Science & Technology

Who wouldn't want 50GBs of free Internet storage? Dropbox is all fine and well, but it starts with a mere 2GBs of free space.  Kim Dotcom's newly launched Mega cloud storage service with its free 50GBs of storage sounds much better, but how well does it really work? Let me open by saying it's a long, long way from perfect.

To get your free 50GBs of storage, you first must register your account with a valid e-mail address. Once you've done this—and it may take a while since the system is heavily over-burdened—you'll get a link to use to login to Mega.

In a quiet suite removed from the insanity of the Consumer Electronics Show expo floor, a company aiming to build the fastest Wi-Fi chips in the world demonstrated its vision of wireless technology's future.

On one desk, a laptop powered a two-monitor setup without any wires. At another, a tablet playing an accelerometer-based racing game mirrors its screen in high definition to another monitor. Across the room, a computer quickly transfers a 3GB file from a wireless router with built-in storage.

Today we talk about 801.11ac, 4G, and LTE Advanced, but what users really want is just fast, reliable wireless networking that works everywhere. According to the experts, we're going to give it to them... eventually.

In a CES panel entitled "Six Wireless Technologies You'll Want to Know," the conversation quickly spun from being an overview of such technologies to how these Wi-Fi and cellular networking were coming together.

Moore's Law puts supercomputers out to pasture because power – not just the cost of electricity, but the availability of juice – is the biggest constraint at the big supercomputing centers. And sometimes the lack of budget helps lock the gate, and HPC cloud computing butchers the cow.

That's the case with the massive 28-rack supercomputer at the University of New Mexico nicknamed "Encanto," which was supposed to be a foundation for high-tech investment and research in the Southwest state with the motto "Land of Enchantment."