The "scanner" portion of these devices is typically an embedded system that drives a hardware sensor, and speaks USB out the back side. You could probably open one up, solder a cable to the right points on the scanner board, and you'd have exactly the simple and transparent scanner you requested.

But because the business wants a truckload (no pun intended) of functionality out of these scanners, they need it to have more capabilities. First, it needs to be on the network, or it won't give them any benefit. Next, it needs to be multi-tasking so it can display alerts, etc. Its primary task may be to inventory the stuff coming off a truck, its other tasks may include assigning work items to line employees, displaying alerts on the supervisors' screens, punching the timeclock for breaks, and possibly even employee email. To a lot of businesses, a browser based interface lets them run whatever kind of functions they want, without the expense of continually pushing a bunch of apps out to a bunch of random machines. So taking all that together, embedded XP is one (bloated) way of meeting all that.

So while the scanner itself is simple, it's the rest of the hardware in the device that was infested with XP and other malware.

not really. The best thing that he can do is pull manufacturing from China. Seriously, at this time, Apple can build their own robotics plant here in America and bring it home.

I'm certain the OpenBSD guys have literally never cared a single bit. Their goal is to make a secure, clean, and open codebase that people can use and build upon. Anything beyond it simply existence is a bonus.

The opening level for Daikatana was death by a thousand mosquito bites and killer toads. I never got past that level. A FPS game is supposed to ramp up the difficulty as the player gets used to the new game world. Killing them off at the get go is bad design.

They thought she had been cured because treatement had stopped and the virus had not returned as expected.

Turns out they were wrong, the virus just took longer to return than expected.

and yet, Germany knew that we were in fact, spying on their citizens and giving German gov. information. For starters, we have stopped several AQ attacks on them because of that.
What they DID NOT know, was the spying on their gov, which I have to say was surprising.

We need to re-define patents. It should remain for hardware, but not software. Basically, we need to drop that method patent.

I will say that I have long thought that USPO should start offering vetted keys. Just as they do passports, they would be ideal for doing state IDs and vetted keys. If more govs. offered up such things, then it would make it possible for publications and other groups to require a truly vetted key.

No, he is teaching at Taiwan. There are many Chinese natives that teach at Taiwan (and elsewhere for that matter).

Actually, that is a good idea. BUT, you have to have vetted signers.

Seriously, we read many stories here in which big deals are made of them, but as soon as I check that it has lead by Chinese Academicians (even if they are now working in the USA), I discount it. WHy? Because over and over, I see fraud in the publications, and here, I notice that many of these stories are being pushed by ACs. In a nutshell, these ppl are putting together fraudulent publications (generally, leaving out the negatives that they came across), and then marketing them to make themselves look good.

Yes, some of you will scream that I am racists, and yet, over and over and over, this occurs.

Nobody ever wants to go on strike, any more than employers want a lockout. It's the nuclear option, used as a last resort.

[Citation needed]

If your new overlord was weird and pissed off, this story would have had a Kurt Russell ending.