More manufacturers are outfitting greater numbers of laser printers with technology that leaves microscopic yellow dots on each printed page to identify the printer’s serial number — and ultimately, you, says the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, one of the leading watchdogs of electronic privacy.

The technology has been around for years, but the declining price of laser printers and the increasing number of models with this feature is causing renewed concerns.

The dots, invisible to the naked eye, can be seen using a blue LED light and are used by authorities such as the Secret Service to investigate counterfeit bills made with laser printers, says Lorelei Pagano, director of the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group.

privacy advocates worry that the little-known technology could ensnare political dissidents, whistle-blowers or anyone who prints materials that authorities want to track.

“There’s nothing about this technology that limits its application to counterfeit investigations,” says Seth Schoen, a computer programmer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “Some people who aren’t doing anything wrong may have their privacy threatened.” Schoen’s tests have found the dots produced by 111 color laser printers made by 13 companies including Xerox, Canon, Hewlett-Packard, Epson and Brother.

The dots are produced only on laser devices and not ink-jet printers, which are most commonly used at home. But laser printers, which produce more durable images, are becoming increasingly popular as their price has dropped to as low as $300, says Angele Boyd, a vice president of IDC Research.

Although laser printers made up only 4% of the 33 million printers sold last year in the USA, their sales have been growing by double digits since 2004, Boyd says.

The technology began as laser printers were first produced in the mid-1980s and governments and banks feared an explosion of counterfeiting, Xerox spokesman Bill McKee says. “In many cases, it is a requirement to do business internationally that the printers are equipped with this technology,” McKee says.

The dots tell authorities the serial number of a printer that made a document. In some cases, it also tells the time and date it was printed, Pagano says. “The Secret Service is the only U.S. body that has the ability to decode the information,” she says.

Printer makers “cooperate with law enforcement” and will tell authorities where a printer was made and sold, McKee says.

The Secret Service uses the dots only to investigate counterfeiting, agency spokesman Ed Donovan says.

Researchers have long believed that the key to the brain’s massive processing power lies in the network connections between its 100 billion nerve cells, or neurons.

“The generally accepted model was that networks or arrays make decisions and that the influence of a single neuron is smaller, but this work and other recent studies support a more important role for the individual neuron,” said Douglas Armstrong, the deputy director of the Edinburgh Center for Bioinformatics. “These studies drive down the level at which relevant computation is happening in the brain.”

The Defense Department unveiled its new policy on cluster munitions. In it, the weapons, which scatter tiny bomblets over huge swaths of territory, are described as “legitimate weapons with clear military utility.” Not only do “they provide distinct advantages against a range of targets,” a Defense Department press release notes, but “their use reduces risks to U.S. forces and can save U.S. lives.” The Pentagon says the munitions will continue to be used, “in a manner consistent with the law of armed conflict.”

But the law is changing. In May, just about every country on the planet signed a treaty banning cluster bombs. The U.S. was one of four holdouts.

The problem with the weapons, critics tell the Los Angeles Times, is that they “have a high failure rate. Many bomblets may not explode on contact, and later can be accidentally triggered by civilians.”

“If someone wants to blow us up, we want to know about it,” Robert Hembrook, the deputy intelligence chief of the U.S. Army’s Fifth Signal Command in Mannheim, Germany, told United Press International.

In a solicitation posted on the Web last week, the command said it was looking for a contractor to provide “Internet awareness services” to support “force protection” — the term of art for the security of U.S. military installations and personnel.

“The purpose of the services will be to identify and assess stated and implied threat, antipathy, unrest and other contextual data relating to selected Internet domains,” says the solicitation.

Hembrook was tight-lipped about the proposal. “The more we talk about it, the less effective it will be,” he said. “If we didn’t have to put it out in public (to make the contract award), we wouldn’t have.”

He would not comment on the kinds of Internet sites the contractor would be directed to look at but acknowledged it would “not (be) far off” to assume violent Islamic extremists would be at the top of the list.

The solicitation says the successful contractor will “analyze various Web pages, chat rooms, blogs and other Internet domains to aggregate and assess data of interest,” adding, “The contractor will prioritize foreign-language domains that relate to specific areas of concern … (and) will also identify new Internet domains” that might relate to “specific local requirements” of the command.

Officials were keen to stress the contract covered only information that could be found by anyone with a computer and Internet connection.

“We’re not interested in being Big Brother,” said LeAnne MacAllister, chief spokeswoman for the command, which runs communications in Europe for the U.S. Army and the military’s joint commands there.

“I would not characterize it as monitoring,” added Hembrook. “This is a research tool gathering information that is already in the public domain.”

Experts say Islamic extremist groups like al-Qaida use the Web for propaganda and fundraising purposes. Although the extent to which it is employed in operational planning is less clear, most agree that important information about targeting and tactics can be gleaned from extremists’ public pronouncements.

Hembrook said the main purpose of the contract is to analyze “trends in information.” The contractor will “help us find those needles in that haystack of information.”

The solicitor says the contractor’s team will include a “principal cyber investigator,” a “locally specialized threat analyst” and a “foreign-speaking analyst with cyber investigative skills,” as well as a 24/7 watch team.

The contractor will produce weekly written reports, containing “raw data and supporting analysis.”

The addresses of the Web page sources will be “captioned under alias to preserve access,” says the solicitation. Experts have noted in the past that publishing the addresses of some extremists’ sites has led to them being attacked or moving. However, the contractor will “consider releasing specific (Web page addresses) on an as-needed basis … if explicit threat materials or imminent threat to personnel or facilities are discovered.”

The contractor also will notify the command immediately “upon receipt of any and all stated or implied threats that contain timing and/or targeting information relating to personnel, facilities or activities, and to specifically designated areas of concern.”

While declining to comment on the specific solicitation, Ben Venzke, CEO of IntelCenter, an Alexandria, Va.-based company that monitors Islamic extremist propaganda for clients including U.S. government agencies, said it was “common” for the military or other agencies to employ contractors “to support their own work on these issues.”

“What most people don’t get,” he said, “is that (each agency or entity) has their own very specific requirements. … They are looking for one type of thing in particular.”

Venzke explained that while an analyst for a big-city police department might be looking at extremist Web sites for certain kinds of information, their requirements would be different from those of intelligence analysts looking for evidence of trends in extremist targeting or ideology, which in turn would be different from those concerned — like the Fifth Signal Command — with force protection.

“There is some overlap,” he said, “and you always have to work to minimize that, but generally, there are so many different … pieces you can look at … it’s not duplication.”

By Agam Shah | Keep laptops close at airports, because they have a startling tendency to disappear in the blink of an eye, according to a new survey.

Some of the largest and medium-sized U.S. airports report close to 637,000 laptops lost each year, according to the Ponemon Institute survey released Monday. Laptops are most commonly lost at security checkpoints, according to the survey.

Close to 10,278 laptops are reported lost every week at 36 of the largest U.S. airports, and 65 percent of those laptops are not reclaimed, the survey said. Around 2,000 laptops are recorded lost at the medium-sized airports, and 69 percent are not reclaimed.

Travelers seem to lack confidence that they will recover lost laptops. About 77 percent of people surveyed said they had no hope of recovering a lost laptop at the airport, with 16 percent saying they wouldn’t do anything if they lost their laptop during business travel. About 53 percent said that laptops contain confidential company information, with 65 percent taking no steps to protect the information.

Airports, along with hotels and parked cars. are places where laptops can be easily stolen, said the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on its Web site. The confusion of going through security checkpoints can make it easy for travelers to lose track of their laptops, making it “fertile ground for theft,” the FTC said.

The FTC recommends people treat laptops “like cash.” Like a wad of money, a laptop in public view — like the backseat of the car or at the airport — could attract unwanted attention. The FTC also recommends using tracking devices like Absolute Software’s LoJack, which can help track down a stolen laptop by reporting its location once it is connected to the Internet. Lenovo last week announced it would offer the LoJack option in its upcoming ThinkPad SL series laptops.

Attaching bells and whistles that sound off after detecting laptop motion could also minimize the chances of laptop theft, the FTC says.

Laptop theft is fairly prevalent in the U.S., said Mike Spinney, a spokesman for Ponemon Institute. In a study conducted by the institute, 76 percent of companies surveyed reported losing one or more laptops each year, of which 22 percent were due to theft or other criminal mischief.

Many people are ashamed of reporting lost laptops as they leave them where they shouldn’t be, Spinney said.

The Ponemon survey was commissioned by Dell, which on Monday announced new security services to commercial customers that include tracking and recovery of lost laptops and prevention of data theft.

Dell’s laptop tracking service uses technology including GPS (Global Positioning System) to locate and recover lost laptops. The data protection services include the ability to remotely delete data on a hard drive and services to recover data from failed hard drives.

The device – dubbed MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio) – exploits the microwave audio effect, in which short microwave pulses rapidly heat tissue, causing a shockwave inside the skull that can be detected by the ears. A series of pulses can be transmitted to produce recognisable sounds.

The device is aimed for military or crowd-control applications, but may have other uses.

Lev Sadovnik of the Sierra Nevada Corporation in the US is working on the system, having started work on a US navy research contract. The navy’s report states that the effect was shown to be effective.

Scarecrow beam?

MEDUSA involves a microwave auditory effect “loud” enough to cause discomfort or even incapacitation. Sadovnik says that normal audio safety limits do not apply since the sound does not enter through the eardrums.

“The repel effect is a combination of loudness and the irritation factor,” he says. “You can’t block it out.”

Sadovnik says the device will work thanks to a new reconfigurable antenna developed by colleague Vladimir Manasson. It steers the beam electronically, making it possible to flip from a broad to a narrow beam, or aim at multiple targets simultaneously.

Sadovnik says the technology could have non-military applications. Birds seem to be highly sensitive to microwave audio, he says, so it might be used to scare away unwanted flocks.

Sadovnik has also experimented with transmitting microwave audio to people with outer ear problems that impair their normal hearing.

Brain damage risk

James Lin of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Illinois in Chicago says that MEDUSA is feasible in principle.

He has carried out his own work on the technique, and was even approached by the music industry about using microwave audio to enhance sound systems, he told New Scientist.

“But is it going to be possible at the power levels necessary?” he asks. Previous microwave audio tests involved very “quiet” sounds that were hard to hear, a high-power system would mean much more powerful – and potentially hazardous – shockwaves.

“I would worry about what other health effects it is having,” says Lin. “You might see neural damage.”

Sierra Nevada says that a demonstration version could be built in a year, with a transportable system following within 18 months. They are currently seeking funding for the work from the US Department of Defence.

The Middletown School District, in partnership with MAP Information Technology Corp., has launched a pilot program to implant RFID chips into the schoolbags of 80 children at the Aquidneck School. Each chip would be programmed with a student identification number, and would be read by an external device installed in one of two school buses. The buses would also be fitted with global positioning system (GPS) devices.

Parents or school officials could log onto a school web site to see whether and when specific children had entered or exited which bus, and to look up the bus’s current location as provided by the GPS device.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has criticized the plan as an invasion of children’s privacy and a potential risk to their safety.

“There’s absolutely no need to be tagging children,” said Stephen Brown, executive director of the ACLU’s Rhode Island chapter. According to Brown, the school district should already know where its students are.

“[This program is] a solution in search of a problem,” Brown said.

The school district says that its current plan is no different than other programs already in place for parents to monitor their children’s school experience. For example, parents can already check on their children’s attendance records and what they have for lunch, said district Superintendent Rosemary Kraeger.

Brown disputed this argument. The school is perfectly entitled to track its buses, he said, but “it’s a quantitative leap to monitor children themselves.” He raised the question of whether unauthorized individuals could use easily available RFID readers to find out students’ private information and monitor their movements.

Because the pilot program is being provided to the school district at no cost, it did not require approval from the Rhode Island ethics commission.

By Anthony Hildebrand |

“But the sensitive nature of the information which may be yielded by DNA heightens the degree of responsibility borne by the Government,” it says. “The Home Office must work with the National Policing Improvement Agency and the police to set and observe a regulatory framework which protects individuals from unnecessary invasions of privacy and loss or unauthorised use of their genetic material and information gleaned from it.

“The Home Office should actively support the NPIA in its efforts to reduce the rate of replication on the NDNAD. Inaccuracies in the information on the database must be corrected to enable the police and the public to reap the full benefit of the NDNAD.”

The report is in favour of the Government’s assurances that the National DNA Database won’t be used to “correlate particular genetic characteristics with propensity to commit crime” – genetic profiling, in other words.

“We recommend that the Home Office renew this assurance in conjunction with the Government’s conclusions on the review of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act,” the report says. “We recommend that the Home Office make public at the earliest stage any plans to revisit this issue. “

Transparency
It says that Government consultations on the issue should be transparent, and help to clarify “the purposes and processes of DNA collection and retention”.

“There have been calls for an expansion of the National DNA Database to include profiles connected with non-recordable offences and for a ‘universal database’ and for the Government to reconsider its policy on retaining the profiles of those who have been arrested but not charged,” the report says.

“In order to facilitate a full debate and an appropriate level of Parliamentary scrutiny we recommend that alongside any conclusions of the PACE review the Government introduce primary legislation to replace the current regulatory framework for the National DNA Database. We recommend that this legislation provide for a more accessible mechanism by which individuals can challenge the decision to retain their records on the Database.

“The Government should reconsider the ways in which National DNA database information is collected, handled stored and transferred,” it continues.

“In particular we recommend that in order to minimise the data held, the Home Office and the police should review the identifiers used for samples and the policy of retaining samples.”

While technology saves us the burden of remembering endless details, it also adds to our memory problems. In part, that’s because we need to remember random codes like passwords, logins and user names. These strings of numbers and letters become useful as codes precisely because they are confusing and meaningless. But that’s also what makes them hard for our brains to access.

Memory works best when it interconnects. We create neural pathways in our brains as we connect a new piece of information with sensory details, recollections and knowledge — forming a meaningful memory that we can easily retrieve. For example, you may be standing outside and notice a bird you haven’t seen before. Someone tells you the tiny songbird is a barn swallow known as a traveler. It flies hundreds of miles a day in search of food, and each year migrates up to 14,000 miles. You may feel a sudden kinship with this energetic creature since your life keeps you constantly busy as well. When and where you hear facts, how you feel at the time, and the way you link the details with other information in your mind — this all plays a part in memory. Chances are you will remember the sunny warmth of the day when you first saw the barn swallow and the insight gained as you thought about your own life ‘on the fly.’

Another problem with technology is the obvious way that it interrupts us. Details are locked into our memories when we pay careful attention to them. That makes them more easily retrieved as well. How often do you have a full half hour, let alone a full five minutes to concentrate on any one thing without email, text messages or other distractions? Yet without concentration, recall is challenged. A meal is much more memorable at a new elegant restaurant because of the attention paid to it and the time devoted to it. You are fully aware of the novelty as you savor each mouthful, and thus remember the experience. Contrast that with a meal eaten at your desk while finishing a project. The food you ingest is hardly tasted let alone memorable. A few weeks later you can recall one meal while the other has been completely forgotten. It isn’t the food eaten quite so much as the attention you paid to it that made the difference.

We also have to admit that technology removes some of the mental discipline that every generation before us had to practice. We may be weakening ourselves over time because we don’t have to do the work of memorizing information, navigating roads or keeping track of upcoming events now that digital devices handle those tasks for us. What evidence do we have? Technology not only affects the way we process information, taken to an extreme it may also diminish memory. In the book, “Carved in Sand: When Attention Fails and Memory Fades in Midlife,” author Cathryn Jakobson Ramin says that there’s a name in Japan for those who constantly click away at keypads. They’re called “oyayubizoku,” or “thumb tribe.” Researchers at Japan’s Hokkaido University School of Medicine studied a group of oyayubizoku whose lives are consumed by electronic organizers, cell phones and laptops. They found that about ten percent of them had lessened the brain’s capacity to learn and store information. One neurobiologist commented that these individuals had “lost the ability to remember new things, to pull out old data or to distinguish between important and unimportant information.”

Of course, when you are concerned about your memory you’re often told that the remedy is more technology. To some extent that may be helpful if you use reminder and calendar functions. As baby boomers approach the geriatric decades, the market is filling with technology promoted to enhance memory. Video “brain games” are said to guarantee results in a few minutes a day. There’s not much solid research to back up these claims. Some of these products are engaging and could do a passable job of stimulating thinking, especially if used more than a minute or two. But building mental fitness requires the same kind of practice and dedication as physical fitness. Long-term use of such games may be useful, yet there are many other ways to improve your memory without spending time and money on mental gymnastics.

Attitude

It’s common to notice an occasional lapse in memory, after all, forgetfulness isn’t something you appreciate. You may even begin to humorously identify yourself as someone with a failing memory. But when you highlight these very normal mistakes, you aren’t helping the problem. That’s due to what psychologists call “self-talk,” the ongoing internal conversation we have with ourselves. If your self-talk includes the idea that you have a “brain like a sieve” or “error — memory leak” is your mode of operation, you will notice more and more evidence that supports this negative concept. Unintentionally you are reinforcing traits like inattention and confusion. Instead, cultivate an attitude of appreciation for your mind and body. Notice the amount of high-level thinking that you do. Adopt a healthier mindset by regarding memory lapses as incidents which are warning that it’s time to slow down and start savoring your life more.

Meditation

Studies indicate that people who meditate have an improved outlook and increased concentration. They also have somewhat better memories. Research at Massachusetts General Hospital shows that regular meditation increases blood flow to the cerebral cortex, thickening that area of the brain. It’s thought that this physical change enhances focus, memory and attention span. Meditation allows you to access the stillness beyond your thinking mind, to enter a state of peaceful awareness that simply observes. There are many forms of meditation. Develop a practice that fits into your life and enjoy benefits that go well beyond improved memory.

Movement

When we exercise, our muscles generate proteins that enter the brain. These proteins support learning and recall. One such protein is called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which promotes the sort of brain development necessary for long-term memory and higher-level thinking. Exercise also increases blood flow to the brain, essential to thought processes. And we know that an active lifestyle stimulates neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine that are essential to attention, learning and positive emotions.

As Dr. John J. Ratey explains in Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, ” In addition to priming our state of mind, exercise influences learning directly, at the cellular level, improving the brain’s potential to log in and process new information.” That means when we play a fast paced game of tennis or master complex yoga moves, our brains are improving along with the rest of our bodies. So build regular, sustained movement into your daily life. Try varying your activities to keep up your interest level and provide continuing challenges.

Nutrition

Adequate water intake is essential for proper brain function. Take water along in your own water bottle so you don’t need to resort to soda, energy drinks or other less healthful liquids. A healthy diet is also vital. Food containing adequate omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants have been shown to support concentration and recall. It’s best to avoid spikes and dips in blood sugar, as this has a negative effect on brain function. Eating smaller amounts in regularly spaced snacks, choosing whole foods, avoiding sugars and refined grains, paying attention to food intolerances and eating a wide variety of foods are helpful strategies. Some studies have shown that the supplements ginkgo biloba and phosphatidylserine may improve memory.

Timing

Each person has an optimal time of day for thinking and functioning. Rob West, director of the Cognitive Psychology Program at Iowa State University, says research has determined that this time period changes as people get older. When younger adults are tested it’s found that their optimal time tends to be late afternoon or early evening. Beginning around the age of 50, this optimal time shifts to a much earlier part of the day, normally from eight a.m. to noon. According to West, one test to assess an individual’s optimal thinking time is the Morningness-Eveningness Scale (http://web.ukonline.co.uk/bjlogie/test.htm) . Be sensitive to when you function best, and perform more challenging mental tasks during that time. You shortchange your abilities if you overload yourself with studies, work or competing obligations exactly at the time of day when you are at the lowest ebb.

Writing

Writing supports memory. Yes, writing things down provides a helpful reminder. But it has also been found that the effort involved helps us organize our thoughts. Taking notes, making a list, drawing up an agenda, penning a letter, or keeping a diary stimulates the sort of thinking that is good for memory. When we do this our ideas and feelings are not just a jumble of indistinct impressions, they are clearer and more accessible for recall. Over time, people who purposefully write things down tend to concentrate better. Interestingly, people who write about upsetting events also experience improved function and find themselves more emotionally stable.

Incorporate the habit of writing in your daily life. Keep a regular journal. Maintain a diary for travel and special events. Print out photos and attach notes. Make regular lists and enjoy crossing items off as you accomplish them. Maintain a gratitude log, noting one or more things you are grateful for each day. Write down your comments and impressions as you read a good book and tuck the notes amongst the pages, this is useful when re-reading or sharing the book with others. Revive the art of writing letters and thank you notes, perhaps making a copy to keep for yourself as an ongoing epistolary scrapbook. Consider joining a public speaking group such as Toastmasters to ramp up the challenge of organizing and presenting your thoughts.

Variety

Our brains are attracted to novelty. Rote tasks don’t stimulate thinking and memory even when the activities are enjoyable. If you play a game of squash every week with the same friend, chances are very few that these games stand out in your mind. It’s great to keep up regular rituals that you enjoy. But add variety on a regular basis. Doing something different creates new circuitry in your brain. Every day you can make a small change such as taking a new route to work, trying a new recipe or listening to a different genre of music. You can also add bigger challenges that ramp up brain function. Learn a new language, take dance lessons, tutor a student, try your hand at sculpting, take a trip, join a club or volunteer.

About the author

Laura Weldon is a writer with a book called Free Range Learning coming out in 2008. She lives on an organic farm and believes in bliss.