Backing it up
The commonwealth of Virginia is hustling to recover data after a huge network failure. At stake is data for 27 state agencies, according to Information Week. Meanwhile the Buffalo News wants Governor Paterson to sign off on legislation to archive documents from "the New York Executive Chamber," including his office (h/t to WNYC's "The Empire" blog). Right now material fall into a mysterious, un-FOILable gap.
Are you being served?
Mashable's being servicey with a new way to determine how long the wait is at your favorite restaurant before you head out. It's crowdsourced though, so the downside is it might not work at your favorite Adirondack bar this weekend (not to mention it's for AT&T's iPhone). There's also a list of the top back to school podcasts. Innovation Trail favorites Radiolab and Planet Money make the grade. And finally there's a list of what the blog calls "the web's most insightful news infographics." How about this as a rebuttle (dug up by Tech Crunch): an "infographic backlash infographic."
The final frontier
With the end of summer vacation, and therefore childhood dreams, bloggers are thinking about NASA. Mashable has the details on a plan to head to the sun and Technology Review has a look at how the agency is revising its programs in the wake of budget cut threats from the Obama administration.
Shameless self-promotion
Infrastructuristhas a nice round-up of high speed rail stories, to whet your appetite for a project about New York's high speed rail dreams that the Innovation Trail's Ryan Morden is starting. And this story about solar panels in some of the poorest parts of India reminded us of Daniel Robison's story about solar panels on a homeless shelter in Buffalo.
Looking for love in the wrong places
New York has a new law to make online dating safer. Really though, it seems like the state is trying to protect us from ourselves. From Mashable:
The caveats seem like the kind of best practices any mindful Internet user would have internalized years ago. Things like not giving out your physical address and providing your own transportation on initial dates, for example, are no-brainers. But the act also includes clauses about not revealing your employer or last name; a simple search engine could be used as a tool for stalking or much worse in the grimmest scenarios.
Twitter watcher
Rochester's Kodak gets the nod from Ad Age for having a "chief listening officer" to monitor the company's social media mentions.
Better on holiday
And finally, no plans for Labor Day? Rustwirehas a suggestion with its photo gallery of surfing in Lake Erie, in Cleveland. Or, check in with Zack Seward's post about GM's Hawaiian fuel cell experiment. Surf's up, infonauts!
