Tech Talk/By Martha Knight

No new Dell LED color printer! Dang! But at least the suspense is over.

Last week I wrote about my continuing hope that UPS would find the DELL 1250c printer I had ordered from Microsoft Store over a month ago, which had been tracked to the last way-station between Harrisburg and Kane and then had, disappeared, ::poof!::

The situation could not be more mysterious if Agatha Christie had written it as “The Printer Vanishes.” It could not be more tantalizing if there were 50 pounds of M&Ms in a bowl, placed almost within reach, but retreating to a point just out of reach whenever I try to get a handful—or fading like a mirage at each lunge by this chocoholic.

We think Tantalus had a bad time of it, trying to pick grapes? Imagine if he had wanted to photograph them and print them in color! And just as he was about to receive a highly rated laser-class printer known to have been shipped to him, he kept receiving phone calls and emails instead, saying UPS is trying to find it, or UPS had given up and was going to pay the shipper, and my payment would be refunded, or Microsoft Store would refund the money or ship me another printer of equal or better value.

In the last installment of this saga I told you a Microsoft Store representative (upper tier) was trying to get another representative (higher tier) to authorize sending me another printer at a very substantial discount—probably no additional cost. Would I choose another printer and tell him by email?

So that’s what I did. I mentioned some models, and then listed the specifications of the kind of printer I was looking for. Laser class, excellent color photo reproduction, reliable paper handling, good range of paper kinds.

Another representative of Microsoft Store called me Monday to tell me that they didn’t have any of those, either. Actually, they had stocked three color printers, one of them an HP inkjet and the others LED. But guess what? All were gone. Sold out. No longer in stock and not expected to return.

But they were refunding my money, and sending me a $75 certificate good for 90 days, which I could use on anything in the store.

So my one remaining hope is that sometime within 90 days Microsoft Store will obtain some laser or LED color printers, for $140 or less: the $70 I was going to pay for the Dell 1250c, plus the $75 value of the certificate.

I am convinced that my printer was stolen. I do not see any way it could have been lost. It was traced to a rather precise location in the UPS system. If it had been placed in the wrong truck by mistake, that would have been ascertained fairly soon. Labels don’t just fall off anymore, and since my system was being traced, a blank box would have been identified easily enough. Anyway, there are documents inside the box as well.

The UPS employees I have seen seem to be trustworthy and helpful. But even “Brown” can have a bad apple in the barrel. I hope they find and fire that person, who works between Harrisburg and Kane, and nabbed my Dell 1250c somewhere within 100 miles of Port.

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Another great deal from a CNET Cheapskate column (Rick Brioda), two days ago, was a Barnes & Noble Nook, a generous 9.5 size for about $100. This color Nook can be fed a preformatted card that turns it into an Android tablet. Even without that it would be an excellent reader, and would be able to access the GoogleStore as well as B&N sources of content. As an Android (Ice Cream Sandwich, or later) tablet it would be a beauty.

I am waiting for a phablet, a tablet that is also a phone, when prices on those come down. But others looking for tablets or readers should check CNET Cheapskate. Seems to me Thursdays are his days to feature tablets. His many followers are called Cheaps.

•    •    •

At the University of Minnesota, biomedical engineering students of Professor Bin He have learned to control a flying robot with their thoughts, without having anything implanted in their brains.

A video of the professor and students demonstrating this feat is on YouTube, and information is available online—Google “mind over mechanics.”

In the video we see a student wearing a tight fitting cap, maybe made of rubber, embedded with many electrodes.

Professor He and his students are using his lab to develop and test brain-computer interfaces (BCI). They want to develop non-invasive ways that brain signals can be utilized: no need to implant chips or leads in the brain.

The helmet features many electrodes, such as would be used in an EEG. The contact with the scalp is accomplished by means of the tight-fitting helmet. The contacts shown lighting up and doing the work in the video interface with the motor cortex and the somatosensory cortex—the brain region where planning, control and execution of movement take place.

The student wearing the helmet is shown directing the flight of a robot, in the lab, and causing it to fly in various patterns, and even through hoops of what look like groups of balloons floating in the air. Wi-Fi is used to carry the signals. Rather precise control is required.

We can think of many sci-fi and recreational possibilities, can’t we? But Professor He is more interested in helping people with damage caused by disease or trauma regain function, controlling artificial limbs or speech generating devices.

Brave New World! No doubt such technology can be abused, as can all others I can think of. But non-invasive BCI could provide such a boon to millions of people, couldn’t it!

Drymar@gmail.com. 596-7546.