More backup

One drawback of the emergency small, durable USB flash drives is limited capacity. They are fine for taking a few files across town, but they cannot hold digital films or a website photo archive. The new USB 2.0 Pocket Hard Drive from Seagate is different. The sleek grey disk crams the storage power of a 2.5- to 5-gigabyte hard drive into a shockproof, palm-size chassis, reports NYTNS. Its most attractive feature, perhaps, is its ability to partition its memory: users can cordon off and password-protect one or more sections of the drive to store sensitive information. That eliminates at least one worry ? loss of data because of battery failure.

Paint shield

As wireless networks have proliferated, a computer security company has come up with a simple solution against hackers ? insulating the interior of a house, apartment or office from radio-wave interference. A latex house paint that has been laced with copper and aluminum fibres can form an electromagnetic shield, blocking most radio waves and protecting wireless networks. One coat of DefendAir paint from Force Field Wireless shields Wi-Fi, WiMax and Bluetooth networks operating at frequencies from 100 megahertz to 2.4 gigahertz.