Word: lasered
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Most deflating has been the market for office automation, the largest component of the industry. Sales of hardware and software were good -- up 7% to $300 billion -- but not great compared with the 18% growth during the '80s. Though the category contains everything from laser printers and multifunction telephones to electronic-mail systems, the staple of office automation remains the computer. During the 1980s, Corporate America spent about $98 billion on 57 million personal computers...
...frustrating. Chemical weapons are ridiculously easy to make; even a chemical used in ink for ball-point pens can readily be treated to form mustard gas. Verification proposals include "black box" sensors installed at chemical plants to analyze randomly what is being produced; another idea is to aim laser infrared radars at smokestack plumes. While such techniques would not be perfect, says a U.S. official, "chemical weapons are so difficult to control that any slowing down of the train is valuable." The same could be said of nukes. Although it has prevented diversion of materials from peaceful uses, the IAEA...
...supplier is an Israeli secret), to monitor the movement of Palestinians living in the occupied territories. Singapore, known for its strict regulation of everything from littering to drug peddling, has purchased more than $12 million worth of computer equipment from NEC, including a machine-readable ID-card system (with laser-engraved thumbprint) and an automated fingerprint-identification system...
...swarms of tiny earthquakes that occur as the magma rises. Chemical sensors, mounted on airplanes, can detect increases in sulfur-dioxide emissions, indicating that magma has reached the surface. In addition, the physical swelling of mountain slopes, well documented at Mount St. Helens, is a sign of explosive potential. Laser-based devices can pick up minute bulges that are about the width of a nickel and still invisible to the naked eye. In Japan researchers have set up video cameras to monitor the shape and color of fumes at 19 of the country's most worrisome volcanoes...
...future royalties. A New York City company, Refac Technology, has sued more than 2,000 companies, including IBM, Kodak, Sears, Exxon and Sony, on behalf of small inventors. Refac raised more than $3 million from investors to finance a series of suits by Gordon Gould, inventor of the laser, against the likes of AT&T and Xerox. The companies settled. Refac's revenues last year, mainly from royalty fees, exceeded $10 million. The courts last year limited such investor-funded suits by restricting third parties from buying an interest in a patent solely for the purpose of pursuing infringement lawsuits...