Like these.

Dalek Tree

Such a perfect marriage, it’s a wonder no one’s done it before. It’s all the more impressive when you zoom in and see just how simple it was to make out of ordinary household items like a laundry basket and a plunger. By Lindsay Testolin.

Lightsaber Tree

Okay, so technically these aren’t lightsabers — they’re flourescent light bulbs. But you know you thought “lightsabers” when you saw it, too. By Gareth Pugh.

Tron Tree

At first pass, this tree looks like it came straight out of the old-school Grid from the original Tron. But zoom in and you’ll see that these rows of lights are just that: lights still inside their plastic holders that they come in when you buy ‘em. Very clever. By Richard Whittaker.

Hard Drive Tree

They may look like CDs, but these are really old hard drives, repurposed as a shiny, metal Christmas tree. It took 70 hard drives to create. By Trigger.

LEGO Tree

Straight from this year’s Christmas display at Legoland in San Diego, this is reportedly the world’s largest LEGO Christmas tree. It stands 30 feet tall and was made using 245,000 green Duplo-sized bricks. It’s decorated with over 240 LEGO ball ornaments, and real lights.

Tesla Tree

Made using a huge Tesla coil and a long photo exposure, it’s not technically the exact shape of a Christmas tree (the traditional triangular pine), but it’s still wicked cool. Even more impressive are all of the different colors that electricity addict Peter from Australia managed to create with it, which you can see more of on his website.

Old Computer Parts Tree

What better use for old computer parts like keyboards, motherboards, mice, and chipsets could there be than to paint them red and attach them to a wagon? By Sunny Brook.

Pac-Man Tree

By now, I’ll be more surprised if you haven’t already seen this popular Pac-Man inspired Christmas tree from Madrid. It’s been a yearly installation for a while now. But it’s still awesome. Photo by Antonio Garcia Rodriguez.

Cars Tree

This one’s for my son, who’s obsessed with all things Cars. It took one devoted parent to create this spiral, winding ramp and fill it with Pixar characters. By Danny Novo.

Spinning Tree

You know those tacky LED/fiber optic Christmas trees? This is what they look like when they’re attached to a motor and spun around with a long-exposure camera running. I want one. Even though it reminds me of that Doctor Who episode where Rose and her family were attacked by a killer Christmas tree. By Kevin Kotterell.

Apple Tree

Because there’s no such thing as a “geek list” that doesn’t include at least one Apple entry. By Metamorphosis.

OLED Tree

The computer geeks at GE made this tree a couple years ago out of some of those shmancy, bendable OLED computer screens that will someday allow us to wear flexible screens as bracelets and whatnot. A world’s first, at the time. By GE.

When the XBox 360 first came out, the hard drive that came standard – at least on the higher up model – just seemed like it wouldn’t be enough. After all, with all the DLC that Microsoft was planning for the console, there was no way that 20GB would be enough. The upgrades kept coming along, Netflix was added, DLC got bigger and bigger … Well, you know the result.

So Microsoft decides a little while back to offer a 250GB drive for the 360, and decided to price it at $129. Even the most expensive 250GB drive on NewEgg is still $30 cheaper, and the pricey drive just feels like a slap in the face. Why not just allow people to plug in their own USB drives and do whatever they want with storage? Well, now you can, per Major Nelson.

We’ve just released a system update for the Xbox 360 over Xbox LIVE.

As previously announced, this system update contains support for USB Memory storage devices.

Sometime over the next few hours when you sign in to Xbox LIVE you’ll receive a prompt to accept this mandatory update. If you are signed into LIVE already, you may be signed out and asked to accept the update and you’ll be back online in a few moments.

So what was previously announced? Here’s the good stuff:

On April 6th, we will be releasing a system update over Xbox LIVE for your Xbox 360 that will allow USB flash drives to be used for storing profiles, game saves, demos and more.  I’ve been testing this feature out for a few weeks, and I have to say it’s really great. Once you take the system update on April 6th, you’ll be able to connect your USB flash drives to your console and head over to the memory section to configure your new storage device. Once you do that, the system will conduct a one time performance and integrity check to confirm the drive is working properly. You will then be able to configure how much storage to use on the device, up to 16 GB. The remaining space on the flash drive will be accessible by your PC or Mac. USB Hard drives may work, but like flash memory, you’ll only be able to use up to 16GB of space. Since performance on flash based USB storage is usually better, I highly recommend using flash based instead of spinning media like a hard drive…it’s just going to give you a MUCH better experience.

Nice. I will say that the 16GB limit sucks pretty hard, but hopefully they’ll start upping the limits soon. That way the 360 can become a true home media server, without any extra hacks.

Got a storage problem? I know I do. That’s why when I first head about these new portable hard drives by Toshiba, I got a little excited. They come in four different flavors: 500GB, 640GB, 750GB, and 1TB, all for under $200. These are USB 2.0 drives, with no eSata or Firewire options. Right now the suggested list prices start at $119.99 for the 500, and move up to $199 for the 1TB, but Toshiba Direct has the 1TB now for $189, thanks to a $10 instant-savings deal. If black isn’t your thing, they also come in silver, blue, green and red, so you’ve got some options there as well.

This isn’t the cheapest drive on the market, though. Western Digital has a 1TB model up on NewEgg for $149, and it comes with a free case. They also have a Seagate FreeAgent model for $149 and it comes with a dock and a case. My theory is that once these things hit the streets that the Toshiba will come down in price, but that’s never a guarantee. Frankly, for the difference  you could step up to a bigger model instead, assuming you’re OK with a larger footprint for the device.

PR Newswire via Geek.com

I do a lot of different things for work. I write, I blog, and I take lots and lots of pictures for magazines. As a result, I have tons of pictures stored in various places, and I’m triple backed up at all times. Right now, it’s a fairly simple setup, but it’s going to get a lot more complicated pretty soon. That’s because of two things:

1. I want to do a home theatre setup
2. I got a new camera.

In the past decade or so, I’ve taken a lot of pictures. But at the beginning, a lot of my work was in film, so I have to keep the original slides. Then when I did go digital, I had a basic 6 megapixel camera. Back then, each shot took up 2.5 mb. In fact, for as long as I’ve been shooting, I’ve only got 110 GB worth of images. Now, each image is 15 mb between the raw image and the jpeg file. I shot 22 GB of a single truck the other day, and that 350 GB drive isn’t going to last me much longer.

So I’ve been debating my options, but I’d like to ask for some suggestions from you, the readers. Here’s what I’ve got:

• 20-inch iMac with 250 GB drive, hosting my iTunes library
• 15-inch MacBook Pro with 500 GB drive, with all of my business data
• 500 GB Time Capsule
• AppleTV

I’m an Apple guy. Go figure.

Right off the bat, I know that the AppleTV isn’t the best solution for my media needs. I’ve been considering buying a Mac Mini to do the home theatre part of things, but either way, I need a place to put my iTunes library. I’m in the process of converting over my DVDs, and at the moment I’ve filled up a 250 GB drive and I’ve barely scratched the surface. I figure I need at least a terabyte to take care of that.

On the photography side, I’m thinking I need to get proactive and get at least a terabyte of storage. I try to do a shoot per week, and each one is at least 10 GB worth of data. By getting a terabyte now, I’m going to have more than enough to cover my needs in the short term, and I’ll be OK when it comes time to upgrade later.

Now the big issue: Backup. My 500 GB Time Capsule isn’t going to be able to support this new setup in any way. Even if I upgraded to the 2 TB Time Capsule, I’d really only have one machine covered. So my thought is to double up on my storage. When I buy a 1 TB drive for the photography, I buy a second (or step up to a 1.5 TB model) to handle backing up both the MacBook Pro and the library. When I get the 1.5 TB for the iMac, I do the same thing with a 1.5 or 2 TB unit for backup. On the downside, my Time Capsule would pretty much turn into a router.

So there’s my current strategy. I’ve considered a Drobo, and I’ve considered just getting a Mac Mini server to handle the duty, but I think that might be overkill. Anyone have any suggestions?

Take the latest announcement: that of the first Rugged eSATA hard drive.

LaCie is keen to point out the cost savings of getting an eSATA hard drive over an equivalent eSATA SSD. Given how reliable hard drives generally are now (unless you are extremely unlucky) and the rugged nature of this drive — something LaCie does well — it’s a factor worth considering.

Obviously, you’ll need an eSATA port on your computer in order to take advantage of this, but they are becoming a lot more common.

You’ll get speeds of up to 90MB/s with Power eSATA, and also compatibility with existing USB 2.0 ports.

Protection-wise, the drive is housed in scratch-resistant aluminium, internal shock absorbers and shock-resistant rubber bumper. You’ll likely already be familiar with Neil Poulton’s design on this style.

Available in 500GB capacity for around £139 ($210).

LaCie

This compact desktop companion features a dock that’ll take a range of iPhone or iPod models, plus a separate dock at the back that is ready fitted with a 500GB, Mac formatted portable hard drive.

The dock has two USB 2.0 ports while the hard drive has a single USB and FireWire 400/800 port.

Naturally, as it’s ready to use with Mac, it offers Time Machine compatibility, and it comes with a variety of adapters to fit most iPod models.

Available next month at around £199 in the UK (about $300)

Backing up, travelling with important files on a USB stick or accessing your home PC via the Internet are all possibilities but Iomega’s solution means that you have an exact replica of your primary PC’s contents and can access it from any Windows-based PC with a USB port.

The best features are that no data trail is left on the host PC once you’ve finished using it, it’s password secured and data encrypted, and it seamlessly synchronises with your PC so it’s always up-to-date. It can even be used immediately if there’s an emergency and your real PC dies.

The software will begin shipping on Iomega USB 2.0 hard drives this spring, pricing to be confirmed.

Iomega

No offence meant to the guys over at Beastmoon.net, but I thought I’d recreate the article here with some nice images (no, not those kind of images) in place of the **** asterisks.

Here, you’ll see that word used 20 times — that’s TWENTY times. I can see why you wouldn’t want that word used so many times in a short article. particularly if you’re running Google ads.

This version should be safe. Anyway, you know what that word is, even if you choose to have the images turned off.

Brilliant! If you’re paranoid about **** fragments burying
themselves deep into your hard drive then you really should read this! (Funnily enough there was no download link on the original site, not that I’d include it here anyway.)

Delete today once and for all! You need to know how to delete from your hard drive. Deleting from your hard drive is not possible without the special software because the fragments bury deep into your hard drive and it becomes very hard to delete . Even fragmenting your hard drive wont get rid of it… You need to know how to delete as soon as possible or it can lend you in a lot of trouble!… You don’t even have to download yourself for it to get in to your computer hard drive, it comes from various sources and it starts to come up as pop ups and ads that are incredibly annoying and can cost you money!

What is the worst part about is it can lend you in some serious trouble and can cost you your family, your job and can even see you go to prison if you don’t successfully delete it from your hard drive and get caught by the computer forensics and cyber police! These guys keep a close eye out for suspicious information downloads and illegal and now they are catching illegal downloaders and fans more than ever before! Even if you didn’t buy or download and it entered the computer by itself through some kind of spyware and that will still get you in trouble even if you haven’t intentionally downloaded or knew it was there, So i suggest you delete from your hard drive now and the software that will help you is called Terminator…

I Downloaded the Terminator and within about 15 minutes it found over 1,346 fragments in the registry and my hard drive and it got rid of all of it for me, i can now sleep tight knowing that i don’t have to worry about having found on my computer! I encourage you to delete now that you know how to delete porn, You have a lot to lose because of on your pc, so delete ALL of it once and for all with Terminator!

Download Terminator Here…

Note how one instance of p**n slipped through the net in the second-to-last paragraph, just for good measure.

So, now you all know how to delete it from your hard drive. Sleep tight!

1. LaCie Starck Desktop/Mobile hard drives

Desgned by Philippe Starck, these cool hard drives (one for the desktop, one for mobile users) look amazing, are made from thick aluminium casing, have a touch sensitive surface for quick launch of applications, and come with auto-backup software.

Lacie UK

2. Buffalo SuperSpeed USB 3.0 hard drive

Not only does Buffalo’s hard drive use the cutting edge USB 3.0 high speed interface offering up to 125MB/s data transfer rates, but its black curvy body is well worth showing off as you transfer high definition movies back and forth in mere seconds.

3. Buffalo MiniStation

Attractive portable hard drives from Buffalo feature built-in security and direct USB connection without the need for an additional power supply.

4. Toshiba portable hard drive

This 400GB portable hard drive from Toshiba has some cool blue swishes on it and has NTI Shadow backup software built in.

Via

5. Seagate FreeAgent Pro

Like orange? Try this desktop hard drive from Seagate: the FreeAgent Pro, available in a range of capacities and connectable via FireWire, USB 2.0 or eSata.

Via

6. Suissa Shadow Wooden external hard drive

If you yearn for a wood effect on your gadgets, check out this hard drive from Suissa.

As you can see, this maplewood drive has plenty of connectivity so it’s also a USB hub.

Each unit is built to order.

Via

7. Seagate eSATA external hard drive

Sports one of the most up-to-date data connections and 500GB of storage.

Via

8. Iomega Camo Ego hard drive

Check out the camouflage on this hard drive, the Iomega Camo Ego. It’s not just pretty colours either, as it has Drop Guard protection built in to protect data, plus a Power Grip band that is supposed to provide stability and extra durability.

Via

9. GigaBank 1TB hard drive

One terabyte of storage as two 500GB drives in an array, with some interesting curves on the body and stand.

Via

10. Anaconda 1TB hard drive

Not much to say about this drive, except to note the cool blue light swish on the front panel.

Via

11. LaCie Rugged XL hard drive

Definitely one for orange lovers who need rugged protection for their hard drive.

Via

12. Fabrik SimpleTech [re]drive

Offering Turbo USB 2.0 for 25% faster performance and an enclosure made from sustainable bamboo.

Via

It may well thwart the casual thief who, unable to simply plug it in to a spare USB port and peruse your precious porn stash data like it were a thumb drive, but anyone who really wants to get at your data probably isn’t going to have much trouble.

Adam left a comment on the original blog post, suggesting that the way the drive is constructed makes it highly likely that the AES key is stored on a non-volatile memory chip on the circuit board.

This could well be desoldered and read in order to discover the code and hence grab the data.

Everyday consumers may well be lulled into a false sense of security, while geeks with other geeks for friends (or, indeed, enemies) will probably steer well clear of the device in the first place.

Adam also maintains that most people won’t be able to remember an 18-digit numerical code (apart from Pi, perhaps, which could well be the geeky version of using “1234” as a PIN), though the unit does include the alpha equivalents (much like a phone keypad) so you could spell out a word or phrase instead.

I think true physical security of external hard drives is more important. The Data Locker drive, which comes in 160GB, 320GB and 500GB capacities, does have a self-destruct mode if it detects a brute-force attack — however that pretty much means you’ll need another hard drive to back this one up, in case your data is destroyed by meddlesome fingers.

If you want one you can get it here.