5 online backup services keep your data safe
It's a fact of modern life that archiving data is essential to prevent a data disaster. Still, something like one-third of computers are never backed up, according to 2,257 respondents in a recent Backblaze poll carried out by Harris Interactive. The survey came to the dismal conclusion that a scant 7% of users practice safe computing by archiving their systems on a daily (or nightly) basis.
"It's pitiful how few people protect their key data," says Dave Simpson, senior analyst at the market analysis firm 451 Group. "Once it's gone, it's gone."
In place of the traditional technique of storing backups on an external hard drive, an increasingly popular remedy is to use an online backup service that saves the data on servers in the cloud. You don't need any extra hardware and once it's been set up, the system can automatically do the deed when the computer is idle.
"Online backup is a real alternative to local backups," adds Simpson. "It is a popular option to storing backups on a hard drive." Read more...
Symantec releases faster next-gen NetBackup, Backup Exec software
Symantec on Monday unveiled new versions of its flagship NetBackup enterprise-class and Backup Exec midrange backup applications -- Backup Exec 2012 and NetBackup v7.5.
The Backup Exec 2012 version includes a new user interface that can automatically configure backups based on the most common policies and settings used by Symatec customers.
The new interface allows for quick configuration with minimal effort, said Jason Fisher, director of product management at Symantec.
The updated Backup Exec offering is available through its traditional software distribution means, as well as in a pre-configured appliance and as a SaaS service. Read more...
Microsoft: Keep the Start menu in Windows 8, please!
The blogosphere lit up over the weekend with screenshots of the latest almost-ready-for-Customer-Preview version of Windows 8, known as Build 8220. You can see the screenshots on the Chinese-language website PCBeta.com.
If you've been playing with the Developer Preview, you know that the "legacy" Windows desktop has a big black hole in the lower-left corner, with a very retro Windows Start flag on it. Click on the desktop's Start flag and you're hurled into the Metro interface -- a very rude comeuppance for anyone expecting the two-decade-old Windows Start menu.
Take a close look at the screenshots of Build 8220 and you'll see that the flat Start flag from the Developer Preview isn't there any more. In its place there's a blank spot that's about a third as wide as a normal Taskbar icon. I'm told if you hover your mouse (or swipe your finger?) over the new version of the black hole on the legacy desktop, you see a preview of the Metro screen. Click, and you go to the Metro screen. Conversely, if you're looking at the Metro screen and you hover your mouse or swipe your finger to the lower-left corner, you see a preview of the legacy desktop. Read more...
SAP community portal launch date unclear due to bugs
Serious technical problems that have delayed the rollout of an upgrade to SAP's community portal are persisting, to the point where the company is no longer specifying a launch date.
In December, SAP announced that the launch of the new SAP Community Network, originally planned for that month, would be pushed forward to early this year due to various technical problems.
"Since then, while all of us have been working on the new platform, I've been publicly quiet on the launch topic, since the news changed daily as progress was made on one front, and new issues were uncovered on other fronts, and I didn't want to set a new date or new expectations and not be fully confident of living up to them," said Mark Yolton, senior vice president of SAP communities and social media, in a blog post late Friday. "I think it's time now to provide you an update and to explain what you can expect, and when." Read more...
Verizon to set up streaming service with Redbox
Phone company Verizon Communications Inc. will challenge Netflix and start a video streaming service this year with Redbox and its DVD rental kiosks.
Verizon and Coinstar Inc., Redbox's parent, said Monday that the service will be national and available to non-Verizon customers as well. It adds another leg to Verizon's quest to become a force in home entertainment, and it looks set to compete to some extent with the cable-TV services it already sells.
Verizon has its own cable-TV service, called FiOS, in some areas. Its Verizon Wireless subsidiary has also signed a deal to sell service from Comcast Corp. and other cable TV companies in its stores. Read more...
Anonymous hack an anti-hacking FBI call; takes down the Boston PD
Whether you agree with the tactics of hacker group Anonymous or not, you have to admit they have a good sense of irony. Earlier today, the group hacked an FBI conference call about ... the threat posed by Anonymous.
News of the hack spread quickly via Twitter, and a recording of the call was posted on YouTube. The FBI has confirmed the authenticity of the recording in a statement, saying that they are "hunting those responsible." Read more...
Android Alternatives to Apple’s Siri Personal Assistant
When it was announced in October, one of the headline features of Apple's iPhone 4S was Siri, an "intelligent assistant" which answers spoken questions and takes orders given in natural English. It was less like Google's Voice Actions for Android, an app which understands a limited set of specific commands, and more like the computers on Star Trek.
Not exactly like them. Its limited vocabulary includes facetious, canned responses to questions like "What is the meaning of life?" which Internet comedians have exploited. Meanwhile, noted feminist writer Amanda Marcotte has observed "Siri is an electronic version of a [female] secretary," and that its answers to questions about women's health issues are very unhelpful ... especially compared to its answers for men who want to solicit sex workers.
Despite these issues -- and outages that have affected Siri's network service on and off since November -- Siri remains one of the iPhone 4S' "killer features," and is heavily promoted on Apple's official website for the iPhone. Google is even said to be trying to make its own alternative to Siri, code-named Majel (after the actress who voiced the "Star Trek" computers), according to Taylor Wimberley of Android and Me. Read more...
Micron CEO dies in plane crash, industry stunned
Micron Technology Inc Chief Executive and Chairman Steve Appleton died in a small plane crash on Friday, a major loss for a U.S. memory chipmaker already struggling with sluggish computer sales and declining prices.
The 51-year-old Appleton, a three-decade industry veteran who performed stunts at airshows, died after the small plane he was piloting crashed at an airport in Boise, Idaho, where the chipmaker is headquartered.
His death stunned the tight-knit semiconductor industry. Appleton was a prominent figure in Boise, a city of 200,000 in the western United States, and a member of the Idaho Business Council. Read more...
Is social media spreading twitching hysteria?
Doctors treating the strange case of nearly 20 teenagers with a twitching disorder in upstate New York say the symptoms may be spreading faster through the girls' own use of Facebook and other forms of social media.
Experts have diagnosed the problem as a form of mass hysteria in which an individual, usually a young woman, becomes ill during a period of stress, and others in the same community, school or workplace begin to show the same physical symptoms.
Last fall, several girls in the small town of LeRoy, N.Y., began complaining of involuntary facial and body twitching that resembled Tourette's syndrome. Since then, a dozen girls from 13 years to 18 years old have been affected, as well as one boy. Read more...
Post SOPA, it’s time to protest ACTA (on Feb. 11)
Hey! Remember our nation's 24-hour nightmare last month when we were forced to live a whole day without easy access to Wikipedia, Reddit, BoingBoing and other popular websites that went dark for 24 hours to protest anti-piracy legislation?
In the end, U.S. lawmakers agreed to withdraw the SOPA and PIPA bills, legislation that free speech advocates and tech companies said would crush Internet freedom and inspire frivolous lawsuits. Well, don't exhale just yet. There's still the Anti-Counterfeiting Trademark Agreement (ACTA) in Europe floating around, and on Feb. 11, Access, a "new global movement for digital freedom," wants to mobilize people all over the world to protest what the group and others see as a threat to free speech, human rights, innovation and trade.
What exactly is ACTA? Well, that's a huge part of the problem. Signed by the EU and 22 of its 27 member states on Jan. 27, the exact details of this act are known only to those involved. Read more...