smart computer use?

It is amazing that it’s taken this long for this simple yet useful security to get put to use for the masses, in the form of a PIN Protected USB Flash Device. John E. Dunn of Techworld writes:

Memory company Corsair has come up with an ingeniously simple way to secure USB flash drives without having to remember a password – build a PIN-based ‘padlock’ into the drive itself.

Read the article here.

I’ll probably pick up one of these if I see them on the shelf somewhere. I can see lots of use, particularly for business purposes, for this type of USB Flash device. I never really carry around sensitive data on a flash card, but sometimes I do transport information that pertains to website ftp access and such. Even a password file gets transported every now and then.

A small security measure to make a device more inaccessible to those that like to dig into data for kicks sound just fine to me.

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A hot laptop computer is not a good idea. Keeping your laptop cool is smart. Keeping a laptop cooler is easy with a laptop cooler and/or a gas duster.

There are plenty of laptop computer horror stories out there, many involving overheating machines. I have had a particular laptop computer that for about three years has now developed a severe overheating disorder. I have figured out ways to keep the laptop from overheating, without spending too much money. You can make your own laptop coolers if you are up to the challenge.

When you think about it, there isn’t much to a laptop cooler. It’s either a base with fans, or a base that simply gives more air-space to the bottom of the laptop.

Purchasing a cheap laptop cooler base is the easiest way to go

The most effectively cheap way, and the most time-effective way (you won’t have to build your own) to keep your laptop from overheating is by going out a picking up an fan-based laptop cooler. There are many options on the internet available for purchase:

• Here’s a laptop cooler for cheap
• Here’s a laptop cooler for a little less cheap, yet still very cheap
• Here’s a laptop cooler that has a multi-port USB hub, and it’s still really cheap
• Here’s a laptop cooler that doesn’t use fans

And then I ran across QuadCooler.com

• The Original Quad Cooler
• The Tri-Cooler
• The AOP Cooler (using Aluminum)
• The Big Brian

The stuff at quadcooler.com looked pretty sweet. And for kicks I also found a review site that looked promising as far as providing reviews of the quadcooler, but it degraded pretty quickly into a bunch of arguing about laptop coolers.

Are you thinking to yourself, “wait, these things look pretty simple, I want to make one”?

If you are you might want to check out this Instructables page about making your own laptop cooler. Or you might want to check out how to make a laptop cooler in about an hour and a half. Even if you don’t follow these instructions to make your own laptop cooler, these page might give you a good idea about what some other people have done to make their own. They might help you to get started on your adventures of trying to cool your overheating laptop, on the cheap.

My overheating story, it’s not that interesting

I have used a simple 2 fan device, powered by USB. It has worked fine, and kept my laptop from overheating. One of the fans eventually got clogged up with dust and needed to be cleaned. Then after that the fan did eventually just wear out. Now it makes all kinds of noise while it tries to spin. I’ll need to replace the fan or buy another. I’ll be looking into a fan-less unit this time around, mainly for power consumption reasons.

Even as much as the 2-fan laptop cooler was important to keeping the heat levels down on my laptop, using compressed air to clean out the air channels in the unit was just as much important.

Try this out: buy and use a can of compressed air, or more correctly a gas duster. Yep, they’re actually called gas dusters. Check it out at that link if you have some extra time.

So, it comes down to 2 things

2 things, that is, to help keep your laptop cool:

• Use an under-laptop cooling unit, either fan or non-fan based
• Use a gas duster to clean out your machine and allow for better air flow
• Turn up the air conditioning (gratuitous 3rd unnecessary item)

Yep.

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ThinkGeek.com has a neat little USB memory watch for sale. This could be a smart gadget to have, for the following reason:

If you wear a watch, you probably wear it all the time. For that reason, if your watch is then a USB memory watch, you will always have USB memory at your immediate disposal. That could come in pretty handy if you make frequent use of computer technology.

There are other gadgets out there:

• A Swiss army knife with USB flash memory
• A somewhat disturbing teddy bear version of USB flash memory
• Heart-shaped USB flash memory
• USB memory arm band (a different take on how to keep your data on you)

And also a standard yet different-than-plastic take on USB flash memory

• Wooden USB memory strap

Chinese suppliers are also providing all kinds of weird USB memory

• USB drives at Global Sources

I’ll stick with my standard retractable USB stick for now. I don’t know if I’d want to carry around a duck, or a teddy bear.

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