Taking things apart for info doesn't work anymore

[tribdog]

I used to be able to take a screwdriver and disassemble household appliances to figure out how they worked. It served me well in the past, but technology has passed me by. I recently bought an XBox (no I didn't take it apart, yet). Inside one of the games there are two anti-theft devices, you know the kind, they set off the alarms if you try to take them out of the store without paying. One of them is a paper thin sticker, about 1 1/2" square. Looks like a printed circuit. the second is a black plastic rectangular box about 2" x .25" x .1" which, when cut open has some thin metal strips inside. How do these things work? I sort of understood the ones that had to be demagnetized by a clerk before you could take it out of the store, but these apparently don't have to be. I'd like to know how they work simply because I don't like not knowing something. If you don't know the answer just give me something that sounds intelligent so I can repeat it and look smart if anyone ever asks me how these things work.

 

[cookiemonster]

Mildly amusing, if not entertaining story:

My mom once tried to check out a DVD from the public library. When she opened it up to throw it into the DVD player, she noticed that there were two nice little magnetic strips slapped on it. They were placed opportunely enough that the DVD would play only 5 minutes before dying a horrible death.

Moral of the story: The local librarians don't know how they work either.

cookiemonster

 

[Guybrush Threepwood]

http://www.aimglobal.org/technologies/rfid/

I just like how you said it