When I was a kid, McDonald’s was a treat. I find it hilarious that my reward for good grades (my choice, not my mother’s) was dinner at McDonalds. “I worked hard and deserve a reward, how about some cheap unhealthy food!?. Gee Thanks mom.” Needless to say, happy meals made me happy. After I turned 14, I realized that McDonald’s wasn’t reward food, but more like broke college student at 2:00am food.
McDonald’s attracts the kids with heavy marketing via Ronald and the gang. Sometimes there’s a even a playground. The hipsters are sucked into burger land with urban commercials featuring new artists and trendy styles. Parents are lured through the golden arches by way of salads, bland ‘healthier’ burgers, and (a) satisfied rugrat(s). Us techheads have been left alone, until now. McDonald’s opened up a test site where WiFi internet, Plasma TV’s, real coffee, and new chicken sandwiches will be available. Come to think about it, some chicken nuggets and free WiFi would go well together.
Roxio just released a nice little bundle of software called The Boom Box. The 5 different applications are aimed at everything from recording LPs to mp3 to podcasting. Included with the neato looking iPod box comes:
CD Spin Doctor
Audio Hijack
iPodderX podcast software
MusicMagic Mixer Premium playlist software
iSpeak It text-to-audio software
I’m pretty excited about using iTunes as an alarm clock. I always wake up to some pop song on my clock radio that ends up sticking in my head for the first 3 hours of being awake. This way I can pre-determine my morning whistles and hums.
I called my pops yesterday. He didn’t answer the phone, so I left a voice mail. I’m unsure that he knows how to check the voicemail on his mobile phone. So I decided to call my mother instead and check in to see how momma was doing. I usually call mom on Sunday, and I usually talk for an hr so.
techdirt found a cool statistic that noted how Mother’s and Father’s Day, affect the amount of calls. Looks like there’s an 8% increase in phone usage during Father’s Day and 9% for Mother’s. From this you may jump to the conclusion that Father’s aren’t getting the love they deserve, that’s what I thought. But then I realized that Dad doesn’t really like to chat on the phone for so long, and that made it all better.
Introduction
With today’s busy, digital lifestyle USB flash drives are a necessity. I find myself constantly shuttling information between home and work. At each location, my data is transferred from one computer to the next. To be sure, there are more elegant, sophisticated solutions: Bluetooth, Ethernet, and WiFi networks come readily to mind. But for quick and easy, with no setup involved, it’s hard to beat the good ol’ “sneakernet.” This term was originally used for moving files from one machine to another using floppy discs (and Nike’s). USB flash drives have pretty much replaced floppy discs as well as the larger Zip discs for almost all users, due to their larger capacity, diminutive size, and affordable cost. In fact, 7.6 million of these units were sold in 2004, and even more growth is expected over the next few years. See where USB flash drives fit into the world of flash memory here.
Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go 512 MB
With that background in mind, let’s first look at the Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go USB 2.0 flash drive – 512 MB. Included in the package was the following:
-the USB flash drive
-lanyard
-miniCD with drivers, and password program
-stickers for labeling the drive
-instructions
This package can be yours for a mere $59 retail! Look around, these drives are often sold for less after rebate. The Verbatim flash drive is typical of the standard USB 2.0 flash drives out there today.
The drive itself is a red translucent color, with a clear plastic loop Continue reading