Little Brother as a Prediction for the future

Admittedly, this post isn't as portentous as the blog title makes it sound, it's just that as I was reading Little Brother I kept wondering how accurate it was technology-wise, or how long future developments will take to bring us to that point. Generally speaking, the technology is already much more accurate than similar predictions in, let's say, 2001: A Space Odyssey (it's 2013 and we still don't have moon colonies), although this isn't so surprising since 2008 wasn't that long ago. On the other, lighter hand, one glaring misstep in the book was the author's reference to Borders, which is now extinct. My post was also partially inspired by a conversation with Evan on Monday when we discussed the fact that Fast Passes are a real thing (there's also a version used at the Canadian border crossing). Other gadgets I recognized as reality (or near reality):

• Arphids (Radio Frequency ID tags or "RFIDs") in library books- this is what lets you do self-checkout at some libraries now, including the Tuscaloosa library and Gorgas (just, you know, in case you've never actually realized that's what those kiosks are for). They also have them in some books at bookstores  as anti-theft devices (those little sticker things)
• SchoolBooks- companies are not quite handing them out free to everyone just yet but there is a company that makes very basic laptops and sells them for $100 on an initiative familiar to people who buy TOMS- for every laptop they sell, they donate one to a child in a developing country. Bonus: they can create their own local network, kind of like the Xnet used in the story. (see the website here: http://one.laptop.org/)
• Gait recognition technology- people are working on this as a way to promote national security and recognize potential terrorists by associating particular patterns of movement with criminal activities. It's pretty cool and there are a number of articles on it, including this one from PBS: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/09/something-in-the-way-you-move-cameras-may-soon-recognize-criminals-by-their-gait.html

In general, people are already much more tech-savvy and connected than they were when we were young and I have no doubt that given another ten or twenty years, most of the technology and know-how used by the characters will be commonplace.