The Floppy is Still Alive, and isn’t Going Anywhere

The following is a guest article by Patrick Jobin. Storagepipe has been leading the way in providing ultra-modern online backup services for business since 2001.

One of the saddest realizations of my life was when a 18-year-old family friend pointed to the Save icon in MS Word and asked me what I thought that symbol might mean. That’s one of those moments when you begin to realize how old you are.

Yes, floppies are very old. But - believe it or not – they’re still alive and kicking.

Of course, you still see them being used for artistic and promotional purposes.

Many trendy bars and restaurants have tried to appeal to “geek chic” by plastering their walls with diskettes, using them as coasters, or grinding them up and mixing them into cement for a nice colourful effect. And craft people have used diskettes to create everything from clothing, to jewelry, to furniture.

But that’s not what I’m talking about. I mean there are still a number of situations where floppies are still used as a storage device!

For example:

• Many organizations have very old, custom-written programs which support their operations. These applications might run on very old DOS-based systems, where the software isn't compatible with modern operating systems. Since this software still works fine for its purpose, the high costs associated with re-writing these programs would not be justified. As a result, reading and writing of data is restricted to the default format of that time period.
• Electronic hardware devices for commercial and industrial applications are designed to take a pounding and last for years under heavy use. That’s why you’ll often see cash registers, credit card machines, ATM machines and industrial machines which are still running perfectly after 20 years or more. And due to their age, they can only be programmed using 20 year old removable storage device standards.
• It’s also common for manufacturers of industrial equipment to avoid redesigning new features into a product that already works perfectly. Many CNC machines today still use floppy drives since their rugged construction makes them an ideal storage medium for the small input files which run these machines. CDs would simply be too fragile for these dirty and rugged applications, and networking capability would only introduce an unnecessary added level of complexity. Besides... if you work in a factory full of 30-year-old presses, robots, and mills, it’s nice to know that a single storage media can be used on all of them.
• Governments in developing countries have to operate on limited budgets. As a result, offices won’t consistently have access to state-of-the-art computer systems like we do in North America. This means that diskettes are still used as a standard protocol for data transfer. Even political agencies in North America might be required to submit documents in diskette format when performing official communications with foreign governments.
• Once a format has been established as an official government standard, the process of updating that standard can be slow and bureaucratic. As long as it still works, nobody will want to fix it. This applies in developing nations as much as developed ones. For example, US prisoners are only allowed to listen to music on cassette tapes.
• A well-maintained aircraft can have a very long life. As a result, there are many planes – still flying today – which rely on floppies to update their navigation systems and perform other routine electronic maintenance.

So if you have a few cases of floppies sitting around in the basement, don’t throw them out just yet. Somebody might need them someday.

Have you recently seen floppies being used for other purposes? Leave a comment below and let us know.

How to stay connected in remote places

The following is a guest article by Rebecca Jones. Rebecca is a blogger by profession. She loves traveling and exploring new places. Beside this she is fond of gizmos and gadgets. She recently bought iPhone accessories for herself.

From sailing around Hawaii to skiing in the Rockies, cellular connection can be a difficult, if not impossible, resource to get. The dearth of cell phone towers in such remote locations can prove to be a bane for adventurers and tourists. That was all the past. New cell phone technology, available only to government officials earlier, lets users stay in touch in places with no cellular reception.

One such device which has truly helped users is the TerreStar GENUS(TM). It’s an integrated satellite cellular smartphone offering a feature-rich approach to this niche category of mobile satellite communication. The device is as thick as a pack of cards. It connects to the AT&T mobile network for primary mobile connectivity and to TerreStar-1 for satellite connectivity. TerreStar-1 is the world’s largest commercial communications satellite, acting like a cell tower in the sky. With the added reliability and safety of satellite connectivity, the device can be used as an everyday mobile device as well as an emergency phone where there is no cellular connection.

The GENUS (TM) is the world’s only satellite-enabled smartphone. It offers the ultimate reliability with cellular network as the primary mode and the satellite network as the backup secondary mode. The satellite network works just like a regular network offering voice, data and messaging. With just one phone number and contact list there is no redundancy at all. Users get perfect peace-of-mind knowing well that they can roam anywhere in the United States, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands and the coastal waters up to 200 miles off the shore. The operating system on board the device is Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional. It’s a touchscreen device with a camera, microSD slot, wi-fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and full QWERTY keyboard. It’s the smartest phone seen, as the device pushes the envelope of satellite communications in a new direction. It’s truly lightweight, is the same size as any other smartphone, yet it offers regular cellular connectivity as well as satellite connectivity for the most remote places.

As a smartphone with a robust and reliable backup option, the GENUS is a remarkable device. The device sells for 799$ on amazon.com and can also be bought off an AT&T store.

The TerreStar GENUS is a big step in commercial satellite communications. Previously, getting connectivity in remote areas was unthinkable. Inmarsat, the oldest satellite communication company, has phones which look like bricks. Not only are they not smart phones, but their battery life is also pathetic. The GENUS, on the other hand, is a regular smartphone. The addition of the satellite radio doesn't add any extra weight to it. It’s definitely a must have for people who want to stay connected in remote places.

Five Incredible Tech Toys for Kids at Christmas

The following article is a guest post by Dan Fenu.

With the holiday season just around the corner, it is time to think about what great gifts to give your kids this year. Growing up immersed in technology, kids practically expect to receive at least one technology related gift these days. There are a few tech gadgets that are sure to bring a smile to your child's face on Christmas morning.

Leapfrog LeapPad Explorer

An incredible technology toy this holiday season is the Leapfrog LeapPad Explorer. A personalized learning tablet, this toy is suitable for kids from ages four to nine. Offering more than one hundred games, apps, books and media content, the LeapFrog LeapPad Explorer is sure to be loved by your child. Equipped with two gigabytes of internal memory, this learning tablet allows for more than enough applications and eBooks to be stored on the device. You can rest assured that with this gadget, your kid will be immersed in educational material. For once, kids will have fun learning!

The Fur Real Friends Cookie Puppy 

Another great technology toy for kids this year is the Fur Real Friends Cookie Puppy. Featuring built-in sensors, this robotic puppy acts as if it were real, responding to any touch or voice that it registers. For kids, it is great since they can enjoy how the puppy reacts based on the actions and attention that they provide the puppy. For you, the parent, it is a fantastic way to test out what it would be like to have a pet if you were thinking of getting one in the near future.

The Vtech InnoTab

Another unbelievable technology gadget for kids this Christmas season. Featuring a touchscreen and motion technology, the Vtech InnoTab is similar to the LeapFrog LeapPad Explorer as it supports learning for kids. Equipped with an e-book reader, MP3 music player, photo viewer, and video player, your child is sure to never be bored with a Vtech InnoTab. A downside of the Vtech InnoTab in comparison to the LeapFrog LeapPad Explorer is that it only has sixty-four megabytes of storage space. Fortunately, there is a memory expansion slot that can be utilized if you ever find your child needing additional space for storage.

Voice Rockerz First Act Discovery

Yet another great technology gift this year is the Voice Rockerz First Act Discovery. Using this microphone, your child can morph his or her voice to become a rock star. Some of the many special effects include Robot-riffic, Hi-note, and drumrolls.

HexBug Nano Habitat Set

Finally, the HexBug Nano Habitat Set makes for an ideal gift for any young nature lover this holiday season. In this habitat set, miniature robots act like real bugs and can be moved around through the habitat. Similar to Legos, your kid has the ability to transform the habitat to his or her own liking. The HexBug Nano Habitat Set makes for an interesting way to stimulate creativity with kids.

There are so many technology toys for kids this Christmas, but only a few really stand out from the rest. Be sure to check out these five extraordinary toys when thinking about what to get your kids this holiday season. With any of these five toys, they are sure to be all smiles on Christmas day.

Western Digital TV HD Live Media Player Review

The following article is a guest post by Kevin Moore. Kevin, who writes for online-virus-scan.org, started to write back in the days when he had to go to college. Since then, he realized that Internet marketing is his calling. His interest turned into a profession.

As more and more media goes digital, more and more media plays continue to emerge. As people invest more money in digital content and streaming media, they want to be sure that they aren't stuck behind their PCs or clutching their smartphones in order to watch their favorite movies and television shows.

Western Digital was one of the first companies to respond to this growing need, and they continue to put out new products such as the Western Digital TV HD Live Media Player to meet this demand. WD seems to understand the particular needs of this segment greatly, as they were one of the first to streamline and simplify the process of linking up one’s television set with their PC.

The Western Digital TV HD Live Media Player is one of the solutions WD has put forth to help get locally stored and streaming digital content to user’s television sets. Feature-rich and sleek, many potential customers want to know if it is indeed as good as it looks?

The Pros

The Western Digital TV HD Live Media Player supports a wide variety of video, audio and photo formats, meaning that it is able to handle quite almost anything, locally stored anywhere on your home network and via the Internet. It features full-HD with 1080p video playback.

The player itself is small and sleek, so it won’t take up unnecessarily large amounts of space, and it won’t be unsightly, even when paired with an external hard drive. It’s easy to set up, as all the ports are labeled and the composite AV cables are included. Many won’t even need directions to set this up, and once it is connected, the on-screen menus will be quite helpful. The on-screen system is very functional and easy on the eyes. The additional information and search features along with other on-screen attributes give it a one-up on the preceding model.

This WD Media Player comes with an Ethernet port located on the back of the device. This allows users to utilize a media server or a shared drive on the home network. This ability for Internet connectivity is what lets users access many online services like Netflix, Pandora and more.

The Cons

The good news is there are not many downsides to this WD Media Player. As most of the local media users will play comes from a connected USB device like an external hard drive or flash drive, there will be a slight lag between connecting and accessing the files. This may annoy some, but other users won’t be bothered as the time lag is about the same as it would be waiting for a conventional external hard drive to get started.

The Ethernet port on the back of the device is another small strike against this Media Player. While this allows connectivity to the Internet and the home network, it allows for a wired connection. Most folks have their home computer and Internet connection in a completely different location than their television sets. This means a wireless adaptor will be necessary in order for most users to connect the media device to the home network or the web.

Conclusion

The Western Digital TV HD Live Media Player is another solid media player from WD. Aside from a small delay from connection to file availability and the lack of wireless capabilities, this media player is almost perfect. WD made a sure winner with this device, a good cost effective solution for anyone considering buying a media player any time soon.

Toshiba Portege Z835 Ultrabook Review

The following article is a guest post by Kevin Moore. Kevin, who writes for online-virus-scan.org, started to write back in the days when he had to go to college. Since then, he realized that Internet marketing is his calling. His interest turned into a profession.

More and more of the new laptops coming to market are Ultrabooks, a trend that many in the know in the computer world see culminating in a total proliferation of these ultra-sleek notebooks. It may be that the laptop as we know it will be completely replaced with these slim, lightweight, powerful portable computers.

The Toshiba Portege Z835 is just the newest of Toshiba’s releases in this growing new category of notebook computers. Not the first Ultrabook, Toshiba released, the Portege Z835 is still very much in the first wave of super skinny notebooks coming to the marketplace. This means that it is nearly impossible for any Ultrabook coming to market to be perfect, and this new Toshiba release is no exception.

Pros

The Toshiba Portege Z835 lives up to the Ultrabook name. It is 0.68 inches at its thickest and weighs less than 3 pounds. It features an SD slot, Ethernet jack, HDMI and RGB outputs, and Superspeed USB 3.0 support for one of its three USB ports. Its suggested retail price is also less than USD $900, making it a bit less pricy than some of the other Ultrabooks out there.

It is much more attractive than many competing models running Windows. It has an attractive brushed aluminum cover and a grey metal frame. The only downside to the aesthetics of the Portege Z835 is the plastic that is used in its construction. While the plastic is one of the major reasons this Ultrabook is so impressively light, you can unfortunately feel the plastic when you pick up this Machine.

The Portege Z835 doesn’t come too overstocked with bloatware, something that is a rare find in many of today’s computer releases. Some of the pre-installed software like some camera applications could be quite helpful, and others, that are not so handy, are easy enough to delete.

Cons

The Toshiba Portege Z835 comes with in Intel Core i3 processor, which is more than enough for many regular users. Power users will most likely find this processor a bit lacking, especially if desiring to do any sort of video or photo editing on this machine or any other advanced process.

The battery life is longer than that of standard laptops. Toshiba estimates that the Portege Z835 should last for about 8 hours, but this estimate however is based on low screen brightness and basic functions. If you are watching video or have the brightness up, expect five to six hours of battery life from this Ultrabook.

The main criticism for this machine ends up focused on the display. The angle of the display needs to be absolutely perfect to prevent washout. This can be a bit annoying if using this laptop actually on your lap; every slight move you make will cause you to have to tilt the screen so that the display is visible.

The other problem pointed to most is the amount of noise this skinny system produces. The culprit appears to be the very high-pitched fan that can be quite the distraction in quiet conference room or lecture hall.

Conclusion

If you need to get an Ultrabook now, the Toshiba Portege Z835 is an excellent choice, especially if you have your budget in mind. All of the downsides to this attractive notebook can easily be overlooked once you take the comparatively low price tag into account. Power users may need to pass on this one, however, waiting for one with a more powerful processor. Those who don’t need a new notebook immediately may be better off waiting. As with all new tech, prices are sure to come down in the future, as the next wave of Ultrabooks come to market and the technology advances.