Heh!

Top 10 data destruction disasters

Ontrack Data Recovery unveiled its 2004 list of the 10 strangest and funniest computer mishaps.

1. Data Defrost
   One man brought in a hard drive in a wet plastic bag. He said he had read on the Internet that if you place a broken drive in the freezer it would fix it. So he tried that method and asked the recovery engineers not to laugh.
   
   
2. Reckless Recycling
   One man tidied up his computer folders and inadvertently deleted the ones he meant to keep. He then cleaned up his system, emptied the recycle bin and defragged the hard drive before realising his error. He now triple-checks files before deleting them for good.
   
   
3. Rowdy Relatives
   A man suddenly found his laptop would only boot up to the 'blue screen of death', putting his data at risk. A week later, his nephew admitted that he used its screen as a punching bag to relieve his frustrations with the slow computer. The man sent his nephew back to live with his parents.
   
   
4. Digital Disaster at 19,000 Feet
   The Polish explorer Krystof Wielicki dropped his digital camera when climbing the Himalayas on his latest expedition, smashing it to smithereens and damaging the memory card in the process.
   
   
5. Gone in a Flash
   One medical company worker completed 1,200 customer billing entries — a process that took several days — when lightning struck the transformer outside the building. Everything was gone, including all the bills she had just prepared.
   
   
6. Baby Blues
   One couple had hundreds of pictures of their baby's first three months on their computer. When a virus struck their PC, the computer manufacturer advised them to reload the operating system but they forgot to save the data.
   
   
7. Construction Calamity
   During the construction of a large office building, a steel beam fell on a laptop computer containing the building plans, crushing the laptop.
   
   
8. Toilet Trauma
   One man became so mad with his malfunctioning laptop computer, he threw it into the toilet and flushed a couple of times.
   
   
9. Road Kill
   A woman placed her laptop on top of her car while she got in. She forgot about the laptop, which slid off the back of her car, and she then reversed straight over it and reported hearing a 'crunch'.
   
   And finally...
   
   
10. Runway Wreckage
    A laptop computer was run over by an aeroplane. Even Ontrack's recovery engineers don’t understand how it happened, but that was the customer's explanation.
    

Jim Reinert is Ontrack Data Recovery senior director of Software and Services.

Crikey!

Scientists have discovered that Crocodiles have this incredibly powerful immune system, and they're hoping to utilize the anti-bodies to create new drugs to fight human diseases such as AIDS.

"The crocodile has an immune system which attaches to bacteria and tears it apart and it explodes," Australian scientist Adam Britton told Reuters. "It's like putting a gun to the head of the bacteria and pulling the trigger."

Sounds good to me.

Linky

*Yawn*

Not much going on here lately.
I've just been working and waiting for the Sheriff's Office to call and offer me the DSO position.
They have started the process for a new ASU list, so I'll be applying for that again. I'm 4th on the current list, but I really doubt there'll be 4 openings before November, so I might as well get myself on the new list.
The DSO list is good until April '06 so I've got some time left on that.

Of the two positions, I think the DSO position is more of a "fit" for me. It's basically an sytems admin job without the computers. Also, it will give me exposure to the incarceration side of the Detention Center without putting me in a position where I'm going to be involved in all the nasty that goes with working that side of the operation, like strip searches and poo flinging for example.

Not much else at the moment.
I'm working on getting a mail list server installed on the web server so if anyone wants to run their own mailing list, let me know. I should have everything up and working in the next few days.

That's it. Ya'll have fun. :)