Tag: Computing

Amazon makes a terabyte of public data available on its servers

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Amazon’s got quite a bit of spare server capacity. In its goal to become the world’s top online retailer, it bought so many servers that it’s now also running a cloud computing business on the side that’s actually rather cheap.

Last night, Amazon announced on its Amazon Web Services blog that it would be making a terabyte of public data available to its cloud computing users, for them to do whatever they like with.

The data includes stats from the US bureau of transportation , an *entire* dump of Wikipedia, the DBPedia knowledgebase (which includes info on 2.6 million people, places, films, albums and companies) and all publicly available DNA sequences, including the entire human genome.

There’s also a bunch of other stuff, and it’s all being made available at lightning-fast speed in machine-readable databases to Amazon’s cloud computing customers. It’ll take a while for the internet to really get to grips with this stuff and use it, but anything that’s about freeing up data and information is wholly supported around here. Three cheers for Amazon.

What would you do with the data? Work out why your trains are always late? Work out how many degrees of link separation a random Wikipedia article has to another? Use the human genome to create a clone army and take over the world? Share your ideas in the comments, and make me your second-in-command as world leader.

Amazon Blog (via ReadWriteWeb)

Duncan Geere Internet, Web 2.0

Hitachi set to revolutionise computing with 3D holographic displays

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Waaaaaay back when we were impressed with 2MB broadband, 2.5-megapixels in our digital cameras, and no-one could ever possibly imagine the downfall of Britney Spears, Hitachi announced an amazing new piece of technology which promised to revolutionise computing AS WE KNEW IT. Which to be fair, back then, was checking Friendster every couple of days whenever we signed into out old Yahoo or Hotmail email accounts.

Yes, if you have a brain which hasn’t been sizzled with the strenuous exercise of Big Brother watching, Rosé drinking and mindless indie-rock listening over the last few years, you’ll remember Hitachi promised 3D holographic display technology…

Katherine Hannaford Computers

Nimzy ProtoKey: padlocks your files and makes them invisible to others

nimzy_protokey_usb_secure_stick.jpgWidget UK has come out with a USB device for the security-conscious PC users who wants to protect their files.

Though it looks like a fairly standard memory stick, it isn’t. Instead, it allows users to encrypt and hide the personal and sensitive data on their PC hard drive, and any external storage devices attached to it, so that it effectively becomes invisible, secure, and untraceable, to anyone else who uses that PC.

Andy Merrett Computers, Gadgets, Peripherals