mmThe1 - Slashdot User

Submission + - 1-Click Rejection Rejected

Submitted by

theodp

on Friday September 28, 2007 @01:30AM

theodp writes: "On Wednesday, a three-judge USPTO panel convened at Amazon's request rejected a USPTO Examiner's rejection of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' 1-Click patent application, ruling that it wasn't obvious to them what the Examiner found obvious. The application has been remanded to the Examiner with instructions to make the obviousness more obvious."

Submission + - Sony says 'no' to porn on Blu-ray Disc

Submitted by

reversible physicist

on Friday January 19, 2007 @07:08PM

reversible physicist writes: "From an article in Infoworld:

The choice of which high-definition disc format to use was "kind of made for us, so everything we are replicating right now is in the HD DVD format," said Robby D, a director at popular adult film maker Digital Playground Inc. "As far as I understand, Sony has said to the replicators that if you replicate adult, you'll lose your license."

Many believe that Sony's Betamax video tape format, while technologically superior to VHS, died because the adult movie industry was barred from using Betamax, noted Jake Richter, an analyst at Jon Peddie Research. "Is Sony doomed to repeat one of the mistakes of the past? It seems like that may be the case," he wrote in a report."

Submission + - Why People Believe They Won't Need Data Recovery

Submitted by

Jarooka

on Friday January 19, 2007 @06:06PM

Jarooka writes: "Most people don't realize how important their data is until it is lost. Hard drive data recovery is needed for a variety of reasons, all of which are often ignored until it is too late. And in most cases, some people have had opportunities to protect their files from data loss and corruption, but may have thought one of these 5 common beliefs about their data and why they won't need to find a hard drive data recovery company.

"My hard drive is brand new, so my data is safe"

Have you ever bought a new toaster, coffee maker, DVD player, or even the most popular toy for your child only to have to return it or exchange it because there were problems with it? Then as you drive back to the store where it was purchased, you wonder how something you just purchased brand new could break so fast. Things break, brand new or old, that is why there are warranties! Regardless, a hard drive is no different. Each comes with a manufacturer's warranty for the hard drive, but not the data. A data loss is your problem, not theirs.

So when your hard drive fails and you are left looking at a blank screen, a variety of error messages, or hear a loud clicking noise from the hard drive, you sit and slowly realize that your world is about to change. Your belief that the data on your new hard drive is safe from data corruption or mechanical hard drive failure erodes, and the panic begins to set in.

"We backup our data to a spare hard drive (or other media)"

It is always a good habit to backup your data. In fact, kudos to you if you do! Now, that you have patted yourself on the back for your fantastic disaster planning, do you recall when you last tested your backup? When was the last backup restored to verify the data, test the backup media, and confirm that the data stored is still relevant to your business?

This is often where problems arise. While it is great that a disaster recovery plan in place, is a backup from 1 month ago really of value? 1 year ago? 3 days ago? Loosing a few days or months of data from a home user's point of view may not be such a big deal...as long as they have their important docs, pictures and MP3s.

However, depending on your business, several lost days of data can devastate a company. For the business community, a day of data loss can cost the company thousands of dollars and worst yet, customers.

"I run a RAID server, and because of that, my data is safe"

RAIDs are configured with multiple hard drives, at least 2, and the belief most people have is that their data is safe from data loss and they won't ever need data recovery since they use a RAID server. In most cases that is true. However, when multiple hard drives fail, the risk of data loss increases. When a single hard drive in a RAID array fails, it can be replaced and the RAID can attempt to be rebuilt. When multiple hard drives fail, the rebuild process can possibly still be done, however there is a higher risk of data loss if the rebuild process fails.

If hard drives are moved around to different positions in the RAID, new hard drives added, and the swapping of good and defective hard drives are done, the risk of overwriting the RAID stripe and destroying that information reduces the chances of recovering data from that RAID. The safest way to ensure that your hard drive data is recoverable when your RAID looses a hard drive and becomes unhealthy is to seek out a data recovery company who are RAID recovery specialists. The more you (or your IT staff) attempt to repair and rebuild, the less of a chance that the data will ever be recovered.

"I don't surf 'questionable' websites, so I won't catch any viruses"

Of course you don't. Nobody visits 'questionable' websites. Those websites all just are out there, with nobody visiting them at all. From the adult websites, free software websites, music websites, and every other website created by people that my have ulterior motives and want to get at your data...any computer attached to the Internet is at risk for data intrusion and corruption.

Most businesses and home users have varying degrees of network security for their computers, which protect their data from most hard drive corruption, such as viruses. However, with with e-mail, instant messaging, file attachments and other such things shared by employees and friends, the risk to accidentally infect a hard drive with a virus increases.

Make sure you run some sort of anti-virus software and if possible a fire wall to protect yourself and your data from corruption. These two simple suggestions can save you hundreds of dollars in hard drive recovery.

"I definitely learned to expect the unexpected"

Life has a funny way of getting at you when you least expect it. Weather is the least planned for with regards to data loss, and for good reason. Mother nature likes to keep us on our toes! She floods homes and businesses with water causing major water damage, she hurls lightning from the heavens which cause power surges and wreaks havoc on electronics, she throws tornadoes and hurricanes toward companies and consumers and sends them scattering for safety, and she also scorches the earth with fire, or burning offices and homes and charring computers, servers and laptops.

Mother nature can also be kind and provide a beautiful day of warm sunshine. Allowing you to relax by the pool with your laptop, drinking some iced tea and getting some work done remotely...until somebody jumps into the pool and drenches your laptop with a wave of pool water. You can do everything to protect your data, but at some point, you will experience a catastrophe that will require data recovery. It could be something due to a mechanical hard drive failure, file system corruption, or as simple as 'my kid poured water on my laptop'.

A lot of things that can go wrong and you can't plan for all of them. Right now you have the opportunity to protect your data from loss. Take the time now before it is too late to evaluate the value of the data on your hard drive and weigh it against the time it would take to rebuild it and how it would affect you if you were to loose it permanently.

If your hard drive is experiencing problems, your safest option is to turn the computer off. Continued use may damage the hard drive and make your data unrecoverable. ADR Data Recovery is available to evaluate the damage and potentially recover your lost data. For more information on ADR Data Recovery's service, visit http://www.adrdatarecovery.com."

Submission + - CIBC loses sensitive customer information

Submitted by dreamturtle on Friday January 19, 2007 @05:24PM

dreamturtle writes: CBC News in Canada is reporting a security breach at Canada's fifth largest bank, The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). The Bank says that a backup computer file containing information on almost half a million of its Talvest Mutual Funds clients has gone missing whilst in transit. The information may have included client names, addresses, signatures, dates of birth, bank account numbers, beneficiary information and/or Social Insurance Numbers. The missing files contain everything that you need for identity theft. As of yet, There is no evidence the information has been accessed inappropriately. CIBC said it will compensate clients for any monetary loss arising from the security breach. Canada's privacy commissioner is investigating.

In 2004 it was revealed that CIBC was incorrectly faxing confidential information related to banking clients to a scrapyard in West Virginia over a period of three years.

Submission + - Asia Source II: Call for applications

Submitted by

Sunil Abraham

on Saturday November 11, 2006 @02:23PM

Sunil Abraham writes: "UNDP's International Open Source Network is organising Asia Source II: Free and Open Technology for NGOs and SMEs. Around 120 participants from South Asia and South East Asia will come together for eight day peer-learning residential camp starting 22nd January 2007 in Sukabumi, Indonesia. Asia Source I was held in Bangalore in January 2005. Topics to be discussed at Asia Source II include — Open Publishing and Broadcasting, Alternative Hardware and Access, FOSS Implementation and Migration and Information Management. Last day for applications is 25th November."

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