Hip Young Things

I’m not the most technologically savy person I know—I don’t have an iPhone or iPod Touch—but I do own an iPod and can attest to its ease of use.  While I can see why everyone wants the latest touch screen device, I personally have never seen the draw.  Well, Apple does.  The release of their latest iPad has fans rushing out to buy one and critics wondering “What’s the point?”  While it offers many of the features of the iPhone and iPod Touch, it is larger and is rumored to be a device that is somewhere between iPod and a laptop.

Whether you are a fan or not, this video is sure to give you a good laugh.

When the centerpiece of any trip is the hotel, Florence has some sublime offerings.  Our hotels put you in the heart of Italian culture, with sumptuous accommodations to make the journey heavenly.  Florence is one of the true cultural centers of the world, with a rich history that has attracted artists for centuries, and continues to do so to this day.  The legacy of the Medicis lives on, and our lodgings are a divine blend of tradition and innovation, taking the best design sensibilities of the past and transforming them to a present that reflects modern sensibility.

The people of Florence have exquisite taste, and a definite love of their splendid past.  With this, there is also a love for the new, attracting artists who are willing to look to the future and present their findings in artistic forms.  One fantastic way to sample the best of the new wave of art is at Florence’s MUV Music and Digital Arts Festival.  2009 marks the fifth year of this exhilarating event, and it certainly seems to be evolving with the times.  The theme of this year’s festival is environmental sustainability, and artists in all the represented disciplines are requested to present work that is devoted to the future of the planet.

As one might guess from the name, MUV Festival presents some of the most interesting and exciting new work in digital visual art, electronic music, and experiments in audiovisual technologies.  The city that is usually accustomed to art that hangs on museum walls becomes a large installation, pushing the boundaries of the form.  There is naturally an emphasis on electronic music, with techno digital djs from all around the globe spinning the hottest beats to youth culture.  There is also a great deal of emphasis on the new technologies, and how they might present themselves to large crowds.  There are exhibitions, performances, and even workshops in Max/MSP, so that aspiring artists can learn the technique

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 stipulates that Fifteen Billion gallons of conventional biofuels such as crops of corn, sugar cane and wheat, be produced in 2015 under the Renewable Fuel Standards . The 15 billion gallons will have 20% less life cycle emissions than that of gasoline according to the EPA. At the time the Bill was written, the conventional biofuel was corn ethanol. While I was staying at a Goa luxury hotel, I read that a newly proposed ruling recently released, shocked many by declaring that currently corn ethanol was only 16 percent better.

Only 16% better? That’s not much of an alternative. Much of the low estimate results came from an indirect land use statistics base. This does account for previous uncultivated land being brought into production of the produced biofuels (displaced food). This appears to be a good development since the effects have the potential to have a huge impact and have a giant 2-by-4 whack the heads of an ailing biofuel industry. If the Act is strictly enforced it will mean all current corn ethanol production will not satisfy the current 10.5 billion gallon ethanol requirements. The National Biofuel Board released a statement shows how this might just play out. “There are things that could be done to make corn-based ethanol more sustainable”.

So basically, the ethanol industry will need to clean up its act. This can and will be accomplished by using a more sustainable land management; switching to a cleaner fuel, including natural gas) for the distillation process. So, right now, all I can do at this point is wait and watch how the ethanol industry will handle this new ruling. Will they clean up their act? Or will they become more and more dependent on the government for assistance. I put my money on the latter and hope that we all win.

I’m one of the lucky ones. I haven’t suffered major data loss, and hope never to, being that I have all important data backed up on an X drive. I have been hit by aggressive viruses a couple of times, however, which froze up my computer. In those cases, I was able to simply restore my computer and start from scratch — as much of a pain in the butt that is — without losing much but time.

But there are many unlucky ones out there who’ve suffered unfortunate crashes and data loss I shudder to think on. Luckily, there’s a relatively new company out there called Carbonite (for those of you who haven’t yet heard of it) that stores data through online interface to the tune of mere pennies a day and 15 Petrabytes total company storage space.

Once Carbonite data backup is set up on your computer, it requires little ongoing work on behalf of the user. It reads and stores your data as long as you’re on the internet, and users can also log on to the Carbonite site and access their files.

Also, there are no limits on backup storage capacity. Carbonite will back up all the supported files on your internal hard drive whether you have 1GB, 10GB or more. However, users should be aware that the speed of today’s DSL cable internet services will make it very slow to back up more than, say, a few dozen GB of data.

The Carbonite client is then always looking for new data on your PC. When you add or modify files, Carbonite starts backing them up immediately. It backs up about 2GB per day over broadband. Carbonite’s backup solution works by placing colored dots on your files and folders. Different colors represent different “file states”: 1) If the file has been backed up, 2) will be backed up or 3) will not be backed up.

So, why be a victim, when you can take advantage of Carbonite’s affordable data backup services?