A group of academics and business executives is planning to introduce next month a next-generation bar code system, which could someday replace with a microchip the series of black vertical lines found on most merchandise. The so-called EPC Network, which has been under development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for nearly five years, will make its debut in Chicago on Sept. 15, at the EPC Symposium. At that event, MIT researchers, executives from some of the largest global companies, and U.S. government officials intend to discuss their plans for the EPC Network and invite others to join the conversation.
The attendee list for the conference reads like a who's who of the Fortune 500: Colgate-Palmolive, General Mills, GlaxoSmithKline, Heinz, J.C. Penney, Kraft Foods, Nestle, PepsiCo and Sara Lee, among others. An official from the Pentagon is scheduled to speak, along with executives from Gillette, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble and United Parcel Service. "I see this (event) as a formal marker that is pretty key," to the development of these next-generation systems, said Pete Abell, analyst at the ePC Group, a research firm tracking the technology. EPC stands for electronic product code, which is the new product numbering scheme that's at the heart of the system.
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News source: C|Net
The attendee list for the conference reads like a who's who of the Fortune 500: Colgate-Palmolive, General Mills, GlaxoSmithKline, Heinz, J.C. Penney, Kraft Foods, Nestle, PepsiCo and Sara Lee, among others. An official from the Pentagon is scheduled to speak, along with executives from Gillette, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble and United Parcel Service. "I see this (event) as a formal marker that is pretty key," to the development of these next-generation systems, said Pete Abell, analyst at the ePC Group, a research firm tracking the technology. EPC stands for electronic product code, which is the new product numbering scheme that's at the heart of the system.
View: Complete article News source: C|Net
Compatibility - Packages and patches authored for MSI 2.0 are fully supported on the MSI 3.0 engine. By just installing MSI 3.0 users will be able to benefit from its many servicing improvements. MSI 3.0 patches have additional data tables which are necessary to completely exploit the new features. It is important to note that MSI3.0 patches can be installed by MSI 2.0 – the engine will just ignore the new tables and the associated functionality.
Patch Removal – MSI 3.0 provides native support to remove small and minor updates (patches). Any patch installed by the MSI 3.0 engine is eligible for removal. The removal of a patch is the functional equivalent of never installing the patch. The state (files, regkeys, etc…) of the product when a patch (or patches) is installed and removed is identical to its state where the patch (or patches) was never installed. Patches can be removed in any order. Patches are removed using the command line or the calling the MsiRemovePatches API.
Sequencing – The new MSI 3.0 patch sequence table enables authors to provide explicit instructions for the order in which updates should be applied on target machines. Updates will be applied to target products in a consistent and predictable order regardless of the order in which they are physically provided to the target machine. By adding the patch sequence table authors can reliably update un-versioned files. Patches without the sequence table will be applied in the order in which they are provided to the engine.
Performance – Patches installed with the MSI 3.0 engine will take substantially less time to apply as compared to previous versions. Patching no longer implies a full product reinstall, so the engine does not have to examine all product files during patching operations. MSI 3.0 makes a distinction between product repair and patching and will use a lighter weight reinstall mechanism that only updates the files affected by a patch. MSI 3.0 also reduces needless file copies during patch application to further speed up patching.
Source List API – MSI 3.0 provides significant enhancements for system administrators to manage the list of sources for products and patches. New APIs will enable full static management of the product sources including network, URL and Media sources and enable access to read, edit and replace the MSI source lists from an external process.
Multiple Patching - MSI 3.0 allows more than one patch to be installed (or removed) in a single installation transaction with integrated progress, rollback, and reboot behavior. Patches installed together in a single transaction can still be uninstalled individually. If one patch in the set obsoletes, supersedes, or touches the same files as other patches in the set, MSI will take this into account. MSI 2.0 patches are fully supported, and there are no additional authoring requirements to enable this functionality.
Inventory APIs – MSI3.0 supports rich product, feature, component and patch inventory queries. Privileged accounts can use the new inventory APIs to enumerate across user and install contexts.
Funny that Coke was mentioned inthe article... as Pepsi as already tested this (or something very similar). I've seen 2 tests.... one was them putting some outdated product on the shelf, and simply aiming the handheld computer at the shelf the display indicated how many products were outdated, and even which products were within 2 weeks of being outdated, so they could be rotated to the fron tof the shelf.
The other demonstration was similar, in that you simply aimed the computer at the shelf, and the computer talleyed up exactly to the case, how much was sold since the last order, and auto-suggested an order in for the needed product...... in the test, the reading of the shelf took 10min to completely register all the data and write the order, but obviously is was just a test.... speed it up a little bit and the Pepsi rep saves about 15-30minutes in each store from not having to write an order.... which is a huge boost in productivity.
Again, cool technology if used correctly
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