So, now we know we’re being scammed. And those of us with an environmental bent are also fairly pissed off about the waste. But what can we do, when the printer locks up due to the “out of ink” message?

We can reset the chip.

Ink cartridge chips are the latest tool used by printer manufacturers to make sure that customers can’t override the low ink warning. The tiny electronic chips monitor ink usage, or, in many cases, simply count pages. Once the predefined threshold of a chip is passed, it will lock up the printer. The warning cannot be overridden.

But it turns out that there is a whole community of irritated printer owners who do not like being scammed. They have started up companies catering to other irritated printer owners, and one of the things they do is take ink cartridges and reverse engineer the chips. Then they build inexpensive “chip resetters” that exist for one purpose only: to reset the chip’s page count or ink level to zero [zero "usage," presumably].

Details on how to do this are at the link.  You learn something every day.

With the environment and sustainability firmly in mind the Dell Froot concept saves the planet courtesy two projectors: One for the virtual keyboard, and another for the monitor.

Designed by Pauline Carlos as part of a sustainability contest sponsored by Dell, the Froot also uses a colorful case that’s constructed out of a biodegradable starch-based polymer. As it’s a futuristic concept, the lack of a mouse is understabdable—we’ll no doubt be using our brains by then.

More seriously, Pico projectors are *almost* there, but not quite, otherwise I’d be asking why this is still just a concept.

Further, the core of the technology will be the mobile camera and the placement of processed information on top of live streaming content from the camera.

We are already seeing some of it with mobile GPS applications, but 2010 will be clearly put these applications on the top shelf of mobile apps. This will allows users to get every information by integrating physical reality and virtual world.

Two young designers are launching a new printing process capable of printing on all natural materials. Previously impossible prints can be made on leather, suede, wool, felt, wood, cotton, etc. More

The device shown in a Web video and code-named Courier is reportedly from Microsoft. The company neither confirms nor denies the product’s existence. More from The Los Angeles Times

I have never heard it explained so clearly before.

As an assignment, Professor Daniel Fletcher of the University of California at Berkeley instructed students to build a functional microscope from a cell phone and a few lenses. When they completed the project, Fletcher and his students realized that they had a useful product, which they named the Cellscope. They hope to use the instrument in impoverished areas of the world where malaria, sickle-cell anemia, and tuberculosis are widespread. In such places, large numbers of microscopes are necessary for diagnosis, but remain very expensive. The Cellscope can be a cheaper alternative to fit this need.

Link

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