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Travelers' Laptops May Be Detained At Border No Suspicion Required Under DHS Policies Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed. Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed. Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons...

Travellers to the U.S. could have their laptops and other electronic devices seized at the airport under new anti-terror measures. Federal agents have been granted powers to take such devices and hold them as long as they like. They do not even need grounds to suspect wrongdoing. The Department of Homeland Security said the policies applied to anyone entering the country by land, sea or air, including U.S. citizens. The extent of the new powers, which have been secretly in place for some time, was revealed yesterday in the Washington Post.

In further evidence of our rapidly eroding civil liberties, the Department of Homeland Security disclosed today that US Customs and Border Protection and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement have the right to confiscate and search a traveler's laptop or other electronic device without any suspicion of wrongdoing. The rules -- which we reported on in February -- allow for searches of hard drives, flash drives, cellphones, iPods, pagers, and video or audio tapes, and specify that the agencies can "detain" belongings for a "reasonable period of time," (i.e., as long as they please). Additionally, the DHS can share the data...

An American organization has requested Israel's assistance in a new initiative similar to the Israeli "computer for every child" project. The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP), an organization committed to the welfare of the Palestinian people, asked that the State help transfer around 1,000 laptop computers to the West Bank city of Ramallah. The project is led by Nick Negroponte, brother of US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, former director of national intelligence. Its goal is to provide Palestinian students with tools that will help improve thought and independent study, in order to better their learning achievements and...

Excerpt - Nvidia has uncovered a problem with some older graphics chips that shipped in "significant quantities" of laptop PCs, the company said Wednesday. Nvidia hasn't determined the exact cause of the problem but said it relates to a packaging material used with some of its chips, as well as the thermal design of some laptops. Modern processors generate considerable amounts of heat. To tackle the problem, the company is releasing a software driver that will cause system fans to start operating sooner and reduce the "thermal stress" on the chips. The driver has been provided to laptop makers directly,...

U.S. Wary Of Small Boat Terrorism As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success." While the United States...

YOUR WORLD increasingly runs on lithium-ion batteries. Chances are good that your phone, laptop, camera, portable music and video players, radios, and game consoles keep going only as long as there are lithium ions churning around inside them. Lithium-ion batteries are getting into your power tools. Soon they’ll even be in your car. So it’s a shame that after nearly four decades of intensive development, lithium-ion batteries still leave plenty to be desired. They fade fast—although their energy capacity starts out higher than that of any other kind of mass-market battery, it can drop more than 25 ­percent per year...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 7, 2008 – Wounded servicemembers at Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center on Fort Hood, Texas, recently got some help staying connected with loved ones during their recovery. A Dell computer corporation representative helps to present 30 wounded soldiers recovering at Carl R. Darnall Medical Center at Fort Hood, Texas, with laptop computers on Dec. 21, 2007. The donations were made through Operation Homelink, a group that refurbishes donated computers and donates them to recovering servicemembers or families of deployed troops. Photo by Jon Connor  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Operation Homelink, in collaboration with the...

A couple of weeks ago, we featured the Sony Vaio TZ21 range of ultra-portable notebooks. Little bigger than a sheet of A4 paper, the TZ21 series is perfect for mobile workers and "hot-deskers", because it's packed full of applications, and fits easily inside a briefcase or a handbag. The only downside is price: at almost £1,500, there's a premium for its tiny proportions. The Eee PC Small but perfectly formed: Asus's Eee PC But what about those people who already have a desktop computer, or perhaps a chunky but reliable laptop that works perfectly well at home but causes hernias...

Bergen County Jail inmates who want to brush up on their legal defense can do so now from their cells, a move that officials say is a first nationwide.  Jail officials have begun rolling out the first batch of 80 laptops – each about the size and heft of a large hardcover novel – to some of the 1,000 inmates who occupy the near-capacity lockup. About $100,000 has been spent so far from an account funded by profits from items purchased from inmates, such as toothpaste and candy bars, to buy the $1,200 notebooks and install the necessary wireless...

Billionaire Carlos Slim said he doesn't care if he is the world's richest man and promised to donate hundreds of thousands of laptop computers to Mexican children. The Mexican telecom mogul pledged Thursday to donate 250,000 low-cost laptops to children by the end of the year and as many as 1 million in 2008, saying "digital education" holds the key for Mexico's poor. Slim is listed by Forbes as the world's second-richest man with holdings worth $53 billion, but some financial analysts say he may have overtaken Microsoft (MSFT) founder Bill Gates as the world's richest. • Click here for...

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian schoolchildren who received laptops from a U.S. aid organization have used them to explore pornographic sites on the Internet, the official News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported Thursday. NAN said its reporter had seen pornographic images stored on several of the children's laptops. "Efforts to promote learning with laptops in a primary school in Abuja have gone awry as the pupils freely browse adult sites with explicit sexual materials," NAN said. A representative of the One Laptop Per Child aid group was quoted as saying that the computers, part of a pilot scheme, would now be...

Has anyone had any experience with Acer laptop computers?

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Matsushita Battery Industrial (MBI), a division of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., said Monday it had established a mass-production system for a lithium-ion battery that incorporates the technology to ensure safety. The new batteries, according to the company, will never overheat or explode.MBI has succeeded in improving the safety by forming a heat resistance layer (HRL) consisting of an insulating metal oxide on the surface of the electrodes. Lithium-ion batteries contain a thin polyolefin separator to insulate the cathode from the anode. When a separator is pierced by an electrically conductive material such as a metal particle, a short-circuit develops, causing...

We all know that notebooks are quickly overtaking PCs in terms of deployed numbers, but just how fast are people adopting them? With a significant rise in notebook sales this year, some are putting the notebook to PC ratio figure at over two thirds when it comes to sales: About 65 percent of all PCs sold at the stores surveyed by Current Analysis--Best Buy, Radio Shack, Circuit City, CompUSA and Staples--were notebooks, said Sam Bhavnani, an analyst with the firm. Last year, the mix was about half and half between notebooks and desktops. What does this mean for the future...

Tokyo, Japan, Sept 28, 2006 - (JCN Newswire) - Sony Corporation will initiate a global replacement program for certain battery packs that utilize Sony-manufactured lithium ion cells used by notebook computer manufacturers in order to address concern related to recent over-heating incidents. Sony always strives to deliver the highest level of satisfaction to its customers and all consumers. We believe that this program is in the best interest of both our customers and all consumers. Sony is discussing this plan with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and will coordinate with other government authorities as required. We will announce...

My niece is a nursing student in Tucson, AZ and I need help guiding her as to which laptop she needs to buy. She needs the basics for now; MS Word and Excel to do her homework on. A computer that is very resonably priced and of good quality is the goal.

See for example this thread first. So, what in the world is that smell? It's smoke shooting out of my Dell! And as the thing blazed I remained unfazed and quipped,"It's the laptop from Hell!"

WASHINGTON, July 17, 2006 – An Internet community of support for troops overseas has arisen from one mother's concern that some of her son's fellow servicemembers were not receiving mail or the support they needed from home. A servicemember poses with "Soldiers Angels" volunteers after receiving a laptop courtesy of Project Valour-IT. Project Valour-IT provides wounded troops with voice-activated laptops to use during their recovery. Courtesy photo   Patti Patton-Baden founded "Soldiers' Angels" in December 2003 after she began writing a few extra letters to members of her son's deployed unit in Iraq. More than 80,000 "angels" now are registered...

Dell investigating exploding laptop incident 15 minutes ago NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Dell laptop computer seen bursting into flames in photographs on the Internet was being examined as part of the company's probe of the incident, Dell Inc. said Tuesday. "We have captured the notebook and have begun investigating the event," Dell spokeswoman Anne Camden said, confirming the computer was made by Dell but declining to specify the model. No one was hurt in the incident, she said. The report of an exploding laptop at a conference in Osaka, Japan, accompanied by digital photos, was first published on technology...

Toshiba Reaches 200GB Milestone Stroage, storage, storage. That's what a media center laptop needs and Toshiba's new 2.5 inch hard drive gives you just that. The 200GB dual-platter MK2035GSS is Toshiba's first Perpendicular Magnetic Recording drive to incorporate tunnel magneto-resistive recording (TMR) head technology (no, we don't know what that last bit means either, but it sounds impressive). PMR technology enables bits of data to be stored in a perpendicular format rather than longitudinally and, thus enables the magnetic disc to store significantly more data in the same space.The new drive sets a density record, says Toshiba, although the outright...

Harvard Law School, the world’s self-described “premier center for legal education and research,” may ban Internet use in the classroom this fall because so many students are frittering away time surfing the Web. The school’s faculty has yet to vote on the proposal. But several professors, fed up with students shopping online or checking Red Sox scores when they should be heeding lectures, have gone so far as to outlaw laptops in class. “They interfere with discussion,” Harvard law professor Bruce L. Hay said. “When you add to that the fact that many students have trouble resisting the temptation to...

System head to head comparison of equally priced and configured Notebook Mac and PC computers available for sale right now in the $1100 price range. Apple MacBook vs. Dell Inspirion E1405 (+ additions). Apple MacBook - Intel Core Duo Dell Inspirion E1405 - Intel Core Duo by Charles Gaba Home Shootouts FAQ Processor Speed Equivalency Discussion Board Read the System Shootout FAQ before proceeding! • All images and logos are copyright (c) 2004 the respective companies. Date Configured: 5/16/06 Best of Field(in my opinion) Apple 1.83 GHz MacBook (stock model) Dell Inspiron E1405 (with add-ons) Dimensions: 120 cubic in; 1.1"...

As the professor lectured on the law, the student wore a poker face. But that was probably because, under the guise of taking notes on his laptop, the student actually was playing poker — online, using the school's wireless Internet connection. The scenario is not uncommon in today's college classrooms, and some instructors want it stopped. So they have done the unthinkable — banned laptops. The move caused an uproar at the University of Memphis, where law professor June Entman nixed the computers in March because she felt they were turning her students into stenographers and inhibiting classroom debate. Students...

Law Professor Bans Laptops in Class Wed Mar 29, 8:21 AM ET MEMPHIS, Tenn. - A University of Memphis law professor has banned laptop computers from her classroom and her students are passing a petition against it. Professor June Entman says her main concern is that students are so busy keyboarding they can't think and analyze what she's telling them. Students have begun collecting signatures on petitions and tried unsuccessfully to file a complaint with the American Bar Association. Student Cory Winsett says if he must continue without his laptop, he'll transfer to another school. Winsett says he won't be...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates on Wednesday mocked a $100 laptop computer for developing countries being developed with the backing of rival Google Inc. (Nasdaq:GOOG - news) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The $100 laptop project seeks to provide inexpensive computers to people in developing countries. The computers lack many features found on a typical personal computer, such as a hard disk and software."The last thing you want to do for a shared use computer is have it be something without a disk ... and with a tiny little...

Hi ya'll - I'm new here so correct me if I am out of line with posting this here. I invite you to please visit our website (very easy one - only one page plus one additional page for a February newsletter update) to see what it is we are doing. Basically we purchase basic laptops and add webcams with mics on them so they can stay in contact with their family and friends, play games, etc. Also accept PC games and original playstation games as a lady in Georgia packed up her family's playstation and sent it to me...

Sub-$100 laptop design unveiled The laptop for the world's children should be durable and self-reliant Nicholas Negroponte, chairman and founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Labs, has been outlining designs for a sub-$100 PC. The laptop will be tough and foldable in different ways, with a hand crank for when there is no power supply. Professor Negroponte came up with the idea for a cheap computer for all after visiting a Cambodian village. His non-profit One Laptop Per Child group plans to have up to 15 million machines in production within a year. A prototype of the machine...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - In a sure sign that the era of mobile computing has arrived, notebooks have for the first time outsold desktops in the United States in a calendar month, the research firm Current Analysis says. After tracking sales from a sampling of electronics retailers, Current Analysis says notebook sales accounted for 53 percent of the total personal computer market last month, up from 46 percent during the same period last year. San Diego-based Current Analysis does not follow worldwide personal computer sales. Spurring demand for notebooks is their overall price drop as quality has improved, says Sam...

I'm in the market for a desktop replacement notebook that we can also watch TV on, but I'm not finding many that have built-in TV Tuners like some desktops have. I'm especially interested in a Dell or an HP, unless a FReeper can talk me into something else. But, I don't want to have to buy any bells/whistles that I don't really need, and I have no idea what to configure. Just based on my basic research, I'm thinking a good screen resolution and a large hard drive would be very important, and that I likely should go with a...

Was executed American contractor Nicholas Berg's decision to share his computer password with alleged "20th hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui during a 1999 encounter in Norman, Okla., just a coincidence, as Attorney General John Ashcroft assured the nation last week? Or was there more to this bizarre development than meets the eye? Oklahoma City bombing investigator, former NBC reporter Jayna Davis, has been exploring some of the more troubling aspects of the Berg-Moussaoui meeting, especially in light of the role the city of Norman played in events leading up to 9/11. First, says Davis, the official story which had Berg, then a...

BAGHDAD — Sgt. Charles Watkins’ wife already knew his gunshot wound wasn’t fatal. So, in the moments he had to use the Internet last week while awaiting transport from the 86th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, he logged onto the Ford Motor Co.’s Web site. “I’m looking to buy me a truck,” said the 42-year-old Humvee driver from Company A of the 155th Infantry Battalion from Mississippi. Watkins, an activated National Guardsman, suffered a gunshot wound to the back of his left knee the day before. He was not wounded by enemy fire, but said he was not allowed to...

BAGHDAD — Sgt. Charles Watkins’ wife already knew his gunshot wound wasn’t fatal. So, in the moments he had to use the Internet last week while awaiting transport from the 86th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, he logged onto the Ford Motor Co.’s Web site. “I’m looking to buy me a truck,” said the 42-year-old Humvee driver from Company A of the 155th Infantry Battalion from Mississippi. Watkins, an activated National Guardsman, suffered a gunshot wound to the back of his left knee the day before. He was not wounded by enemy fire, but said he was not allowed to...

MIT Team Seeks to Put $100 Computers in Developing Countries for 'One Laptop Per Child' Project Apr 4, 2005 — In a rural Cambodian village where the homes lack electricity, the nighttime darkness is pierced by the glow from laptops that children bring from school. The students were equipped with notebook computers by a foundation run by MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte and his wife Elaine. "When the kids bring them home and open them up, it's the brightest light source in the home," said Negroponte. "Parents love it." Negroponte and some MIT colleagues are hard at work on...

Cobb County wants to spend nearly $70 million for 63,000 students and teachers to get state-of-the-art Apple laptop computers, complete with Microsoft Word and iTunes. After months of negotiations, Superintendent Joseph Redden announced the cost and scope of a potential deal with Apple Computer. If the school board approves the first phase of the four-year, $69.9 million proposal, the first iBook G4 laptops would be distributed this spring. By fall, four high schools would be outfitted as demonstration sites. Within a year, high schoolers could be working with a computer that, at 5 pounds, weighs less than most textbooks. Within...

Canary Wireless LLC, a Chicago start-up, has launched the first hand-held device that not only detects Wi-Fi hot spots and measures how strong their signals are, but can tell whether they are open for subscribers or available for a free ride to check e-mail. Wi-Fi buff Ben Kern, 34, a technology lawyer with Gordon & Glickson, who founded Canary Wireless, said, "Wi-Fi is booming, and people need an easy way to find hot spots they can use."

Holding them in lap overheats scrotum, researchers say By LEE BOWMAN SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE All that computer time on the road or at home may be taking more of a toll on some men than they realize. Reproductive experts warn in a new study that heat generated by laptop computers can have an adverse effect on male fertility. The study, reported today in the journal Human Reproduction, showed that testicular temperatures rose by between 4.6 and 5 degrees Fahrenheit in an hour among a group of healthy male volunteers. "Laptops can reach internal operating temperatures of over 158 degrees,...

Want to be a dad? Keep the laptop off your lap. Scientists from SUNY Stony Brook have discovered that heat generated by laptop computers can potentially affect sperm quality and quantity. "The body needs to maintain a proper testicular temperature for normal sperm production," said lead researcher Dr. Yefim Sheynkin. "Portable computers in a laptop position produce scrotal hyperthermia." That's a fancy way of saying toasted testicles. Heat has long been a culprit in male infertility, and one of the reasons some doctors have counseled wanna-be fathers to wear boxers instead of briefs. Laptop computers can generate internal operating temperatures...

Question for you well traveled Freepers. When traveling (flying) with a laptop, will sending it through the x-ray machine at the airport damage it in any way?

The world's first laptops incorporating automatic protection against the damage caused by a drop have been launched by US computer maker IBM. The new ThinkPad systems use an onboard accelerometer to detect a sudden fall. If an impact seems imminent, then within a tenth of a second the computer's hard drive stops writing data and the read/write head is retracted to a safe position. This is to protect the drive from damage that can result from jarring. An impact can cause the drive's heads to skid across the magnetic disks used to store information inside a hard drive, creating unusable...

SALEM - He was the quiet, well-groomed man in the suit, who kept to himself in this neighborhood nestled at the edge of a bustling college, where almost everybody seemed to be from somewhere else and nobody stood out. But yesterday, a different Ahmed Fathy Mehalba was on display, this time in a federal court, where he appeared in jeans and an orange golf shirt, accused of possessing classified information he allegedly acquired at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he worked as a civilian translator. Just what route the Egyptian-born Mehalba, 31, took after his days...

Educators question spending on laptops for 6th-graders Thursday, July 17, 2003By Dave Murray and Melissa SlagerThe Grand Rapids Press Deunique Wilson, soon to be a sixth-grader in Grand Rapids' Ottawa Montessori program, was excited to hear the state could soon be providing her with a laptop computer. "Sometimes my sister is on the computer for hours and hours, and I can't get on there to do my homework," she said. "That won't be a problem if I have my own computer." But educators say the deal to provide the equipment to Deunique and the state's other 132,000 sixth-graders comes at...

Taxes take a bite out of Maine incomes Many Maine families struggle to make ends meet in one of our nation's slowest growth states. A leading expert on tax and fiscal policy shows that Maine's public policy over a long period of time has caused this slow economic growth. This finding is from a recent report, "Maine's Path to Fiscal Redemption," released by the Maine Public Policy Institute. With Maine's working families paying payroll tax, excise tax, sales, tax, gas tax, property tax and income tax directly or indirectly in the cost of goods, Mainers are suffering from high taxes....

Each day brings new problems, and the USA has become the major source of sensational news. However, there is the impression that the American government would not mind getting rid of this honor.

MacDILL AIR FORCE BASE - Two laptop computers are missing and may have been stolen from the closely guarded headquarters of Gen. Tommy Franks here, federal authorities confirmed Tuesday. Maj. Mike Richmond at the Air Force Office of Special Investigations said his agency is one of those investigating the possible theft of the laptops. A spokeswoman for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Lt. Cdr. Barbara Burfeind, said late Tuesday that she would not comment ``on any ongoing investigation.'' Franks directs the U.S. and coalition forces searching for remaining al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan from the headquarters here of U.S. Central...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) --  Five agencies under Justice Department jurisdiction, including the FBI and DEA, have reported 775 missing or stolen weapons and 400 missing laptop computers, says a report released Monday.</p> <p>Some of the weapons were used to commit crimes and the classification level of 218 of the missing laptops is unknown, said the audit report by the department's Office of Inspector General, an internal investigative unit.</p>

AUGUSTA — Two lawmakers have asked the attorney general’s office to determine the state’s liability if it breaks a contract with Apple Computer for thousands of laptop computers. Reps. Phil Cressey, R-Baldwin, and Brian Duprey, R-Hampden, asked Attorney General Steven Rowe to determine if there’s an out in the $37.2 million contract. They said the money would be better spent to offset a looming $180 million budget shortfall than on computers. “This laptop program here in the state of Maine does not have the support of all the people of the state of Maine,” said Cressey. “When we’re trying to...

NEW YORK, April 18 — Al-Qaida’s apparent use of computers and inexpensive editing software to put together videotapes that emerged this week came as no surprise to U.S. intelligence officials, who told NBC News that laptops and high-speed Internet access had become terrorists’ primary tools for communicating over the past several years.“YOU DON’T NEED a production studio to make a video like this,” a senior U.S. official said. “All you need is the mind of a 15-year-old kid. The software is all out there, ready to buy.” Al-Qaida has used a variety of methods to communicate, most of them relying...