The first external hard drive I bought was a 60MB (yes, megabyte) drive for my Macintosh SE back in 1987. The drive wasn’t cheap, which is why external hard drives really weren’t that popular for a long time. Today, however, you’re really being silly if you don’t get your PC an external hard drive. Here are my thoughts on the topic.
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March 25, 2009Buying an External Hard DriveMarch 20, 2009Ooo! It’s So Cute!
March 13, 2009That Syncing FeelingWhy can’t the computer industry figure out how to do a good sync program?
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October 6, 2008The Tabulae Ceratera
Perhaps we haven’t come that far after all. August 4, 2008The Lying Meter
July 9, 2008Anyone Lose a Laptop?There is an article making the rounds on the blogs. It reports that over 12,000 computer laptops are lost by air travelers in the United States. Not total over time. Not annually. Not every month. But every week. Dang! January 4, 2008Dawn of the Fuel Cell EraI’ve lamented in my Laptops for Dummies book that battery power is woefully pitiful and obsolete. Folks, we use flashlight batteries today that were designed in the 1930s. But that’s about to end. We are at the dawn of the fuel cell era. Batteries are about to go buh-bye and we’re all going to be better off for it. Proof comes from a company called Millennium Cell. (I once owned stock in that company. Good company, bad stock move; I bought just before the dot-com bust.) But before showing you a taste of the future, a word on fuel cell technology. A fuel cell works like a battery. It’s portable. It will eventually be lightweight and small. But unlike a battery, a fuel cell requires fuel for a charge. You fill up the fuel cell similar to filling a jug or gas tank. The fuel cell is then charged and produces electricity for a while. When the fuel cell gets low, you simply add more juice. Away you go! Millennium Cell has just introduced a portable fuel cell generator called the Hydropack. I have no data on its weight, but it produces 400 watts of power and its fuel is plain water. It’s spendy: $400. But it’s a wonderful first step into a world without batteries, a world with fuel cells. Star Trek Dept. Here is a link to a funky video. It’s the Turkish version of the first aired episode of Star Trek, “The Man Trap.” Now it takes about 3 minute for the credits to roll, but then you’ll see a set of Turkish actors playing the rolls and speaking dialog you know so well — except it’s in Turkish! And the sets are, well, gloriously campy!
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