Technology Bytes: April 2007 Archives

Tech Toy of the Month - Walletex Wallet Flash Drive

USB flash drives have become extremely popular in the last year or so. This is for good reason. With the demise of the floppy drive, there has been a need for simple, portable, and inexpensive data storage. USB flash drives fill this need quite nicely. Ladies who carry a purse can easily keep a flash drive with them at all times, but many of us guys tend to forget "extra" things, especially small things like a flash drive. About the only thing that many guys have with them at all times is their wallet. If you are this type of guy (or gal who doesn't carry a purse), the Walletex Wallet Flash Drive is for you (http://www.walletex.com/gp.asp?gpid=2).

The idea is very simple. The Wallet Flash Drive is a flash drive like any other. The only real difference is that the shape of the drive is just like a credit card - with the addition of a USB connector. So this makes it very easy to keep in your wallet, which if you always have your wallet with you, you will always have your flash drive with you as well. Having a flash drive with you at all times may seem like an excess, but we live in a data-centric world and for many people, flash drives are becoming as important as pens and paper. Also, for example, in the not too distant future, people will have their entire medical history available to them in electronic format. Perhaps they will be able to carry this data in a device like this, to which having quick access by medical personnel could end up saving their lives.

Technology-wise, the Wallet Flash drives have a few nice features. First, the USB connector is double-sided, which means you can orient the drive "up" or "down", which will allow it to fit into more connectors. Second, the drive is extremely durable, as most flash drives are, but this is very important to a device that will spend a lot of time in a very tight space, even perhaps taking a trip through the laundry. Finally, the drives come in many capacities to fit many budgets, and for comparison, the Wallet Flash Drives do not cost much more than regular USB flash drives. My only real concern is the durability of the USB connector. For such a slim device, I worry that the USB connector would be susceptible to snapping off. It seems like Walletex has built the device with strong, flexible plastic, so this probably won't be an issue, but I thought I'd mention this concern to be fair.

Overall, this device is great because it can be many things to many people. Even if you don't want one for yourself, I'm sure you can think of someone this would make a great gift for. Also, if you need a promotional item for your business, this could really get your company noticed. Along these lines, Walletex has also come out with an MP3 player in credit card format, which could be a very interesting product. If you are in the market for a USB flash drive, do check out the credit-card sized Wallet Flash Drive from Walletex - and I'll refrain from making any bad jokes about trying to check out with it at the grocery store.

Posted by Marcel Brown on April 9, 2007 7:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Q: Should I defragment my hard drive?

A: This is one of the more common questions I get (along with "should I turn my computer off at night?" - which I'll talk about next time). Defragmenting a hard drive (also defrag or defragging), seems to be one of the more well-known and talked about computer maintenance tasks. The issue is whether defragging a hard drive is worth the effort. The answer may surprise you.

Basically, a defrag reorganizes the data on your hard drive so that files are more contiguous - meaning the data that makes up a file is grouped together more closely on the hard drive. In theory, this makes it quicker for a hard drive to retrieve data. This is because it can read related data all in the same area of a hard drive instead of needing to access data that is scattered. Sounds like a good idea, right? Well, it used to be a really good idea years ago. Nowadays, while a defrag technically does make your hard drive faster, the difference is usually too small to really notice.

When computers were slower, hard drives were also slower - and much smaller. Tweaking your hard drive to get every bit of speed out of it could save a fair amount of time. This was especially true if your hard drive was at or near full capacity. Hard drives become much more fragmented when they get full. So small and slow hard drives were a recipe for noticeably decreased performance. Defragging was a good idea.

In today's age, computers are much faster and they come with faster and very large hard drives. Because hard drives are faster, the performance drag due to fragmented hard drives is proportionally smaller. Since hard drives are so much bigger, most people do not get anywhere near filling their drives up. Along with the fact that today's operating systems are "smarter" about storing data on hard drives to limit fragmentation, severe fragmentation is rare anymore. Often, a defrag can take one or more hours to complete. So while defragmenting usually does no harm, the time and effort put into it will rarely pay for itself.

Note that I say "usually" a defrag does no harm. Defragging is a very intensive process to the hard drive. It can be enough to push a hard drive to fail if it was close to failing already. So while this isn't meant to alarm you, you should make sure you have a good backup anytime you chose to defragment your hard drive. And if you have ANY suspicion that your hard drive may be failing (like hearing clicking sounds from your hard drive) especially if your drive or computer is over 3 years old, DO NOT defragment it.

Now this article may provoke disagreement from many other technical people. In some circles, defragging is like an old wives tale, passed on from generation to generation. Again, it used to be a good idea, but not anymore for most people today. Certainly there are many cases where a defrag can make sense. But those cases are usually reserved for high-performance environments such as servers and workstations, as well as "performance junkies" who want to tweak every bit of speed out of their systems. But those types of people aren't the ones asking me for advice. So to wrap up, feel free to defrag your computers if you feel you need to, say maybe once or twice a year, but certainly don't worry about it if you don't.

Posted by Marcel Brown on April 9, 2007 7:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Protect your children from Internet Predators

There are many things that can be done to keep your children from getting tangled up with the wrong types of people on the Internet, whether it's "Internet Predators" or simply people you find unacceptable. Most of these things have nothing to do with technology. Since I'm not in the business of giving parenting advice, I'll stick with talking about technology.

The first thing many people think of are "filters". This is generally software that runs on your computer that will block your kids from certain web sites, e-mails, chat rooms, or peer-to-peer networks. This can be done by checking Internet addresses against "blacklists" or by checking for keywords. While filters can be effective for protecting children from accidentally going to web sites that you do not approve of, they are not as effective from preventing a child determined to find a way to get around your rules. Even if your kid doesn't have a lot of technical knowledge, you can be sure they have a friend who does. Also, filters must be constantly updated to keep them effective, which usually requires a subscription fee to the company that makes the filter. Finally, they can block access to legitimate sites, which can be a problem for older children doing research.

I believe that the best way to protect your kids is to know what they are doing when they are using the computer. With the knowledge of what your kids are up to, you can make sure they aren't getting themselves in trouble or doing things that you do not approve. Of course, you can't sit next to your kid the whole time they are using the computer, so this simply isn't realistic, right? Well, with the right technology, you can know what your kids were doing on the computer, down to very specific details, and even see exactly what they were seeing.

The software I recommend for monitoring your kids is from a company called SpectorSoft. SpectorSoft has a few different products, to choose from, so to make it simple, if you have Windows, I recommend Spector Pro (http://www.spectorsoft.com/products/SpectorPro_Windows/index.html). If you have a Mac, I recommend Spector for Mac (http://www.spectorsoft.com/products/Spector_Macintosh/index.html). Unfortunately, the Mac version doesn't give you as many features as the Windows version, but it does give you enough information to effectively know what your kids were doing. Since SpectorSoft doesn't label the Mac version as "Pro", perhaps they will come out with a better version in the future. One good thing about Spector for the Mac is that it also runs on Mac OS 9, which is important because so many older Macs are still in use today.

For specific details of what Spector Pro does, do visit their web site listed above. It has a lot of in-depth and powerful features that you may be interested in, such as chat recording and MySpace monitoring, However, to keep things brief, I will only talk about the features I think are most important.

First, Spector Pro (as well as Spector for the Mac) has the ability to record screenshots of all activity. This can be done on a timed basis, as often as once a second, or based on user activity. Above all features, if you can see exactly what was on the screen when your kid was using the computer, you'll have no doubt what they were doing. You can easily view these screenshots with simple "VCR-like" controls.

The second important feature is the ability to send you an instant alert if Spector Pro identifies a keyword that you have defined. You can create a list of "on alert" words or phrases and anytime Spector Pro detects the keyword, whether in a URL, chat room, e-mail, or typed on the keyboard, it can send you an e-mail - even to your cell phone. If you have concerns that your child is communicating with the wrong types of people, having nearly instant notification of this could be a life saver.

Perhaps the most important feature is that Spector is extremely stealthy and resistant to tampering. If your kids do not know that Spector is running, they will not try to find a way around it. It is also nearly impossible to detect that Spector is running, so they will not accidentally find out. Even if you tell your kids that you have installed software to monitor them, they still will not be able to find a way to disable it. Finally, access to Spector is protected with a hot key combination and a password so that only authorized users can view the recorded data or configure the software. Even if somehow your kids found a way to disable the software, you would know they did because you would have no record of what they were doing. It would be virtually impossible for your kids to create false data to fool you.

As mentioned above, using Spector can be effective regardless of if your kids know they are being monitored or not. If they don't know they are being monitored, they are going to feel free to do everything they want, which will give you a very good idea of their computing habits, good or bad. If they do know they are being monitored, then they are much more likely to behave themselves, since they know you will be able to see exactly what they were doing. It's completely up to you to use Spector in the way which best fits your particular situation.

Certainly, with as many options as Spector has available, if you do not feel comfortable installing or setting up Spector, I will be happy to help you out.

Posted by Marcel Brown on April 9, 2007 7:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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April 2007 Archives

April 9, 2007

Tech Toy of the Month - Walletex Wallet Flash Drive

Q: Should I defragment my hard drive?

Protect your children from Internet Predators

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