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Soon after Lower Merion schools started handing out laptops to high school students in 2008, a school board member had a question: Were any being lost or stolen? The query, from Jerry Novick, drew a small smile from the technology chief, Virginia DeMedio. "We did have a theft," she said. "And we have a way we can track them. . . . "There were six that were taken. All but one came back."

The vice chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission could scarcely contain his scorn. Before the commission was yet another appeal from a Philadelphia-area family, again seeking a break on unpaid electric and gas bills that by last year were closing in on $30,000. This family lived in a $986,000 house on the Main Line. The breadwinner, until recently, had earned well more than $100,000 per year. Yet he and his wife were in hock to creditors, ranging from Uncle Sam to their former synagogue - and had regularly been stiffing Peco Energy for five years, breaking payment plan after...

SNIPPET: "PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN — The young Taliban detainee, shackled at the wrists, with his head covered with a black canvas bag, was chillingly clear about his life's mission: "The Taliban have only one objective: to continue killing the Americans." The tools this particular terrorist had adopted to accomplish that goal were not suicide bombs or sniper rifles, but laptop computers and other high-tech equipment. The purpose of his Taliban cell was to reach potential recruits online over the Internet." Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/world/Taliban-Internet-recruiting-through-the-eyes-of-a-detainee-87709987.html

Sorry for the Saturday morning vanity - but I know someone out there in Freeperland can help me. I have a Sony Viao laptop hooked up to a docking station to which is attached my Dell Monitor. I have a wireless Logitech keyboard and mouse. For some unknown reason, my monitor stays in "sleep mode" all the time! I cannot get it to be "on" and viewable! Black screen at all times. There are 4 buttons on the lower right corner of the monitor and I have tried pushing in each of these buttons and the yellow light that is...

When it comes to computer technology, thin is always in. It’s indisputable that the thinner, lighter, clearer, the better when dealing with the latest computer gadget. This keyboard is the epitome of the high standards expected of the technological version of the fashion industry. It’s based on image as well, that is, image recognition technology.

He says "They don't even realize we are watching," "I always like to mess with them and take a picture," and "9 times out of 10, THEY DUCK OUT OF THE WAY."

Webcams can be a window to the world. But a lawsuit filed this week claims they are also a one-way window being used by school officials to peek in on students and their families at home. A federal lawsuit filed Wednesday by the parents of a Harriton High School student alleges that the Lower Merion School District has been remotely spying on students inside their homes through their webcam-enabled district-issued computers. According to the suit filed by Mark S. Haltzman with the firm Lamm Rubenstone, Lindy Matsko, an assistant principal at Harriton, told a minor student in November that the...

Lower Merion School District officials brag that they give every one of their 1,800 high-schoolers laptop computers to "ensure that all students have 24/7 access to school-based resources." Instead, they ensured they got a 24/7 sneak peek into students’ private lives by secretly monitoring webcams embedded in the laptops to spy on teens and their families at home, according to a federal, class-action lawsuit filed this week in Philadelphia. The suit alleges the remotely controlled covert cameras violate everything from the Fourth Amendment to wiretapping, electronic communications and computer fraud laws.....

Nokia has a phone that has a clear screen that was all for looks. I don’t care for being able to see through a screen myself; the feature is more of a gimmick to me. I certainly don’t want to be able to see through the display of my notebook at what is going on behind me. Samsung showed off a notebook with a transparent AMOLED screen a while back and the notebook was popular enough that reports are now coming in that Samsung plans to bring the notebook to market in the next 12 months. The machine will come...

Just saw my first ad fior a sub $500 full fledged 15" screen notebook today....Just commenting, on the evolution in pricing. When Win 7 first came out, you couldn't find a notebook with it for under $700. I guess the OEMs have finally cleared out most of their back stock of Vista licenses, and PCs that can't handle Win 7. I'll expect we'll be seeing better deals on laptops with Win 7 coming out soon. If for no other reason than to compete better with iPad prices. Why buy crippleware when the full real deal costs the same or less?

SNIPPET: "MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - Munich international airport was re-opened on Wednesday after a three-hour shut down caused when a passenger left the security check even though his laptop computer set off an explosives detector, police said. About 1,200 police did not find the man in their search of the terminal, which was shut down and completely evacuated. "

Netbook gravy train starts to slow as euphoria fades Netbook shipments have started cooling after witnessing an explosive surge since late last year as customers started realizing its limits and looking for portable and affordable alternatives for full-size laptops. According to Xia Li, vice-president of Lenovo Group, growth in netbook sales during the second half of this year has slowed as consumers have started becoming more rational in their purchases. "Netbook sales surged in the past as consumers bought the product as gifts or as first laptops," he said. But with consumers starting to realize the limits of the products,...

Remember Compaq? Hewlett-Packard acquired the venerable computer company way back in 2002, but it's kept the name alive as a secondary brand ever since, mainly relegating Compaq to overseas markets (Compaq is particularly popular in Asia) and as second-tier PCs sold on the cheap at warehouse-style stores. But now HP is looking to breathe a little new life into the Compaq brand, positioning it not just as a label for extremely cheap computer equipment but also as one with mainstream appeal in the U.S. Today the company is announcing the rollout of a line of ultra-inexpensive PCs, both laptops and...

Ultra-low prices on portable computers are nothing new, and in fact have increasingly become the norm since the debut of netbooks — small and light ultraportables that are virtually defined by their low cost. However, there are some strong reasons to believe that Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 7 operating system, in addition to new types of Linux-based portables, could help drive profit margins for hardware manufacturers to surprising new bottoms. But is it good for the tech industry for laptops and netbooks alike to sell for fire-sale prices? And can hardware providers build healthy businesses around a new, premium-priced operating system?...

SNIPPET: "Aleem N. is then accused of then having transported the equipment and money to al-Qaida contacts in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. Sermet I. visited Aleem N. many times at his apartment in the town of Germersheim in western Germany, prosecutors said. The German of Pakistani heritage, who has been identified by his family as Aleem Nasir, went on trial in December in Koblenz, also charged with membership in Al Qaeda. A verdict is expected next Monday. In another linked case, prosecutors in March charged 31-year-old Omer O. with membership in Al Qaeda on allegations he was collecting money and...

Bought an aftermarket replacement battery from Ebay for $40 which is much more reasonable than the $130 Compaq charges. In any event I want to be able to maximize battery lifespan but also be able to use the battery to it's limits so as to near it's end of life so I can get a replacement if/when it fails to within a year. With the original laptop battery I tried to maximize the time the laptop was running off the battery to try this theory. I'd basically start from 100% full and then run it down to 8-10% and then...

Need some techie help pls . fellow Freepers. I have an XP Media HP laptop 2006 1.6 GB 2006. The laptop keeps attempting to boot up, the power is on but it wont just go to the XP /os start up,,,(the past 20 minutes now) the solution pls especially how to access the laptop drive because it looks like I will have to reboot this laptop completely with the recovery disks BUT I dont want to unless neccessary. And there's some info that I need to get to especially the hard drive. Expert and intermediate suggestions and solutions pls..

My daughter wants an Apple laptop for college in late August. Is there any reason to wait to buy one? Is anything new due out from Apple? Any suggestions on what to buy?

Note: The following text is a quote: Ali Al-Marri Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to Al-Qaeda Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, 43, a dual national of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaeda. Al-Marri entered his guilty plea at a hearing this afternoon before Judge Michael M. Mihm in U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois. In so doing, al-Marri admitted that he agreed with others to provide material support or resources to al-Qaeda in the form of personnel, including himself, to work under al-Qaeda’s...

At one point in the first half of last night's loss to West Virginia, Notre Dame trailed 11-2, with one made field goal and one broken laptop. An errant pass from Zach Hillesland sailed into press row and made a direct strike into the back of a New York Times Web producer's Dell laptop. We'll let him remain anonymous, but he gave us the permission to run the photo below. As you can see, his screen was fried: