Drive

$14.5 million to company that nitpicks your driving habits

GreenRoad Technologies exists because, as a driver, you probably suck.

The company has developed a software program that analyzes a person's driving habits and then reports back to their boss, insurance company, or, conceivably, the rental car agency. The idea is to identify problem drivers and/or bad driving habits (rapid starts and slamming breaks). Conversely, good habits can be rewarded. The software largely gets sold to owners of large fleets of cars, like delivery companies. But it's not all criticism. The program also provides drivers tips on how to improve on safety and fuel economy.

By installing … Read more

Stress, drama, vivid virus nightmares

Published by William; Sydney, Australia

In our house, we used to share a computer. I had Spybot - Search & Destroy and Norton Antivirus installed on it, and I became the scanning boss since my parents barely knew how to click a mouse. After about a year, I discovered "DriveCleaner" in the program manager window. I tried uninstalling it, got an error, then saw the progress bar roll backward fairly fast. At least these malware people have a sense of humor.

But then: My computer was exceedingly slow and gave me constant pop-up problems. Stress session. I tried … Read more

Turn an old notebook hard drive into a USB drive for $10.99

So you pulled that cramped old 40GB hard drive out of your notebook and replaced it with 160GB of storage goodness. Ever wonder what you should do with the leftover drive? Simple: stick it in an enclosure and use it as a portable USB hard drive.

You supply the drive; Meritline.com has an enclosure for just $10.99 shipped (after entering coupon code HW1971413OFF, which expires 1/25). It's compatible with all 2.5-inch IDE and SATA drives, and it includes both IDE and SATA external interfaces (cables, too). You also get a carrying case and a little … Read more

DriveDock V4: The Swiss Army knife for hard-drive docking

The switch from IDE standard to SATA standard in hard drives has been going on for years, and at this point you'd have a hard time buying a new PC (Dell, Hewlett-Packard, or any other brand) that supports IDE. The fact that there are millions of computers that came with IDE hard drives, means that you cannot close the door on it just yet. Once in a while, you need to copy data from an old hard drive to a new one, and many times that older hard drive happens to be of the IDE variety. It can sometimes … Read more

Drive-by pharming attack hits home

Whenever you type an address into an Internet browser, that address is instantly resolved into the site's numerical Internet address by a DNS server located somewhere in the world. On Tuesday, Symantec announced that online criminals have started to remotely redirect your home network router's DNS server so that whenever you type in a financial institution or other trusted site, your browser will instead be redirected to a bogus or phishing Web site.

The practice, called pharming, usually attacks the DNS servers directly, but this latest attack brings it all home (if you are using broadband connectivity). Fortunately, … Read more

Porsche's winter fantasy camp, Part 2

The Porsche Camp4 racetrack is perched more than 9,000 feet above sea level. So if the sight of the new Porsche 911 Carrera S to which I was assigned didn't take my breath away, the elevation certainly did. But armed with water, aspirin, and special acupressure wristbands to prevent motion sickness, I was ready to start my engine.

The one-day program was divided into four specific exercises: The skid pad, an obstacle-avoidance course, a slalom course, and the full track. The skid pad was a large circle cut into the snow. The goal wasn't to just drive … Read more

Winter driving tips from Porsche

Here are some winter driving tips straight from the Porsche Camp4 Colorado curriculum:

Cars respond more slowly on slippery surfaces. Always wait a moment after steering, braking, or accelerating to see how the car behaves before giving it more input. Visibility is greatly reduced in bad weather. Make sure you can see clearly, and turn on your headlights. Brake carefully and accelerate more gently. Get the car pointed where you want to go before getting on the gas. Be aware of reduced grip. Take corners at lower speeds. Brake sooner and longer than on dry surfaces. Apex later. Look for … Read more

Porsche's winter fantasy camp

When the weather turns cold, scores of well-to-do winter sports enthusiasts flock to the high slopes of Vail valley in Colorado for world-class skiing and snowboarding. But about 20 miles west of Vail Village, high upon a privately owned mountain, sits a secret winter wonderland: a racetrack made of snow and ice.

The twisty road course, built on top of a golf course, is the training ground for Camp4 Colorado, a winter driving school hosted by the Porsche Travel Club, an offshoot of the Porsche Sport Driving School. Here, with professional instruction, participants drive the Porsche 911 Carrera 4, the … Read more

Recycle a USB drive, plant a tree

Imagine this in the near future: While separating the bottles and cans from paper products in the recycling bin, we may also need to set aside some old flash drives. That, at least, is part of the goal put forth by memory manufacturer ATP, which is releasing what it calls "the world's first bio-recyclable USB drive."

The "EarthDrive," which comes in capacities ranging from 1GB to 8GB, is a bit on the pricey side at $20 to $100 considering how cheap thumb drives are getting these days. But it's all for a good cause: … Read more