Online Home of Derek Meister
I like a little computer case modding as much as the next geek, but Western Digital has taken it perhaps a bit too far.
The harddrive manufacturer is set to release their WD Raptor X, a 150GB, 10,000RPM SATA hard drive with a clear polycarbonate window set into the top of the drive in order to allow viewing of the storage device’s internal workings.
The suggested retail price for the drive will be $349 and is currently available for preorder from the WD Store.
For users of the popular blogging back-end software WordPress, the project team has made available version 2.0 today.
If you have a USB flash drive that you use to transport files easily, you might be interested in one of Microsoft’s latest free downloads, SyncToy 1.0.
This tool in another in Microsoft’s popular PowerToy line of small downloadable utilities for Microsoft Windows. SyncToy makes it easy to synchronize the contents of two folders, such as those on your flash drive and those on your desktop PC.
Now you can make sure that everything you were working on in those synced folders on your desktop will be immediately available on your portable thumb drive.
Upgrading my Netflix account today from five discs out at a time to six, I paused at the the thought of just how much of my entertainment is rented versus being outright purchased.
I get two discs of video game entertainment out at a time from GameFly and most of the music I listen to on an average day comes streaming through a monthly account through Rhapsody.
I used to be opposed to the idea of entertainment that you didn’t own, but the reality of the situation has started to change my way of thinking. I still buy games, movies and music, but only for products that I know I’ll watch or play quite often.
However, for games I’m unsure of or movies that I’ll only watch once or twice, it’s not only cheaper to rent as part of one of those services, but it also makes for less clutter as I don’t have unused boxes of discs sitting on a shelf taking up space.
The same is true for music through Rhapsody. I have several gigs of ripped audio tracks that often just sit on my harddrive doing nothing. While harddrive space is getting cheaper every day, I’m just as happy streaming something across my high-speed broadband connection. It’s one less thing to slow down disc defragmentation and something I don’t have to worry about backing up.
If you’re dreading the next few months of cold, snowy winter weather like I am, you might want to look into a hot chocolate machine like Mr. Coffee’s Cocomotion.
It’s a $20 pitcher-like device in which you pour your cocoa mix powder and milk for up to four cups and then press the start button. The device then mixes and heats your hot chocolate automatically, allowing you to pour it’s wonderfully frothy mix directly into awaiting mugs.