Whilst on the subject of big memory drives, this one caught my attention. A 256GB Solid State Drive with the option of case mounting and external enclosure.

The external enclosure gives the advantage of portability, which limits the transfer rate to about 20MB/s but when used internally, the drive sports 320MB/s read rate and 180MB/s write rate for £550. 

To be honest, I never really thought someone would create such a mammoth memory stick. I know you can but 2TB (2000GB) hard drives but a 256GB memory stick is insane, 8 of these to the capacity of a 2TB hard drive!

Of course, if you have a spare £620 floating around, then you can get one. You could get sixteen 16GB memory sticks for £430, but that would be like using floppies when you have a CD. You can also get an external 1TB (1000GB) 3.5" USB 2.0 hard drive for £65 and USB 3.0 for £100.

One of the big disadvantages to this kind of solid state memory is the interface it uses to connect to the computer with. This one uses USB 2.0, with a theoretical maximum speed being around 20MB/s it would take about 4 hours to copy the full 256GB to the memory stick.

I discovered this interesting rant from a sysadmin.

He points out lots of things about computers and how they are designed to make the average user disenchanted.

From the error messages to the confusing names of the processors, I agree totally with him.

I disagree when it comes to plumbing, you can get just as demoralised with pipes.

In order to deliver a better product, Paint.Net 3.5.5 beta drops support for XP service pack 1 and 2, as well as Vista RTM (before service pack 1) keeping service pack 3 support for now.

When Paint.Net turns 4.0, support for XP will be dropped completely.

Windows uses svchost.exe to load its services, without this file Windows doesn't know how to start properly.

The latest update to McAfee misidentifies svchost.exe as the w32/wecorl.a worm

There is a tutorial on how to recover using the Windows Recovery Console.

But simply its this line:

copy \windows\system32\dllcache\svchost.exe \windows\system32

The humble photocopier and commercial multifunction printers (MFP) have a hard drive in them that records every copy you make on the glass or handler. This is so you can print multiple copies at a later date.

The problem is that so can anyone you sell or give the copier to according to this story on CBS News.

All they need to do is pull out the hard drive and they have access to everything you have done for the life of the photocopier.

Photocopier companies sell replacement drives to install when you scrap and old one, but they work out to be prohibitively expensive and you can't simply wipe the existing one without rendering the photocopier scrap since the manufacturer installed the Operating System on the drive.

Probably the first portable camcorder that didn't require a viewfinder and could be held like a mobile phone was the Busbi. The Busbi offers its customers VGA quality movies (640x480) using its 300k pixel lens. It uses an external SD memory card and is supplied with a 1GB card and retails for around £35-40.

Shortly after the success of the Busbi, the Flip camera appeared on the market. Known as the Flip Ultra, it was also capable of 300k pixels so could deliver the same VGA quality movies as the Busbi but is much more compact. 4GB is built into the camera and is called the flip because with a flip you pop out the USB connector. Prices start around £85.

The UltraHD version of the Ultra has 8GB of memory and a 910k pixel camera that takes movies in HD quality at 1280x720. The camcorder is equipped with a mini HDMI connector, to connect to a HD ready TV. Prices start around £115.

Following the success of the Flip UltraHD, the Flip MinoHD appeared with 4GB of memory and is much smaller in every dimension than the UltraHD. This also includes the rear screen resolution of 176x132 1.5" screen (instead of 320x240) and use rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries instead of AA batteries in the Ultra and UltraHD models. Prices start around £110.

The Flip MinoHD 8GB model features the same size as the 4GB version but includes a screen with much better resolution 2" screen (320x240) and includes miniHDMI connector Prices start around £150.

The Flip MinoHD 4GB and Flip Ultra have composite video connectors for connecting to a TV so you don't get HD quality to your TV.

The Flip SlideHD returns to the much chunkier design of the Ultra and UltraHD. The SlideHD brings forwards a better camera (1.6MP), bigger 3" screen (400x240) and a full HDMI connector on the base. The screen can tilt to show your content without having to hold the camera and comes with 16GB memory with 4 hours of footage. Prices start from around £180.

Both the Flip and Busbi are designed to be as easy as possible to shoot footage and upload to Youtube. They are both popular for their ease of use, unlike a conventional camcorder where quality is the thing you look for, these are designed to be as easy and compact as possible, yet they feature a tripod mount so you can take steady shots as well as in motion. 

If you want a video testimonial, you can easily point and shoot and you have the video ready for Youtube so you can show it on your website or blog.

I was looking on Solwise's website where I got my first broadband router from and noticed they are selling a travel wireless router.

The unit is palm sized and connects to a 3G dongle to provide both wired and wireless internet to your wireless devices.

Open Office is a very powerful piece of free office software and it does everything that Microsoft Office offers. One of the big features that a business needs is the ability to mail merge documents and labels. 

Open Office handles mail merge differently to Microsoft Office, since you create your mail merged documents from a toolbar in Microsoft Office, you print them to a file in Open Office.

When I use facebook, I use Firefox as my web browser and use the AdBlock Plus add-on; the FlashBlock add-on and the GreaseMonkey Add-on with the fbpurity script.

AdBlock Plus effectively eliminates the ads from facebook, so you don't see any advertising on the site. FlashBlock allows you to choose which flash video will play on your computer, so you don't have to see annoying animated ads.

GreaseMonkey is a scripting system that allows you to use custom scripts to do things and the fbpurity script does wonders to hide apps and extras, such as who has added whom; who has joined which group etc. You can also hide suggestions, sponsored and connect with friends.

I think its more to do with being responsible, if you get a message from a friend that looks suspicious or out of character, there is a reason for this, it may not be them. It could be a virus that has sent it.

In the past a lot of work was done with Virtual Reality, where you create a world like this one on a computer. Augmented Reality is a cross between the computer and real worlds.

TweetMyPC is remote control for your computer. My computer spend a lot of time online and a lot of the time I'm busy elsewhere and so I forget to close my facebook and so I get people message me thinking I'm online when I'm not there.

With TweetMyPC I can use my phone and text twitter (or simply use the twitter program on it) a custom command that will close my browser, lock the screen or shutdown my computer without being near it. 

You need to create a dedicated twitter account for your computer so you can message it with commands.

TweetMyPC watches the twitter account and checks for updates every minute before performing the action you gave it.