With Microsoft cutting back, with Intel dropping product lines and with entrepreneurs stuffed by a fearful capital market, a journalist is hard-pressed to find a brave company taking big risks in the face of real market opposition.

So all hail IBM. (I want to point you to the page where I found this picture -- the research is a year old, the equipment looks clunky, but imagine what Moore's Law can do here.)

IBM is putting $250 million into a new division that will push RFID and other Always-On technologies. The division's name is the Sensor and Actuator Solutions. The division will become part of IBM's Pervasive Computing business.

Now when anyone tells you Always-On is a myth, you send them to Armonk.

Now it must be said that this new division is aimed at the business market, not the consumer market. They're looking to help companies better manage their inventory and supply chains by keeping better track of where their stuff is.

Big contracts are available (everyone talks about Wal-Mart) which will pay for the development and customization necessary to drive costs down. This is not a bad bet when you think about how things like RFID tags and wireless networks can reduce waste (or at least identify who's doing the stealing) at all levels of government. And government spending -- especially federal government spending -- has been rising rapidly in our time.

So it's a good bet. And the pay-off will be massive as these technologies filter into the consumer market.