In my May and June columns I talked about solid-state USB "drives" such as the Targus GoAnywhere and the FlashMate 5-in-1. The consumer electronics world moves quickly: since spring, several other companies have come out with similar products. Our member Hays Fisher brought his "USB SmartDrive" to the August meeting. It is very similar to the Targus GoAnywhere. We plugged it into Ralph Reid's HP laptop; Windows ME detected it, activated its built-in Windows drivers, and accessed it without any problems.
That built-in Windows support makes these fast little flash-memory "drives" easy to use on most modern PCs (and on many modern Macs, reportedly). They can be secure, too, if they come with encryption or password software, as the Targus model does.
Of course, since they are quickly becoming a popular accessory, some suppliers have rushed their versions to market; if you search the Web for "USB drive" and "gripe" or "problem" or "review," you will find a number of complaints from users and reviewers who are less than satisfied with off-brand USB drives. Some models seem to have poor documentation; others don't have encryption or security features; and some seem to suffer from a variety of access problems. So if you are interested in getting one of these little gizmos, it would be smart to do some Web research first.
Some of our members expressed interest in more traditional external drives that connect to the PC via a USB or FireWire port. A few big-name companies like Maxtor and Western Digital make that kind of drive (there may be other companies, too). They are a small external chassis that holds a conventional fast hard drive, plus special circuits and drivers to make it work with USB or FireWire. Typically, the USB versions require the new USB 2.0; the older USB 1.1 is too slow for most purposes.
I know that these drives are becoming popular in TV and video editing studios. Such studios have a never-ending appetite for large, fast hard drives to hold their huge digital video and sound files. For them, drives that can be moved from PC to PC (or Mac) without opening up the computer chassis are a great thing, so they are willing to pay for these pricey drives. But most users probably don't have a real need for external drives, and can't justify their cost.
When I do video editing for my clients, I plug a large, empty IDE drive into the second IDE cable position in my big HP workstation, and put it into one of the spare drive bays in the chassis. The HP's high-quality chassis is easy to open up; it's not a big hassle. I don't need as much disk space as a big studio, since I ordinarily only work on one video editing project at a time, so one extra drive is enough for me. Sure, it's not as convenient as an external drive; but it's a lot cheaper!
Some Humour
Do you remember all of the Periodic Table of the Elements, from high school science or college chemistry classes? No? Well, neither do I. Most of us don't need to use the Periodic Table on a daily basis. For those occasions when you do need to remember which element comes between Zirconium and Molybdenum (for example), you might want to check out "The Periodic Table of Comic Books".
This is a cute site that mixes science and comic books. Each element is described, and the pages are illustrated with panels from real comic books that happen to mention that element. For example, the page for oxygen has an excerpt from a vintage Ricky Nelson comic book! (Truly, the Web is a strange and fascinating construct!)
Speaking of cartoons, many folks would probably recognize the single-panel gems drawn by Sidney Harris; his works have appeared in magazines such as The New Yorker for many years. He has posted a sampling of his science-oriented cartoons.
Being an amateur astronomer, I particularly like one of his astronomy-related cartoons: A huge telescope looms in the background, pointed towards the heavens; in the foreground, an astronomer is peering in the same direction through a small handheld telescope. His terse remark to a curious onlooker: "Just checking."
Scientists can be funny, but of course, so can "ordinary folks". Some great jokes and anecdotes about human failings can be found at an amusing Web site called rinkworks.com. In particular, they have a great collection of funny or incongruous product warning labels.
If you go there, be sure to also go to their home page and check out their other funny pages. They're low on graphics, so they load quickly; we spent quite a bit of time reading them, towards the end of the meeting.
Chapter Business
Of course, our meetings aren't all fun and games, but lately they have felt that way! Perhaps it's just because it's summertime. Our member Roger Cook won our great door prize; congratulations, Roger! It was probably the last big door prize that we'll give away for quite some time, since we've used up our door prize fund; but we'll see if we can find more to give away in the future, so don't stop coming down to the meetings! Our next one will be held on Wednesday, September 25, at the usual time and place (7:00 p.m. in the Davis public library's big meeting room). See you there!
—
Tim Feldman
