While we are nosing around this subject here's an outfit which provides dognose identification kits (think fingerprints...but cold and wet): Dognose ID.
Or you can get the high tech microchip pet ids. Have you seen Mobile speedpasses or those easy-pay toll smart tags? Same technology is used for the pet ids. They can be put practically anywhere. In fact they could (or have!) put one inside of you. It's called RFID technology. It's a very small circuit which obtains power wirelessly from the device trying to read it. The earliest versions simply had some form of unique ID that was sent out whenever a reading device was close enough to provide power. Newer ones can accumulate information and even perform limited processing. You can pick up a complete eval kit for about 0 and make your own home monitoring system.
comment?
permanent link
email thisA counterpoint from Joel on Software.
From the don't quit your day job department comes a picture of my latest goat cheese making efforts.
We have neighbors with ample supplies of goat milk which I've been turning into cheese for the last six months. So far I make a pretty good Chevre, but anything more complicated runs into problems.
These little blue buttons should look more like this Crottin de Chavignol. Something about the not-so-sophisticated dorm-room fridge aging mechanism doesn't quite duplicate the proper aging environment for the cheeses to find themselves. Instead they are found by the typical dorm-room fridge green-blue fuzz.
The operation was a success! Smudge, three legged cat of some dozen years, was surgically grafted onto Zeke, three fanged dog of some ten years. Scientists are still unsure as to which personality will dominate as the subjects refuse to leave the couch.