If you’re anything like me, you might want to find ways to make use of these practically useless disks. The first thing that came to mind: coasters. I have this thing for coasters. I like to buy all sorts of coasters even though I never really use them. I think, though, that floppy disks would do very well for a geeky party. They can even liven up the décor if I use different colors.

I was quite impressed with this guy featured at Instructables – he made a bag out of his floppy disks! It doesn’t look very comfortable, but you get the idea. At the very least, you’ll be sure to get some appreciative stares. Alternatively, you’ll have an interesting conversation piece to carry around.

Lady geeks would love this idea from Instructables as well: earrings from the metal part of the disk! This one, I think, is really cool. Despite my lack in the department of arts and crafts, I might just manage to make a couple of pairs. And, I can think of several friends who would jump with glee if they received such a gift.

What do you have in mind for your floppy disks?

I imagine that a lot of our readers have a USB hub somewhere on their desks, just like I do. I also imagine that they don’t often wear pants, but maybe that’s just me. Literally. Anyways, my USB hub has cords going all over the place from it, and it’s gotten to the point where I have one stacked on top of the other just to gain some extra space. It’s a little frustrating at times.

That’s why when I see designs like this, I get a little excited. It’s from Yanko Design, and although it’s just a concept right now, I certainly hope someone figures out how to make it reality. Here’s what they say about it:

So here’s the Infinite USB – an alternative plug on devices that kinda acts like a tag team. The design speaks for itself, so no point elaborating, however what we can do is talk about its effectiveness and limitations. For starters I don’t think we may be able to tag too many devices one behind the other. I reckon max 3 or 4 before the tag starts to look awkward, but the color coding on plugs will make it easy to identify which plug belongs to which device.

Brilliant. Just damned brilliant. Now I’m not a technical guy or an engineer, so I don’t know if this is physically possible. If it is however, someone get on it. Seriously. Go build it now so I can buy lots of them and have a 4-foot long USB chain hanging off my laptop.

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?

It doesn’t mention what this is in response to — Apple MacBook multitouch trackpad, perhaps, or the increasing number of mobile devices with touchscreens — but of course it is dependent on associated hardware to work correctly.

A device that could input touch data for two or more fingers could integrate with Firefox and allow for a number of commands to be executed without either mouse or keyboard shortcut input (though these could perhaps be used as modifiers).

What I really like is the “create new gesture” that would allow users to add their own commands — gesture macros if you like — which would execute based on a specific set of touch inputs.

This is something that’s not really been well explored on mainstream devices. Even the iPhone has a relatively small set of gestures in the main user interface, though individual apps could always add to this.

Having this in Firefox is all very well. Now how about it rolled out across the operating system. Both Apple and Microsoft are totally capable of doing this.

How about support for gesture input on other surfaces, like this really cool video on scratch input:

I was surprised to be picked to share a user-review for the Yamaha NeoHD. I had no idea what NeoHD was, and just thought that it was one of those average things that just makes an entertainment system look good. For a hefty price of US$500-US$800 I said “this has got to be a joke” because there are universal remote controls for under US$20 at RadioShack, Walmart and even Walgreens. I soon found out that it wasn’t just a remote, not even a super-remote, but a high tech entertainment system that doesn’t only look good but ACTUALLY MAKES my entertainment system work a whole lot better! And silly me to think that Yamaha will join the average tech product line. Silly silly me.

Four days after being picked, the UPS van parks in front of our home, the NeoHD delivery. Thinking it was just a small package I motioned the UPS guy to come in. He says “no… I need to get my dolly, you’re getting a box.”

The Yamaha NeoHD comes as an entire system which includes the neoHD (YMC-500), and the neoHD System 2.1 (YMC-S21), a complete surround sound and system control solution that matches the YMC-500 Media Controller with two high-quality speakers and a subwoofer. You read it right…. it’s not JUST A REMOTE. It’s a system console, a media controller and a speaker set! Un-boxing it was a glee, setting it up was really, really easy: connect the neoHD to the TV and connect all my devices to the neoHD… done. There’s a great video introduction and set-up tutorial right here. And the package comes with a comprehensive easy-to-use manual too.

Powering up the neoHD automatically turns the TV on. I was presented then with 3 convenient menu options of “Watch”, “Listen”, or “Play”. Oh my, even my 11-year old would easily use this. Hitting any of these 3 options allowed me to be more specific with my choice (such as Watch Movie, Watch LiveTV, Listen CD, etc) at which time icons for the appropriate video, audio or video game components (such as Blu-ray players, CD players, cable boxes, iPods, game consoles, etc.) will appear. Selecting the component choice powers it up and is fully operational via the NeohD remote and on-screen interface. Yes, your TV becomes your menu screen. No need to use separate remotes (keep them in your drawers), no hassle in setting up the remote with codes too, because it does it all automatically as most component remote control codes are embedded for immediate compatibility and control. NeoHD controls them all.

I’m an iPod fanatic, when I buy a movie DVD I watch it on my iPod. Sometimes I connect my iPod directly to the TV and watch it there too (a little troublesome though as I have no way of remote controlling my iPod if I want to stop, rewind, fast forward to a scene). NeoHD allowed me to do that, which I thought was really convenient for me.

My daughter loves her Wii, dad though hates to be called to set it up for her. :) With the NeoHD, I think my 11-year old will quickly navigate thru the on-screen menu to play her Wii… while dad in delight goes “weeeee”.

I love the sound, for a 2.1 system the Air Surround Xtreme System is probably one of the best I’ve experienced. While there is a NeoHD model for a 5.1 audio system setup, for my basement entertainment area the 2.1 audio system setup is exactly what I need.

Over-all impression… an excellent product!

You can get the chance to win your own Yamaha NeoHD. There’s a great contest running, just visit this website for the contest rules. Getting the chance to win starts by leaving a comment regarding this post saying why you desperately need a Yamaha NeoHD. Easy eh? You can also enter the contest by tweeting “I just entered to a win a #neoHD b/c I have too many remotes, visit this link for more details!”.

Product link: Yamaha neoHD
Participate to the free give-away competiton: official sweepstake rules.

Well, Blackest Night #1 is out on the shelves, and as set up issues go, it was okay. As I feared however, it looks like the Blackest Night is going to swamp the War Of Light storyline in Green Lantern unless that carries on after this crossover is finished, which I doubt. It does run the risk so far of just being a zombie story I think, but I will refrain from criticism until we are at least three issues in.

Speaking of super-zombies however, the Super-Zombies title from Dynamite has sucked me in. A whole new universe of characters, politics and intrigue established from the get-go, and in four issues I have already begun to care about the characters. This has risen to the top of my must-read list, and if you haven’t seen it already, I advise picking the issues up and giving them a chance. Yes you will be confused as to who everyone is to start with, I still am and need to re-read it to check who’s who. However, I started reading the DC Universe with Crisis On Infinite Earths, and you can imagine how much back-reading I had to do to find out who everyone was there. My only regret is that with Super-Zombies, that back material is not available to dip into.

What has me really pumped however is how the return of the Milestone universe is rolling on, this week in The Brave And The Bold #25, starring Hardware and Blue Beetle. Hardware is his usual sociable self and we see the return of his age old adversaries The System. Oh yeah, and the new Blue Beetle was in it as well.

I adored the confrontation recently between the JLA and the Shadow Cabinet, culminating in Justice League Of America #34, where we learnt just how it is that the Milestone Earth is now part of the DCU. The mysterious Dharma used the power of Rift Fred Benson (from Worlds Collide) to merge his universe with the DCU.

(Erm, from pre Zero Hour to the New Multiverse, did he misfire and shoot past the post-Zero Hour earth? Hell of a pattern that, knit one, drop one, knit one. “Ma, I lost a universe, have you seen it anywhere?)

Anyway, for a geek like me that means for once, all the previously titles still stand in continuity. There was some really good stuff in the old Milestone, and I was very disappointed to see it go.

Now, we’ve seen Holocaust, but I can’t wait to see what’s left of the rest of the Blood Syndicate and what they are up to nowadays.

Of course nostalgia seems all the rage at the minute. Anyone else dig that updated sixties-vibe in Superman World Of New Krypton? And how about the latest revamp of the Red Circle characters? !mpact comics was a bit of a flop, although it too had some good stories. However, I am just old enough to remember some of the actual Red Circle comics themselves. The Crusaders, The Fly and Fly-Girl. Villains like the Brain-Emperor and Eterno.

I am pumped about these, and I look forward to seeing the latter four characters again. The legacy of The Fly with the legacy of Shazam – now that would be an interesting mix.

Oh and have you seen Octobers solicitations? The X-Babies are coming back, but get this, WITH PLANET TERRY! I was too old to read Planet Terry the first time round but that didn’t stop me then, and it won’t stop me now.

Recycling in the music industry is bad. But here in the comic world? It’s good to see all of these old friends again.

As long as they are not zombies.

The disappointment with netbooks — NPD analyst Stephen Baker preferred that term rather than “dissatisfaction” — stemmed from expectations that a netbook was the same, more or less, as a laptop. Six out of every 10 netbook buyers, said Baker, thought that the two were equivalent, and figured that their new netbook would have the same functionality as a laptop.

I have been a netbook user for more than a year now. Since the first Eee PCs were shipped by Asus, I bought myself one. Since then, I’ve been trying different models from different brands. So far, I’ve been satisfied with performance.

It all boils down to expectations. And it depends on perspective, too.

Netbooks are practically the same as their full-fledged notebook counterparts. Mostly every component is miniaturized, and you would expect some tradeoffs there. The smaller screen and keyboard might not be as good for usability. But the portability is surely a key feature. The smaller parts might usually be slower, such as the hard drive or flash-based SSD, but they are designed for portability and sometimes for durability, as is the case with solid state drives. Their processing power might not be as hefty as with most modern, dual-core processors, but the low-power platform is supposed to give you longer battery life.

Because they can run the same software as you would on bigger computers, netbooks are supposed to be able to give the same functionality. Foremost of these is the ability to get you connected to the Internet. Perhaps that’s why they’re called “net” books–this what they are primarily intended for.

The issue here is about expectations. Some users purchase netbooks thinking, perhaps, that these can totally replace a desktop or notebook computer. To some extent this can be true. But people might be in for a disappointment if they will rely solely on their netbooks. I’ve purchased netbooks with the thought of using these as my mobile office when I’m on the go. But I don’t consider netbooks to be my primary computer. I still have a desktop and a laptop that I consider my main work machines.

If you purchase a netbook expecting to crunch hundreds of columns of spreadsheet figures, or to play the latest first-person-shooter, or to render videos, then you might be in for a disappointment. Sure, a netbook can probably handle these tasks, but will perform poorly. But if you expect to use a netbook to chat or catch up on emails while at a cafe, take notes during class, write a short report or letter while at the library, or check up on recipes online while at the kitchen, then these will perform satisfactorily or even wonderfully. It’s all about expectations.

Are you a netbook user? If so, are you satisfied with your netbook?

image credit: flickr/ndevil

Via Geek Pad Show.

More pictures after the jump.

Complete set at Flickr.

Here are some of the best ideas on where and how to get your geek gear for dirt cheap.

Clearance sales and refurbished sales
Clearance sales – everyone knows that they can yield the best deals ever. Way back when Circuit City was still my premier choice, their clearance sales were a must for me. Today, you can still find all sorts of clearance sales at various stores, both online and offline. Mind you, these sales can give you the power to buy some of the most expensive brands out there.

How about refurbished units? You mean geeks use them? Heck yeah! Refurbished does not necessarily mean bad. Many of these items are actually units which have never been used but have been returned. Naturally, manufacturers cannot sell them for brand new. Guess who can benefit? YOU!

Online stores
Seriously, these are some of the best places to look right now. There are countless stores online from which you can find the lowest prices there are. Just to point you in the right direction, start with these tried and tested sites: Woot, TigerDirect, CostCo, and Alien Ware. You will not regret paying them a visit every so often.

Where do YOU get your best deals for geek gear?

It’s a prototype that allows Wolfenstein 3D to be controlled from a second device connected up using a crossover audio cable.

The Wolfenstick runs without having to jailbreak the iPhone and has been developed using the iPhone OS 2.0 AudioToolbox APIs. It shows off what’s possible now, as well as being a taster of some of the cool hardware mods that may be developed and released when iPhone OS 3.0 comes this summer.

Here’s a demo video of the Wolfenstick in action.

This really makes me want to laser etch my unibody MacBook

His Universal magnetic stand photo stream shows how he took some old monitor stands plus the strong magnets from a defunct hard drive to create a compact music workstation for his Eee PC and various bits of audio mixing gear.

This set-up wouldn’t work for everything, as you’d not want to be sticking magnets next to anything sensitive like tape drives or a working hard drive. That’s not a problem for the Eee PC as it uses a solid-state disk.

There’s something cool about building this kind of stuff from scratch. Sasha used leftovers from monitors that were installed in an info kiosk. You make something good from what you’ve got lying around. Even the glued on plates come from an old CD-ROM drive case and the rubber from a blood pressure meter.

Unique, too. You’ll never build another identical one even from much the same parts.

fibra’s universal magnetic stand flickr set (via CDM) Pics used with permission.

Many people dream of a romantic diner by candlelight and a bouquet of roses for Valentine’s Day. Your geek usually can be satisfied with much less: a pack of Mountain Dew cans, free pizza delivery and small gizmos. But what does your geek REALLY want?

Usually your geek also has some ‘out of the world’ wishes and by that I do not mean save the planet or discover the new Pi but gadgets with a rather large price tag. Examples of science, perfect in design, assembly and function. We have assembled the ultimate Valentine’s Day gift guide for geeks.

Optimus Maximus Keyboard

The Optimus Maximus is the ultimate keyboard for every geek. With customizable OLED keys and reprogrammable for most games and applications your geek tells you that this keyboard will optimize his efficiency, workflow. In reality this is one of those keyboards everyone wants, but just unaffordable at almost $1700.
Be warned that the drooling will only increase with every further released screenshot of the Optimus Tactus keyboard. Still just a concept, but with multitouch technology, even more OLED and without keys. Can things get any shinier?

Golden iPhone

UK Based Goldenstrike will goldplate almost anything, even tables, but their most popular articles are without doubt the gold plated iPhones and iPod Touch and this at reasonable prices even. With this decoration you are guaranteed to have your iPhone stolen within the shortest amount of time!

£599 for the iPhone, £499 for the iPod Touch 32GB and £449.95 for the iPod Nano 4G.

Swarowski USB flash drive

Most USB sticks look horrible and are way too large. She will be in heaven when she opens a gift box with one of these Swarowski USB Keys in. Philips and Swarowski have collaborated on a range of computer accessories and offer USB drives, headsets and keyboards. Lots of bling for your bang.

Alternatively you can always go to Crystal Icing where they will put Swarowski crystals on about everything you have or send them, as long as you pay enough. Almost any bling Star of Hollywood fame belongs to their customer base.

Golden USB Stick with Diamonds

He might want his USB drives a little more discrete and stylish and opt for the golden 16GB USB drive with encrusted diamonds at 5650EUR.

ModBook Pro

As long as the folks at Infinite Loop 1 continue to be stubborn, only the ModBook from Axiotrom can realize the dream of the Apple Tablet. On the base of a new unibody MacBook Pro, with both pen and touch options, the Modbook Pro starts at $4998 and will make your geek extremely happy. Control the drool level!

Hasselblad H3DII-50

Every year again when one of the usual suspects, Canon and Nikon, release and upgrade their high-end DSLR camera models, geeks worldwide start drooling, but if they would be really honest and price were no restriction, there’s only one camera they want and that’s this one. The Hasselblad H3DII-50.
The 50MP 36x48mm sensor generates 300MB files at 1FPS and can be found from $27.995.

If price is an objection you can always settle for the Canon EOS 5D Mark II or the Nikon D3X, both available for less than $5000.

Pioneer SC-09TX (UK: SC-LX90) Multichannel Amplifier

After many hours of hard work (to pay all these gadgets obviously!) your geek of course wants to chill and sip a good drink, while listening to some audio or watch a movie. Because your geek always wants the best, preferably even technology which isn’t applied yet he dreams of this Pioneer SC-09TX cinema amplifier with 10x140Watt, delivered by a ‘pre’- and ‘power’ unit, all in a very sleek design. This amplifier has everything needed, is fully network capable and can upscale almost any imaginable videoformat. All for a meager $7000.

Bower & Wilkins 800-series Speakers Package

Now your geek can kick back with a powerful, deliciously sounding amplifier you obviously also need an appropriate set of speakers and these B7W 800 series speakers will blow you, and the neighbors, away.
When selecting a standard 7.2 speaker package consisting of 803D front speakers, ASW825 subwoofers, HTM2D center speaker and DS8S surround speakers, this will cost you easily another $30.000, but I promise you that you will enjoy listening to Apocalypto, one of the only Blu-ray releases with *7.1* soundtrack so far.

Marantz VP-11S1 1080p Projector

When being honest every geek will admit that HDTVs no part of their dreams are, but hopefully a soon to be realized perspective if they haven’t gotten one yet.
Instead they dream of FullHD quality projected on the wall, preferably from this Marantz VP-11S1 1080p DLP projector with 6500:1 contrast ratio. The image of this projector is amazing and the black in The Dark Knight are deep and one can even distinct different shades of grey from black.

Just admit it yourself, what is better than playing GTAIV on this setup? Oh, the projector costs $19.995.

Koenigsegg CCX

Last but not least your geek needs a car. A fast one. And that is the Koenigsegg CCX is a masterpiece of perfection and carbon fibre. 806BHP, 0-62 in 3.2 seconds and look at those doors! At top speed 245+ mph this gift will set you back around 540.000EUR.
The reason for the Koenigsegg is simple: every other nerd already has an Ascari or a Zonda!

I was viewing my podcasts this morning when from CNet’s gadget review shows I saw the HP Mini 1000 review. Quite impressive piece of engineering here, looks like HP has learned a lot from the early netbook developers and well ironed out some of the “flaws” to birth the HP Mini 1000. Heard from Veronica Belmont over Twitter that she’s currently playing with her HP Mini 1000… ohhhh… so jealous she’s got one!

Anyway, the HP Mini 1000 is one of my current faves, I’m putting that in my wishlist! It’s got a wide keyboard that I think fits my big hands, and has got a glossy edge-to-edge screen like my Macbook. It’s made of hard plastic, so that makes it ultra light… and with the work I do, the lighter the load on my backpack… the better.

Here’a a runthrough of it’s basic specifications:

Processor 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270
Memory 1GB, 533MHz DDR2
Hard drive 60GB 4,200rpm
Chipset Mobile Intel 945GM Express
Graphics Intel GMA 950 (integrated)
Operating system Windows XP Home Edition SP2
Dimensions (WDH) 6.6×10.3×0.95 inches
Screen size (diagonal) 10.2 inches
System weight / Weight with AC adapter 2.5/3.1 pounds

The only thing I didn’t like about that is the HD space.. 60GB man, that’s too low! I’ve worked with an Acer One Mini and the base model has about 140GB to start with.

If you are not familiar with this model, just think of the Nokia E71. They are basically the same except that the E71 has additional features and costs considerably more. Physically, they are practically identical, except that the E63 comes in red and blue colors. The casing is also made of plastic and not steel.

So why did I choose the E63 over the E71? This is mainly because of the huge difference in pricing and the fact that I can do most everything with the E63 that you can do with the E71. True, it does not have GPS but hey, I don’t really need one.

So here are some of the relevant specs:

Display and 3D
• Size: 2.36″
• Resolution: 320 x 240 pixels (QVGA)
• Up to 16 million colors
• TFT active matrix (QVGA)
• Two customisable home screen modes
Operating frequency
• E63-1 Quad-band EGSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 900/2100
• E63-2 Quad-band EGSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 850/1900
• E63-3 Quad-band EGSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 850/2100
Data network
• CSD
• HSCSD
• GPRS class A, multislot class 32, maximum speed 100/60 kbps (DL/UL)
• EDGE class A, multislot class 32, maximum speed 296/177.6 kbps (DL/UL)
• WCDMA 900/2100 or 850/1900 or 850/2100, maximum speed 384/384 kbps (DL/UL)
• WLAN IEEE 802.11b/g
- WLAN Security: WEP, 802.1X, WPA, WPA2
• TCP/IP support
• IETF SIP and 3GPP
The only drawback I am seeing right now is that I cannot seem to find a lot of apps made specifically for the phone. But that’s probably because it’s still new. Most apps for the E71 will work for this, though. Seriously, it’s good value for your money.

Apple’s Let’s Rock event has finished and Steve Jobs did not disappoint in announcing new revamps in its mammoth bestseller iPod line.

The announcements have been across the board with all of the iPod products. First is that the iPod Classic now has just a single model, the 120GB. The new model though is much slender from its previous incarnation.

The biggest change is in the iPod Nano line, which gets a radical new form factor. The speculations about the Nano have been largely spot-on. It’s now rectangular with a portrait screen. It can also detect when the player is titled allowing people to view movies from a widescreen viewing ratio. The Nano also incorporate the new Genius feature that was introduced in iTunes 8. This allows for making playlists on the fly. Oh, and voice recording is now a standard feature for the Nano, which makes it so useful for students who want to record their teacher’s lectures.

The iPod Touch also gets some new features like the aforementioned Genius playlist, built-in speakers, new built-in apps and Nike Plus support. I was hoping for capacity upgrades to the Touch line but, sadly, this did not happen.

399, respectively.

Nviida has combined four GeForce 7900 graphics processing units on an nForce4 SLI motherboard to produce Quad SLI technology for PCs.

Nvidia says the graphics horsepower generated in a PC using Quad SLI technology allows gamers to set their monitors to extreme HD resolutions, including 2560×1600.

Now you know where much of the next paycheck’s going.

[via news.com]