Electrical engineering checking in my vote goes to Maria. I like girls what else can I say. And thank you for starting this thread (to a person who started). by the way does anybody know that surges in US do not damage computers (I have no idea why). Power supply can be used on 120 or 220 volts could this be a reason? and when you break Neutral wire and create 240 volt, most of the equipment burns except computer.
Physics checking in ...... This is true for the type of UPS systems you mention. In fact, it is usually better to not use any surge supression ahead of the UPS system - assuming the UPS system has certain characteristics - for exactly the issue you mention. I might also add that most people have no idea that low cost surge suppressors eventually wear out - and can fail in a most dramatic way - but give no indication to the user of this fact .....
Please provide proof of this statement or retract it. You seem to be vaguely referring to the somewhat recent discovery that SOME color laser manufacturers print a series of near-invisible yellow dots on every page that can be translated back to the printer serial number, date and time. This was done at the request of the US secret service. It is not every color laser printer and certainly not "all modern printers". http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2005_10.php, see Secret Code in Color Printers Lets Government Track You List of printers that do and do not have the technology: http://www.eff.org/Privacy/printers/list.php
Microsoft used to recommend (don't know if they still do) that you always hit ctrl-alt-delete to bring up the login screen. The reason is that it is possible for someone to write software that looks like the login screen and leave it running on your machine (if you forget to logoff/lock it), thus when you "login" to their software you just gave them your username/password. Apparently the OS does not allow any application to intercept ctrl-alt-delete so once you press those keys you know that the OS now has control, not some rogue app. Edit, apparently they still do recommend it: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308226&sd=tech
Don't believe everything you read on the internet. The Dell keylogger conspiracy hoax http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000317047049/ Conspiracy theory of the day: Dell Laptop with built-in keylogger http://www.boingboing.net/2005/06/16/conspiracy_theory_of.htm Google for "laptop keyboard logger hoax" and read many many more....
You probably are not going to like this but ....... It is exrtemely easy to encode - in either a color or greyscale image - information that can not be detected by a human eye but can be detected by sampling the printed image. Whether anyone has custom encoded these algorithms into ASICs is not known - nobody except perhaps the government has the resources to reverse engineer all the commercial printers ..... The algorithms would not appreciably slow down the printing process and the encoding detection levels are within the parameters of almost all modern printers including inkjet or laser......
The govt doesnt need to reverse engineer anything - they need to convince the printer manufacturers to insert these codes into their printers (or printer drivers) unless you are claiming that the govt convinced the asic manufacturers to supply chips that had been modified without the printer manufacturers knowledge. In any case, without a shred of proof (which exists for color laser printers) it is all speculation and not based on any evidence. Since the OP also fell for the laptop keylogger hoax I'm going to err on the side of caution on this declaration and assume he again is misinformed.
Yes, because we all know its impossible to write a fake login screen program for Linux (rolls eyes) http://www.linux.com/howtos/Secure-Programs-HOWTO/trusted-path.shtml