1 TB of storage on a tiny tiny card

How tiny? Think the size of your fingernail. Micro SD cards have got nothing on this. Nano tech isn’t just for movie space aliens. Engineers at NC State University have discovered a new way to store data with a 90% reduction in size. However the benefits go beyond the data storage realm. The process could also boost fuel economy and help create new efficient vehicles. Hello hybrid cars!

Drop Hard Drives Much?

Here’s a product from A-Data Technology for those of you who are clumsy bastards. Drop proof (up to 1.2 meters) and water proof (up to 30 minutes of 1 meter depth), because when you drop your stuff it always hovers around that 1 meter mark, right? Otherwise you are just plain SOL. Hmm, I wonder what happens to the drive when idiots immediately plug in the drive after dunking it into water? Wet cable/connectors, add a bit of USB power and *poof, hard drive gets shorted out. But of course nobody’s that stupid right? I mean who drops their hard drive with precious data into a lake that’s only 1 meter deep then proceeds to plug it in immediately?

However, just in case “a laboratory certification which we do not guarantee that hard drive device, data, and housing would not be damaged with the usage at any condition or environment. Please do not drop, smash or splash on this product on purpose.” (last 2 sentences on the page) So much for independent testing. Guess I won’t buy one then.

Before You Take Your Computer In For Service …

It’s a good idea to back up your data. Why? Just read this story from Consumerist. Long story short, the computer place screwed up and now people don’t have their data. The first mistake was not backing up their data. The second mistake was going to THAT computer store. It’s widely known that they’ve failed on multiple occasions. Plenty of blame to go around. I’m curious to know who’s actually doing the recovery service on the store’s behalf, because I’m fairly certain there’s nobody there competent enough to perform data recovery. Hopefully one of the bigger companies will catch wind of the story and offer up some discounted service for the poor couple. Don’t trust the computer place to protect your data, perform regular backups. AND don’t buy the extended warranty! It’s a complete waste of money.

More Handset Choices Please

The Canadian cellphone market sucks. No news here. Not only are you limited in service providers but as well you’re limited in the choice of good handsets. You’d at least expect a decent selection for a country who’s average cellular plan is one of the most expensive in the world. So what are you paying for exactly? Go ahead, checkout the available handsets for Canadian cellphone providers: Telus, Rogers, Bell. Unless you want a Blackberry then you’ve got problems. iPhone? Enjoy your 3 year 500mb data plan at $25 a month. Perhaps you actually like crappy handsets like LG and Samsung?

Ok, so there are some decent phones available but if you take a look at the models that are offered to the ones that are actually produced by the manufacturer you will notice a problem here. We’re about 6 months behind other countries when it comes to the latest and greatest phones. Last year’s phones with outdated features. Why must I resort to buying an unlocked phone from eBay when it should be readily available from an existing service provider. How long did it take for the iPhone to come to Canada? Exactly. While many are already enjoying the Palm Pre, Bell Canada still advertises “coming soon”. For Android lovers, I wouldn’t be holding my breath on the HTC Hero.

Small problem

So you bought yourself a shiny new Intel SSD. It’s super fast and you really like it. Then one day you disabled the drive password and POOF. Your data’s been all corrupted. Whoops! Hehe, Intel forgot to tell you about that small bug in the firmware. You know, the one that corrupts your data? Fear not, Intel has come out with a fix. Just download it and your drive is as good as new. Your data … not so much. Oh well. That will teach you to disable the hard drive password.