New Florence. New Renaissance.

Bush's Legacy - 100 TB

 President Bush is leaving behind 100 terabytes of electronic data. 

"To put that in perspective, all the books, manuscripts, publications and recordings of various kinds stored in the Library of Congress over the past 208 years adds up to 82.6 terabytes.

Archives officials estimate that the Bush administration is leaving behind 50 to 100 times more digital data than the Clinton administration. Given eight years, the Obama administration is expected to shatter Bush's record."

USA Today

"One card does fit all devices"

The Kingston Mobility Kit packages a MicroSD card (typically needed for phones and PDAs) and adapters to allow to use with MiniSD (used with many digital cameras) and full-size SD readers and USB ports (on a laptop).

Earlier in the year I got a 2 GB set for about $ 25.(you can also get a 4 GB HC version for $ 35) Makes it easy to move music, photos, videos, documents across most gadgets, though the USB adapter makes you wish for your own set of "nano-fingers"

Time to throw away old floppies, CDs, USB "jump drive" sticks...

Microsoft's Clearflow

"developed over the last five years by a group of artificial-intelligence researchers at the company’s Microsoft Research laboratories. It is an ambitious attempt to apply machine-learning techniques to the problem of traffic congestion. The system is intended to reflect the complex traffic interactions that occur as traffic backs up on freeways and spills over onto city streets."

"The Clearflow system will be freely available (starting Thursday) as part of the company’s Live.com site (maps.live.com) for 72 cities in the United States."

New York Times

 

The remarkably productive USB thumb drive

Web Worker Daily identifies 10 cool free applications for your thumb drive to carry around and possibly leave your own laptop at home.

Prices are down nicely fro the holidays...a 4GB (yes, not a typo) for $ 25.

Of course, they are also a significant security risk...so consider getting a pricier, but encrypted one.

DNA as storage device

New Scientist

"Imagine having a "living" data storage system that constantly renews itself, keeping the data safe for aeons. A team in Japan has raised the possibility by loading live bacteria with artificial DNA sequences that encode data."

Holographic Storage

NewScientist

"A new type of disc that promises to cram in up to 300 times as much data as today's DVDs is poised to hit the market, and a similar, rival disc whose data is recorded and read differently is to be released within a few years."

"Personal Infoclouds"

"Online storage systems that can automatically synchronize the data on all of your computing devices, including the PCs you use at home and at work and your smart phone, are finally a reality."

Read more here.