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Printer

Submission + - New Details on Xerox Inkless Printer

Iddo Genuth writes: "Xerox is developing a new printing technology which does not require ink of any kind. The new technology includes reusable paper which can be printed and erased dozens of times and has the potential to revolutionize printing. New details on this upcoming technology, which was first reported on September 2006, are now revealed."
The Internet

Submission + - The Pirate Bay to stay in Sweden

paulraps writes: The Pirate Bay has ditched plans to buy its own nation so as to avoid international copyright laws. One of the founders says that the operation is now less vulnerable to police raids in Sweden now that it has spread its servers around different locations. Amusingly, they may still buy an island, but for more modest reasons: "We have 20,000 to 25,000 dollars to spend. Really we just want somewhere we can name The Pirate Bay, so we can look on Google Maps and find ourselves there," said Tobias Andersson, who, despite running the most poopular site in Scandinavia, still works as an electrician.
Space

Submission + - Super robots gear up for space

coondoggie writes: "They look a little like Legos on steroids and indeed, that's what they act like too. Called Superbots, these robots are made up of identical modular units that plug into each other to create robots that can stand, crawl, wiggle and roll. The robots are being developed mainly to carrying out multiple complex tasks such as assembly, inspection, maintenance, habitat construction, surface landing, and exploration in space and on planet surfaces. Perhaps their greatest feature is flexibility in the different modules can be connected to have the robot handle a variety of tasks rather than have one robot dedicated to a single task,. The traditional approach of building separate robots for separate tasks is no longer adequate for affordable space exploration, researchers said. http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1175 7"
Privacy

Submission + - Geek Squad outsourcing their "In Store" re

An anonymous reader writes: BestBuy's GeekSquad has had hundreds if not thousands of employees silently laid off accross the country in the past couple of months. All these in-store technicians are being replaced by "Agent Jonny Utah". (Jonny Utah being a pop culture reference to the movie Point Break.)

"Agent Jonny Utah" is basically a KVM switch and a piece of software similar to PC-Anywhere that allows technicians from remote locations do diagnostics, virus removals, and software procedures on computers.

This is link where GeekSquad technicians can see what computers are being worked on listed be each store. http://www.dudev1.com/StoreViewExample/StoreView.a spx

Most disturbing is that GeekSquad agents have a tool to talk directly to the remote agent's, a majority of whom admit they work as far away as India, but BestBuy is claiming that all work is done from a remote center in the U.S.

All customer's private and sensitive data is being put on line and being accessed by people on the other side of the world and these customers are either not being told about it or are being directly lied to be BestBuy about it.

This is a call for GeekSquad agents to post what they know here and for everyone to start calling BestBuy and asking "who" really will be working your computer and how they intend to keep your data private on the other side of the globe.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Tells Some Users No on Vista

kog777 writes: After years of delays and billions in development and marketing efforts, it would seem that Microsoft Corp. would want anyone who possibly can to buy its new Windows Vista operating system. Yet Microsoft is making it hard for Mac owners and other potentially influential customers to adopt the software. Microsoft says the blockade is necessary for security reasons. But that is disputed. The circumstances might simply reflect a business decision Microsoft doesn't want to explain.

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