At a lost for which backup software to use? CA’s ARCserve Backup and Symantec’s Backup Exec have been top contenders when it comes to company backup software. But, according to an independent study conducted by Productive Corp., ARCserve “clearly” surpasses Backup Exec’s features and technology.
The two products were compared in “9 categories to help you uncover the right solution for your data backup needs.” Productive points out that although “these two data backup and storage products are relatively similar in function,” the differences in features are made evident in the product comparison. These features include the nine categories: “ease of install,” “ease of use,” “scalability,” “performance,” “cost,” “data security,” “supported systems,” “customer service,” and “extra value.” The review also concludes ARCserve being a better return on investment product.
A few days ago, Intel announced new contracts in place to incorporate “approximately 2.5 megawatts worth of new solar power projects at eight U.S. locations.” These eight locations spread over four states: Arizona, California, New Mexico and Oregon. Brian Krzanich, vice president of Manufacturing and Supply Chain for Intel tells us, “Intel is committed to renewable energy to reduce our own carbon footprint as well as to spur the market and make renewables more economically feasible for individuals and businesses to deploy.”
Intel has also increased their renewable energy credit purchases by 10 percent. This green feat has again stabilized their hold as the “largest single purchases of green power,” as named by the EPA. “These announcements represent our broader commitment which includes diversifying our energy portfolio through solar and other clean energy investments, and this will continue to be a priority for us around the globe,” says Krzanich.
Granted, Intel is an enormous company, hence enormous consumption, but they are highly dedicated to the greening business. They have invested more than $125 million in clean tech companies. Since 2001, the corporation has saved over 650 million kilowatt hours with their green initiatives and invested more than $30 million to fund those efforts.
Yay for big corporations like Intel and Adobe. More information about can be found from the Intel press room.
Apple’s press event wrapped up not too many hours ago announcing the official release of its tablet device: the iPad! Before Business Insider, Gizmodo, Engadget or any other tech blogs got a hold of the rumors, could you believe that MadTV was the first? Check out the 2006 episode below. Be forewarned that this is not a clip for the conservative viewer…
Okay, tell me that ad won’t run through your head every time you hear “iPad” from now on?! iPad is a HORRIBLE name!! But the product itself is pretty snazzy, I admit.
Google has finally brought extensions out of beta and stabilized them for the newly released update of Chrome. Bookmark syncing is packaged in there as well — automatically synchronize your Chrome bookmarks on different computers. Keep in mind that this update only applies to the Windows version of the web browser. No word yet on when Mac and Linux versions will release these same (stable channel) updates…
After news of the official release filtered through my Google Reader feeds, I pulled up the Chrome extensions gallery and started browsing through. There are currently just over 1,800 extensions available for Chrome; I probably surfed through half of them, if that… Since I’m not the true techie geek that I should be, I can’t say that I was super excited about too many. Here are the few that appealed to my simple and practical tastes. I’d say most of them contribute to an easier blogging experience or everyday web surfing…
Remember not too long ago when pagers were the fad of the times? I believe I was pretty cool by knowing that “8181″ in pager code meant “bye-bye.” Well, at least, it did amongst my peers when I lived in San Gabriel Valley, California — where the Asian population ranked fairly high (in Chinese, “8-1-8-1″ sounds very similar to the English, “bye-bye”).
Then, remember when cell phones took over the pager fad? Ahem, Zack Morris from Saved by the Bell and his brick phone? I know I’m not getting any younger, but those days just don’t seem that long ago…
Well, whether it be by mp3 player, cell phone, portable gaming device, desktop, laptop or netbook, I’d say we are in the fad of Internet usage these days. Actually, I take that back, I don’t think it’s a fad — Internet is here to stay! Either way, Pingdom came out with interesting numbers today regarding Internet usage.
A report analyzing the strength of passwords was released yesterday by security firm, Imperva. The study is 32 million passwords strong, thanks to last year’s Rockyou.com breach. And “never before has there been such a high volume of real-world passwords to examine,” notes the study.Take heed to these key findings in Imperva’s study:
About 30% of users chose passwords that are six characters or less in length
Almost 60% of users chose their passwords from a limited set of alpha-numeric characters
Nearly 50% of users use common slang or dictionary words, names and consecutive letters or digits — the most common password found was “123456″
Note that a study not too long ago also revealed “123456″ as the most common password amongst 10,000 Hotmail, MSN and Live.com users. Is that you? Okay, what about the most popular passwords following “123456″?
Are any of those you? If you have a password fitting the bullet points noted above, change it now! Let’s say a hacker worked off this list… It would only take “one attempt (per account) to guess 0.9% of the users passwords or a rate of one success per 111 attempts.” Now, let’s say this hacker is using his DSL connection (55kpbs connection rate) and each hack is 0.5kb in size… that hacker will gain access to one new account every second. Or, in the bigger scope of things, he just hacked 1000 accounts in less than 17 minutes.
A friend of mine, Emily, is moving to New York to learn, as she puts it, a practical skill. After working in the arts for a while, and majoring in the arts, she decided drop the harsh, struggling lifestyle to learn a more generally applicable skill. You know, in a more technical profession where the skills are often utilized in any part of the world! What what did she decide on?
She’s pulling a Julie and Julia. Emily’s going to culinary school (and says she’ll even be blogging the experience)! I, similar to Emily and Linda from Better Off Ted, have secured a position in the time-wasters hall of fame by studying the arts. Thus, I’ve acquired a slight sort of envy for Emily… I thought about culinary school once, twice, thrice before… maybe more often. I love to cook. I love food. Okay, mainly, I love to eat! And these are reasons why I love Bing’s new detailed recipe results feature (brilliant segue, eh?).
It’s difficult to imagine what we would do without cell phones and Internet nowadays. I remember not too long ago when my friend didn’t have a cell phone — the frustrations of meeting up, not being able to call to find his ETA or telling him I was running late. Soon thereafter, he signed up for a cell phone plan and things have been easier ever since. Being online for over eight hours a day with my cell phone next to me, it’s hard for me to even think about not being connected — especially after becoming so accustomed to the convenience of it all.
So, what would the aftermath efforts of the Haiti earthquake be like sans cell phones and Internet? I mean, text messaging has accumulated over $24 million in donations to the Red Cross alone. This is a significant jump from just one week ago when history was made with the $4 million record. And now, a man is telling his tale of how he survived the Haiti earthquake with the help of his trusty iPhone?! How can we not live without these modern conveniences!
Yesterday morning, Apple announced an event for January 27th. “Come see our latest creation.” Held by invite only in San Francisco, news outlets are unanimous: Apple will be unveiling their anticipated tablet device. iSlate? iPad? (Please don’t call it the “iPad”; that’s a horrible name!) Whatever you want to call it, that’s what everyone is predicting and WSJ totally called it.
Fox News talked to a source at Apple who hints that the tablet may just be the icing on the cake. Fox reports “the event will likely focus on three projects: the tablet device, iPhone 4, and a new round of iLife 2010 software.” Since Google has been making so many news waves lately, I can see Apple using this press event as a way of gaining back some ground. iPhone 4, eh? I’m intrigued.
Gizmodo has an “exhaustive” guide to all things Apple tablet, if you need a refresher about what’s been said. They are also running a contest to win one!
Ever have a frustrating conversation with a friend while trying to troubleshoot his/her computer issues? Where you’re trying the best you can without actually seeing the computer firsthand? Only to conclude that it’s going nowhere because you can’t see what’s going on? Ahh, the hardships of being the smarter, more computer-savvy friend…
Well, ShowMeWhatsWrong has a solution that may help in times like these. The process is quite simple; there are just three easy steps.
Create an unique URL to pass on to the friend you are helping, just log on to ShowMeWhatsWrong and enter your name and email
At that URL, your friend may “Start Recording,” up to five minutes, a video screen capture of what is happening on his/her computer. In addition, the capture will also automatically record voice narration through any connected microphone
When the video is done recording, ShowMeWhatsWrong uploads it and sends you an email notification when the video is online. You have a week to view the video before it expires.
For the more visual learner, there’s also a video demonstration:
It’s difficult to imagine what we would do without cell phones and Internet nowadays. I remember not too long ago when my friend didn’t have a cell phone — the frustrations of meeting up, not being able to call to find his ETA or telling him I was running late. Soon thereafter, he signed up for a cell phone plan and things have been easier ever since. Being online for over eight hours a day with my cell phone next to me, it’s hard for me to even think about not being connected — especially after becoming so accustomed to the convenience of it all.
