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Gizmodo review

Other reviews, compiled on Gizmodo

Did you see it? Google Reader has a search bar!

Oh, I've been waiting for so long and now it is here! Granted, I've not used it, but hey, it's here. A search bar has been added to Google Reader! There is at least one other nice feature that has been added, which is the ability to hide the left column on the fly, but it's not quite as exciting as the biggest search engine adding a search bar to one of their apps that has sorely needed it for some time.

Come, my friends, and search your blogs together!

Some cool sites

Here are some useful sites I frequent.

Meebo.com - Online instant messaging. Really cool and works very well.

meebo.com is a website for instant messaging from absolutely anywhere. Whether you’re at home, on campus, at work, or traveling foreign lands, hop over to meebo.com on any computer to access all of your buddies (on AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ and Jabber) and chat with them, no downloads or installs required, for free!

Logmein.com - Web-based remote access and control software. Excuse me. FREE web-based remote access and control software. A small client-side install and a browser plugin (for Firefox) is all that is needed. Not sure it is Mac compatible.

Honestly, I thought I had a couple more of these...but seem to have drawn a blank. Guess I can just add them as I remember, eh?

The things that excite me...

Hard drive technology has slowly advanced the past few years. Yes, hard drives are well over many, many times the size they were 10 years ago. Still, they don't advance as fast as the rest of computers, in general.

They currently have certain speed and size limits which haven't been overcome, but we keep on pushing those limits. Perpendicular technology is the newest thing to push the size limit. I've linked it in the title.

Perpendicular is believed to be capable of delivering up to 10 times the storage density of longitudinal recording, on the same recording media. There was some interest in using the system in floppy disks in the 1980s, but the technology was never reliable. Today there is renewed interest in using it for hard drives, which are rapidly reaching their fundamental limits.

The popular explanation for the advantage of perpendicular recording is that it achieves higher storage densities by aligning the poles of the magnetic elements, which represent bits, perpendicularly to the surface of the disk platter, as shown in the illustration. In this not quite accurate explanation, aligning the bits in this manner takes less platter than what would have been required had they been placed longitudinally. So they can be placed closer together on the platter, thus increasing the number of magnetic elements that can be stored in a given area.

Basically, flipping the data storage sectors 90°, so they stand vertically instead of laying down, allows data to be tighter together without the magnetic fields destroying each other. Hence, more data on each disk.

10 times the data, on the same disks! 10 times! Your 500GB (gigabyte) drive could be a 5TB (terabyte) drive. Your 20GB drive could be a 200GB drive. No, not the one you have in your pc, immediately, at this moment. But the same basic media. Which could mean, in my mind, that the next jump in storage could use already available and cheap platters. Which means...it may lessen the blow to your wallet the next time you need to buy a huge drive.

There already are Perpendicular drives on the market, from Seagate. In time, the other vendors should be bringing these to market.

And that...is what excites me.

Sam's prophecy...wow, was he wrong.

For those who don't get it, I would like to point this out: the humor in the following post is merely in jest. I still have trust in my friends, even when they are not all-knowing.

My friend Sam had proclaimed, over and over, that Apple was never going to release an iPhone. They just weren't going to do it. The conviction with which he conveyed this led me to believe that he had a...prescience...about this which was undeniable.

Besides, Apple spokespeople themselves have been incredibly tight lipped, and events had unfolded that made it seem...unlikely...that it would ever happen. Especially when Apple let iTunes enabled phones release to market, from other makers.

iPhone Timeline

So, this brings us to yesterdays MacWorld keynote revelation (and probably the precursor to Sam's infinite madness), the iPhone.

Yes, indeed, the iPhone. In all it's shiny and polished goodness. It does look pretty good.

I think I need to find a new fortune teller, though.

A new frontier

Hey guys. I bet...well, since Sam is 1/2 my readership I'm pretty sure...that some of you remember Wil Wheaton. Or more importantly, follow his current "doings, happenings, and goings-on". He's a pretty busy guy. I won't get into that, I'll let you read about it at WWdN:In Exile.

Anyway, while perusing his blog, it came to my attention that he'd been asked to take part in an online "pod cast" style show by Kevin Rose. Wil, I mean Mister Wheaton, posts about it here.

So, go to the linkage in my title, check out some of the eps, and even check out some of the other shows.

I know I will.

Why have laptops off your lap?

This demo, which I was alerted to by reading GeeksAreSexy shows what happens when a Lithium-Ion battery exlpodes. Not what I ever, ever want to see close up, without it being a planned event.

It's not like the warning signs are subtle, but if your laptop starts...exploding...please remove it from your lap and vicinity, if possible.