In light of the less than positive press RFID tags have been getting in recent months, it’s no surprise to see that the industry is working hard to make them more secure and claw back some public goodwill. The latest patent in the pipeline describes RFIDs that can only be read by special lasers rather than broadcast radio signals. While it’s good news that security issues are being taken seriously, it seems that the necessity of aligning the tags with a laser beam removes the locational convenience that they were designed to offer. And as for more advanced encryption methods, well, I’m going to wait for Schneier‘s word on that.

Hmmmm … those trousers on eBay sure look nice, but how do you know whether the fabric is easy on the skin or more like wearing sandpaper? As things stand now, you have no way of telling, and that’s a gap in our online purchasing lives that needs patching desperately. Fear not, we Europeans are on the case – the HAPTEX project is developing devices that will simulate the tactile feel of textiles over an internet connection. How have we survived without this technology for so long?

Due to its very nature, our sun is a tricky thing to study in detail. Lucky for us that we have the power of advanced technology on our side, this time in the form of Japan’s Hinode satellite. Hinode has been in operation for almost two weeks, using special devices to take pictures of the solar surface. These early images are the equivalent of test runs, taken before the probe begins a full-scale scientific investigation of such mysteries as why the sun’s corona is actually hotter than its surface.

Things aren’t what they once were, you know. In the wake of reports that Google’s advertising revenue has already eclipsed the budget of the UK’s Channel 4 station, people are wondering if this spells the death of the British advert as art. Perhaps they will degenerate into the frantic imploring of their overseas equivalents, or perhaps they will simply migrate onto the internet along with the other content that television provides. Whichever happens, I’m pretty sure that I’ll continue doing a fine job of ignoring them all.