Or online-shopping sites with real-time inventory synchronization, or real-time banking and investment systems, or thousands of other examples of the new face of the new data warehouse: always on, open to as many as possible, blindingly fast, and increasingly designed for the consumer as much as for the hard-core data junkie.
Linen Technology Tracking, a Miami-based company, recently patented a radio-frequency identification chip designed to keep real-time inventory of frequently misplaced or stolen goods.