An anonymous reader writes "I know most people use backup services in the cloud now, off-site, but does anyone have good ideas on how to best protect data without it leaving the site? I'm a photographer and, I shoot 32GB to 64GB in a couple of hours. I've accumulated about 8TB of images over the past decade and just can't imagine paying to host them somewhere off-site. I don't make enough money as it is. Currently I just redundantly back them up to hard drives in different rooms of my house, but that's a total crapshoot — if there's a fire, I'd be out of luck. Does anyone keep a hard disk or NAS inside a fireproof safe? In a bunker in the cellar? In the detached garage? It's so much data that even doing routine backups bogs the system down for days. I'd love suggestions, especially from gamers or videographers who have TBs of data they need to back up, on what options there are with a limited budget to maximize protection."
derekmead writes "Meshworm is a toughened, robotic earthworm that can crawl virtually silently at a speed of about 5 millimeters per second. DARPA wants to send it into battle. Believe it or not, the Pentagon's been working on building a robotic earthworm for a while. They tried putting one together with gears. They tried with air-powered and pneumatic pumps, but the results were bulky and untenable. Then, researchers at Harvard, MIT and Seoul National University in Korea put their heads together and designed an 'artificial muscle.' It's essentially a polymer mesh that's wrapped with nickel and titanium wire designed to stretch and contract with heat. When an electric current is applied, the mesh mimics the circular muscle system of an earthworm to scoot forward."
An anonymous reader writes "This week, Google was given approval of a network OS patent that it applied for back in 2009. The design of the OS is built for 'providing an operating system over a network to a local device' to provision new versions of operating systems onto hardware devices. Filed in March 2009, the idea for Chrome OS was protected by Google early in the development process of the OS, but it was hardly new and unique, given the general description of its features in the patent itself. It is the best sign yet that Google is working toward seamless hardware and software experiences."
jfruh writes "Cynthia Navarro starts her sessions training police to mine social media in dramatic fashion: by quickly finding data about the officers themselves. She also provides information about who's where online — for instance, younger suspects will probably be focused on Twitter, while older folks are on Facebook or even MySpace. 'How much information can be gathered? Look no further than the 2011 Stanley Cup Riots in Vancouver, BC. By examining hours of video and social media posts made during the event, a taskforce was able to post pictures of over 100 suspected rioters online — over 30 of which were identified by police.' It's all part of a drive to teach even nontechnical police officers at small and midsized departments how to use social media to track suspects."
hypnosec writes with news that Sergey Aleynikov, once a programmer for Goldman Sachs, has been arrested and charged again for stealing code from his employer in 2009. Aleynikov was originally charged for the crime in 2009. He was convicted in 2010 and sentenced to 97 months in prison, but an appeals court overturned the verdict, saying the corporate espionage laws were misapplied. Manhattan District Attorney Cryus Vance said, "This code is so highly confidential that it is known in the industry as the firm's 'secret sauce.' Employees who exploit their access to sensitive information should expect to face criminal prosecution in New York State in appropriate cases." The Fifth Amendment's "double jeopardy" clause is unlikely to stop this case because it's within a different jurisdiction — the earlier trial was in federal court, and this one is in New York State court.
New submitter glebovitz writes "In case anyone missed the other Nokia news: on the same day they announced the sale of Qt to Digia, they also sold 500 patents to Vringo. Vringo, a video ring tone company, recently merged with patent portfolio company Innovate/Protect which includes Donald Stout, the founder of patent holding company NTP, on its board. Forbes refers to NTP as 'a patent troll which milked Research In Motion for $612.5 million in a patent infringement settlement reached in 2006.' As Eric Savitz writes in the article, 'Vringo decided to basically turn itself into a patent troll.'"
OverTheGeicoE writes "Why is it that airport security never seems to change in the United States? Perhaps it's because most Americans think the TSA is doing a 'good job,' according to a surprise Gallup poll, allegedly commissioned by no one but the kind editors at Gallup. The poll found that 54% of Americans believe the TSA is doing a good or excellent job, and that 57% have a good or excellent opinion of the agency. So why all the criticism? According to the article, criticism of the TSA comes primarily from 'Internet sites, where reporting standards are generally not at the same level as newspapers, where reporters are taught to consider what is told to them with skepticism and to seek responses to charges.' Furthermore, 'the TSA is put into a difficult situation when such charges are posted with little or no fact checking by reporters.' Other sources, of course, have different interpretations of Gallup's results, including questions about whether the poll was biased. If Americans secretly do love the TSA, that could explain why the recent whitehouse.gov petition failed to gather enough signatures for a 'response.' In fact, you'll find so little information about the petition remains on whitehouse.gov that you'll wonder if my link is correct. And these are not the droids you're looking for. Move along."
cylonlover writes "Unlike in old B movies, real scientists don't scream, 'Fools! I'll destroy them all!' before throwing the switch on their doomsday device. At least, most of the them don't. However, the August 10 issue of the Astrophysical Journal reports that a team of scientists are working on destroying the world – not once, but repeatedly (abstract). Fortunately, the world they're vaporizing exists only in a computer simulation and its destruction is in the service of learning more about planets revolving around other stars."
An anonymous reader writes "Steve Yegge is back at it again. This essay is on the notion that software engineers range from conservative to liberal in their notion of software and how it should be built. He says, 'Just as in real-world politics, software conservatism and liberalism are radically different world views. Make no mistake: they are at odds. They have opposing value systems, priorities, core beliefs and motivations. These value systems clash at design time, at implementation time, at diagnostic time, at recovery time. They get along like green eggs and ham. I think it is important for us to recognize and understand the conservative/liberal distinction in our industry. It probably won't help us agree on anything, pretty much by definition. Any particular issue only makes it onto the political axis if there is a fundamental, irreconcilable difference of opinion about it. Programmers probably won't — or maybe even can't — change their core value systems. But the political-axis framework gives us a familiar set of ideas and terms for identifying areas of fundamental disagreement. This can lead to faster problem resolution.'"
Earthworm Jim? Is that you? Researchers successfully devise a soft, autonomous worm-like robot.
When assigning search result rankings, Google will now take reports of copyright violation into account.
Based on Fedora's strategy, this new approach to Windows 8's restrictions adds new flexibility to the mix.
The Kindle DX is now $269.
We answer some frequently asked questions about the Gauss virus.
With Oracle now in a self-imposed "quiet period" prior to its next quarterly earnings release, it's not likely the company will make any major announcements...
From remote calendar access to auto-declining appointments, here are 10 tips and tricks that will keep you focused, organized and productive.
Not all weeks can be perfect. After the success of the Mars Rover, NASA hit a slight bump with the crash landing of Project Morpheus.
Google released two new internally authored technologies this week that could help ease the burdens of Web developers. One is a tool for spotting memory leaks in...
Not that the usual 99-cent price tag was going to destroy your budget, but free is always better. This handy app lets you book travel, manage itineraries, and much more.
A peek at the latest beta reveals new connectivity features and interface updates in the refresh to Apple's mobile operating system.
This 3D-printing robot uses sand and soil to create elegant sculptures that are impressive and sturdy enough to display without them crumbling instantly.
This week we have an interesting online take on a Risk-style world conquest game and a mars rover game directly from NASA.
The next Windows needs something memorable or catchy that can help Microsoft's new design aesthetic to outlive its legacy.
Curiosity sends back its first color 360-degree panorama of its surrounding Martian landscape.
As part of the deal, Facebook denies the allegations and makes no admission of guilt.
The London 2012 Website has deteriorated during demand during the Olympic Games, performing poorly in a number of areas.
We rely on the FTC, FCC, and other US agencies to enforce policies and defend average citizens, but they frequently drop the ball.
Just how much does Apple dominate competitors in the U.S. tablet market? The question has always been one left to estimates by analysts, but documents recently...
Diablo III and World of Warcraft players should change their passwords and protect their e-mail accounts now, and expect tighter security from the gaming service.
A new malware threat has been discovered that seems to have the same state-sponsored roots as Stuxnet, Duqu, and Flame.
UPDATE: The $22.5 million civil penalty is the largest ever secured by the Federal Trade Commission for a violation of one of its orders.
Warner Music Group reports 8% of its total revenue comes from streaming music services. CD buying is down, but so perhaps is piracy.
Apple is matching discounted pricing of the iPhone at third-party retailers. Many see this as the strongest signal yet from Apple it will release a new iPhone model soon.
Foxconn Technology Group said on Friday it will resubmit a required regulatory filing to buy a stake in Sharp, after Taiwan's government returned the previous...
The number of new IT and business process outsourcing contracts worldwide dropped by 20 percent to 411 in the second quarter from 516 in the same quarter a year...
Samsung has shared more details about its next-generation Exynos 5 Dual dual-core mobile processor, which will be two times faster than comparable Exynos chips...
Local authorities in China said on Thursday that they found no underage workers at a Samsung Electronics manufacturing supplier that a labor watchdog group...
A former programmer for Goldman Sachs has been charged again with pilfering sensitive source code despite his successful appeal in April of his U.S. Federal...
Yahoo's new CEO Marissa Mayer is reviewing the company's business strategy, which could lead it to change its plans to return to shareholders after tax cash...
The World of Warcraft and Starcraft maker is prodding some users to change their passwords and security questions.
Picture doing a remote software upgrade. Now picture doing it when the machine you're upgrading is a robotic rover sitting 350 million miles away, on the surface of the planet Mars.
Tablet-focused touch capabilities, meanwhile, are now on the way to the GNOME desktop.
Tough talk about Microsoft's upcoming tablet is the latest sign of a PC industry in panic mode.
Facebook has set up a special email address for users to forward suspicious emails to.
Samsung could face penalties from a federal judge after one of its lawyers involved in the patent battle against Apple admitted that she hadn't file the paperwork necessary to practice in the court.
Former President Bill Clinton will speak at December's Dell World event in Austin, Texas, Dell announced.
Capacitive touch-sensing technology is best known for its use in touchscreens, but one modder used CapSense for a homemade game controller.
Cloud computing has taken some heat this week.
With no budget, our manager has to devise a security awareness and training program on his own.
If you are one of the many Facebook users who have resisted the switch to Timeline, your days with the old format are numbered: Reports say that Facebook will begin rolling out Timeline to all members by the fall.
Microsoft is preparing to open an additional dozen pop-up stores across the country, just in time for the holidays.
With business accelerating, it's about handling the bumps in the road.
When I attended TechEd 2012 in Amsterdam at the end of June, the Windows To Go session was likely the most attended session all day. And it's easy to see why.
A Microsoft job listing (pulled earlier today) said that a new Xbox will be coming in 18 months.
Cloud storage provider Livedrive introduced an app for Google's Chromebook on Thursday that is designed to give Livedrive customers access to their files stored...
Salesforce.com is planning to up its stake in human resources software with the unveiling of a new service called Work.com next month during the Dreamforce event...
Why powder your nose when you can powder your way to a whole universe of possibilities?
CameraMator is a wireless device that lets you preview your DSLR images and control your camera with an iPhone and iPad.
Are road maps too mundane for you? Try working your way through this massive data map of the sky instead.