Probably someone reading this article is right now thinking up the killer app for RFID, the one that drives it into the mainstream. In 20 years we'll look back and say, "Hey, remember in 2004 we thought RFID was going to be used for inventory management? Wasn't that silly of us?" But that won't happen if RFID is strangled by government regulation before it's born. . . .
I love the history of technology, so bear with me if I take a while to get to the point:

In February, 1976, Sony introduced the first Betamax VCR in the United States. Sony believed that consumers would buy the technology to record TV shows and watch them later, a practice which later came to be called "time-shifting." Sony advertised: "Now you don't have to miss 'Kojak' because you're watching 'Columbo' (or vice versa)." (Who loves ya, baby?)

But VCR sales malingered until a couple of entrepreneurs had the insight that consumers didn't want so much to record tapes as play pre-recorded ones. Magnetic Video started selling videocassettes mail-order, and, in December 1977, the first video rental store, The Video Station, opened in Los Angeles. VCR sales got another boost when Jane Fonda released "The Jane Fonda Workout" in 1982, leading to a rush in exercise videos.

Around the same time, the first consumer PCs were being introduced. Advocates said one of the chief uses would be to store recipes. Indeed, one of the very first consumer PCs was the Honeywell Kitchen Computer, introduced way back in 1966, designed to store recipes. It required two weeks of programming and cost $10,000. I can't be sure of this, but I believe that its target market was the extremely wealthy (and stupid).

My point: Very often, when technologies are introduced, we have absolutely no idea how they'll be used. We're utterly ignorant. We're completely clueless. We stumble around for years, thinking this "hammer" thing would be great for putting on top of paper to keep it from blowing away, and only later does it occur to someone that, you know, I bet you could drive a nail with this thing.

The link for this article located at securitypipeline.com is no longer available.