SimpleTech's new (Re)Drive is made partially of bamboo and supports only USB 2.0.
(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)I've recently seen quite a few devices with an environmentally conscientious design. These devices generally consume less power and are made of recycled, non-toxic materials. Today, though, I got introduced a device that put "green" in a different light.
SimpleTech has gone far and long to make their its new (Re)Drive external hard drive as eco-friendly as possible. The device comes in a package that contains just the essentials: the drive plus its power and USB cables. The cables are are taped to a side of the box. There's no other paper or plastic or any unnecessary packaging materials, as normally found in most other packages. Even the Quick Install Guide is printed on the inside of of the box.
Being environmentally conscientious, SimpleTech has the (Re)Drive's Quick Install Guide printed on the inside of the box.
(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)Now comes the drive. It's partially made of...bamboo! It's true--the top and the bottom of the drive are two pieces of unpainted bamboo strips that smell and feel as if they just left the lumber mill. It's interesting that SimpleTech chose bamboo as the materials for the (Re)Drive. I am from Asia and know very well how bamboo is ubiquitous there and is the easiest plant to grow.
The drive, of course, has metal parts. Its sides are made of recycled aluminum that also work as a heat-sink that dissipates heat generated by the internal hard drive. The aluminum casing also helps cool the drive without using fans, which would use more power. The drive doesn't come with a power switch, but it has a mechanism that turns the drive on and off according to the usage. I don't know how this will work out in real life use and testing, but this seems a good solution to save energy. The (Re)Drive's power adapter is also Energy Star certified.
The (Re)Drive comes with TurboHDDUSB software that allows for significantly improving USB 2.0 throughput performance.
(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)As an external hard drive, the (Re)Drive offers 500GB of storage and a USB 2.0 connection. There's no FireWire or eSATA support. However, it comes with a software driver that allows the USB 2.0 connection to work in Turbo mode, which promises to increase the throughput speed significantly.
The drive is estimated to cost about $160, which translate into about 30 cents per Gigabite -- a relatively good deal. Other than the Turbo software driver, similar to the Back Cherry, the (Re)Drive ships with Fabrick Local Backup software as a basic back up solution and it includes 2GB of free online backup storage from Fabrik Ultimate. The Backup service costs about $5 per month month for unlimited online storage space.
I will have to see via testing about the drive's performance and features, so check back for our in-depth review at CNET.com. However, just from its looks, I feel quite tempted to use the (Re)Drive as a cheese serving board. It looks like it will go well with a piece of Stilton blue cheese.
OMG! Nooooo!
(Credit: ShowbizPizza.com)Apparently a Chuck E. Cheese/Showbiz Pizza Place animatronic band has found new life singing modern hits like "Lithium" from Evanescence, "London Bridge" from Fergie, "Dani California" from RHCP, and my favorite, "Ms. New Booty" by Bubba Sparxxx (shown after the break).
If you've never experienced the delicious trauma of seeing the Chuck E. Cheese furry robot band as a kid, then these videos will probably be more funny than creepy. For the rest of us who remember crying under the table while holding back pizza vomit, these videos tap into an especially dark place populated by H.R. Pufnstuf episodes and David Bowie's musical interludes in Labyrinth.... Read more
We had a hard time deciding on a headline for this blog. Candidates included "Cheese-o-vision" and "Oh, how I love Cheesus," but we thought those might be too corny.
The New York Times on Tuesday ran a piece about a wheel of cheddar that has its own 24/7 Webcast, celebrity MySpace.com page and romantic life (people have sent it love letters and written it love poems). Yes, you read that right; it's a hunk of cheese, sitting on a shelf, getting moldy (we mean "ripening") at a farm in Westcombe, Somerset, England. Now we know what Wallace & Gromit watch on their nights off.
(Credit:
West Country Farmhouse )
As The New Yorker would say, "there will always be an England," although we're betting this concept would go over well in other parts of the world, too.
How about a French Webcam trained on a sumptuously oozing wheel of Brie? Or a chunk of Roquefort in a dank basement, contentedly mouldering with penicillin spores? Italy could record a loaf of taleggio stinking away, and Switzerland could document the private life of a stoic hunk of Emmenthaler awaiting its melty fondue fate.
Back in the States, as a celebration of cheese, Adult Swim could reissue its Boondocks episode, "The Garden Party," that now-classic fable of cheese's pivotal role in overcoming barriers of race and class in an American neighborhood.
Meanwhile, according to The New York Times, the cheese's creator, Tom Carver, says he feels considerable affection for his now-famous cheddar, but he can't play favorites among his many darlings.
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