house fire
Latest
SanDisk's Memory Vault will store your photos longer than anyone cares
According to a survey commissioned by SanDisk, family photos are the first thing people would save in a house fire, after relatives and pets. Personally, we'd rush for our laptop and let the dog take care of itself, but hey let's get to the point: SanDisk wants to sell you its new Memory Vault. This ruggedized flash drive contains proprietary Chronolock memory management technology that has been subjected to "accelerated temperature cycling tests" to prove it can preserve data uncorrupted for up to 100 years. Maybe the product is a boon to future generations, or maybe it's just a way of convincing people to spend $90 on 16GB of storage instead of picking up a Corsair Flash Survivor for $35. Decide for yourself once you've seen the further info and weird survey tidbits in the PR after the break.
Disabled man uses Evony to call for help during house fire
If a toaster caught on fire in your kitchen, it would be a small matter for most of us to put it out. Not so much for Bob Chambers, a 51-year-old Indiana man suffering from Muscular Dystrophy. While playing Evony, a Facebook MMO, in his living room, Chambers noticed the smoke but was powerless to put it out, get to the phone or flee the house. So instead, Chambers asked his fellow Evony players for help, who in turn called the police and fire department to save the man. Initially, the 911 dispatcher wasn't sure whether the call was a joke or not, but he contacted the proper authorities anyway. The fire was quickly put out and Chambers kept from harm. Chambers' wife used to dislike Evony, but now she has a different perspective on her husband's hobby: "I hated this game because he doesn't pay attention to me or anything else in the house. Now I've got to bite my tongue because it saved his life quite possibly." [Via Kotaku]
iMac burns, melts, survives to tell the gruesome tale
We reckon this is a story with something for everyone. Microsoft zealots can see Apple's hardware burnt beyond melting point, while Cupertino loyalists can enjoy the fact that the iMac lived on after it. Anders Norman of Sweden recently suffered a major house fire, but has emerged from it with some good humor and a scorched but amazingly still functional computer. He tells us that even the mouse's scroll wheel is operational and he took a picture of the iMac displaying the local news website's report of his home's unfortunate demise. Click the source link for more pictures. [Thanks, Robert]
