The conferences I go to are almost always wrapped around a 5 or 6 day tech training class. The big benefit for my employer is that I can network and recruit while I'm there getting trained. There's enjoyable and informative talks or presentations and often I get some exposure to a new subject.

His tweet: https://twitter.com/neiltyson/...

And his explanation post: https://www.facebook.com/notes...

"3 years" - well it depends on how the data is being stored and retrieved, and how it's being supplied to the requestor, and how much there is. Imagine manually importing and transcoding (somehow losslessly) 8 hours of HD video (I'm guessing here - 1 officer's shift) to DVD-sized blobs; burning the DVDs; printing/applying labels (or generating print jobs to print on the disk); packing and shipping the disks etc. Now multiply that process by the number of shifts worked since the cameras were introduced. I doubt that the police dept keeps a team of video engineers employed just for the purpose of generating DVDs for extortionists.

This sounds reasonable. I'd also like some kind of "video cannot be used commercially" license. And perhaps the data should be destroyed after (say) 6 months if: there's no successful conviction, there's no Internal Affairs investigation underway, there's no pending or ongoing lawsuit/prosecution against a police officer.

Apple (and the *many* other companies that indulge in the same behavior) *do* pay all the legally required taxes. The trick is that there are various governments (ranging from municipal to national) that offer perks, tax benefits etc to companies if they locate themselves in their jurisdiction. You can see this at work pretty much everywhere. It's not an Apple story, or an Irish story: it's just corporations using their leverage to get better deals than you or I (probably just average working stiffs) can get. As for the EU trying to get taxes retroactively: surely the EU would have to first prove that *Apple* did something illegal. But if the Irish laws supported Apple what's the legal basis for trying to claim back taxes?

Trademarks have to be defended. Even if Fluke wanted to be "nice" they'd be forced to to take action - otherwise they're allowing their mark to be diluted.

I feel bad for Sparkfun, but I don't understand why Sparkfun made their DMM look almost the same as a pre-eminent market leader's design. Surely they've heard of the Apple vs Samsung "look and feel" lawsuits? IANAL but even I know that trade marks are important.

I think the poster's main concern is that Crashplan won't ship a physical disk to his/her location in the event of total site disaster. Crashplan does have a Java client that runs on some NAS devices - e.g. Synology's line of devices. So placing a device like that in your neighbor's house might work. (I use Crashplan+ but if my house burned down, I could wait a few months before getting the bulk of my data back.) Alternatively - buy something like this: http://www.filetransporter.com/learn-more/ I've only just seen the ad for these things but from a consumer's point of view they look awesome. Buy two "Sync" models with the external USB drive of your choice and set them to sync. Use one locally on your home LAN, and connect the other to your neighbor's LAN. Done.

Agreed. In this case I would notify Newegg so that they can pass the message up their supply chain. Hopefully their supplier would change their behaviour. I would also send the drive back because I would be expecting that as part of the refurb process the vendor would be performing low-level formatting - which would've wiped everything.

Return the favour: give that bastard the first two George RR Martin "Song of Fire and Ice" books.

The font on my browser makes the "r" and "n" so close that they look like "m". Google is finally going to rid us of dialup Internet access???? WTF? Is that really such a big problem?

A similar system was in place in London. There was an open platform at the back of the bus: if you were fast you could sprint up to a bus and get on even if it was pulling away from the stop. Likewise you could jump out exactly where you wanted to. The bus still made actual stops so other passengers could get on/off but for me it was so much more convenient and fun to get on/off while the bus was in motion. The good ol' days. I think the bus design changed to ensure that all passengers had to pass the driver (who was is also now the conductor). Previously the different roles were fulfilled by two people.

This "giant squid" is a complete invention, with NO EVIDENCE whatsoever to support this flamboyant and fanciful idea. Read PZ Myer's discussion: http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/10/10/traces-of-a-triassic-kraken/

+1 for CrashPlan as a *backup* solution.

CrashPlan works well for me. I backup my data locally (main Mac to 2nd Mac) and remotely (main Mac to CrashPlan). The option to encrypt data with your own key is *very* attractive.

But I think it's probably easier to rent some hosting space and create your own "photo share" website. You could permission the directories more granularly etc. I mourn Apple's decision to shutdown their MobileMe galleries because it was perfect for sharing photos with family/friends (it's laughably easy to publish from iPhoto or Aperture).

I'll bite: bulk BIOS updates on thousands of PCs. My company has an enormous number of PCs - paying someone to manually flick a switch, stand by while a BIOS update is performed, then unflick it afterwards would represent an enormous cost in time and labor. We buy large numbers of identical machines every year - so when a BIOS update is needed it needs to be applied to a lot of machines, globally.

Secondly: we set BIOS passwords to prevent (or make it harder for) the machine to be booted from USB thumb drive, DVD, external hard drive etc.

How about making the PC detect signed BIOS packages?

+1!

I was going to post exactly the same thing. I volunteered for Habitat through my employer's philanthropy scheme. I learned a lot of useful homebuilding stuff. In addition to the skills you've mentioned I learned how to install hardwood flooring and exterior wall insulation.

There're plenty of geeking opportunities: in addition to the enormous number of extremely dangerous power tools you may use, there're hundreds of hand tools, lots of Pythagorean mathematics, different materials' properties, stress/strain etc. You'll be physically active, be maintaining the discipline of turning up at a work site and meet a different set of people.

Plus there's the added bonus that you get to practice all your new skills on somebody else's house while under the tutelage of someone who knows what they're doing.

Finally: if you ever need work done on your own home you can have an educated idea about the cost/effort required to, say, frame and finish your basement yourself. You may be able to weed out unscrupulous contractors, or even undertake the work yourself.

Other commenters have noted that while this is not as glamourous as a trip to a developing nation (BTW which African nation???) it is probably more practical in the short time you have. Your own community needs your help too.