B@siT's Blog :)

The amount of data we are keeping on our computers is getting silly. Gig upon gig of movies, music and valuable photos, tens of thousands of e-mails you cannot be bothered to delete.

And then, your hard-drive crashes, and you lose everything. Because the truth is that many of us do not bother to back-up, but if you would like to start, here is everything you need to know.

If you want to store small amounts of data, Writable CDs are fine and cheap, but if you have a large collection then you will need more space. DVDs can store up to eight times more than a CD, and a dual Layer DVD will hold around 8GB. HD formats like HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs can store up to 50GB. And of course it goes without saying, but we will say it anyway, you will have to have buy a Blu-ray or HD DVD writer to be able to write data on these discs. These HD disc writers are still not common and are very expensive, so if you have large amounts of data you might be better of investing in an external hard-drive. They are rapidly coming down in price and growing in size. Many external drives come with software allowing you to set-up automatic back-ups at times and days of your choosing. Choose also whether to back-up all or just some of your files.

For a lighter, more robust, shock resistant option, go for a flash drive. More expensive per gigabyte, but also more accident-proof.

How about storing your data online? Many companies are offering online space for a monthly fee. Very handy if you travel a lot and need to access your data from anywhere in the world. But uploading is slow, so it is best to limit it to essential and smaller files. And bear in mind that if your membership lapses, you could lose your data.



HARD DRIVE SNAPSHOT (IMAGE):

There are also programs available that can take a snapshot of your hard-drive and save it as is. So if anything goes wrong, you can just restore using the disc image.

But make sure you save this file on to a separate drive. After all, if your hard-drive crashes, any back-up you have stored on it will be toast.

The latest operating systems - ie both Vista and Leopard - come with an automatic back-up tool. Vista can automatically back-up your data on to a server and on to another drive and the business edition will give you the option of backing-up your entire system. Leopard's Time Machine can also constantly back-up data, as it is always working in the background. But you do have to buy an external drive to be able to use it. And Windows XP also comes with its own data back-up facility but it is a real pain to use.

If you want to find something out these days, one of the first things you will do is type words into a box on the webpages of a search engine.

The result will be an avalanche of websites which contain the words you are looking for, hopefully with the most useful ones at the top of the list.

For much of the past two decades, search results have been triggered by straightforward keyword connections.

It has been an adequate solution, but it is far from perfect says Mike Elgan, a columnist at Computerworld.com.

"Human beings view the world in terms of associations - a classic example in the scientific community is when you say the sentence 'I saw a bird with a telescope'.


Human Understanding:

Search engines have never really understood the precise meaning or true intent of questions or phrases - semantic search is a process trying to improve this.

A new generation of web services is in development to offer results for words and picture searches, and attempt to understand users' questions.

Kosmix is one of a new batch of search engines trying to incorporate human understanding into its complex mathematical computations.

Anand Rajaraman, co-founder of Kosmix, said the site's goal is to encourage a kind of "serendipity" by displaying information in a visual way.

The idea is for people to be able to scan it and find interesting things more like a magazine. You know how you are scanning a magazine and suddenly something catches your eye serendipitously.


Exciting Work:

Bing is the latest reincarnation of Windows Live Search and MSN Search which have never been as popular as Yahoo or Google.

To improve it Microsoft bought semantic search company Powerset that uses updated methods to produce their results.

Also, increasingly search is moving beyond desktops. One recent survey in the US showed the number of search apps downloaded to mobile phones in the past year has doubled.

While a third more searches are being done on mobile web browsers - many devices have GPS and a constant stream of updated information.


Voice Search:

A search engine of the future will not just return a list of restaurants, for instance, but it will know you are inside a car, what time of day it is, and the traffic conditions.

So when you get to the restaurant, it will be able to guide you to the nearest parking space, and tell you what specific lunch specials are on the menu that day.

But typing on the go can be dangerous and even illegal in some places, so the physical way we search may change over time. With a mobile device it's easier to say what you want rather than type some keywords, People speak in short simple sentences when they know there is a speech recognizer listening to them.

Google Chrome OS will be aimed initially at small, low-cost netbooks, but will eventually be used on PCs as well.

Google said netbooks with Chrome OS could be on sale by the middle of 2010.

"Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS," the firm said in its official blog.

The operating system, which will run on an open source licence, was a "natural extension" of its Chrome browser, the firm said.

The news comes just months before Microsoft launches the latest version of its operating system, called Windows 7.

'Back to basics'

"We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you on to the web in a few seconds," said the blog post written by Sundar Pichai, vice-president of product management, and Google's engineering director Linus Upson.

Both men said that "the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web" and that this OS was "our attempt to rethink what operating systems should be".

To that end, the search giant said the new OS would go back to basics.

"We are completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates.

"It should just work," said Google.

Google already has an operating system for mobile phones called Android which can also be used to run on netbooks. Google Chrome OS will be aimed not just at laptops but also at desktops for those who spend a lot of time on the web.

'Truly competitive'

The announcement could dramatically change the market for operating systems, especially for Microsoft, the biggest player with around 90% share.

"This announcement is huge," said Rob Enderle, industry watcher and president of the Enderle Group.

"This is the first time we have had a truly competitive OS on the market in years. This is potentially disruptive and is the first real attempt by anyone to go after Microsoft.

"Google is coming at this fresh and, because it is based on a set of services that reside on the web, it is the first really post-web operating system, designed from the ground up, and reconceived for a web world," Mr Enderle told the BBC.

Last year Google launched the Chrome browser, which it said was designed for "people who live on the web - searching for information, checking e-mail, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends".

Stephen Shankland at CNET said the move had widespread implications.

"One is that it shows just how serious Google is about making the web into a foundation not just for static pages but for active applications, notably its own such as Google Docs and G-mail.

"Another, it opens new competition with Microsoft and, potentially, a new reason for anti-trust regulators to pay close attention to Google's moves."

Some commentators said Google's motivation in all this was pretty clear.

"One of Google's major goals is to take Microsoft out, to systematically destroy their hold on the market," said Mr Enderle.

"Google wants to eliminate Microsoft and it's a unique battle. The strategy is good. The big question is, will it work?"

At the popular blog, TechCrunch, MG Siegler said: "Let's be clear on what this really is. This is Google dropping the mother of all bombs on its rival, Microsoft."

Microsoft releases Windows 7 later this year to replace Windows Vista and Windows XP, which is eight years old.

The Redmond-based company claims that 96% of netbooks run Windows to date.

Out of beta

In a separate announcement Google also revealed that many of its most popular applications had finally moved out of trial, or beta, phase.

Gmail, for example, has worn the beta tag for five years.

"We realise this situation puzzles some people, particularly those who subscribe to the traditional definition of beta software as being not yet ready for prime time," wrote Matthew Glotzbach, the director of product management in the official Google blog.

The decision to ditch the beta tag was taken because the apps had finally reached the "high bar" mark, he wrote.

More than 1.75 million companies use Google apps, according to the firm.

The world-famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT - is a breeding ground for boffins - the next generation of gadget creators.

Ten thousand students, five schools and one college including the famed Media Lab make up MIT - which has an annual research budget of well over $500m (£302m).

Every year hundreds of new inventions and patents are created at MIT and millions of dollars are earned in royalties from previous projects that have become public. So what's next?

Electric Cars:

Electric vehicle research has gone into overdrive recently and MIT's Smart Cities Lab is developing a whole new transportation system for urban environments one element of which could be the stackable City Car.

They are like luggage carts at the airport. You pick one up, use it briefly and drop it off at another location.

The City Car charges while stacked.

"It has displays, batteries onboard and different control systems that help us use the vehicle," said William Lark, an MIT research assistant. "But the key feature of this is the wheel itself.

"Instead of having a traditional drive train with mechanics throughout the vehicle," he said.

"We can localise everything to the wheel itself and do things like turn the wheel a full 120 degrees which allows us to have the vehicle spin on a dime, translate sideways, give you all the freedoms and movements that you might get just moving around as we do as humans today.




E - BIKES:

The Roboscooter follows the same philosophy - clean, green and available anytime anywhere for quick trips. It too charges at its station and folds up for an ultra small footprint.





Another MIT project is an electric bicycle that stores pedal power - allowing the rider to tap into it when going up hills.

Of all the mobility inventions this is the one that is likely to have the fastest and biggest impact in existing societies.

Ryan Chin, a research assistant at MIT, said: "There are actually a lot of e-bikes out there in China and Europe.

"Over 20 million of them in China. The primary difference is that we have integrated the motor and the battery together in the hub space of the wheel which allows us to easily retrofit this unit into any bicycle."

Designing new vehicles is just one aspect of the Smart Cities Lab.

Their big picture is a world where riders and vehicles make decisions based on real time data.

Ideally a navigation system would tell travellers how fast they can get to their destination and which is the cheapest route to take.



ROBOT CARERS:




Many researchers in the US are working to give robots the ability to learn about their environment without the aid of the humans that built them.

Already a robotic pet has been developed which can be fed information about the terrain in front of it by a circle of cameras.

It is not pre-programmed for the task - but makes its own decisions instantly about which route to take.

Once robots can learn they could find a role in many diverse fields.

Japan, for example, hopes to use humanoids as caregivers for an increasingly elderly population.

Alternatively miniature robots might one day crawl through our intestines looking for and fixing medical problems.

One learning robot project at MIT is an ornithopter that has a computer on board. Every time it flies it learns how to fly better. One day this may be the perfect surveillance or search tool.
MIT PhD student John Roberts said: "There is a lot of computational power which is important because some of the learning algorithms can be relatively intensive.

"We have a number of sensors here that are able to measure the rate it's spinning, the accelerations it is experiencing."

Better batteries, smaller chips and more computing power are helping the project get closer to its ultimate goal which is for the robot bird to mimic the endurance, manoeuvrability and speed of a living creature.

These are the challenges that generations of students and professors at MIT have tackled.

Thousands of hours of painstaking research, hundreds of tiny scientific steps forward slowly creeping in the right direction until eventually, for a lucky few the eureka moment arrives.

Cast of 24 season 7

Country of origin United States.
Network Fox
Original Run January 11, 2009 – May 18, 2009
No. of Episodes 24
DVD Release Date May 19, 2009 (US)


Season Seven, also known as Day 7 of the American serial television series 24, was to premiere on January 13, 2008, but was delayed for one year due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. On November 23, 2008, Fox aired 24: Redemption, a two-hour TV movie set between seasons. Season seven began in the U.S. with a four-hour premiere over two consecutive nights, following the format of the previous three seasons, with the first two hours airing on Sunday, January 11, 2009, and the third and fourth hours airing on Monday, January 12. Fox aired the remainder of the season without interruption on Mondays. Sky1 presented a two-hour premiere special on Monday 12 January. Another two hours were broadcast the following Monday, and a single episode on every subsequent Monday, meaning that the UK remained one week behind the U.S. Unlike all of the other seasons, this season's DVD set was released exactly one day after the season finale.

The season's storyline began and ended at 8:00 a.m.


Story:


"8:00 a.m.-9:00 a.m."


Four years after Abu Fayed's reign of terror, CTU has been disbanded by the government. Jack Bauer is being questioned in a Senate hearing led by Senator Mayer regarding his illegal use of torture to prevent terrorist attacks. The FBI discovers a plot to infiltrate the nation's computer infrastructure when they learn that security expert Michael Latham has been kidnapped. Jack is enlisted to help the investigation because of his personal history with Tony Almeida, who is very much alive and is believed to be one of the terrorists. While Latham is forced to repair a "CIP device" for the terrorists, Bauer and Agent Renee Walker question a broker with connections to Almeida. However, the suspect is killed by a sniper during the interrogation.


"9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m."


To demonstrate that the repaired CIP device can infiltrate the nation's computer systems, Tony briefly takes control of an air traffic control tower. President Taylor meets with Prime Minister Matobo to discuss US assistance in Sangala, and First Gentleman Henry Taylor pursues a lead regarding the circumstances of the death of his son. Meanwhile, a mole within the FBI helps the sniper escape custody. Jack and Agent Walker trail the sniper to a yacht, where they apprehend Tony; however, the CIP device is delivered to Emerson's team before the assault.


"10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m."


While being questioned at the FBI, Tony discreetly provides Jack with a contact number to Bill Buchanan, who reveals that Tony is undercover; they, along with Chloe O'Brian, are attempting to expose a government conspiracy involving the CIP device. Henry meets with Samantha, the ex-girlfriend of the deceased First Son. Colonel Dubaku, having received the CIP device, demands that the United States government abort the invasion of Sangala. To protect Tony's cover, Jack breaks him out of FBI custody with help from Chloe and Bill, incapacitating Renee along the way.


"11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m."


Tony regains his cover with Emerson's cell, bringing Jack with him. Dubaku orders Emerson to kidnap Prime Minister Matobo. Henry learns from Samantha that the First Son was killed because he was uncovering the conspiracy. Renee tortures the sniper, despite possible negative consequences to her career; the sniper discloses Emerson's next move, the kidnapping of the Matobos. Renee contacts the FBI who manage to warn Matobo just as Jack, Tony, and Emerson raid the Sangalan embassy, forcing the Matobos into a safe room.


"12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m."


Jack flushes the Matobos out of their safe room. Renee investigates the situation at the embassy, but is captured by Emerson. Jack is ordered by Emerson to kill Renee, but he fakes her shooting by grazing her neck; however, he and Tony are then ordered to bury her. Agents Larry Moss and Janis Gold deal with an Attorney General investigation into the sniper's interrogation and subsequent death. Henry learns that Agent Gedge, his Secret Service guardian, is a co-conspirator; Gedge paralyzes Henry with a drug, and then hatches a plot with Agent Vossler to kill both Henry and Samantha before they can unravel the conspiracy.


"1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m."


Emerson suspects a double motive and pulls a gun on Jack, forcing Tony to kill Emerson. Jack and Tony reveal their true allegiances to the Matobos and convince them to be handed over to Dubaku's men so that Jack and Tony can track them to Dubaku. Bill and Chloe rescue Renee and bring her into their operation. Nichols, one of Dubaku's co-conspirators, arrives to collect the Matobos in exchange for diamonds. Nichols deems Tony a loose end and orders him killed, but Jack kills Nichols' men from a vantage point. Forced to accept the exchange, Nichols leaves with the Matobos. Colonel Dubaku causes two airplanes to collide near the White House, killing at least 271 people, but President Taylor still refuses to withdraw her forces from Sangala. With the help of Vossler, Gedge lures Samantha to her apartment and kills her in front of a paralyzed Henry. Gedge attempts to stage a murder-suicide, but he is killed when Henry regains mobility.


"2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m."


Jack, Tony, Bill, Chloe and Renee track the Matobos to Dubaku, who is attempting to sabotage a chemical plant remotely with the CIP device. Jack's team rescues the Matobos, kills all of Dubaku's team, and destroys the CIP device before the attack can succeed. Michael Latham, the CIP programmer, is killed in the raid. Dubaku escapes and manages to kidnap Henry through Vossler, who was waiting outside Samantha's apartment. Jack and his allies, now exposed, decide to collaborate with those in the government least likely to be corrupted. As the team arranges a meeting with President Taylor, Tony stays at Bill's house to follow up another lead and also because he fears he will be arrested for his illegal activities while with Emerson's group.


"3:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m."


Jack and the team arrive at the White House, where they gain the support of President Taylor. Dubaku threatens to kill Henry if President Taylor does not withdraw from Sangala. Jack and Renee, with Larry's cooperation, locate Vossler and his family. Jack interrogates Vossler while Renee threatens his family; he learns of Dubaku's whereabouts, but is forced to kill Vossler in self defense. Dubaku is forced to leave the hideout to deal with a matter involving his girlfriend, Marika. Jack and Renee infiltrate the hideout and kill Dubaku's men, but not before one of them shoots Henry in the abdomen.


"4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m."


Henry is sent into surgery while Jack and Renee trace a money trail to Marika. Dubaku convinces Marika to leave the country with him and organizes transportation for her. Jack and Renee confront Marika at her apartment and show her evidence of atrocities committed by Dubaku; shocked, Marika agrees to wear a tracking device. When Dubaku obtains passports and tickets from his American co-conspirators, he warns them that their names will be exposed to the Justice Department if he is killed for being a "liability". At the FBI, Chloe and Larry help Jack and Renee track Marika to Dubaku. Agent Sean Hillinger, revealed to be one of Dubaku's co-conspirators, stalls Jack and Renee by issuing an arrest warrant. Upon President Taylor's request, Bill sends Aaron Pierce to fetch the President's estranged daughter, Olivia.


"5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m."


After an argument in an alley, Marika and Dubaku head to the airport. Larry rescinds the arrest warrant, allowing Jack and Renee to close in on Dubaku; Marika causes an accident to prevent Dubaku from escaping. Marika dies, but Dubaku provides Jack with a disc containing the database of co-conspirators. Larry and Chloe begin analyzing the disk, but Sean and his accomplice, Erika, wipe the servers to erase it. Sean kills Erika and shoots himself to cover up his involvement; however, Chloe recovers the database via a mirrored server, and Sean is arrested. When President Taylor returns from the hospital, Bill asks her to consider Jack's case in Senator Mayer's hearings. Afterward, Olivia and the President share a bitter reunion. Tony informs Jack of an imminent attack at the hands of Dubaku's boss, General Juma, and that someone on Mayer's staff is involved. The President summons Mayer to the White House to discuss Jack; Mayer's chief of staff, Ryan Burnett, is notified that Juma's operation is on schedule.


"6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m."


As the President meets with Mayer to discuss Jack's situation, Jack enters the White House to extract the location of Juma's impending attack from Burnett. Chloe erases Burnett's name from Dubaku's list to allow Jack enough time to torture him; however, Janis discovers the deletion, Chloe is arrested, and the Secret Service interrupt the interrogation. Jack is arrested, and Burnett refuses the President's offer of immunity in exchange for the information regarding Juma's target. Meanwhile, Dubaku is discreetly murdered at the hospital. Renee follows the killer to a warehouse on the Potomac, where Juma's strike force is preparing to take a boat to their target. Renee stows away on Juma's boat, damaging her cell phone in the process. She learns that Juma's plan is to invade the White House via a hidden sewer duct accessible from the Potomac. However, she is spotted by one of Juma's men and flees, searching for a way to alert the White House in time.


"7:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m."


Renee is rescued by Larry and informs him of the attack as Juma begins his subterranean assault. Jack is released to help guard the President en route to the nearest safe room. Bill realizes that Juma is locating the President via her tracking bracelet; he takes it and leads Juma and his men away from the President so that Jack will have enough time to escort her to the safe room. Bill is consequently captured with the rest of the White House staff. Jack and President Taylor reach the safe room while the Secret Service and Marines close in on Juma's men. Juma bluffs by announcing he has the President, forcing the federal agents to withdraw and surround the White House. The Vice President refuses to authorize a rescue attempt, fearing political consequences for himself if the President dies because of his order. Juma finds Olivia and threatens to mutilate her, compelling the President and Jack to leave the safe room.



"8:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m."


Jack informs Bill that he released enough natural gas in the safe room to create an explosion. As the President reads a statement apologizing for the invasion of Sangala, Bill tells Jack that he saw Juma on the phone with another co-conspirator; Bill then grabs a guard's weapon and sets off the explosion, killing himself and several of Juma's henchmen. In the chaos, Larry orders an assault against the Vice President's wishes, and Jack and Aaron secure weapons and eliminate Juma and his men. The President appoints Olivia to an advisory position in an act of reconciliation. Jack informs Larry of the other co-conspirator and asks to interrogate Burnett again without using torture. Larry refuses and orders him arrested, but Renee convinces Ethan Kanin, the President's chief of staff, to override Larry. Consequently, Larry suspends Renee for insubordination and accompanies Jack to the hospital. As Jack begins the interrogation, an assassin sent by Juma's co-conspirator, Hodges, briefly disables the camera and audio feed to the hospital room and immobilizes Jack and Burnett with nerve gas before slitting Burnett's throat, framing Jack for the murder. After recovering, Jack steals the security tapes and escapes the hospital with the FBI on his tail.



"9:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m."


Jack sends a photograph of Burnett's killer to Renee. She identifies the man as John Quinn, an operative for a private security company called Starkwood, which is being investigated by Senator Mayer. Jack travels to Mayer's residence, and they discover that Starkwood helped Juma attack the White House in exchange for an unmonitored area in which Starkwood could develop and test a biological weapon. Larry discovers that Renee contacted Jack, and orders her arrested. Morris O'Brian decrypts Renee's messages to Jack in exchange for immunity for Chloe. Meanwhile, Quinn arrives at the house, kills Mayer, and pursues Jack to a construction site. Jack kills Quinn, whose cell phone messages reveal that the weapons have arrived at a nearby shipyard. The FBI arrives at Mayer's residence to find him dead; Larry assumes that Jack is the culprit.


"10:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m."


At the shipyard, Jack and Tony question a port authority guard and discover that a group has arrived to collect the bioweapon. They follow the operatives to a container, but Jack starts a firefight when they attempt to kill the guard. Jack commandeers the truck carrying the weapon, but Tony is captured by the operatives. Larry finds evidence of a third person at Mayer's house, and Renee tells him about Jack's investigation of Starkwood. At the White House, Ethan resigns to shoulder the blame for Jack "murdering" Mayer, as well as in response to threats from Olivia. Henry leaves surgery and expects to make a full recovery, while Olivia leaks information about Ethan's resignation to the press. Jack tells Larry to send a team to rescue Tony and to retrieve the weapon before the operatives catch up to Jack. However, Jack is forced to stop a leak in the weapon, giving the operatives time to catch up and recover it. Jack notifies Larry that Starkwood has reclaimed the weapon and that he has been exposed to it.



"11:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m."


Jack is placed in quarantine due to his exposure to the bioweapon. President Taylor appoints Olivia temporary Chief of Staff and is briefed on the situation with Starkwood. Taylor concludes that a direct assault on the Starkwood compound would yield the fewest casualties. Jack's blood work confirms he is infected; he is placed in a medical room and debriefed by a sympathetic Renee. At the compound, Hodges obtains the bioweapon and attempts to extract information from Tony regarding agency knowledge of the weapon. Hodges' adviser, Seaton, shoots the operative interrogating Tony and offers to reveal the bioweapon's location for immunity. With that, FBI tactical units and U.S. Navy SEALs, with Larry, travel to the compound. However, the weapon is not at the provided location; Seaton bluffed to buy Hodges time to prepare the bioweapon. A battalion of Starkwood operatives, including the one supposedly killed by Seaton, surrounds the FBI/Navy team with Humvees and threatens to fire if they move.


"12:00 a.m.-1:00 a.m."


Before retreating from the compound, Larry creates a diversion by punching Seaton so that Tony can sneak off and remain on the compound covertly while the FBI and Navy SEALS teams pull out. Jack becomes symptomatic and must decide whether to involve his daughter, Kim, whose stem cells could cure him. Olivia blackmails a reporter to keep the crisis from going public. Tony locates the bioweapons with the help of a Starkwood insider, Doug Knowles, who had been assisting Senator Mayer's investigation into Starkwood's activities. This prompts President Taylor to order an air strike on the facility. Knowles is subsequently captured and taken to Hodges, who kills him. Hodges learns of the strike and threatens to launch the pathogen, forcing the President to abort.


"1:00 a.m.-2:00 a.m."


The President meets with Hodges and Seaton, who declare that they will release the pathogen if Starkwood is not given a greater role in US military operations. As part of a covert operation deniable by President Taylor, Tony destroys the compound holding the pathogen and missiles, prompting the President to arrest Hodges and Seaton. Kim reunites with her estranged father, Jack, when he reveals his exposure to the bioweapon. Larry and his teams secures the Starkwood compound, but an operative named Galvez escapes with a canister of the pathogen. During the ensuing chase and firefight, the Starkwood operative shoots and wounds Larry. Tony betrays and smothers Larry before checking the canister and ordering the operative to take it somewhere safe.



"2:00 a.m.-3:00 a.m."


Galvez hides inside the FBI perimeter while Tony shoots himself to mask his involvement. Renee and Jack are informed of Larry's death and join the FBI team searching for Galvez. Tony plans to trap the FBI team in an empty apartment building and use C4 to demolish it, creating a diversion so Galvez can escape. Meanwhile, an unknown figure, Cara Bowden, impersonates Hodges' lawyer to lecture him that the bioweapon was not meant for Hodges' personal use, and threatens his family unless he commits suicide to preserve the identity of his co-conspirators. Galvez poses as an FBI agent and lures the team into the building. Jack realizes via tracking devices that the agent Galvez is impersonating is away from the building; Jack warns Renee, but the building explodes before the team can escape. Walker is unharmed, but a suspicious Jack learns that Tony lied to him regarding his source on the White House raid. With all evidence pointing to Tony's involvement, Jack confronts Tony, but has a seizure, allowing Tony to escape. Hodges consumes the suicide capsule handed him by Cara and is rushed to the hospital. Tony escorts Galvez and the pathogen to an ambulance, which Galvez promptly hijacks.


"3:00 a.m.-4:00 a.m."


Jack reveals to Renee that Tony is working with Galvez and was involved in Larry's death. Tony pays Galvez for the canister, but he refuses to deliver it and instead pulls a gun on Tony. Galvez demands the name of the buyer but Tony manages to overpower and kill him. Tony meets up with Cara Bowden who posed as Hodges' attorney and they set up a video conference with their conspirators. The anonymous conspirators reveal that they had planned to use the bioweapon six months later, at which point the country would be thrown into disarray and the group could assume control of the government. Realizing that Hodges' ill-timed action actually made this plan viable immediately, they decide to use the last canister to launch another attack on the US and frame a Muslim terrorist cell. Hodges, stabilized at a hospital, brokers a deal for witness protection, much to Olivia's disapproval. In return, Hodges tells Jack about the impostor and the shadow conspiracy. President Taylor authorizes the use of decommissioned CTU servers and Chloe is asked by Jack to manage the servers. Meanwhile, Tony, Cara and a team kidnap a Muslim scapegoat for their operation while Jack begins to display signs of dementia.


"4:00 a.m.-5:00 a.m."


Jibraan, Tony's scapegoat, is coerced into helping Tony with the terrorist attack and take the blame for it after his younger brother Hamid, is threatened. Meanwhile, Chloe gets emotional when she learns of Jack's condition. Chloe helps the FBI using the CTU servers and manages to link a money trail to Jibraan, but is unable to find a valid address, yielding only the location of his mosque. Jack and Renee travel there "question" the Imam, Muhtadi Gohar; when he refuses to yield information, they take him hostage. Olivia arranges through a contact to have Jonas Hodges assassinated, but has a change of conscience and cancels both the transfer of funds and the operation. Nonetheless, Hodges is killed with a car bomb. Jack and Renee discover where Jibraan lives through local police who recognised him and head over to his address; Chloe further discovers that Jibraan has been framed, and Jack expresses regret for his haste, winning Gohar's respect. Jack leads a team to raid Jibraan's house and free Hamid, but are too late: Tony and his team have already left with Jibraan, and their one remaining henchman is wounded by Hamid during the raid. By this point, Tony and his team are in the final stages of preparing their attack - on the Washington Metro.


"5:00 a.m.-6:00 a.m."


Jack and Renee race to locate Jibraan, who is being coerced into helping Tony to launch a bio-attack on Washington Metro. Due to some timely hacking by Chloe and Janis, Jack and Renee are able to locate Tony, ramming his van before capturing him. Despite their rivalry, Chloe and Janis also recover Tony's data which was damaged before it could be secured. With this they contact Jibraan, who helps them intercept the canister; he is reunited with his brother after Jack manages to isolate the canister before the bioweapon is released. Olivia meets with her contact, who reveals that he forced Hodges' murder through; she tries to cover her tracks, but Agent Pierce calls Ethan Kanin for help in accessing an electronic recording device in her office, with which he plans to uncover her misdealings. Finally, Jack is contacted and threatened by Tony's accomplice, Cara Bowden, who has a pair of operatives covertly shadowing Kim at the airport; Cara will have Kim killed unless Jack helps Tony escape.



"6:00 a.m.-7:00 a.m."


Jack has no choice but to help Tony escape, but informs Renee of the nature of his betrayal. He and Tony break out of FBI custody and Jack is taken hostage: since he is infected with the bioweapon, the pathogen can be back-engineered from him. At the airport, Kim becomes suspicious about the couple she got acquainted with; while receiving her boarding pass, she receives a call from Renee warning her of the threat. Former chief-of-staff Ethan Kanin recovers the audio recording which proves Olivia's involvement in Hodges' death. Olivia attempts to destroy the recording, but Ethan pulls a bait and switch, leaving Olivia with a blank recording. Back at the airport, FBI agents are closing in to save Kim and apprehend the hired accomplices; the man escapes, but Kim follows him, radios in his location, and singlehandedly secures the laptop he used to surveil her, which she, Chloe and Renee use to pinpoint Bowden's location. Tony continues to negotiate for a higher role with a major anonymous conspirator as he reveals his plan of launching another attack. Jack manages to escape from the doctors who were working to extract the pathogen from his body.


"7:00 a.m.-8:00 a.m."


To locate Jack, Chloe tries to backtrace the communications from the operatives' laptop recovered by Kim at the airport. Meanwhile, Jack flees to a garage and attempts to escape—or, in lieu of that, immolate himself—but is recaptured by Tony. At the White House, Ethan reveals to Olivia her failure to destroy the audio recording. With Agent Pierce behind him, Ethan confronts Olivia and gives her the option of admitting the truth to her mother on her own. Alan Wilson, the mysterious man at the head of the conspiracy responsible for the terrorist attacks as well as Michelle's death, finally decides to meet Tony in person. Tony reveals to Jack that his plan all along was to get revenge for the death of his wife—and unborn son. As Wilson arrives and meets Tony and Cara, FBI agents invade the complex. Cara and Wilson flee from the scene, but Tony catches them. He kills Cara, but is prevented from killing Wilson by Jack and Renee. Wilson, in custody, denies all involvement, prompting Renee to take drastic measures to keep him from getting away with his crimes. At the White House, Olivia confesses to her mother and father. As President of the United States, President Taylor decides she can't cover up her daughter's mess, much to the dismay of her husband. Jack's rapid health deterioration weakens him and, after turning to Gohar for spiritual guidance, he accepts his fate. Kim, however, decides she cannot allow him to die, and volunteers to undergo the stem cell procedure that could save her father's life.

Last time I was talking about anti-virus software but this time I want to talk to about some of the other ways we can protect ourselves online.
"I saw your item on anti virus software, I thought my ISP provided this already."Kim Buxley, Mexico
Kim, you did not say which ISP you have so I cannot say if yours does, but it is certainly possible that virus protection is either included in your subscription, or it is available for an additional charge.
While not free, these packages can make sense if you want to get up and running straight away, and let your ISP manage the installation and the updates.
AOL are trying this with a package called Total Care which is still in Beta, so I cannot send you to the site, but AOL's original safety and security software is available at http://daol.aol.com/safetycenter.
This includes some virus protection, spyware filters and a firewall. To download and use it, you need to sign up for an AOL email address, which is now free.
Microsoft has recently launched an online computer protection service called One Care (www.windowsonecare.com).
For $50 a year, you get all the virus protection you would expect, plus some file backup software.
You can put the software on up to three computers, which makes it attractive not just for family PCs at home, but for small businesses too.
Currently it is only available if you are in the US, but Microsoft are planning to extend its availability in other countries in the next year.
There are so few Mac viruses, that one of the free protection programs has recently slipped into history - Agax - which was for older Macs which did not run OS 10.
Its author says that he has not needed to update it in four years due entirely to there being no new threats for older Macs in that time.
But there is something to remember for Mac users who run Virtual PC, or the new Boot Camp software, which both allow you to run Windows on your Mac. You can still lose data on your Mac if you get a virus when running in Windows mode.
For such users there is the free ClamXav (http://clamxav.com), which points out that so far, the number of viruses out there for OSX is up to... well there actually are not any to speak of.
Finally, virus protection is just one part of being properly protected online.
New viruses come out all the time, so once you have got some protection, make sure you do not let it fall out of date.
Nowadays, a firewall is a must to stop some nasties getting in to start with, and spyware protection is handy too.
It can stop some of the more annoying, if not actually destructive kinds of online pests.
I must remind you that downloading any of this software is at your own risk. Something for nothing means you cannot complain if anything goes wrong!
"You recently told us how important it was to use a limited user account for day to day use - but this means I'm constantly switching between users to work."Jeff Calderon
I was warning you against using your administrator account for every day work but... good news!
Windows makes it really easy to switch between users, especially if you need to make a quick changes using the administrator account.
This is a feature called fast user switching, and it is something you will see on Mac OS too.
Normally when you log off, all the programs you have been using are closed.
Fast user switching means that when you go to the log off screen and choose Switch User, everything you have been working on gets frozen, while you log into the second account.
When you are finished, you can switch back and pick up exactly where you left off.
It is a great time-saver.
Sometimes as a limited user, Windows just will not allow you to run certain software and that is where the very handy "Run As" command comes in. This lets you run a program as if you were an administrator.
Bring up the icon of the software which will not work. Hold down shift, and press the right mouse button. Choose "Run As".
Now enter your Admin login and password and that software should work normally.
This is the computer version of "a stitch in time saves nine".
Yes it takes a bit longer, but it can save you a lot of extra work cleaning off malware.

In case you did not know, there were something like 40,000 new computer security threats created last year, targeted overwhelmingly at Windows users.

But as long as there have been viruses there have been companies who make their money by protecting computers from them.

This is very big business; $4bn (£2.97bn) was spent on virus protection last year. Given those figures I still find it amazing that so many people leave their computers open to attack from the various nasties out there on the internet, in fact some 50% of PCs do not have protection - even when there is a basic level of free protection available.

This week we are going to look at the options for free anti-virus software.

First up, from the Czech Republic, comes AVG (http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1). Previously it was only free for UK users but now everyone can download it.

There are reports of it bringing up excessive false positives, that is, telling you a file is a virus when it is not, and the interface is not what you would call pretty, but it is free.

From Romania comes BitDefender (www.bitdefender.com)- click on the downloads link to find the free products section.

BitDefender used to have versions for Palm and Windows CE devices, now the only alternative version left is for Linux.

Also from the Czech Republic comes Avast 4 Home (www.asw.cz) - click on Products and Select Free Software to find the download link.

It is available in a staggering 26 languages, but you will need to register it to get the updates.

Finally, a German newcomer, Avira (www.free-av.com), has appeared since the last time we looked at this topic.

Avira has versions for current Windows systems, as well as older ones like Windows 98. There is also a version for Linux as well.

It comes with a free UnErase program, with which you can try to rescue files which have been deleted.

Free protection is better than none at all, but do give some thought to the benefits you will get from upgrading to a pay version.

This includes faster protection from new threats because, in most cases, the virus definitions in free software will not be updated as often as pay versions.

Upgrades start from around £20 and I think that is a bargain.

Remember: there is always a reason that something is free, so have a look at the small print.

These products are only for personal use, and they come with either minimal support, or no support at all.

This can still be OK if you have confidence in the company which makes the software, and you know enough about your computer to handle any problems you might get with it.

However, in many cases, there are online forums which spring up around free software like this, which can help you troubleshoot.

If you want to investigate the different pieces of free anti-virus software that are out there you could do worse than check out places like download.com or Tucows - they have vast numbers of freeware and shareware programs, and the products are rated by users, which gives you an idea how good or bad they are.

The important point that you have to ask yourself why the software is free? And if you really take your security seriously you need to make sure your free software is as good as one of the paid for solutions.