On Nov 27, 2005, at 8:13 AM, Ric Whitney wrote:

>
> Thanks George!
>
> Here's what went through my head while watching it:
>
> Marketing.
> Research & Development
> The mall figuring out who would buy what next and who was just  
> shopping with no
> intention of buying anything.
>
> I obviously skipped 1984, though I've heard of it.
>
> Thanks for the synopsis.
>
> Ric

Interestingly enough, the same thing went through my head for the  
first part of it -- until the system started digging into chemical  
compositions and genetic traits of each individual. Fortunately,  
_that_ kind of technology is a long ways off.

Using RFID tags and other such means to establish buying trends and  
so on is fine -- companies do that much already on a much broader  
scale (there is a reason why Walmart has one of the largest IT  
departments in the nation, and it's /not/ for writing consumer  
software). Using these tools to establish close-quarter genetic and  
medical information, however, crosses the faint line between public  
and private information gathering. After that, it immediately  
reminded me of 1984.

Seeing as this is a Linux-related list, I'm going to tie something in  
here. If you're running Debian (or one of it's derivatives -- I think  
Ubuntu has it in either Universe or Multiverse), try installing the  
scummvm package and then installing beneath-a-steel-sky. The entire  
game revolves around getting out of a city that is under big-brother  
control by a sentient computer system called "LINC" -- much like how  
this movie was watching and "digging" into people in the shopping  
mall. Interestingly enough, the catch-phrase for the game is "Be  
Vigilant".

We now return you to your previously off-topic thread... =op

--
June Tate * june@theonelab.com * http://www.theonelab.com