hardware

Handvertising: Marketing (re)discovers the human body

Advertising space is scarce. No wonder advertisers are innovative when it comes to taking advantage of underutilized real estate--such as the human skin.

Handvertising USA is an Orange County-based company that connects advertisers with customers willing to display ads on their hands.

"Almost everyone has been to a county fair, swap meet, bar or club and had had their hand stamped for proof of entry. We have found a better use for this space that could make everyone happy," says CEO Mike Brown. "We find venues also use the stamps to increase business. For example, venues are … Read more

A new approach to securing USB flash drives

USB Flash drives are great. Securing them, however, is not so great. They are easily lost and the more you use one, the more likely it will contain files you consider sensitive. Corsair recently came out with a product that takes an entirely new approach to securing flash drives.

Seeing as this is a Defensive Computing blog, it goes without saying that my personal flash drives are secure. I use a free, open-source program called TrueCrypt. There are however, three problems with this approach:

The hassle of installing TrueCrypt and learning how to use it. There is a portable version … Read more

What makes a good surge protector--Part 1

Everyone knows to use a surge protector for their computer. But which one? How do you choose? Welcome to surge protector school.

As their name implies, surge protectors prevent voltage spikes from entering a computer (or whatever else is plugged into them). They are available in a variety of types and, to paraphrase the manual that came with a Dell server, usually provide a level of protection commensurate with the cost of the device. In other words, you get what you pay for.

A surge protector is not a power strip, although a low end model may look like a … Read more

BugLabs grows the open-source hardware ecosystem

In the beginning was the Chumby. And on the second day the community created the BUG, the latest entrant in the open-source hardware market.

Open-source hardware hasn't really taken off...yet. But Dave Rosenberg today alerted me to a new player in the space from BugLabs, which hopes to develop in much the same way that open-source software does. Here's BUG's premise:

BUG is a collection of easy-to-use, open source hardware modules, each capable of producing one or more Web services. These modules snap together physically and the services connect together logically to enable users to easily build, program and share innovative devices and applications. With BUG, we don't define the final products - you do.

Silicon Alley Insider took a look and likes what it saw. But the most interesting thing from its report was how small the (initial) market is:… Read more

Graphic content at GH2007

During my time at Microprocessor Report, I watched the growth of the market for 3D graphics chips grow from just a handful of seed companies (notably 3dfx, 3Dlabs, PowerVR, and Rendition) to a virtual forest. At one point, I was tracking over 50 companies, most of which never launched a product.

So in 1999, when the organizers of the Siggraph/Eurographics Workshop on Graphics Hardware (a name wisely since shortened to simply Graphics Hardware) were looking for someone to help… Read more

The pros and cons of LEDs for backlighting LCD screens

In the July 12th edition of the Wall Street Journal, Walter Mossberg reviewed two new laptop computers, the Dell M1330 and the Toshiba Portege R500. In describing the R500 he said:

"The screen is lit by LEDs instead of by traditional lamps. That makes for more brightness and saves power."

Raise your hand if you are familiar with the use of LEDs as a light source in laptop computers.

I don't see many hands. Mine isn't raised either.

They seem to be getting popular, just last month Apple started selling their first laptop computer with LED backlighting. … Read more

Buying a laptop hard disk at Best Buy

Recently someone brought me a non-functional laptop computer. The problem turned out to be a dead hard disk. As far as I could tell, the platters inside weren't even spinning.

The laptop owner needed the machine fixed as soon as possible, so he went to the local Best Buy with a printout I gave him from the Best Buy web site for a particular hard disk model. I had reviewed all the laptop hard drives in stock in that particular store and chose one with a low capacity, as his needs were modest, and a long warranty.

Despite the … Read more

Following up on RAID Level Zero

My previous posting (Don't get burned by RAID Zero) on RAID Level Zero was a warning - both that it can be dangerous and that you may inadvertently be using it.

To make an analogy, consider the old joke regarding the purchase of a yacht. The potential buyer asks how much the yacht costs and the seller responds "If you have to ask, you can't afford it." In the current context: if you don't know what RAID Zero is, you shouldn't be using it.

But, the devil is in the details.

The danger with … Read more

The blinking lights on a router are talking to you

Can't get on the Internet? Can't print to network printer? It's bound to happen sooner or later. Wired Ethernet networks are pretty reliable, wireless ones can be brutally finicky. But no matter what type you're using, it's good to be prepared for networking failures in the future.

When there is a networking problem, the knee jerk reaction may be that there is something wrong with the computer. Perfectly understandable.

But the first step in debugging a networking problem should not involve any of the computers. Rather, you should look at the lights on the box(… Read more