Operating systems and applications come with more annoyances than you can shake a stick at, but I have a stick and I'll shake it at a few of the annoyances I've squashed recently. In Short Circuits, Some cautions about my previous favorite backup application, Carbonite, but no clear winner yet as a successor. Danger from Firefox plug-ins you expect to help or protect you. Samsung starts the year well with the Galaxy 7. In Spare Parts, only on the website: Turning old electronics that you no longer want into useful materials instead of fodder for landfills, D-Link now offers two power-over-Ethernet routers that are designed for surveillance applications, and Nokia is pushing what it terms a "passive optical LAN" as a better solution than copper wire for local area networks.