Introduction
When working around the house, you can’t beat the trusty adjustable wrench to loosen a wide variety of nuts and bolts. A good wrench replaces a whole toolbox of metric and standard wrenches, both open ended, and closed. There is an ever increasing myriad of devices using all sorts of flash cards. In fact, I wrote an article just on flash cards a few months back. With so many different cards used in MP3 players, digital cameras, PDA’s, and now even cell phones, clearly a better tool is needed to deal with the chaos and clutter of so many wires, adaptors, and single card readers. (Note to manufacturers: While it may be profitable, there is truly NO need for at least the next decade to introduce any more memory card formats!)
Enter the 15 in 1 flash card reader. Today, we’re looking at two versions of the device, one from Belkin, and the other from Kensington. They both promise to be the trusty combo wrench of flash cards- and with the piles of cards and wires around, I could definitely use it. Let’s see how each accomplishes its mission.
Belkin 15-in-1 Media Reader & Writer
Introduction
First we look at Belkin’s 15-in-1 Media Reader & Writer. I’ve heard of multiformat writers before, but this device is truly the combination wrench of flash cards. Belkin makes my single media card type (CF) reader rather obsolete in an oh so 90’s kind of way. The Belkin 15-in-1 can read and write just about every media card on the market today. It is also a USB 2.0 device, which is an advantage. While internal flash card readers are manufactured, in my opinion, it is a waste to use a precious drive bay for a peripheral that functions so well using USB. Also, we can use the Belkin 15-in-1 Writer across multiple computers with the plug and play ease that USB provides.
What’s In The Box Continue reading
Some researchers at Columbia have an interesting proposition for you. MusicLab will let you download songs legally and for free if you just answer a few questions related to the songs. None of the bands are really huge though, so don’t go looking for the latest Radiohead album. But apparently they are going to use the data from the study to do scientific stuff, so think of it as a good deed for science at no cost to you. The worst thing that could happen is being exposed to some crappy music. But I’m sure there are some gems hidden in there as well.
We live in the age of ginormous hard drives. The price of a hard drive was approximately one dollar per gigabyte, today the prices are even less. With such huge hard drives available, we’re stuck with tons of space and nothing to fill it. Downloading mp3 files is one way to go, but they’re so tiny that you’d have to spend thousands of dollars at something like the iTunes online store. The best way to utilize your ample digital storage is by filling it up with video!
That’s where the Video Advantage USB by Turtle Beach comes into play. Record video to your PC, and fill those lonely hard drives up. Gazing at the box, I read promises of recording from many different mediums such as VHS tapes, video cameras, Television, DVD’s and anything else you could find to hook up with svideo or composite connections.
I have never worked with a Turtle Beach product before, and wondered what else the company produces. I found an array of headphones, sound cards, and video capture devices. They seem like they know what they’re doing, but I’m ready to find out for myself. I wanted to record off of three different devices, my TV, DVD player, and laptop.
Opening the box I found a CD, user manual, Svideo cable, composite (RCA) cables, a USB cable, the adapter plug with three composite female connectors, and finally the actual Video Advantage itself. Continue reading
By Ron Bell
8:25 a.m.: on the way to an early meeting with the new boss. What topics will she cover? Last week’s email bulletin comes up quickly on the handheld. While poring over lines of text, the jostling train commute becomes more tolerable, if a bit cramped: sharing space with a slim, sexy laptop and friendly, rather large person named Pat who works in the office down the hall. Wait — was the name Pat or Sandy? No matter, just nod and smile, we’re almost there.
8:28 a.m.: standing at the front entrance to the office building. A frigid shock of panic strikes: the notebook! Gone. Never realized the shirt collar was so bloody tight, the necktie a noose. Where does Sandy, no Pat, where does this person work: an office phone number, perhaps? Long forgotten. Wait, the cell phone address book, under “S.” No, that’s not it. Look under “P.” Ah, there it is. “Yes,” comes the ever-so-cheerful response, “I picked it up after you rushed out in such a hurry. But to ensure its safe and pleasant return,” the voice concludes sweetly, “we absolutely must spend a pleasant hour together for lunch.”
How often have you tried to remember an emotionally charged experience Continue reading
Generally speaking, technology is my friend, providing me gadgets with which to play and a website to keep in touch with friends, family and fans. All such things, however, leave a trace of where you have been.
A while back, my “comedy” website (in quotes, because some didn’t agree) conflicted with my much more staid, professional day job. The result, I moved on from that job and actually that state and part of the country.
Next week, I start a new job, and learning from the past, I will do everything I can to obscure my digital path. If I write on my weblog, it will be through a Gmail account. If I check my own site’s email, it will be through forwards to Gmail or my cell or Palm. I intend to never actually hit my site from their servers (and, in fact, have blocked their IP address).
I’m curious, though, what other strategies people might have out there to keep “Big Brother” unaware of their digital space. Any ideas?
Apple’s iPod is all over the news each and every day. The most popular music playing device on the planet gets more news media than the most popular person. Today is no different.
Apple claims the iPod battery life to last 10 hours. But at the end of the day all of us iPod owners feel like unsatisfied house wives when the iPod quits at a mere 4 hours. Less than half of the claimed amount is just not acceptable, and Apple feels that they need to correct this problem. That’s why they’re offering $50.00 to those who qualify. You do need a receipt, and you have to run a failure test (honor system is implied on this one) that proves your 1st, 2nd, or 3rd generation iPod battery is in fact a failure. Where the hell did I put that iPod recipt?
I was told that people are like computers. We have biological hard drives in our brain, we perform computations (sometimes we’re incorrect –ask my algebra teacher), and we can crash every now and then. The next logical step is to integrate human computers [brains] and traditional computers. British Telecom’s futurology department projects that in 2050, we’ll be doing just that. “Download your brain to a computer” is what they are projecting. I wonder if this is for a complete system restore, or more of a swap out of operating systems. Can you reformat a human brain? Better yet can you overclock one! I can just see those propeller beanies coming back into style but with a 90mm PC fan mounted on the top to dissipate extra heat.
They also noted that Playstation 3 is 1% as powerful as the human brain, and Playstation 5 will be as powerful as our brains. But then I’ve heard we only use 10% of our brains, did they factor that in? I don’t know how comfortable I am knowing my console video game player is more powerful than me.
I distinctly recall when WoW (World of Warcraft) was released we had to call three different stores to see if they had copies of the game in stock. Of course Fry’s Electronics said that they had it, and of course it was the furthest retailer of the three we called. Flash forward thirty minutes and picture me staring at a dusty blank shelf with the tag “World of Warcraft 49.99” labeled underneath. “We had a few copies when you guys called… I guess some people came and bought them?”
At that time I should have decided to do what IGN did in September of 2004, launch Direct2Drive and sell games online. I talked with Sutton Trout Director of Digital Content and Consumer Products for Direct2drive yesterday, and he put it simple enough for grandma to comprehend.
Me: “So how would you describe www.direct2drive.com?”
S.T.: “Basically, it’s iTunes for video games”
Direct2Drive is a website that allows you to purchase full versions of games Continue reading
Happy birthday to an old favorite.
Pac-Man turned 50 years old on Wednesday. And in doing so, Namco, Pac-man’s creating company was awarded a spot in the Guinness Book of Records as being listed the “most successful coin operated game” in history. Namco sold 293,822 units of the arcade machine during the seven-year period from 1980 to 1987. And since there, there have been numerous ports to home systems, 3-D versions, Ms. pac-man, and the list goes on and on… *wicka wicka wicka*..ok, its harder to type out the sound than I have first imagined…
I just ordered a dual head video card in order to run two monitors at the same time. With two monitors I can watch a downloaded video file (legal of course) and work on writing another life changing post for LIVEdigitally.com. Being able to drag a window from one screen to another, and minimize the alt+tab pushing I normally do, will allow me to maintain focus for longer, and work faster. You think I had it all figured out.
I did have it all figured out, until PureDepth came along and blew my imagination out of the water with their Multi Layer Display (MDL). What the heck is a multi layer display monitor? It’s literally two monitors in one. The first LCD display is mounted 7mm in front of the 2nd LCD. Each display is independent, there is no software necessary to run this, simply a dual head video card. There’s a tad of 3d feeling to this, but virtual reality isn’t the goal of PureDepth.
Continue reading
Searching the internet is not new news. Yahoo! and Google yadda yadda yadda… I’m sick of hearing Google this, and Yahoo! that. These search engines search websites that have been posted up oh the topic you’re looking for, and brings them to you. They use a historical database, a retrospective search, they search the past.
PubSub searches the future, and delivers your results however you want them. I set up a free user account and searched my name, an ‘ego feed’ deemed by the presenter. When something new hits the net, and involves my name, PubSub notifies me via email, RSS, instant message, or even a text message to my phone via SMS. Progressive searching they call it. This isn’t a crystal ball for the internet, but it’s about as close as you’re going to get to it. Just another one of the super neato burrito cool beans tools that I uncovered at today’s Under The Radar conference, held in Mountian View, CA.
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