Technology

I've just been reading the latest issue of The Economist, which includes a general review of nifty uses for technology. Along with the usually collection of things which do sound interesting but are not quite ready for prime time -- such as a system from Sun that allows an economics-based methodology, called Tycoon, for the allocation of computer resources -- there are some that grab the eye and make you -- or at least me -- say Damn, thats nifty.

One is a company based in Los Angeles, called Semacode, that allows the use of a two-dimensional bar code on a route sign for a bus to be used to tell when the next bus is coming. The way it works is this: you take a picture of the bar code with your camera phone, call the service, which reads the code (and thus knows where you are), determines when the next bus servicing that location is scheduled to arrive, and sends a message back to you.

Nifty.