.

Nearly all dogs and definitely all puppies will have round worms at some time, which is why dogs can sometimes be seen rubbing their bottoms along the floor. However, if round worms are present in very large numbers, affected puppies show a pot belly, which is easily noticeable by the dog’s owners themselves. This can result in malnutrition and even death. A dose of piperazine salts is given orally for the cure of this problem. However, broad-spectrum anthelmintics like pyrantel pamoate, fenbendazole etc. will also cure this very common condition.

Many drugs have arrived on the market to treat fleas and other parasites, although nowadays, the medical agent called ivermectin seems to be preferred by many dog owners to treat fleas and other parasites in dogs. This drug is available for injection or oral use and is now even available for external application too.

If you are having problems getting rid of fleas on your dog, please follow the ‘fleas’ link, however if you want to read more about dogs, please go here: Man’ Best Friend – the Dog Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service

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Trendy Dog Names

By on June 13th, 2010

Fashion seems to decree everything these days. From what you wear to what you name your dog, everything you do is dictated by the need to be cool. Cute dog names are hard to come by and even harder to choose. This is because no sooner is something in fashion, than it is out again.

Who would want to pick a cool dog name that may not be fashionable next year? So, people tend to play it safe, which is why the same names have been so popular for so long. To try and interrupt that cycle, five cute dog names are listed below with the reasons why you should choose one of them for your dog.

Phoenix: What could be cooler than a bird that goes up in flames and then rises from the ashes? Phoenix is one of the cool dog names that will never go out of fashion because it is rooted in mythology. It has a timeless quality which has surprisingly failed to boost its popularity.

Star: Star is one of the cute dog names because it has so many meanings and connotations that you can struggle to find out where to begin. A star in the sky is a phenomenon and a star can refer to someone that excels in a particular field. It is a high form of praise and thus is definitely a cool dog name.

Lady: Lady is one of the most popular dog names but it is also one of the cool dog names because of the Disney cartoon film, Lady and the Tramp, which was a huge hit. This made the name popular but also gave it some credibility. In this case popularity comes second to coolness.

Elvis: The coolest of cool dog names. Elvis Presley was undoubtedly cool and remains cool today even after his death. It is immeasurably cool to call your dog after such a tremendous star who has never gone out of fashion himself.

Shadow: There is a dark and mysterious quality about Shadow that makes it a cute dog name. It would be used to best effect on a big dog however because it wouldn’t have the same strong effect with a small breed.

Whatever cute dog names you consider for your pooch, it is a certain method of giving your dog an identity of its own and your dog memorable to others.

Does your dog need training? If you need more information on dogs in general, then visit our website entitled Successful Dog Training Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service

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Maintaining The Oxygen Level In Your Pond

By on June 8th, 2010

We all realize that stress kills in the human world, but did you realize that stress kills in the animal kingdom as well? It should not really come as much of a surprise an humans are only intelligent animals anyway. Stress kills animals, as well as fish as certain as it kills us.

However, fish do not pay bills and most of them do not even care about their kids. Some fish even eat their own children, so why does stress build up in a fish?

Well, stress can build up in a fish for many reasons, but the main one is bad environment, which means water that contains a chemical imbalance or a lack of oxygen. Fish can also get stressed, if it does not have anywhere to hide from predators or the sun.

It is straightforward to give your fish somewhere to hide. You can grow plants in tubs or buy floating lilies and you can also create caves of a sort for the fish to go into. A chemical imbalance can be checked with a kit and rectified by following the instructions that came with that testing kit.

Algae can have a huge effect on the amount of oxygen in your pond’s water. During the day, the algae consumes carbon dioxide and produces oxygen – all well and good – but at night the opposite is true and a mass of algae can suck all the oxygen out of your pond water in no time at all.

So you have to control the amount of algae in your pond. And it is no good scraping it off the walls and hoping it will die, because rotting vegetation also uses up oxygen. Surplus algae has to be removed. A rule of thumb to check whether your pond water contains enough oxygen is to watch your fish. If they are frequently gulping air at the surface, then your pond water is oxygen deficient.

Warm water has less capacity to hold water than cool water. Once water temperature reaches 80F or 25C, then you can be fairly certain that your pond water requires mechanical aeration. A fountain or a waterfall may not be enough, but it could be – it depends on the size of your pond, the number of plants, the quantity of fish, the surface area of the pond and the amount of algae.

It is not easy to determine the oxygen content of the water in your pond, but you can keep an eye on the general appearance of your pond and its contents. Algae is bad news, in general, do you have a lot of it? Are your plants, particularly the lilies doing well? Are your fish gasping at the surface? Are they lethargic or lively?

By observing at these indicators you should be able to get a good idea of what is going on in your pond. If you do not have a fountain, install one. Are things any better? If not, install a bubbler. Did that help? If not enough get a better filtration system and let the water run back into your pond via a waterfall. If that does not help, give up and try bee-keeping!

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is now concerned with water garden pumps. If you are interested in a Solar Powered Pond Pump, please go to our web site now for a great deal.

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