How to Protect Your Data in the Event of a Webapp Shutdown (and Prevent the Problem in the Future) [Data Security]

The web apps and services you use are often ephemeral. Your data could disappear in an instant due to an acquisition, failure, or even a domain seizure. Although the cloud offers many advantages, you never know when it may dissipate. Here's how you can safeguard your data in case of a shutdown and select your web apps more frugally to mitigate the risk.

In the past three days we've lost Gowalla, Oink, and probably Posterous. You never know when a webapp might shut down for a variety of reasons, so you don't want to assume it'll always be around when you need it. While most companies are good at providing you with a means of migrating your data, that isn't always the case. Some sites, like Oink and Gowalla, are more investments of your time than explicit data. All the reviews you wrote on Oink aren't exactly transplantable and your Gowalla check-ins aren't going to earn you a history on the still-living Foursquare. In the case of the MegaUpload seizure, everyone's data was suddenly unavailable and people had to resort to a law suit to even try to retrieve it. So far there has been no success. Using a web service is an investment, so you don't want to simply sign up and hope for the best. In this post we're going to take a look at how you can make more informed choices when selecting the webapps you'll use and how you can keep your data safe in case your cloud service of choice disappears nonetheless.

It's hard to resist an awesome new webapp. They often offer enticing one-minute introductory videos and signup only takes a few seconds. Before you know it, that webapp is a part of your routine. This is fine so long as the service survives, but when it doesn't you're in trouble. Making better choices in the beginning can help you avoid shutdowns or at least provide you with a means

Make sure your data is portable and not locked into the service. If it is, you may not have access to your data in the event of a shutdown. It's a popular trend to allow you to download your data at any time, just in case you want to migrate it somewhere else. Even Facebook does it. Before you sign up for a service, find out if they'll let you take your data and leave as well. If not, you'll either need to consider another backup option (which we'll discuss a little later) or consider looking for a different webapp that does.

Sign up for the service, but don't use it for a month. Why? Because you might want to secure a username or see if it's something you want to use eventually. Signing up is often the best way to tackle both of those goals. Just resist the urge to use the webapp right away. Give it a month to see how it fares after the initial excitement wears off. If it still retains an active community and can be useful to you, start using it. If the webapp's activity appears a little anemic and there's no way to keep your data when it shuts down, you might want to consider moving on to a better alternative.

Don't succumb to the allure of newness. New is exciting, but it isn't necessarily better. Before you commit to using a web service, consider whether you're attracted by its fresh coat of paint or what it can actually do to help you. A lot of webapps try to reinvent the wheel and few succeed. This not only means that the service might not be as revolutionary as it initially seems, but also that there are plenty of well-established and widely-used alternatives out there that are more likely to survive in the long run. Before you commit to a new option, make sure it can do what you want. Compare it to existing, safer services and only sign up for the new one if it really fits you the best.

Although you can't really back up the investment you make in sites like Gowalla and Oink, webapps that center around data storage (e.g. Flickr, Vimeo, Posterous, etc.) are great candidates for backup. Like with all backups, your ideal goal is to have the data in three places: the original location (which is the webapp you're using), another remote location (somewhere else in the cloud), and on a local disk. The original location is obviously covered, so let's take a look at how you can both keep that data local and in another location.

If you're uploading photos or videos, keeping a local copy is simple: just save the data to a hard drive. When you share a video on YouTube, make sure you keep a local source copy. When you upload your photos to Flickr, save them to a hard drive as well. This is easy to do but often neglected because the goal—sharing the media itself—has been accomplished and keeping a copy nobody will see appears pointless. Making local copies can be a little tedious, however, but desktop apps can make it easier. Photo management apps, for example, are a great way to keep local copies of your pictures and easily share them online. Desktop email clients are another great example as they can keep a local copy of your messages (and often do, by default). Using desktop email is an inadvertent backup strategy. Even if you prefer to use the webapp, you can always run a desktop client for backup purposes as well. Desktop apps were the original paradigm, so chances are you can find something capable of making it easier to keep local copies on your computer. Just search for options for the webapp you love and you'll likely find something.

In the event that a local backup isn't as simple as saving the data on a hard drive or using desktop software, see if you can export your data from the webapp directly. As previously discussed, many webapps offer data portability in case you want to use a different service some time in the future. You can use the data export feature as a backup strategy and just download your data once a month. Copy that to a backup hard drive and you'll be good to go.

When it comes to simply backing up raw data—like videos, photos, text, or even data dumps from a webapp—there are numerous services offering free cloud storage in the gigabytes. Just pick one, sign up, and start uploading. That's all you need to do to have an online backup. Alternatively, you can use a service like CrashPlan to set up an automated bulletproof backup plan so you don't even have to think about it.

But standard backup procedures aren't your only option as there are a handful of online backup services that can handle the job for you. Often times you'll end up paying for this convenience, but that may be worth it for you if you tend to neglect your backup duties. Backupify is one of the best and has been around for awhile. It can backup any Google app plus several social media services like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and LinkedIn. You can get a free 1GB account, too, so you don't have to pay if you only have a small amount of data. Although you can often handle these backups yourself, services like Backupify make it a whole lot easier.

How do you mitigate the risk of webapp shutdowns and keep your data safe? Share your strategies in the comments.

Photo by Steve Parker.

Transform Your Digs into a Home of the Future, DIY-Style [Video]

Ever wished your house would greet you when you opened the front door, which unlocked automatically when you approached? Or your kitchen kept an inventory of everything inside it? The Jetsons may seem like they've got it all, but with a little patience and the right DIYs, the Jetson'll have nothing on you.

The dream of the house of the future relies on automated systems that ensure you'll never have to get up to do anything or remember to turn anything off. You can pay someone to install a fully integrated system in your home for a few thousand dollars, or you can piece together the elements you want and build your own version of the house of the future. We'll break down some of the more interesting (and ridiculous) ideas room by room that you can implement on your own. Let's get started with the entryway.

You home's entryway is the first thing you see after a long day at work. If you're looking for a little pick me up to enhance your routine, here's a couple clever ways to make your comings (and goings) a more enjoyable experience.

 When you come home you want a greeting to remind you that you're truly the king (or queen) of the house. What better way to do that than a custom introduction? DIY blog Dynamic boost "You're the Best Around"). If you don't want your own theme music you can also record a custom greeting.

Parts needed: Arduino ($29.95), MP3 Player Shield ($39.95), ProtoScrewShield ($14.95).

Difficulty: Moderate, requires some knowledge of Arduino.

 One of the trademark scenes in any science fiction film is the door automatically unlocking for the person who has keys. Sure, on most occasions unlocking your own door isn't hard, but with a handful of groceries it's a difficult task. You can piece together your own RFID lock that unlocks with a wireless key and locks itself automatically. It's not the most exciting thing you can do to your door, but it's probably one of the handiest.

Parts needed: It's a long list but totals under $100.

Difficulty: Moderate, but the video shows you everything you need to do.

Your living room is likely your central entertainment hub and if you want to rig it up with futuristic-style, it's not hard to do. Not only can you automate your media delivery and accent it with a wide variety of control types, you can even add an instant party button.

The days of heading off to the video store to physically pick up and bring back a movie are long gone, but unless you can survive entirely on streaming video you need to set up a system to automate your downloads. That means using your computer as a media center.

We've shown you how to set up a fully automated media center before and also shown you how to turn that same idea into a torrent seeding machine. This automates your downloads and places them in the correct folders on your computer so you can share them over Wi-Fi with your television or set up a media computer next to your television. The benefit is that once they're set up all of your media is downloaded and delivered automatically to your computer. If you want to add an additional futuristic element, you can throw in voice commands for a true Star Trek flavor.

Parts needed: Computer, a bunch of free software.

Difficulty: Easy. It takes some time to set it up, but once it's done you don't have to touch it again. Photo by amirmeiri.

 If cheesy '70s science fiction movies have taught us anything, it's that every room should have a party button. With just a tap of said button, a room is converted into a playground of awesome flashing lights and killer music. One such party button is shown off on the website Plasma2002 and it dims the lights, starts playing music, turns on blacklights, and closes the blinds at the push of a button. Overkill? Probably, but no future-house should be without a party button, even if this one costs a lot to build.

Parts needed: Too many to list totalling $634.

Difficulty: High, but probably worth it.

Unfortunately, we haven't reached the point where we can simply ask the kitchen to make dinner (yet), but that doesn't mean you can't trick out your cooking area with a few futuristic ideas.

Since you can't feasibly create a robot to cook for you, the next best thing is a computer that can track your food inventory, work as a kitchen timer, and do everything else a computer can do. If you have an old PC laying around gathering dust you can convert that into a fully functioning kitchen computer complete with a kitchen database. Hacker Ryan of the blog Studio Lights created the iKitchen with a handy iPhone-like interface that can track a kitchen database with a barcode scanner, manage to-do lists, recipes, and plenty more. Of course, if you have an iPad, you can also rig up a cabinet mount like this in your kitchen and get the same effect.

Parts needed: Old PC capable of running Windows XP, Touch Screen LCD ($350, but you can usually find older models for way cheaper), OPOS Barcode Scanner ($90+ but you can find them cheap used as well).

Difficulty: Moderate, the cabinet installation is is the toughest part.

One of the key features in most homes of the future is the idea that you can stuff storage into tiny places and access the storage with the push of a button. This means creating hidden systems like the fruit rack in Back to the Future so you can make better use of a small space.

This automated pop-up kitchen rack is one pretty simple and easy way to tuck away your appliances or shelves. With a push of a button, the shelf raises and you have access to anything you want. This example has a spice rack, but you could feasibly expand the idea to anything you'd like in your kitchen (or anywhere else in your home), including a coffee maker, wine rack, or even a microwave.

Parts needed: Linear actuator ($129.99), tools to cut into your counter top.

Difficulty: Easy. The installation of the lift (the actuator) is dead simple. The most difficult part is cutting the kitchen counters down.

You probably don't spend a lot of time in the bathroom on most days, but that doesn't mean you can't install a few simple hacks to make things a bit easier.

If you're a little groggy in the morning it's easy to accidentally spend a lot of time in the shower waiting to wake up. If your water bill is always high because of this then tracking your usage is the most logical step. DIY blogger Mike Newell decided to create a system to track his shower time and toilet flushes so he can better estimate his water usage. The system works by using an Arduino and a motion sensor to track how long you stand in the shower. It also tracks the number of flushes on the toilet. It's a remarkably simple tool that can not only help you cut down on your water usage, but also help you see how much time you spend in the shower.

Parts needed: Arduino ($29.95), IR Sensor ($2.95), ultrasonic range finder ($25.95).

Difficulty: Moderate. If you're familiar with Arduino it's relatively simple.

Sometimes the key to home automation is not only usefulness, but also simplicity. Case in point, this pee-light that detects motion and triggers a very dim light when you need to run to the bathroom in the middle of the night. The nice thing about this hack is that it doesn't turn on the overhead light and blind you.

Tools needed: PIR Movement Sensor ($9.95), Texas Instruments MSP430 USB Stick ($20), 12v LED Light ($9.99).

Difficulty: Easy if you have a basic understanding of electronics.

Room by room solutions are great, but if you want to really build yourself the house of the future you're going to need to go for a full-blown home automation setup. The basic elements of a off-the-shelf home automation system are pretty simple: remote light control, power usage monitoring, and home security. Let's take a look how you can build these systems on your own for a fraction of the cost.

 The central purpose of most commercial home automation systems is power control. While those systems require a technician to install and set everything up, Instructables user mrx23dot shows you how to do it with a cheap router. With this setup you can control your lights remotely from your computer or smartphone.

This system uses commercially available power outlets that can run your lights or electronics through a network. The network is created with a cheap OpenWRT like one of these and creates a webapp for controlling any of your electronics from anywhere. It's especially handy if you're renting an apartment or your simply don't want to cut into the electrical system in your walls.

Parts needed: Open WRT router ($20-$40, see list of compatible routers above), Arduino ($29.95), Wireless Remote Controls (3-pack $21).

Difficulty: Hard, but the Instructables guides you through the process pretty slowly.

As we've seen before, monitoring your power usage is a great way to cut the bills, but it's also incredibly expensive. The cheapest way to monitor your power is to create a system that watches for a blinking light on your power meter, but if you want to actually use that data, you have to send it somewhere. Blogger Antibore's solution integrates that data into a cheap digital photo frame using a custom network setup. The small receiver attached to power meter outside sends data to a server and then displays the current power usage on a small monitor. It's a handy way to track all your power consumption without totally breaking the bank.

Parts needed: Samsung Photo Frame ($65 used), Beagleboard ($89), Xbee to wireless send data ($22.95), ATtiny 2313 ($2.88).

Difficulty: High, but at around 1/5th of the cost of most commercial monitors it's not a bad time investment. You can always skip the digital display and just use the simple monitor tool to track on your computer.

 The final essential part in a home automation system is security. The benefit you get from going through commercial service is that the system is installed by someone else, but hacking together your own system is dead simple.

The easiest way to do it is to set up a motion detection camera on your home computer. We've broken down our two favorite options before and both are easy to set up and will notify you on your phone if anything moves in the house. If you're looking for a solution that tracks multiple cameras, Vitamin D allows for several wireless cameras so you can monitor multiple areas of the house at once.

Parts needed: Computer with a webcam, software ($5, $50, or $60 depending on what you need).

Difficulty: Easy. A couple clicks and you're done.

The house of the future isn't going to build itself and with the above hacks you'll be well on your way to a Jetsons style fully automated home minus the robotic maid. You can always pick and choose which elements you'd like, but most of the above projects are accomplished in an afternoon at the most. The above ideas are just a handful of some of our favorites that are out there. Have you made any amazing upgrades to your home to make it more futuristic? Share your ideas in the comments.

NEWS FROM THE FUTURE – Department of Defense’s Fracture Putty Could Heal Bones in Days

 

 

NEWS FROM THE FUTURE – Department of Defense’s Fracture Putty Could Heal Bones in Days:

Researchers at the University of Georgia Regenerative Bioscience Center in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Defense are developing a new “fracture putty” with the aim of  significantly shortening the healing time of bone fractures in humans. According to the researchers, complex fractures can often lead to amputations for U.S. service men and women. The lengthy healing time often associated with these injuries can also prove to be a major burden for the patients and providers.

Sugru for bones

Be the first to like this post.

NEWS FROM THE FUTURE – Tech Companies Mum On Factory Audits

 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/gadgets-companies-mum-on-labor-audits. John Herrman wrote to the gadget makers out there…

Under immense pressure, Apple decided to let independent auditors into its suppliers’ factories. So we asked other companies: Will you do the same?

It’s a simple question, phrased politely, and sent to the right people. Does your company have any plans to let independent auditors check up on your suppliers’ factories? Here’s what I got from some of the world’s biggest electronics companies. They had a month to respond:

This is a follow up to my previous post “NEWS FROM THE FUTURE – Factory Audits Becomes a Feature“. I think the massive maker community could help put the pressure on these companies as well. Makers tend to care about the origin of things, how they’re made and by who. We’re also willing to a pay a few bucks more if it’s made better, lasts longer and is repairable – and most of all, I think we care about the conditions in which something is made. At some point an agreed upon indicator will sought after by more and more customers, right now Apple is leading they way, they’re the easy target being #1 in a few arenas – and they’re turning this to the standard that other gadget makers may be held to.

Be the first to like this post.