With the huge amount of free software out there, there is no clear cut way to determine what is good and what is crap.  That is what I am here for.  To start your education on free "quality" software, I want to introduce you to RocketDock.  The RocketDock utility has to be one of the most convenient little pieces of software I’ve ever come across.  Not only is this useful, it’s FREE!! (more...)

In the computing world, it can be dizzying trying to pick the right software for our needs.  Everyone knows we need to have anti virus software loaded on our Windows work stations but trying to find the right one out of hundreds can be daunting to say the least.  Luckily for us, some companies offer free alternatives that offer some of the features we are looking for.  Once in a while, we actually come across a piece of software, at no cost, that works the way we would hope it works.  Enter Microsoft Security Essentials, a Virus, Malware, and Spyware software package at NO COST! (more...)

Introduction
While Olympus is well known for its quality line of film and digital cameras, less is known about their other products. One that I will be looking at today is the DM-20. It's billed mainly as a digital voice recorder, but triples it's functionality by incorporating a music player and USB data storage device into its duties. It's sleek, portable, versatile and comes equipped with enough accessories to justify the $299 SRP. The one location I was able to find it online, DM-20 (click here), listed it for $269. If you were to look for a voice recorder, MP3/WMA player and USB storage separately you can count on spending three times as much for similar quality devices. (more...)

Having been a longstanding fan and avid user of the Lian Li line of computer chassis; I find that it is difficult to be absolutely wow'ed by another manufacturer's attempt to overthrow the chassis king.  Zalman is not new to the game, having been in business since 1999; they have manufactured products in a slew of different genres starting with quiet computing and traveling into the ridiculously priced.  The GT1000 is not a bargain basement chassis but is it worth the $380.00 Price tag? (more...)

Eagle is a company that I am fast becoming a fan of.  They are consistently releasing practical affordable solutions to some of the needs I have been faced with lately.  I can already hear it... can you? It's saying, what sets this enclosure apart from the THOUSANDS of others out there?  Simple, its made by Eagle... AND, it is DUAL BAY! (more...)

My digital life is one that can be categorized as anything but stagnant.  In my world, hardware changes as often as my underwear (well, not really... but close) and when products come along that may make things easier; I get excited.  iStarUSA thinks they might have the answer to one of my problems. Enter the T-5 SS, a screw-less and trayless design for fast HDD mounting. (more...)

For many years, the role of a backplane was primarily in the server environment.  With home computing and server environments becoming intertwined the roles of devices like this are becoming skewed.  Backplanes are no longer just for SCA SCSI devices and are now being found more and more in other arenas as SCSI is no longer the king. SATA/SAS has taken the performance per dollar championship.  iStarUSA thinks they might have the answer to the industry's needs with the BPU-340SAS RAID Cage. (more...)

Introduction
Those of you familiar with Olympus already know the high quality with which their imaging products are manufactured. For those still living under a rock, allow me to elucidate. Olympus began life as Takachiho Seisakusho, a Japanese company started in 1919 to produce, what else, Japan's first microscope. Yes, that's right, microscope. It's not as big a stretch as you would think, moving from microscopes to digital cameras. In fact, it's more of a natural evolution. Olympus still maintains a large presence in medical imaging and technology. Their product catalog ranges from cameras and printers to chemistry immuno systems and blood bank systems. Chances are if you've ever heard the term aliquotting, you've heard of Olympus. But that is another story for another day. We're here to discuss cameras and the C-5050 in particular. SO without further ado, let's have a look at the Olympus C-5050 Digital Zoom. (more...)

My latestdventure (you will read about it soon) left me with a few SATA hard drives lying around. With those drives came a great opportunity to incorporate them into an off site storage solution. That being said, I absolutely must do this with some style.  Enter the Eagle Tech Consus N-Series Sata to USB enclosure. (more...)

I have been around for a while, and when Western Digital decided to send me their 500 GB hard drive; I drooled. Then Seagate came out with their 750 GB drive; I got goose bumps. Now, Hitachi decided to realign my particles with their 1TB SATA II hard disk drive (HDS721010KLA330); man this thing smells good. Yeah, if you didn't catch that, I said 1TB... that's 1000 GB! Well... technically it's only 931.51GB, but they measure in decimal not binary. (more...)