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42 Comments
- faraggi, on 03/13/2009, -1/+37finally, we got a method to trap those damn paper murderers
- JamesWjRose, on 03/13/2009, -1/+25I caught a ref to this on CSI recently and thought; "no way" and yet... here it is. However, how can they track the printer back to a specific person? This is rather scary.
- Insightful, on 03/13/2009, -0/+21Yes! I can finally track that piece-of-sheet paper that cut me.
- Insightful, on 03/13/2009, -0/+20... and beat it to a piece of pulp.
- diggitalism, on 03/13/2009, -0/+15the air we breathe will soon be traceable
- flarn2006, on 03/13/2009, -1/+13Even sandpaper?
- lostsymphonies1, on 03/13/2009, -0/+10I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that every single man made object is unique in some way and can be defined by its "fingerprint"
- Zipko, on 03/13/2009, -0/+9printers put a matrix of faint dots in the corner of every page. The dots form a binary data set that can be interpreted to find out the printer model and serial number and the date it was printed.
- gavroche, on 03/13/2009, -1/+10Oh hey smart guy, that's why he put it between quotation marks.
- stix213, on 03/13/2009, -1/+8If you leave the Double Cheeseburger in the fridge for a few months, it will still be worth more than AIG stock, so yeah I'd go with the Double Cheeseburger too!
- inactive, on 03/13/2009, -0/+7Sure, it sounds nice and dandy... until you get dirt, coffee, etc all over it.
- Vindicoth, on 03/13/2009, -1/+7Anyone in college. You should try it.
- inactive, on 03/13/2009, -0/+6The serial number alone doesn't mean you're tracable though - if you bought a printer off someone else, got it from someone else, or any other way that would obscure it, then you probably can't be traced.
It might also be possible to somehow stop the printer from printing these, so i'm sure it's not really a big deal. - inactive, on 03/13/2009, -0/+6NO WAY, IT'S FRONT PAGE FOR YOU TOO?
- inactive, on 03/13/2009, -0/+5The same record was just broke for comments thanks to you.
- aggemam, on 03/13/2009, -1/+5Or toilet ?
- jinxation, on 03/13/2009, -0/+4FYI, laser copiers only do this when they are color, as the fingerprint requires yellow toner. As for how it's traceable, serialization. Most high res printers are tracked.
- dbixler, on 03/13/2009, -0/+4Actually, this isn't really that surprising. I figure eventually, they'll just be able to create an MD5 hash of all of the atoms in an object and then we won't ever see one of these types of posts on Digg ever again :P.
- soccerman90, on 03/13/2009, -2/+5the air you're breathing is the same air people have been breathing for hundreds of thousands of years
- Tumblew33ds, on 03/13/2009, -0/+3I agree
- cheddaro, on 03/13/2009, -2/+5And yet you can still copy any credit card using $200 hardware available from Ebay.
So, yeah, expect this technology to find practical applications sometime around 2110. - jpop, on 03/13/2009, -0/+3It's not a perfect thing, and odds are highly against them tracking you down. 1) They need to get a serial number. (Possible) 2) They need to go to the manufacturer and see what vendor they sent it to (Possible) or if the printer's been registered with user information. (Possible if you've registered your hardware). Assuming you haven't registered it, 3) They need to go to the vendor and see if they they can find out where it was sold (possible) and to whom (very flaky depending on the recordkeeping for the vendor). Some vendors will track the serial numbers for hardware to ensure that if you return the printer, you're actually returning the printer you sold and not some other printer that doesn't work anymore. I would assume that all online vendors track the serials for their inventory management systems.
At the best, they'll nail you right away because you registered your printer. At the worst, they'll know the general areas where the printer was purchased. - aliHG, on 03/13/2009, -0/+3Response from Dunder-Mifflin's Dwight K. Schrute, tomorrow at 10am.
- Demener, on 03/13/2009, -0/+2That's cool but very niche.
- ChayesFSS, on 03/14/2009, -0/+2I've been cutting letters and stapling them to animal hides bought from ebay, rolling them and leaving them around for people to read in populated areas. Am I safe or can they track me?
- u3b3rg33k, on 10/30/2009, -0/+1They do it with gunpowder, too.
- inactive, on 03/13/2009, -0/+1Sshhh, that's next week.
- xyqxyq, on 03/14/2009, -0/+1Just what I was thinking.
- raggles, on 03/13/2009, -0/+1IT SO IS! _AND_, GET THIS; IT'S BORING ***** THAT SHOULD NEVER HAVE MADE IT TO THE FRONT PAGE!
- Sefus, on 03/14/2009, -1/+2What a waste of money. Are they gonna track every peice from every ream of paper? How the hell did we ever survive without this technology?
- garethD, on 03/15/2009, -0/+1Or crepe ?
- subigo, on 03/13/2009, -0/+1This gives me a new Golden Ticket idea...
- Azsen, on 03/13/2009, -2/+2If you want to print something untraceable you go to an internet cafe wearing a baseball cap/hoody and sunglasses, avoid the security cameras as best you can, pay in cash, and print it off there.
- someguy92, on 03/13/2009, -3/+1Buried for advertising crappy food.
- AaronCo, on 03/13/2009, -4/+1Fart...
- Tumblew33ds, on 03/13/2009, -4/+1Since this technology is already available, it would ultimately cost less to implement as a security method.. Considering that inventing something newer would costly for the taxpayers, it's a viable option.
- inactive, on 03/13/2009, -7/+3Who the ***** still uses paper? ***** noobs.
- clickmyface, on 03/13/2009, -5/+1thats what she said
- colonizemars, on 03/13/2009, -5/+0This may be the least interesting thing I've ever seen hit the front page.
- Bilbobaggins, on 03/13/2009, -11/+4I wasn't aware paper had fingers.
- nomadspartan, on 03/13/2009, -11/+3Well i find my finger prints on my dollar bill, with which i can either Buy McDonald's Dollar menu or AIG stock.. Hmm.. which one should i buy. I will go for Double cheese burger :).
- raggles, on 03/13/2009, -11/+1FRONT PAGE.
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