Know What Yellow Dots Say About You

A study done by Electronic Frontier Foundation finds that most color laser printers add an identifying code on every page you print. This code is actually microscopic yellow dots printed on each page in a grid pattern. Normally these dots are invisible to the naked eye and can only be seen using a blue LED light.

The information in the yellow dots varies, some have just the serial number of the printer and others also have the date printed. On the picture below you can see the date and time when page was printed and the serial number of the printer.

Originally the technology was implemented to help secret services track and find counterfeiter who use color laser printers to forge money and other valuable documents. But who know how seriously this can compromise our privacy.

A Laser Printer That Sucks

Did you know your laser printer may actually save you from infringing the DMCA. Yes, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that prohibits you downloading pirated movies and software.

How is that possible?

Guys from University of Washington examined BitTorrent file-sharing networks using specially designed BitTorrent clients to monitor the traffic on these networks. The researchers didn’t download any files, but somehow they received over 400 takedown requests - notices from the ISP to stop distributing that copyrighted content.

Funny thing is one of those requests was forwarded to a network laser printer implying that it was downloading something. A coincidental discovery that one may use it his favor, don't you think?

New Lexmark Multifucntions

New Lexmark multifunction printers are designed for small and home offices. Lexmark X782e, X940e and X945e are more suitable for workgroups, while Lexmark X500n and X502n are optimized for personal use.

Lexmark X782e, X940e and X945e multifunctions feature proprietary eTask Interface based on touch-screen. As stated, the interface enables simplest operation of the devices, shorter training time and automation of routine. Lexmark claims the main areas of the new devices’ use to be retailing, banking, healthcare, administrative and educational institutions.
All devices use laser printer cartridges but with different print speed. Lexmark X782e produces 35 pages per minute (ppm) in color and 40 ppm in monochrome. Lexmark X940e is a bit slower – 30 and 40 ppm monochrome and color, respectfully. However, the most powerful is Lexmark X945e, a multifunction printing as fast as 40 full-color pages per minute and 45 black-and-white pages per minute.

Lexmark declares its desktop models Lexmark X500n and X502n, that can print, copy and scan color documents, to be the most cost effective devices in their class. Maximum performance is 8 ppm, when printing in color, and 31 ppm of monochrome printing. The models feature 35-sheet Automatic Document Feeder, and Lexmark X502n also can sent and receive faxes.

Smallest A3 Color Laser Printer

Another smallest color printer this time it’s A3, this time by it’s OKI. The new C8600n being actually large (485 x 556 x 345 mm.), it is relatively small compared to other printers of the same class.

OKI C8600n uses a single-pass digital LED technology; this allows for a smoother paper pass during printing and less paper jams.

The printer has a built-in LCD screen and six navigation buttons to access the printer's functions.

Equipped with an USB 2.0 port, the printer is network-ready as well and wields 128 MB of RAM.

OKI C8600n supports 1,200 x 600dpi resolution and prints with toner as fast as 32 ppm in monochrome and 26 ppm in color for A4-sized documents. A3-sized documents come out at speed of 17 and 15 in black and color respectively. It’s also capable of printing up to 1.2-meter long A3 banners.