Stories about: About.com

So you work for a big company that has told you that it's your job to build a big data center in a big city. Good luck! More often than not your job may be impossible, and even where it might be possible today, the window is closing fast.

This month marks two years of "In Security." Over the past year, some of my more popular columns have dealt with data aggregation and theft, the limits of risk management, getting along with human resources, how to spot and handle rogue security staff, encroachments on personal privacy, and the humor we find in the nonsensical things we hear from security consultants and the consulted. Sometimes it's the laugh of recognition; sometimes it's the laugh right before everyone looks away nervously and changes the subject. In either case, it's worth taking a look back before considering what's next.

Game developer Take-Two Interactive announced a preliminary settlement on all consumer class action lawsuits in the US related to a software modification calledHot Coffee, that unlocked sex scenes on the popular game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas."

We've all had excruciatingly embarrassing moments. We say something loud and inappropriate at a party and the room abruptly falls silent and stares. Or we misbutton our shirt and it takes half a day to figure out why everybody's giving us funny looks. That sort of thing.

In what at first glance seems to be a bizarre move, Microsoft recently announced HealthVault, a service that wants you to upload your most private heath records so that they can be accessed by others.

The Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco last week was intended as a gathering of the best Internet minds talking strategy, but at times it felt like a big group hug: "Congratulations, we survived the bubble bursting!"

Google will soon begin selling video advertisements on the Web, opening a new front in its battle for a bigger slice of the online advertising market.

Financial services company Experian got into the holiday shopping spirit on Wednesday by acquiring PriceGrabber.com, a popular online comparison shopping site. Experian's parent company, London-based Gus, said it paid US$485 million for PriceGrabber.com.

Lycos Inc. is hoping that a redesign of its Finance site combined with using a new search and aggregation technology will help draw casual traders and new users.

Have you noticed how all the best online deals seem to be for Americans only? I can understand when it's a contest for a trip to L.A. and a walk-on role in the next Batman movie as offered on www.emipromo.com/onstar/.

The latest three-letter acronym to spike the needle on the hype meter is P2P-that is, peer-to-peer computing. Broadly defined, P2P describes a way of connecting computers without intermediary servers and databases.