a)Discuss the concept of RFID and how it work.
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is the use of an object (typically referred to as an RFID tag) applied to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person for the purpose of identification and tracking using radio waves. Some tags can be read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader. Radio-frequency identification comprises interrogators, also known as readers, and tags, also known as labels.
Most RFID tags contain at least two parts. One is an integrated circuit for storing and processing information, modulating and demodulating a radio-frequency (RF) signal, and other specialized functions. The second is an antenna for receiving and transmitting the signal. There are generally three types of RFID tags: active RFID tags, which contain a battery and can transmit signals autonomously, passive RFID tags, which have no battery and require an external source to provoke signal transmission, and battery assisted passive (BAP) which require an external source to wake up but have significant higher forward link capability providing great read range.
b) How would you feel if your university used RFID tags embedded in your student IDs to replace the magnetic "swipe" strip? On a campus, RFID tags might be used to control building access, manage computer access, or even automatically track class attendance.
If UUM use RFID tags to replace the magnetic “swipe” strip, I would feel very happy. This is because, RFID is a very popular technology nowadays. It is very accurate, quick and easy to be applied in all kind of buildings or access.
The RFID can be applied to all the buildings in UUM in order to control building access. It will help the university to control lots of things that might happen. For example, the usage of RFID might reduce the possibility of losing valuable assets in that building. This is because, the RFID can trace the people who can enter the building. So that, the percentage of being stolen can be reduced.
Using the RFID in computer access of the university is also a brilliant idea. It is because, the technology that being use today is kind of outdated. When it comes to add drop subject week, the management of the university is becoming totally slow and hectic. By using RFID, I think it will help the university to manage the computer access better than before. Students also can access to the university portal easier. By using RFID in computer access, I think that the university data will not be hacked by the irresponsible hacker. This is because, the RFID can trace the user of the university portal even though they are far away. So I guess, there’s no one would dare to do that.
For the class attendance, I think it is also good for the university. The university management can trace the students who come late or absent that day. RFID is a high technology, so that, I think it might help the university in order to improve the university system. The old system (magnetic swipe) often create a problem to the students. Sometimes it doesn’t recognize the smart card. Sometimes it broke and sometimes, it cannot trace the student id. By using RFID, I hope it will help the lecturer to know whether the students are coming or not to the class.
Not only building access, computer access and class attendance, RFID is also can be used in many other things such as bus system, ATM card, telephone card or even an access to the student’s room. But sometimes, it is also can be misused. People might be stalked by using RFID. However, the benefits that it will bring to the university are something that should be considered.
OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE
a)What is the concept and characteristic of open source software?
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software for which the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that meets the Open Source Definition or that is in the public domain. This permits users to use, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified forms. It is very often developed in a public, collaborative manner. Open-source software is the most prominent example of open-source development and often compared to user-generated content. The term open-source software originated as part of a marketing campaign for free software. A report by Standish Group states that adoption of open-source software models has resulted in savings of about $60 billion per year to consumers.
As it stands today, open-source licensing is defined by the following characteristics:
The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources.
The program must include source code and must allow distribution in source code, as well as compiled form.
The license must allow modifications and derived works and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.
The license may restrict source code from being distributed in modified form only if the license allows the distribution of patch files with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at build time.
The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.
The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor.
The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.
The license must not be specific to a product.
The license must not contaminate other software by placing restrictions on any software distributed along with the licensed software.
b)Give the example and the function of THREE open source software available in the market.
Mozilla Firefox- the Mozilla Firefox is the free internet browser. It can be downloaded as free of charge by anyone. It is an application designed to support navigation through the point-and click hyperlinked resources of the World Wide Web and the rest of the Internet, as well as corporate intranets and extranets.
OpenOffice.org 2- this product, built under the open-source standards described above, is a complete integrated office suites that provides all the common applications including word processing, spread sheet, presentation graphics and database management it can store and retrieve files in a wide variety of data formats, including all of the file formats associated with the other major office suites applications on the market. It can be downloaded and used entirely free of any license fees. It is released under the LGPL license.
Photoscape- A free software that widely used in editing pictures. It can be downloaded from the website as free of charge. U can download it as many as we want in any computers. Photoscape give the editor the ideas to edit the pictures. Picture will be very nice when we use this software.
c)Give your opinion about the future trend and potential of open source software in Malaysia.
In my opinion, the future trend and potential of open source software in Malaysia is very
bright. Many companies will invest in internet business. Not only that, in the future, many people/company will be using the internet as the main source to get information and at the same time, they will promote their brand via internet.
To make their brand recognized easily world wide, the company can provide any of their software as free of charge. They can advertise their brand world wide using the software. People all around the world will love it and it will make their brand popular.
Nowadays, the internet user in Malaysia has reached over 5 millions user. Many people are using the internet as a medium to communicate. For example, Facebook is a very popular social networking. Over 1 million of Malaysians are using Facebook. Individual or group of any company can grab a chance to compete with international OSS provider. We can create new software for the Facebook user, for example open source software about games. As we know, Facebook users are not only into social networking, but they are also crazy about the games. If we can create a new software, then we are going to advertise our brand all over the world because Facebook is the most popular social networking in the world nowadays.
For example, I love playing Vampire Wars in Facebook. To play this game, I need lots of energy to complete the mission in a short time. But, I always run out of energy. To continue the game, I have to wait at least 24 hours to make sure the energy refilled to the maximum. But one day, I found a software (3Erinyes) which will give me lots of energy in just 2 minutes. I was so happy and I can play the game until now. In the software, i found that the creator not only giving us the energy, but they also advertise their stuff. They have over 20 million people visit their sites everyday. They can advertise their brand easily and make lots of profits.
In my opinion, if we have such a creator like that, we can promote our country as an IT country to the world. We can prove that we also has lots of internet geniuses. Other than that, I am sure that Malaysia is highly able to develop open source software because Malaysia is a developing country and our Prime Minister is fully support the development in Internet and computerization. Malaysia has a lot of opportunities in this arena, it’s just us to decide and move on.
