Certainly, microwaves would work: a test carried out in 2008 transmitted useful amounts of microwave energy between two Hawaiian islands 148km (92 miles) apart, so penetrating the 100km of the atmosphere would be a doddle.

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In addition, as useful amounts of flash memory storage are now affordable, the ruggedness of flash memory and the ability to stack chips to provide slim package designs have made NAND flash the choice non-volatile storage technology for mobile devices.

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"I think it augurs some serious new - and useful - approaches to sifting through massive amounts of related data, " he said.

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The phone, Haven says, is the platform that combines these three streams: it gets input from and monitors its user, is embedded in the mesh of the Internet, and can relay massive amounts of data that could be the basis for useful algorithms.

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Big Data has been a problem for businesses in the past because it's been expensive to store and because huge amounts of computing power are needed to analyse it to get anything useful from it.

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Flash memory has played an important role in these mobile consumer devices because it is rugged, flash memory chips can be stacked to enable compact devices, it uses small amounts of battery power and enough storage capacity can be included to make these devices useful for some common tasks such as email and media playing.

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However, they transfer very small amounts of information locally, require new hardware for both consumers and merchants and, though useful, are limited in their scope and flexibility.

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Data loss prevention systems are useful for monitoring end user activities and identifying suspicious patterns of behavior on the network, like accessing unusually large amounts of sensitive information.

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That will be especially useful over the next few years, with the arrival of third-generation mobile networks able to carry large amounts of data and provide high-speed Internet access.

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