posted 04-01-2001 07:42 AM            

The article will be online in two weeks if you wish to read it. I have the mag and the article is prett good, but it is short and for those of us who have looked into Echelon, there is not much new information.

Brent

posted 04-01-2001 02:13 PM            

btw, here are a couple of tidbits........

PENN VALLEY, Pennsylvania (AP) -- The tiny ridges on a student's index finger could soon make school lunch money and lunch-line bullies a thing of the past.

A fingerprint identification program used in three Pennsylvania school districts allows pupils to pay for chicken nuggets, sloppy Joes, pizza and other cafeteria delicacies without ever carrying cash.

"It's certainly a lot faster," said Linda Kelly, cafeteria manager at Welsh Valley Middle School in this Philadelphia suburb.

Students place their index fingers on small scanners, and a template matches them with their electronic print. The program plots 27 points on a grid that correspond with the fingerprint's ridges.

The fingerprint image is discarded, and the points are assigned numbers. According to the system's manufacturers, only the numbers are retained and those cannot be reinterpreted into a fingerprint image.

"Both parents and students can rest assured that the fingerprint images cannot be used by law enforcement for identification purposes," says the Web site of Food Service Solutions Inc., the Altoona company that installed the system. "Only a mathematical algorithm remains in the system after registration -- not fingerprint images."

http://europe.cnn.com/2001/fyi/teachers.ednews/01/26/lunchtime.fingerprints.ap/index.html

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Fingerprint May Soon Be Needed to Buy Groceries
David M. Bresnahan
Saturday, March 31, 2001
The day will come when you put your finger on a scanning device to prove who you are before you engage in transactions at retail stores, ATMs, banks and even when you buy groceries. One company making such a device is engaged in a pilot project with the nation’s largest grocery chain.
Biometric Access Corp. has teamed up with four Kroeger stores in the Houston area to test a point-of-sale finger scanning device for retail transactions. The pilot project has been under way for just over a year and is working well, even though some customers don’t like it, according to Kroger spokesman Gary Huddleston.

The Kroeger stores are using the device to provide positive identification for payroll check cashing, not for actual sales. Huddleston says customer acceptance is one of the challenges that must be overcome if the device is to be used for all transactions.

"Many customers have seen the value of the security in the system. The finger image is positive identification,” Huddleston told NewsMax.com in a phone interview. He said a personal identification number was not very secure.

Will the finger image scanner become common in all retail stores in the future?

"I’m sure it will,” said Huddleston. "Customer acceptance is one challenge, and cost is the other challenge. As soon as we overcome those.”

Use of the finger image for check cashing at the four pilot Kroger stores is optional, but Huddleston said most customers use it once they understand how it works and that they can get their check cashed faster if they submit to the finger image scan

The finger image scanner can easily be used for all point-of-sale transactions, including the use of checks, credit cards, and debit cards, according to Biometric Access Corp. spokesman Hal Jennings. The system is also used for computer security and for clocking workers in and out of work, replacing old-fashioned time cards.

The use of finger image scans is hailed by some and highly criticized by others. (MORE AT LINK)
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/3/30/172528.shtml

posted 04-02-2001 12:05 PM            

REVELATION 13:11, 16 ,17
Then I saw another beast...
He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. [NIV translation]

While one student at Welsh Valley Middle School in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania, buys a school lunch the traditional way, left, another pays by using a machine that reads fingerprints