This is especially true when you aren't paying for it! But even if you paying for a service you are ultimately responsible for backing up your own data - with a focus on the information that is critical.

I am thinking about the small business that I run the IT department at. We use shared hosting and use paid online off site backup for our internal servers. I still make it a point to back up critical data daily and everything else at least once a week. Storage is cheep and it is not like there is not options. You can be reasonably safe anywhere from $80 for an external hard drive to your high end tier 6 or 7 disaster recovery solutions.

Now do I feel sorry for these people - yes. Is AOL being a jerk - maybe. Should you back up your data - hell yes!

Maybe we can relocate the politicians and investment bankers to Yellowstone. If it blows a major part of the problem will be eliminated and maybe some common sense can prevail in the recovery.

I just have this to say. Lets do if there is a good business plan that is in place where value can be added with out never ending subsidies to keep this service running. I get the feeling we want to do this to be green. I know I am playing the role of the evil capitalist, but I like being green only when I can make money doing it.

Be careful what you wish for, they might do it with the detainees inside...

Well that is our government for you... go ahead and do activities (wiretaps, searches) that can be very questionable. But we will wait until how long to start writing simple and cheep bots that go out and look from information that might be readily available on blogs. Then again cost is never really a consideration with government (they just say it is).

I would agree the thought that the Republican party would kill to protect the secrets of an out going administration with a lot of people who's future is not the speaking and book tour I think is a little outrageous. I will say this (keep in mind I am a registered Republican) I would like to know what secretes died with him, or if what was lost was a valuable IT mind. Of course I will say with the way that Republicans used technology, it may be time for some new blood in that department. With that being said, no one wants to see anyone die, my prayers go out to his family.

I have to agree with this. The bottom line here is if you are going to start an equal partnership with a friend, ask your self if they are more valuable as a friend or a coworker.

When a relationship will get strained is when someone feels they are out preforming the other and not receiving the correct compensation. An other source of contention is typically when do you take money out of a company.

Bottom line be prepared to buy them out, do not hesitate to make business decisions, do not let friends ship get in the way. If you are going to play in a capitalist's world be prepared to play by their rules.

Now it is not all negative, yes there is the potential for profit, but I am not going to look at that. Some of my best friendships are with clients or suppliers. I am not a friend of anyone in my company though, I am not an enemy either. I am a boss and an owner.

I have been in business for over 10 years, started out with a 4 way partnership. One is sitting in jail for embezzlement, one got bought out, and the other one retired (technically bought out too, just not hostile). What I am getting at here is, do what you want. Just remember a smart man will learn from their own mistakes. A genius learns from the mistakes of others.

Good Luck.

I do find it interesting that dell has ditched the overly conservitive look... but maybe they are just figuring out that looks do sell. Then again this might be what you get when you Put a designer from Nike and a 25 year veteran from wireless industry in the room to build a computer (Ed Boyd and John Thode).

What is the end game... how is government going to make it better. I can see (and support) investment in expansion. But they compare this to the financial crisis and the G8 regulating those markets. In my opinion the internet is not broken like the financial markets!

In these hard economic times it is obvious that big media can not only make money off of the class time use of a film, but every subsequent use.

Think about the corporations! who's looking out for them?

I have to agree, as long as there is not a breach in academic integrity, why not for the reasons listed above.

I do feel that we have to watch out for interests that would change the material found on tests. But who knows even this in some way could (notice the word "could") provide for a valuable test of knowledge and input from those working in a certain industry.

I feel you have a point. But I feel the first question we need to ask is will this position have any real power. Because if there is no real power then who care who is picked.

I see it going down one of two ways. 1. Obama is able to use the capital that he has gained an push this through rather quickly and having congress act as a rubber stamp.

2. There are bigger priorities than this in the Obama administration (economy, war). As a result this is placed on the back burner. Corporate interests therefore have more time to react and press members of congress to vote against making a copyright czar have any real power. As a result this initiative dies or must be used as a bargaining chip once things get harder to push through congress.

I think we should not be asking who he will chose yet, but rather how large of a priority is he going to make this.

I would also be interested in knowing the intent for this photo. Was it something that was more an internal photo, or something that was meant to be used informally? Because as the point has been made this was done badly, but I find it very hard to believe that is being put out as an "official photo". Now it is true that Pentagon policy is never to alter photographs. But can we take a step back, use common sense, and then give them the benefit of the doubt.

Hey if it was adding explosions or increasing the number of planes on a carrier or something along those lines then I would be more inclined to agree with the BBC on this one.

I think that it is important to ask our selves what something is really worth. And in a free market that is simply how much another is willing to pay for a good or service that another provides.

As for the iPhone/iTouch growing in mobile app use, I would highly doubt that it is only because of the low cost of entry but do to the fact we are able to have a phone, a popular music player, and games with what was at the time innovative inputs (motion sensing). I feel that the real reason is nothing more than ease of use for the user. They can buy their music, games, and movies from one place (Apple's iTunes store). Then access weather, news, and maps/directions from one place. There are other devices that accomplish some of this but none that have archived all these goals plus the same market share as the iPhone/iTouch.

So is this person really being overpaid or have they just provided a very convent and inexpensive tool? So I ask, how can something be price gouging when there are those who are willing to pay for it when as you said there are plenty of alternatives - PC and Mac OS X.

Of course if we want to argue the merits of the capitalist system, I will leave that to the academics as it seems that argument is not going to end any time soon.

I am probably more mature in this role most my age. I am only 20 and run the IT department for my family's business. I can say with absolute honesty I got the job because I am my father's son, but I kept it based on my performance. As a result of this being a family business I understood that it was not my own tech playground, the bottom line was the bottom line. I say this to make the point don't write off someone because they are young. Instead ask do they have the proper tech skills you need. I find that this is the easy part. The next question though is the kicker - do they understand that this is a business. The way I typically find this out is through asking about past projects and the challenges they faced on them. You may need to probe to get the information you are looking for but if they talk about time, budgets, or people and their allocation being a primary concern then that may be a candidate to concider. Of course this will naturally knock out almost all young people. But I have also learned to drop all of my prejudices, no matter how small. Because many of my greatest resources and connections have some for the most unusual of places.