The week in your words: Space Cube, Data blunder, and West Wing

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Posted on 29 Aug 2008 at 17:45

In a week that saw a tiny PC cause a massive stir, another massive data disaster, and the West Wing creator agree to do a Facebook movie, we take a look back at what our readers thought of it.

A real Space Oddity arrives at PC Pro

Our very own Mike Jennings is a very big man. So big, in fact, that he has to wear a blinking light on his head to warn off approaching aircraft. Which is why his quest to find the world's smallest PC was so brilliant. And find it he did, a tiny little wonder called the Space Cube, designed to be sent into space which he duly blogged about here.

It truly is splendid, but who knew such a tiny computer could cause so much fuss.

"I am not sure what 300 MHz of CPU can do these days... but $1500... count me out! I am sticking to my [Nokia] N810," says Natasha26, missing the point of the Space Cube by a rather alarming margin. "Also, given the level of miniaturisation that went into the Macbook Air motherboard, I can't say whether the Space Cube's achievement is that impressive. It's just cute!"

We'll make the jokes around here Natasha. Terrifyingly though, she wasn't alone.

"I would buy it for $30 let alone £1,500. Are these people mad?" Adds measdsad.

Words fail us, they really do. But thankfully David was on hand to shine the light of common sense on what should have been glaringly obvious.

"For those saying they wouldn't pay $30 for it, did you not read the article? This computer is not designed for consumers, it's designed to go into space. Sending anything into space costs between $10,000 and $20,000 per kilogram. When the cost of launch is built in, this device is a bargain at $1,500 because it saves FAR more than $1,500 in launch costs. Anyway, why should it surprise anyone that a computer built for use in space is expensive?"

Million bank records bought on Ebay

Admittedly the latest method of securing data might not appeal to everybody, but consider this? How can hackers possibly steal your personal information if if no-one knows where the computer holding it is? Genius. As was ProfessorF's assessment.

"What? Nobody saying this is Ebay's fault yet?"

"Frankly, I think Ebay is to blame," chimed in heimdallsaga, right on cue.

"Yes Ebay should be made to take all data storage devices for sale on its site and check them for residual sensitive data and then, if found, apply military-grade formatting of the drives to completely erase it all before passing the device on to the buyer?" says poor skarlock, ever so slightly missing the joke.

But, hjlupton wasn't laughing.

"As a NatWest customer I'm naturally concerned about whether my data was included on that computer... It is appalling that so much data seems to be incapable of remaining under lock and key, a serious review of IT policy across not just government but businesses as well should be a matter of priority. This could be construed as a blatant breach of the data protection act, and to that end legal action should be taken."

JohnSheridan was feeling equally militant.

"NatWest should find out why this laptop was not cleaned down securely prior to its disposal and sack the person responsible - gross negligence if ever I saw it."