disaster

When a disaster hits, preparation is key. It used to be said that you should have three days' worth of food, water, and other basic supplies. Now it's said to be seven days' worth.

Martin Griss, the director of Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley and the Disaster Management Initiative, recently spoke at NASA's Disaster Resiliency Panel held at Moffett Field in Mountain View, Calif. In the video, he explains how to build technologies that will make a difference for individuals and their communities when disaster strikes.

This video originally appeared on SmartPlanet with the headline "Disaster recovery: Where city and community plans are falling short.&… Read more

People looking for information on a natural disaster or other emergency anywhere in the world can now stay abreast of the latest details courtesy of Google Maps.

The new Public Alerts page, which Google is launching today, aims to keep you informed of emergency alerts for floods, tornadoes, winter storms, and other dangers that may be headed your way.

The idea is tell you what's happening, when and where the disaster may hit, how severe it will be, and what resources are around to help you, according to a Google blog post.

LAS VEGAS--IoSafe has finally learned that silence is golden.

In addition to the new Rugged Portable Thunderbolt that was announced with a bang, the maker of disaster-proof storage devices also unveiled today at CES 2012 the brand-new Solo G3 external hard drive.… Read more

2011 was a rather remarkable year for products and companies that were on top, taking a flop.

Here are our Top 5 moves and happenings that were hard to watch, from Flip to HP to Netflix and BlackBerry. It just goes to show that some of the biggest names can lose their way spectacularly.

Ten years ago, our world changed. Terrorists in hijacked jetliners brought down the World Trade Center towers in New York and crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. A fourth hijacked plane was forced down in Pennsylvania. A total of 2,819 people were killed. Since then, politicians and technologists have tried to create systems, products, and procedures to make sure we're never attacked this way again. Or if we are, that we can save lives affected by such an attack. There are positive results from this effort in how we react to all kinds disasters, but also downsides relating to privacy and money diverted from other programs.

To discuss the effects that 9/11 had on the development of technology, we're joined for this show by Jason Pontin, the editor and publisher of MIT Technology Review. Jason and I were both working at Red Herring on 9/11/01.

Subscribe: iTunes (MP3)iTunes (320x180)iTunes (640x360)Podcast RSS (MP3)Podcast RSS (320x180)Podcast RSS (640x360)

… Read more

Hurricane Irene has come and gone, and despite widespread power losses up and down the Eastern U.S., wireless networks performed well.

Cell phone operators said they had been preparing for days for the hurricane, which hit North Carolina on Saturday and hugged the Atlantic coastline up to New York City where it turned into a tropical storm before making landfall early Sunday morning. The preparation paid off as all four major operators reported that their equipment for the most part held up well in the storm.

While some customers may have experienced some disruption, for the most part, the … Read more

I need to reprioritize the items in my Hurricane Irene Go Bag. How do I know this? Because this a.m. I found myself struggling to decide which toy my cat would prefer should we be forced to evacuate our home early tomorrow morning.

Before you go planning a disaster movie marathon this weekend, be sure to check out the NYC Hurricane Evacuation Zone map or enter your address in the Zone Finder to see if you live in an evacuation area.

And if you do live in one of the affected areas, you can download apps for both iOS and Android devices that show Doppler radar info, detailed maps, and ongoing weather warnings and satellite images for up-to-date news on the storm. But what should you pack in your emergency "Go Bag"? … Read more

It seems that YouTubers (in Canada and elsewhere) would rather vomit than watch Justin Bieber.

Please, this is not some comment on the fine young man who makes me believe every day that you should never say never. This is, however, a comment on YouTubers (in Canada and elsewhere).

It appears that they have fallen in love with a show in which some very strange males concoct meals that would kill a horse in its prime.

Epic Meal Time, now a projectile of Revision 3, is a show that tries to prove just how disgusting meals can be if they … Read more

Admit it! Sometimes you are so mad, you just want to slam something on the floor, step on it, and then kick it a few times. I know a friend who did just that with his portable drive only to later regret losing data and hurting his big toe. If only he had had the IoSafe Rugged Portable, his data would have been safe. His toe's another story, however.

First introduced at CES 2011 with a bang (quite a few bangs, actually), IoSafe's Rugged Portable is the first mobile external hard drive that can really withstand serious beatings and abuse. The drive can handle drops, water submersion, dust, chemicals, and being crushed by a vise. I have personally shot at it with a shotgun--at a demo, not out of anger--and it didn't break.

This means that if you happen to drop it in the street and the thing gets run over by cars, chances are it will survive quite easily. As a matter of fact, the only situation it seems the Rugged Portable won't survive is extreme heat, which its brother the IoSafe SoloPro can handle. To make up for this, the Rugged Portable is about 15 times more compact and lighter. The drive is slightly smaller than a 3.5-inch internal hard drive and weighs about 1 pound. It's designed to be carried around, while the SoloPro is meant to be used at home only. … Read more