Portable, Affordable Hard Drives

This post is dedicated to my friend SarahMac who gave me the inspiration to blog about it.

The jump drive is one of my generations best tools and yet it is obsolete. For many of us a boost in storage is what we need for our massive amounts of media. So the solution is to run out a get a portable hard drive. However do you really want to go fork over 50 bucks for one?

For me, I find making my own is a simpler solution.

Step one:

Analyse how much storage you need. For alot of us, 250 gigs is probably enough, more than enough to move over pictures, music and videos. (Taking into account that these tend to be our largest files and if you wanted to move the contents of your ipod over to your hard drive you could only fill up at max what 160 gigs of the 250 we talked about). So knowing what you need is important, because the more storage you want, the more you will be paying.

Step two:

Assemble the parts. This is pretty simple, you need a case and a hard drive. Lets deal with the drive first. The standard portable hard drive (the kind that is just usb plug and play from the store) is usually a 2.5" drive. This is because of a smaller form factor (compared to a 3.5" drive) and also because of the power requirements on the drive. In the old days we used to be able to purchase IDE drives, but now the standard has moved to SATA. What does that mean? Well to spare you the techno jumble, its how the drive fits into the computer, and the ammount of data the drive can send up or down. IDE drives are old and SATA drives are new so newer is better.

Anyway we have a drive type now, a 2.5" SATA hard drive. Now we need a case. This is also really simple, because you can find a hard drive case that fits a 2.5" SATA hard drive.

Here are two links (on ebay) to a drive and a case:

--250 gig hard drive
 http://cgi.ebay.com/Seagate-250GB-SATA-5400RPM-2-5-Laptop-Hard-Drive-Tested-/280534359887?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4151269f4f#ht_2547wt_1137

--Case
http://cgi.ebay.com/2-5-USB-2-0-SATA-HARD-DISK-DRIVE-HDD-CASE-ENCLOSURE-/220540926663?cmd=ViewItem&pt=PCC_Drives_Storage_Internal&hash=item3359437ac7#ht_3373wt_1027

All together thats about 32 bucks (you can find deals).

Now all you have to do is put the parts together and boom there you go. Here are some pictures of mine to show you how easy it is:

The Case:

here is the case with included usb cables

the inside of the case with the drive connections
















the drive top and bottom

putting it together, green side down and be careful and take your time. Its easy to break the pins if your too rough.

and there you have it, the finished product. just plug and play and your ready to go!











Its just that simple! I like this because I can make use of drive I get from computers past. Also It sure beats buying one eh?

Got questions comments or concerns? Want more help with something or got a suggestion for my next blog, email me at devangj031@gmail.com

Cheers

--Devang
  

Keeping your computer cool

Computers like many other machines are prone to perform in a way that reflects upon there operating environment. Specifically this has to do with temperature. Take for example your car. A car has an optimum operating temperature, at which fuel efficacy, horsepower and touqe are at there peaks. This is why we "warm up" the engine in the winter time and obsess over our engine temps in the summer. Well computers, and electronics in general,  also have optimal operating environments. Again these environments have to do with the temperature and to a lesser degree the humidity in the air. However unless you are reading this blog in a rainforest or swamp, lets just focus on the temperature.

A computer like all other electronics begin to build heat as soon as they are powered on. This is because as electricity flows, you get heat (due to the resistance in the circuitry). Electronics tend to use materials that minimize resistance but there are some things you cant get around. For example the CPU of a computer is a "semi conductor" and is not exactly known for its low resistance, but that starts to lead us into understanding the physics and thats not what this blog is about. (If your a nerd like me take Physics with calc 1&2 at Winthrop, great classes and you get into this).

So to continue a computer generates heat as it runs, and the longer it runs the warmer it gets. To help move some of the hot air out computers come with fans and heat sinks (pieces of metal that are highly thermally  conductive) which draw away heat from the cpu. This is good in general and for your every day desktop computers this works well. For laptops its all about what you have. Some models have great ventilation built in, and others do not. For example i have an hp g60 with the outlet always open and an intake on the bottom. However my dad has a dell from work with the outlet fan pointing straight down. This can be a real problem because you set your laptop on a) your freaking lap or b) a desk, and solid barriers equal poor airflow. Many people therefore turn to laptop chill pads. A standard chill pad can cost between 15-30 bucks and the idea is simple, elevate the computer and draw heat away. I have a Belkin one which is shaped like a u. this create a void in the middle to allow for air flow. There is also a fan on the bottom which throws up cold air to keep it nice and cool. And the fan runs off usb which is always nice (I really like mine).

If you have a desktop your cooling options are even better. There are plenty of aftermarket fans, heat sinks and even water cooling options out there. Just know the more powerful your computer the more heat so always be weary.

Finally cheap insurance can be found in those compressed air cans you can get (for dusting). Just blow out the dust from your desktop or laptop vents (works wonders for a laptop) and your good to go.

Want to learn more, my favorite cooling options or wanta talk about physics? Email me and devangj031@gmail.com

--Cheers

Browsers

Computing today is very much a web based affair, and if you disagree go ahead and smack yourself because you are reading this on the bloody internet.

With that unpleasantness behind us, lets again recall that people use there computers for the internet more than anything else (on average). Now this leads us to the primary tool we use to access the glory that is the internet...the web browser. Now the majority of people are familiar with what a web browser is, and instead of talking about how the browser works many of us want to know which is the best browser for us. So to gauge the effectiveness of the browser, I looked at the following; speed, ease of use, viewable content space, and content support. Here is a list, from best to worst, of a few browsers.

1) Google Chrome

2) Mozilla Firefox

3) Opera

4) Safari

5) Internet Explorer

Now looking at the list, it shouldn't be a surprise that Internet Explorer is dead last. I mean the thing sucks, if you don't believe me get one of the others and load a page and then do the same on IE. If you still like IE better, you should be commended....

Now on to the real browsers, I have to hand it to Google for coming out with Chrome. I was a long time Firefox guy, and I still have it on my machine, but I only use Chrome now. It is fast! I mean really fast, and with its minimal design, I like the added viewing area. And with the newer releases of Chrome, I now get themes and extensions (like mail checker, weather etc) built in, which is what Firefox had keeping it ahead.

Firefox is still a great browser choice, with a ton of customizable features that is still hard to beat. Also, you can tweak with the settings to improve speed which the nerd in me likes.

Opera is a descant browser with a chromeesk feel (or is it chrome that has an operaesk feel) which gives good support. Opera also features a Turbo Mode, which can boost page loading speed on a slower internet connection. I never really got the chance to test how well Turbo Mode works because I have a pretty good cable connection but it is defiantly worth trying. To me the faster load times of Chrome and Firefox just seem more appealing.

Poor Safari has really let me down over the past few months. I remember the first time I tried the browser, and was impressed with its unique start up screen and speed. However subsequent releases have led to slower speeds (for me anyway) and the start up page seems lost in a world of Chrome and Opera (I think even Firefox and IE have these features now). Oh well what do you expect from Apple right?

I would also like to go on the record and say that if I could find a working version of Netscape Navigator, that would be first on the list, because Netscape Navigator just that cool. Seriously you judge but in 20 years kids in middle school will be talking about how "throw back" Netscape was (it will be the cool thing), kinda like how I listen to NWA and Run DMC in hopes of making myself hip.

Send me any questions or comments!

--Devang

LEARN TO READ URLS!!!!!

This post is a shout-out to my dear friend Anna, and the other staff members of TJ.

The URL is one of those things that we definitely take for granted. I mean just think about how many times you type a URL in a week, a day an hour? Heck I will even count clicking on bookmarks for this post, because the URL in my opinion is one of the most useful things we have come up with in regards to the internet.

Now a URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator, and I am going to spare you the technical details and let you know that if you REALLY want to know, Wikipedia has a pretty good article on it.

So back to why I am talking about URLs....

First learning how to read a URL can really save your ass in a time where cyber crime is at a all time high. We use the web so much, for banking, purchases etc...... that a wrong URL here or there can transform from a minor inconvenience to a really problem. For example, someone can easily spoof a banks homepage and steal your log on information if your not careful.

For example you can go to Bank of America's website : www.bankofamerica.com  <----real

or if your not paying attention you could go to www.bankofamerica.net etc...... THERE ARE TONS OF POSSIBLE SCAMS!

So the bottom line is read!

No to address why I gave my friends a shout out. On our college newspapers website, we use our own domain name to redirect people to our webpage. In this case our domain is mytjnow.com and we get directed to www.something.com/mytjnow.

People get upset when they see the www.something.com/mytjnow, and claim that we are not legitiment because of that. So to the people who feel like that, I suggest you take one of Winthrop's fine CSCI 101 classes, because it will really help you understand how wrong you are. You see the reason CNN can have www.cnn.com is because they have thousands of dollars to spend on servers. We do not. So get over  it, we are here to give you the news not to bedazzle you with our custom URL.

See this blog made sense.......

--Devang