I need a Redux Model/1!

Ismael Ghalimi has developed an idea of a need into a specification for a practical product in a few days. I really want one of these devices .

I will be looking for this to be the email interface for HF/SSB radio when ocean sailing ... I will not want to be running expensive power hungry pc/laptop computers. I will be happy to leave browsing the internet to download charts etc until I reach port. Any chance of ruggedising Redux Model 1? Protecting it from the salty element can't be much more of a problem than the exposure to coffee and worse around the meeting rooms, planes and lounges of its natural habitat.

A Universal DNA matching database?

Andreas Busch summarises developments in the DNA identification debate arising from

One of the United Kingdom's most senior judges, Lord Justice Sedley, today demanded that every UK resident and every visitor to the country should have their DNA recorded on the national DNA database ...

The judge has logic on his side. Britain has the largest DNA database in the world covering 7.5% of the population. Mathematical techniques can extend the range of matching further by detecting relatives of people on the database. So the brits are well on their way to achieving the judge's goal.

However consider,

• Outside of CSI and similar TV programs, how many crimes are solved through DNA matching? Is there a reasonable value proposition to extend this collection because of the current success rate?

• How often is unknown DNA (not on match database) available as a pointer to an otherwise unknown perpetrator?

My guess is that a universal DNA database (relatively simple to achieve by diverting sample collected at birth) does not add much to detection or prevention of crime because there is generally a small set of persons of interest around a particular crime not the whole population.

But as matching technology improves, what a great resource for control of the population at large ... no need for pesky ID cards, passports, fingerprints at airports ... just a bit of sweat or saliva as you pass myriad control points.

Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, warned that it raised serious issues around the criminal justice system: "if you get the knock on the door saying 'we’ve found your DNA’, you’ve got to start proving your innocence"

If the British justice system has descended to that level then a dna database does not make much difference. There is a risk at present that relying on DNA for more than supporting evidence introduces the defence that other (unidentified) DNA indicates reasonable doubt that the identified person is the guilty party. It seems to me that the only clear benefit of a universal DNA database is to avoid such a defence.

As an aside, why stop at the border? why not share the DNA database worldwide and track fugitives as they supply dna at the border?

I think the debate lies outside the technology arena and more in the political and philosophical area. Do I have right not to be identified?

Are you safely backed up?

Sean McBreen highlights the potential for information loss in our multi-gigabyte stores at home.
I guess that some assumptions had been made about the use of RAID arrays.

...terror as I cam home to hear my Maxtor Onetouch III 1TB external HDD clicking away and no longer in explorer... SCARY!

A few quick searches on the web and looks like I'm toast - so ironic as we have had a few HDD failures in our team over the last month. I just knew I should have backed up all those new baby photos we had been taking (I'm a dad now for 3 months).

After looking on-line and deciding that a fee of up to $2,000 and a distinct lack or warranty cover from the vendor I decided that I should take my chances and pop off the lid...

...I had the 2x500Gb drives configures in a Raid 0 set-up so ...

Unfortunately, RAID 0 does not provide any fault tolerance from disk failure, just better performance. In this case it doubles the chance of loss of data because either disk failing destroys the array. The RAID 1 option available on the Maxtor unit is preferable for resilience with marginal loss in write performance.
I think this takes you into the forensic data recovery area and having to re-build the entire 2 disk array sector by sector (assuming that some forensic geek can read the sectors off the dead drive). I recommend that you do not write to the remaining drive of the array as you may increase the rebuild effort.