The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: December 10, 2006

Official News - page 5

REAL LIFE NEWS: SELF-ERASING PAPER

by Hazed

Whoever said the computers would usher in the era of the paperless office was nuts. They just made it easier to produce more and more print-outs, particularly of things that only need to be read once and then discarded. Even emails and other electronic communications get printed out - and although the Fed2 Star gets published on the web and by email, I still print out all of the articles so I can proof-read them and correct the mistakes before publishing.

Now Xerox has come up with a solution to the problem of temporary print-outs: self-erasing paper. The sheets are coated with a special chemical that causes the ink to fade when exposed to light, generally 16 to 24 hours after printing, but the erasing process can be sped up by passing the paper through the printer again.

Sounds great, but I can foresee problems. You're going to have to be very careful to remember what kind of paper you have in your printer: permanent or self-erasing. Imagine printing out a very important document, like a contract, and having it vanish after 24 hours! On the other hand, it'll allow you to send love letters or memos that you don't really mean, or to send secret mission instructions to spies, and have the evidence vanish away.


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