A previous Slashdot topic (many months ago) pointed out this program.

http://www.crashplan.com/ (Mac, windows, linux)

I've been using it for a few months and it has proven very reliable and useful. You can use it for free with a few unobtrusive ads in the UI. Thier business strategy seems to be to sell you storage space on their servers, but you don't need to pay a dime to use your own or your friends hard drive space.

You can set up all your pc's to backup to each other or certain locations (PC in your group/ Friends PC /External drive/local file folder) and configure what get's automatically backed up.
You can give out "referral keys" to your friends so they can store on your computer(s) and vica versa, however you can't see their files because you don't have their password.

Using this setup I have all my PC's backed up to my server. All my critical documents and family photos backed up off site to a friends PC and also to an external drive that spends 99% of it's time in a fire safe. I have also got my family in different towns and countries backed up to me.

It also does journaling so you can recover an older version of a file.

So choose a well trusted friend or family member and use crash plan to arrange your off site backups.

I gave up on Brinks and re-purposed their security system.

Hint: unplug the brinks box from the phone line before you cancel their service incase they brick it on the next auto dial home.

Even with no service the keypads, sensors and sirens still work. And the "protected by brinks" signs still deter.

I wired some TI Launch Pads (or any cheap microprocessors board will do) into the control box in parallel with the motion and window sensor signal wires and the siren terminals, using suitable resistor dividers to allow monitoring. The TI boards are then polled for status 24-7 from the server a few feet away and i get email alerts with recent event log files if siren goes off so I can work out if it is pet's or something worth worrying about.

Some cool additional features additional features are :
ping the (static router assigned) IP address of the dwellers cell phones ( wifi) to see who is home and/or scan for bluetooth MAC addresses in range.
Monitor basement temperature to warn if there is risk of freezing pipes if away on vacation.
Make a simple flood sensor and attach that the microprocessor board to get alerts if the boiler or pipes spring a leak.
Capture from network or USB webcams

I hope some of these recalled MB's become available at bargain basement prices. I'd happily buy one and use a PCIe SATA card if it could save me ~75% compared to the present MSRP.

At home I use desktops and my family photo and video collection are backed up across 3 hard drives (in 2 different PC's) ~daily via a scheduled back-up script.
I have just archived everything to date to BD-R. Something I intend to update every 6-12 months. I also intend to leave a second copy set with a relative in case of fire.
When travelling with laptop I keep wherever possible all video/photos on thier SD/CF cards from camcorder/camera and back up nightly to laptop HD

Is this unattended (torrent) activity? I find it hard to believe that it is active web surfing / video streaming for the majority, unless daytime usage is extremely low and what we are seeing is that the network is completely overwhelmed with modest/typical use by 2nd/3rd shift shift workers.

The article indicates a 1:5 upload:download ratio. Would this be because most plans have e.g. 1mbit up : 10mbit down throttling (or similar) ?

I find it interesting that they could increase their upload speeds with minimal performance hit, or would that take away their argument against level 3?

If the PNG on the Slashdot article is derived from the linked source article then I am concerned that it may not be representative of the actual research as the source article offers the image as a JPEG - which will almost certainly have degraded the image quality.

I have used both Open Office and MS Office over the years, and my only gripe is that I've learnt excel shortcuts and native behavior and Calc does everything a bit different which is very frustrating. I've searched before but not found an easy to apply plugin or config file update that will make Calc act like Excel (DEL to clear a cell, CTRL SHIFT + to insert a row etc.). This would really make may day if someone could suggest such a solution.

[wind]
[click click]
ARTHUR: Whoa there!
[click click]

GUARD #1: Halt! Who goes there?
ARTHUR: It is I, Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon, from the castle
of Camelot. King of the Britons, defeator of the Saxons, sovereign
of all England!

ARTHUR: I am. And this my trusty servant Patsy.
We have videoed and photographed the length and breadth of the land in search of knights
who will join me in my court of Camelot. I must speak with your lord
and master.
GUARD #1: What, on film?
ARTHUR: Yes!
GUARD #1: You're using SD cards!
ARTHUR: What?
GUARD #1: You've got two SD cards and you're RAIDing
'em together.
ARTHUR: So? We have ridden since the snows of winter covered this
land, through the kingdom of Mercea, through--
GUARD #1: Where'd you get the SD cards?
ARTHUR: We found them.
GUARD #1: Found them? In Mercea? The SD card is Asian!
ARTHUR: What do you mean?
GUARD #1: Well, this is a temperate zone.
ARTHUR: The swallow may fly south with the sun or the house martin
or the plumber may seek warmer climes in winter yet these are not
strangers to our land.
GUARD #1: Are you suggesting SD cards migrate?
ARTHUR: Not at all, they could be carried.
GUARD #1: What -- a swallow carrying a SD Card?
ARTHUR: It could grip it by the lock switch!
GUARD #1: It's not a question of where he grips it! It's a simple
question of weight ratios! A five ounce bird could not carry a 1 pound
SD Card.
ARTHUR: Well, it doesn't matter. Will you go and tell your master
that Arthur from the Court of Camelot is here.
GUARD #1: Listen, in order to maintain air-speed velocity, a swallow
needs to beat its wings 43 times every second, right?
ARTHUR: Please!
GUARD #1: Am I right?
ARTHUR: I'm not interested!
GUARD #2: It could be carried by an African swallow!
GUARD #1: Oh, yeah, an African swallow maybe, but not a European
swallow, that's my point.
GUARD #2: Oh, yeah, I agree with that...
ARTHUR: Will you ask your master if he wants to join my court
at Camelot?!
GUARD #1: But then of course African swallows are not migratory.
GUARD #2: Oh, yeah...
GUARD #1: So they couldn't bring a SD card back anyway...
[click click]
GUARD #2: Wait a minute -- supposing two swallows carried it together?
GUARD #1: No, they'd have to have it on a line.
GUARD #2: Well, simple! They'd just use a standard creeper!
GUARD #1: What, held under the dorsal guiding feathers?
GUARD #2: Well, why not?