Glass storage claimed to last million of years.
Hitachi have developed a quartz glass storage system which is able to hold about 40MB of data per square inch - about the same as a standard CD. By writing the data as binary using lasers to etch dots on four layers of glass, the technique should allow the data to be stored for perhaps hundreds of millions of years - unless, of course, the glass is smashed.
The glass can retain its data after being heated to 1,000°C, and isn’t damaged by radiation, water or most chemicals. The team behind it says adding more layers to increase the relatively small storage space shouldn’t be a problem.
(Source: theregister.co.uk, via 8bitfuture)
Image: Map of the internet.
Fortune graphic designer Nicolas Rapp has enhanced some Geotel maps showing the routes of the main fibre optic cables carrying internet traffic around the globe.
To make the light travel enormous distances, thousands of volts of electricity are sent through the cable’s copper sleeve to power repeaters, each the size and roughly the shape of a 600-pound bluefin tuna.Once a cable reaches a coast, it enters a building known as a “landing station” that receives and transmits the flashes of light sent across the water. The fiber-optic lines then connect to key hubs, known as “Internet exchange points,” which, for the most part, follow geography and population.
Check out the rest of the photos here.
(via 8bitfuture)
Facebook monitoring you for illegal activity.
Facebook’s Chief Security Officer has revealed details of how the company screens users activity for potential criminal activity. It also monitors for evidence of “imminent bodily harm, or to protect ourselves and you from people violating our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities”.
Rather than have Facebook employees screen for activity directly, the monitoring is done by software which monitors for specific words or phrases.
The software pays more attention to chats between users who don’t already have a well-established connection on the site and whose profile data indicate something may be wrong, such as a wide age gap. The scanning program is also “smart” — it’s taught to keep an eye out for certain phrases found in the previously obtained chat records from criminals including sexual predators.
If the scanning software flags a suspicious chat exchange, it notifies Facebook security employees, who can then determine if police should be notified.
Keeping most of the scanned chats out of the eyes of Facebook employees may help Facebook deflect criticism from privacy advocates, but whether the scanned chats are deleted or stored permanently is yet unknown.
(Source: Mashable, via 8bitfuture)
