preparation

When a disaster hits, preparation is key. It used to be said that you should have three days' worth of food, water, and other basic supplies. Now it's said to be seven days' worth.

Martin Griss, the director of Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley and the Disaster Management Initiative, recently spoke at NASA's Disaster Resiliency Panel held at Moffett Field in Mountain View, Calif. In the video, he explains how to build technologies that will make a difference for individuals and their communities when disaster strikes.

This video originally appeared on SmartPlanet with the headline "Disaster recovery: Where city and community plans are falling short.&… Read more

I need to reprioritize the items in my Hurricane Irene Go Bag. How do I know this? Because this a.m. I found myself struggling to decide which toy my cat would prefer should we be forced to evacuate our home early tomorrow morning.

Before you go planning a disaster movie marathon this weekend, be sure to check out the NYC Hurricane Evacuation Zone map or enter your address in the Zone Finder to see if you live in an evacuation area.

And if you do live in one of the affected areas, you can download apps for both iOS and Android devices that show Doppler radar info, detailed maps, and ongoing weather warnings and satellite images for up-to-date news on the storm. But what should you pack in your emergency "Go Bag"? … Read more

OS X Lion has just been released as a Golden Master build to developers, and provided all goes according to plan it should be slated for public release sometime later this month. Unlike with prior releases of OS X, Apple has taken a few different turns with Lion, especially in how it will be distributed to users. In addition, the system requirements for the upgrade are going to be a bit more constrained than in the past, so here is how to best prepare for the upgrade.

The first thing to do is ensure your system will run it. Any … Read more

Professional kitchens, like the ones found in restaurants, usually have a prep station. A person can stand at a particular part of the counter, chop vegetables, and push the scraps directly into a bin. The prep area is clean in seconds, letting the cooks focus on cooking instead of cleaning. While your kitchen may not be big enough for a dedicated prep area, you can temporarily convert some counter space into a prep center in seconds. The Scrap Trap hangs over the edge of a drawer or cabinet door underneath your prep area, letting you push your scraps into the … Read more

Poker Tournament Supervisor provides all the tools to coordinate a live poker game. While not set up for entry-level play, the program will prove valuable for serious stud players.

Poker Tournament Supervisor's interface impressed us with its professional look and simple navigation during setup. However, we needed to consult the online Help file to fully grasp what to do during actual play. The first important thing we learned was that this program does not feature any type of video poker whatsoever; it is strictly for organizing and managing live poker games. We were able to easily set up buy-ins, … Read more

This simple but well-designed program ensures that your meetings and attendees stay on task. It offers an easy-to-navigate user interface that will appeal to all user levels.

Effective Meetings opens with a professional, straightforward user interface. Menu and command buttons run across the top of the window for creating new meeting agendas. The features are organized by categories that break down the meeting process (General, Attendees, Preparation, Agenda, and Minutes) and each can be accessed by either clicking the appropriate command button at the top or by clicking the appropriate tab at the bottom of the window. We quickly walked … Read more

Updated December 8 at 9 p.m. with Inuit comment.

Revisions incorporated into Intuit's TurboTax 2008 have led to a bit of a tax revolt by reviewers on Amazon.com.

The tax preparation program, which is a top seller at the online retailer, has garnered an Amazon customer rating of one and a half stars out of five. As of Sunday afternoon, an overwhelming 82 reviewers (out of 90) gave the program the minimum one star, compared with four reviewers who gave it the full five-star rating.

However, it's not the features nor functionality with which the majority … Read more