AN OCEAN OF DATA.(OceanStore system under design to withstand computer outages caused by disasters or tampering)(Brief Article)

Among the long list of people who have grown nervous over California's energy woes and the prospect of getting run over by a rolling blackout are computer users fearful of losing critical data.

But John Kubiatowicz, a computer science professor at the University of California at Berkeley, is designing a system he says will withstand not only a fire or a hacker attack, but even -- gadzooks -- a botched electricity deregulation attempt.

OceanStore, a system described as being so vast and powerful that it will encompass the entire earth, chops data into encrypted pieces and stores it on computers scattered throughout the Internet. It expands storage capacity, …