THG Formulations

RFID is the acknowledged acronym for Radio Frequency IDentification. The core of RFID technology is that every RFID chip or tag is capable of emitting a radio signal on a frequency totally unique to itself.

Therefore, every RFID tag must have its own identifying frequency and the RFID tag readers must be sensitive enough to be able to differentiate between frequencies that are only a very tiny bit different from its neighbouring tags. The disparity can be microscopic.

Therefore, the technology needs to be sensitive and discriminating, but not fragile, because the equipment has to be used on the shop floor and by people who are often in a hurry and in weather that may be inclement.

In order for RFID to have the desired result, you have to have a tag, which is an upmarket kind of bar code and a radio receiver, often called a (tag) reader. However, whereas a bar code can only hold a small quantity of information and the bar code reader has to be pointed at it, an RFID tag can hold much more information and can be read from a hundred yards or more – even out of line of sight.

Passive tags will only reveal their information when required to to by a reader, whereas an active tag is constantly relaying its contents. Clearly, active RFID tags are more costly than passive tags, because they require a long life battery.

These tags can be utilized to track items from the moment they leave the manufacturer of the goods they describe to the in-bay of the vendor. The tags can then be up-dated or replaced and stored in the warehouse. Once there, RFID readers can keep management informed about what goods are where and if the sell-by-date is impending.

This has implications for the levels of stock that a company needs to hold, the quantity of goods sold cheap because the sell-by-date is too near and for theft, all of which should boost company profits more than paying for the cost of the tags, the readers, the printers and the programmes.

At the click of a mouse, bosses will be able to read how much inventory they have in real time and if this is all connected to the checkout cash registers, which are the most and least profitable items. This makes reordering simple . Easy to the point of automation. For example, when supplies of the top ten percent of the best selling products falls below 1,000 order 10,000 more. Automatically, no questions asked.

RFID has many other applications as well. The principle mentioned above can be applied to farm animals, a call centre’s computers, a fleet of commercial vehicles, an record of domestic items, your pets, your car and even your garden furniture. Some people who work over a boundary are even having them put under their skin so that they do not have to wait at customs.

And do not forget that criminals on early discharge are also tagged. It is the same technology.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on quite a few topics, but is now concerned with the RFID asset management. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Active RFID Management.

How does one go about taking care of one’s assets – one’s worldly belongings? Well, the majority of people keep their money in a bank, put the jewellery in a strongbox and insure the remainder. But insurance is not really taking care of your possessions, is it? It is taking care of yourself so that you do not have replace them with your own money.

In the old days, and even now, I presume in some places, you would employ a boy to watch over your sheep or cattle or bring them in at night for fear of big cats, wolves or rustlers. These were an early kind of security guard and indeed rich people had and frequently still do have personal body guards.

What if you had a substantial office with a hundred laptop computers – laptops because people had to do field work too? How would you keep track on all those? A car is another good case in point and construction site machinery is being stolen all the time even from under the watchful gaze of (or with the compliance of) private security companies.

So what can you do? Get dogs? That works sometimes, but they can be poisoned. Get video cameras and passive infra-red motion sensors linked to a control centre? That works and a lot of firms and private houses have it, but it is very costly.

As a cheap alternative, the police were giving out free pens in the UK, which wrote in invisible ink. The idea was to write your postcode and house number. This ink became visible under a special kind of light. That is fine if you have a suspect or found property.

Bar codes are not realistic, the pen is better. It all comes back to insurance or surveillance.

However, there is another technique that is becoming affordable. The concept has been around for about 85 years, but it was too expensive to use on anything less significant than an airplane or a battle tank.

I am talking about radio frequency identification or RFID for short. The idea is the same one that aircraft have been using since during the Second World War – a transponder emits precoded information in answer to a request from an RF reader.

Information regarding ownership and details of what the item is can be written to an RFID chip also known as a tag and the tag can then be glued inside the item that it is to protect.

There are two varieties of tag: the passive and the active. Passive tags will only respond if information is requested by a reader, whereas an active tag is always broadcasting.

Many business people use RFID tagging to keep track of their assets. In the instance of farm animals, most cattle are tagged these days. Most large offices have their IT goods tagged as well and we all know that fashion stores have been tagging clothes for years, although maybe you did not know what that button was that they were taking off at the till.

People are already tagging their dogs, cats and cars and it will not be long before these asset management techniques will be used extensively at home too. Insurance companies may demand on it.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on quite a few topics, but is currently concerned with the RFID asset management. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Active RFID Management.

It seems that there has been a decline in consumer faith in the building and construction industry recently. This may be because of the scams shown on television or the bribery and corruption endemic in the corporate sector, but it is almost certainly the same reason why so many are now doing home improvements by themselves.

And why shouldn’t they? A little knowledge of the technical aspects combined with an eye for creativity is often enough to complete the home improvement on your own.

Why are people turning to DIY home improvements?

There are many individuals trying to pass themselves off as construction workers, although they do not have a lot of expertise in construction or home maintenance and they are literally are out there right now practising, learning their trades on homes like yours and mine across the country.

As a result, homeowners are finding that the jobs are not being finished to their liking. At times they are even pre-paying for services that do not get done or were not part of the arrangement.

You do not have to trust and pay someone to enhance your home. Why not have a go yourself?

You can augment your home?s existing concrete surfaces using acid stains, acrylic paints, epoxy paints, and scoring techniques.

If you are tired of looking at drab gray concrete, there are some simple projects if you are serious about having a go at home improvement DIY, you can easily give your patio, driveway or garage a refreshing new look.

Attractive concrete work costs about double that of standard concrete, which is why many people cannot afford it.

However, there are cheaper methods to embellish concrete after it has cured, without having to pay skilled tradesmen.

Acid-based concrete stains are becoming more and more popular for coloring concrete surfaces. They chemically react with the cement to generate permanent color with a variegated or mottled appearance like that of marble. This results in a natural, stylish looking surface.

Water-based concrete stains are an alternative to acid stains but are much more user friendly because they are so much less dangerous. These stains do not chemically react with the concrete; they are absorbed into the porous surface and act like a dye. The big benefit of water based stains is the wide choice of colors available.

If you want to venture beyond the basic staining of your concrete, consider using some scoring techniques to create patterns on the surface.

You can make your concrete resemble a tiled floor for example. It is just up to your imagination. A mini angle grinder with a 4 inch cutting wheel is the perfect tool for this.

The important thing to bear in mind when scoring is to trace out the pattern on the concrete first and make sure you are satisfied with the way it looks because scoring is permanent.

Epoxy paints make an excellent coating for garage floors and basement floors. Many industrial floors have epoxy coatings because of their durability and resistance to chemical spills as well as their appearance.

In recent years, however, it has become very popular for residential use with the availability of an growing number of different colors. This is not a complicated job, but the key to successful application is surface preparation.

Epoxy paints have also become available in a water based form making it safe for the DIY’er and perfect for indoor jobs. They cost a little more than stains. For a 400 square foot area, you’ll spend about $200 for the materials required for this project.

You see? You do not have to spend big money to improve your home. You have the capacity to do it yourself. With some instructions and a little bit of work, anyone can turn dull concrete into a masterpiece of their own.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on several subjects, but is currently involved with Flowtron Bug Zapper devices. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Indoor Bug Zapper

Some of the commonest bugs we encounter indoors all over the world are flies, spiders, fleas and beetles. Nobody likes to have a bug in the house, so most people will go to almost any extremes to eradicate these common indoor bugs. The less common indoor bugs may be woodlice, earwigs, scorpions and millipedes or centipedes, although they are not less wanted.

It does not matter where you are in the world, it is very difficult to keep these common indoor bugs outside, unless you go to the extremes of keeping all your windows and doors closed all of the time, which is quite impossible. I now stay in Thailand and I know for certain that this is not possible.

So, just what can you do about it? Well, let’s sort out all the flying insects first, because of all the common indoor bugs, I think they are the most unpleasant indoor bug. They are very irritating, buzzing around your head and mosquitoes and other flies can produce painful sores and besides that, all flies carry disease. I cannot bear to see them strutting about on food, knowing that they have probably just come off some dung heap somewhere and now they are spitting on my food to taste it with their dirty feet!

My first line of defence is fine-mesh door and widow screens. They are not dear and can be fitted retrospectively to any window. My window meshes slide, so they can cover only one half of a window at a time, but I do not find that a problem. You can still set up cross-winds, by opening two or more windows at opposite ends of a room. I just love to see the flies on the mesh trying to get in by day and the mosquitoes doing the same by night. At night, it is wise to burn as little light indoors as possible in order not to draw these common indoor bugs.

My second line of defence is natural predators – lizards, like Geckos (Jin Jok, in Thai). Some people don’t like them in the house either and I can’t say that I’m all that keen on them indoors myself, but they are difficult to keep out and they do eat hundreds, if not thousands, of indoor bugs every day. I particularly like to see them lying in wait on the outside of the mesh, ready to jump on any bug trying to wriggle its way through the wires.

My third line of defence is an indoor bug zapper. You know, the electric, handheld bug zapper that looks like a toy tennis racquet. They are fantastic at catching and annihilating any flying indoor bug. The inset literally explodes and vaporizes on contact with the fully-charged wires of the indoor bug zapper. If you haven’t tried using one, you really ought to. They are most gratifying. These three defences keep our house pretty much free of flying insects.

The creeping common indoor bugs are less of a problem really. Door screens on springs will keep 95% of them out and the Geckos will help too. Spiders can get in fairly easily, but then, I don’t mind them too much as long as they keep out of my way, as they consume other insects too. They are on our side to be honest. However, for those who can not bear to catch them and throw them outside, the handheld indoor bug zapper works well on spiders too.

Fleas can sometimes be a problem, if you have cats or dogs, but then if you wash or dust the animal once a month, you should be able to keep these common indoor bugs under control quite easily. However, there are two final measures that we employ. Once a week, before we go out for the day, we spray every room with fly killer and every six-months we spray any rugs or carpets with an insect killer containing permethrin, which will survive washing and vacuuming for that long without losing its ability to kill common indoor bugs on contact. If you stick with these methods, you should be able to keep your home or office quite free of the most common indoor bugs and the less common indoor bug as well.

Have you ever heard of an indoor bug zapper? If you haven’t, or if you want to get an indoor bug zapper, please click one of the hyperlinks to our web site or blog. This article, Stopping Common Indoor Bugs has free reprint rights.

I don’t know whether you have ever used a handheld, indoor bug zapper, but I think that they are marvelous. I?m talking about the handheld type that looks like a child’s plastic, toy tennis racquet. They come in two basic kinds. I prefer the rechargeable bug zapper, because batteries end up up costing more than the indoor bug zapper itself, although you could always buy rechargeable batteries, but then they are dear as well.

My wife and I like to spend time in the garden. We meet friends there, dine there and in general loaf about outdoors, as do most folks around here, when they are not working. Besides, it’s far cooler outside than indoors. A comfy chair, some snacks, a cool drink and a book or a friend and life does not get much better. In fact, it?s idyllic.

That is until about six or seven o’clock when the first squadron of mosquitoes have judged that the sun’s rays have lost enough strength that they will not evaporate and they come out looking for blood. Some evenings are worse than others, of course. Normally, the mosquitoes are pretty bearable, especially seeing as I have discovered the indoor bug zapper. (I don’t know why it is called an ‘indoor bug zapper’, it is equally as effective outdoors as in).

It’s not that I like to kill things, but I find it difficult to have consideration for mosquitoes. Nevertheless, I do get a definite amount of pleasure from seeing and hearing mosquitoes and other bugs literally explode with a flash and a spark as they come into contact with the charged and earth wires of the indoor bug zapper. These electric bug zappers can pack quite a charge, particularly if the batteries are new or the pack is fully charged.

The other day, I discovered a novel use for my handheld, indoor bug zapper. I’ll tell you how it came about. I was in the garden, as usual, and my bug zapper was close at hand as the first squadron of mosquitoes was due. I had my book in one hand and the bug zapper on my knees, when my wife asked me to go to the shop for her. No problem, so, I set off on the five minute walk.

I was half-way there when I realized that I had the indoor bug zapper in my hand, but it was not worth taking it home and starting the trip again. Anyhow, on my return journey, I had my small bag of provisions in one hand and the indoor bug zapper in the other, when a local tyrant of a dog came running out of a garden right for me. This has occurred often and, although he has never bitten me yet, it is very scary. He stood there glaring at me with teeth bared and his ‘pack’ of sundry neighborhood pals came out to surround me and join in.

I don’t honestly know what the best tactic is in this position. I have tried standing my position, but the threat just goes on and I have tried to keep walking, but he gets worryingly nearby on occasion. This time, I unexpectedly lashed out with the indoor bug zapper and just hit him on the snout. Well, I’m not sure if it hurt him, it did not seem to too much, but it gave him a very nasty shock in more ways than one, I can tell you! He leapt about four feet into the air as if he were on a pogo stick and then fled for all he was worth with all his friends behind him. It was very satisfying after six months of aggravation from this dog.

Anyway, I don’t take my indoor bug zapper all over the place with me, but I will in future, if any other local dogs bother me. I know it works a treat. I have seen that one since, but he stays far away from me and doesn’t utter a peep. I believe I would take my indoor bug zapper with me, if I were roaming in an unknown part of town or the park though.

Have you ever heard of an indoor bug zapper? If not, or if you are interested in getting an indoor bug zapper, please click one of the links to our website or blog.