{"id":3265,"date":"2004-09-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2004-09-03T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yfiledev.uit.yorku.ca\/2004\/09\/03\/shopping-made-easy-come-the-smart-tag-revolution\/"},"modified":"2025-04-01T11:50:34","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T15:50:34","slug":"shopping-made-easy-come-the-smart-tag-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/yfile\/2004\/09\/03\/shopping-made-easy-come-the-smart-tag-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"Shopping made easy come the smart-tag revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine filling your shopping cart at Sears, Home Depot or Zellers and then moving to the check-out counter without needing to unload anything, began a Sept. 2 National Post <\/I>article about Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) by Paul Barter<\/B>, vice-president of T4G Limited, a technology services company in Toronto. Instead, the clerk instantly tells you what you owe for everything in the cart, you pay, you receive an itemized list of all the products and then you leave. Sound far fetched? It's not. It's a technology called RFID and it is the biggest thing to hit the retail industry since the bar code 30 years ago, predicted Barter, who graduated in 2003 from the Joint Kellogg-Schulich Executive MBA Program and begins teaching a technology strategy course at Schulich in January.<\/P>
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So what is RFID? A new technology, RFID consists of a tag or label embedded in merchandise with a single computer chip and an itsy-bitsy antenna. Then a radio device connected to a computer system communicates with that tag and \"reads\" all sorts of information like price, size, color, manufacture date, warranty and more. Retailers reduce labour costs and free employees to focus more on customer service, inventory flow, and even emergency shelf-stocking. Improved inventory control also means reduced prices and added selection for shoppers. Shoppers have shorter waits at checkouts and easier warranty service \u2013 because of all the information embedded in the chip.<\/P>
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TSN breeding ground for sports reporters<\/P><\/B>
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The Sports Network turned into a fine developing ground for broadcasters, reported The Toronto Sun<\/EM> and Brockville Recorder and Times <\/I>Sept. 1 in a feature on TSN\u2019s 20th anniversary. Take ESPN\/ABC play-by-play man Mark Jones <\/B>(BA \u201984 in economics), who was a member of the York University basketball team in 1984 when he was interviewed by TSN's Peter Watts. \"I pulled on his jacket after the interview [following his final game] and asked him if there were any opportunities for students,\" Jones said. \"[Watts] told me to call him next week and he hooked me up with [then-TSN producer] Scott Moore. [Within a few] days, I was an editorial assistant.\" With his brother \u2013 Toronto basketball analyst Paul Jones <\/B>(BSc \u201980 in physical education), who started at TSN because he couldn't land a school job after teacher's college \u2013 working alongside him, Mark Jones moved up to Sportsdesk host before taking the ESPN\/ABC gig in 1990.<\/P>
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Beating back mush brain<\/P><\/B>
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Being bilingual can keep you mentally sharp as you age, reported Maclean's<\/I> in a feature on memory in the Sept. 6 issue. \"It's like going to brain gym,\" said Ellen Bialystok<\/B>, a research psychologist with York\u2019s Faculty of Arts. She's now trying to determine whether learning a second language later in life will also tone the mental muscles, and she's optimistic it will. That's because the brain's way of coordinating two or more languages engages different high-end parts at the same time. And it is precisely these parts, she says, \"that tend to slip away with normal healthy aging.\"<\/P>
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On air<\/P>
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