Top Tag Pet ID USB thumb drive
By Evan Blass 
posted Dec 26th 2005 1:30PM
posted Dec 26th 2005 1:30PM
We were all ready to start harshing on the
Top Tag Pet ID--a USB thumb drive that contains vital info about your pet--because it seems pretty silly to assume that
a lost animal's rescuer would know what the hell to do with that small piece of plastic dangling from Tinkerbelle's
collar. Upon further consideration, however, the Top Tag does indeed seem to have some legitimate uses, as long as it's
supplemented with an old-fashioned engraved ID tag for the computer illiterate. Besides basic identification info, the
Top Tag also stores diet, behavior, command, medical, and burial instructions, which can be viewed and edited on any
Windows 2000-or-later PC. So if you needed to, say, bring your dog to a new vet while on vacation, the doc could easily
use the Top Tag to see his/her medical history, and even view pictures of him/her in different stages of life. The only
caveat here is that you gotta keep Top Tag-enabled pets from swimming in the ocean: fresh water shouldn't do any
damage, but salt water can totally own this device.
Sweet! I wish I knew about this before I made my Christmas List!
That's actually a pretty sweet idea! I myself consider my dog as one of the family, and considering her penchant for "exploring" (i.e. Getting lost once she bolts out the gate) this would be pretty smart. That and being a Chow Chow, her medical history is hideously long, so it's also a good idea for the vet.
Looks like a belated Christmas gift for Chairman Mao the Chow Chow
My dog's embroidered collar works just fine. It has his name and our phone number. Oh, and when we went down the shore, it still worked!
Finally! A simple and easy way to carry data over enemy lines! Who would ever expect that a cute puppy would be carrying the latest troop movements!
Also, all of our pets have the rfid HomeAgain chip inbetween their shoulders (as well as an atiquated tag with the same number) - the HomeAgain company keeps those same exact records.
Great idea, and a new way to share files! Just imagine... "I'm sending over Spot with the new Franz Ferdinand." :)
do 'Top Tag' include a rootkit that can autorun as soon as someone inserts the USB thumb drive?
Now THAT'S a pet tracking idea that I agree with! Very nice.
Wouldn't it just be better to do the subdermal id tags? Every animal rescuer knows about them, and they work on cats too.
We had all of our pets "chipped", it was cheap and easy.
I also agree with No 7.
My mum is a vet and they use the implant tags that carry all sorts of information and vets usually scan unknown animals to check that they are not stolen.
The latest implants can also do temp and some blood analasys - with a simple scan the vet gets all sorts of info which saves loads of time.
DOGS??? I know of a couple human "cubs" who could benefit from this!!!
Just an FYI for the lo-jack subdermal fans - we chipped all of our animals as well, but not all vets (and, unfortunately, not all shelters/animal control facilities/etc) bother to scan the animals. (Or they wave the wand too far away, too fast, turned off, or otherwise poorly and it fails to trigger.)
Anything that increases the chances of someone actually viewing the info is a good thing in my book.
Pets carrying information - sounds terribly 007 to me, although we had all our pets chipped... and there is a web site in Singapor that allows vets to look up the pets straight away... and a lot of awareness. Fortunately they ain't that afraid of that fandangled technology here! I didn't know there were tags that did the temp and blood analysis though - that would be way kewl, although to be honest I don't think I'll be lining the kids up yet.
Looks like someone has found a new way of selling old usb flash drives. Chipping your pet is both safer and and less expensive.