techspurt

Back To School Giveaway: Maxtor 320GB Portable Hard Drive

Techspurt is giving away five Maxtor 320GB USB 2.0 portable hard drives to the first five readers who demonstrate their back-to-school readiness by correctly answering the five education-related questions.

These Maxtor portable shock-protected drives are perfect for students to store all their personal content including music, photos and videos as well as carry around their school assignments from home to classes and computer labs. 320GB storage means plenty of room for everything – up to 5,330 hours of digital music, 102,400 digital photos, 320 hours of digital video, 80 - two-hour DVD quality movies, or 160 video games (Techspurt and its subsidiaries are not recommending that students play video games nor are they admitting to any gaming in their academic past). The Maxtor portable drives are PC and Mac friendly, come with a 5 year warranty, and cost $129.99 for the 250GB version, $179.99 for the 320GB.

Okay, ready to win one of these drives? Answer me these questions five:

1. What college do Rocky and Bullwinkle hail from?

2. In the TV show “Freaks and Geeks”, what high school team does Lindsay compete on?

3. In the same show, who does Nick think is the world’s greatest drummer, and who does Mr. Weir prove is even better?

4. Long before Tobey McQuire was born, the role of Spiderman was played by none other than Morgan Freeman on what public television show that could have solved all of the world’s problems if it had been allowed to continue?

5. In the 1976 TV Movie “The Loneliest Runner”, why does Lance Kerwin race the school bus home on foot every day?

Email Techspurt with your answers — the first five emails with all five questions answered correctly (along with your home address and contact telephone #) will receive a free Maxtor 320GB portable drive, shipped immediately so you can take it back to school with you. Employees of Maxtor and Seagate may certainly enter the contest but to win one of these drives you must get all 5 answers right AND not work for Maxtor/Seagate. Also, one drive per address, kids, though if you really want to go create a bunch of Gmail aliases and use your friends’ home addresses just to score a few extra drives, I guess I have no choice but to reward your hack-fu. Good luck!

Greening Your Kitchen

In this Summer of Bummer ‘08, roof-busting gas and food prices have kept many of us at home, staring at the car we don’t drive unless absolutely necessary and the milk we dare not waste on such things as topping off coffee or helping the kids grow stronger bones and teeth.

Want to put some money in your pocket today? Start greening your kitchen. It’s the most energy-hungry room in the house, and odds are you’ve got a bunch of appliances that are bleeding you dry every month whether you use them every day or hardly ever. In fact, most kitchen appliances (as well as most gear that plugs into the wall like TVs, stereos, cable boxes, video game consoles, the list goes on and on till your throat is hoarse and only dry dust rolls off your tongue) consume a significant amount of energy even when turned off. That’s right. Put your hand on the appliance, especially near where the power cord attaches to the unit. Feel warm? Say hello to watts you’re paying for 24/7 that aren’t doing a @%#$ thing for you except fattening your utility bills.

The good news: appliance makers are finally starting to take energy efficiency seriously enough to rethink how they design their products. Here are some good examples of new kitchen appliances that pare their energy needs to the bone without sacrificing performance.

Whirlpool’s new GU2800XTV and GU3600XTV dishwashers use one-third less water and energy than the company’s models from seven years ago — 20 gallons less per load, which adds up to 4,300 gallons you’ll be saving per year. The trick is increased water pressure, which breaks up food more efficiently. This new wash system and a soft-start motor help reduce noise, providing for the quietest operation of any of the manufacturer’s dishwashers. The appliances are Energy Star qualified and have a yearly energy usage of 299 kWh (GU2800) and 301 kWh (GU3600). Other features include a new nozzle configuration that delivers a fan of water to clean from all angles and cleaning power that adjusts to soil levels. 800.253.3977. Available at national retailers this fall starting at $699. Whirlpool.

My favorite coffee maker brand Jura-Capresso just announced their new eco-friendly ENA line of super-automatic coffee centers that combine best-ever coffee taste with a new focus on energy efficiency. The three new ENA models offer a true bean-to-cup experience, with single button operation and environmentally friendly features to save energy. The Swiss-made collection also offers high style, exciting new color choices and advanced features at entry-level prices.

When turning the ENA off, the patent-pending Smart Zero Energy Button lets the machine finish any beverage already in progress and then completely disconnects from the electrical outlet, using no energy whatsoever. For additional energy savings, the machine can be switched to Energy Save Standby Mode in situations where it is used infrequently. This reduces power consumption up to 40 percent.

The ENA models are the first in the Jura-Capresso line to feature a see-through bean chamber visible on top of the machine, romancing the beauty of fresh coffee beans. A built-in five-level conical burr grinder grinds the beans right before brewing for optimal taste. This high-performance grinder can be adjusted for regular or oily beans from fine to coarse simply by turning the chrome adjustment ring while the grinder is running. ENA machines can also brew pre-ground coffee to cater to those who prefer decaffeinated or other specialty coffee blends.

Because fresh, pure water is an essential element of great coffee taste, the new ENA models feature the CLEARYL Plus Water Filter that removes impurities and reduces scale deposits in heating elements. This filter can transform hard tap water into water that is pH-neutral balanced so it will not disrupt coffee flavor.

“ENA” means “number one” in Greek, for the number one choice for anyone who wants the ultimate in a compact model. The line includes the ENA 3 in Ristretto Black and Blossom White; the ENA 4 in rich metallic Platinum with Ristretto Black accents; and the ENA 5 with Chrome and rich metallic Platinum with either Ristretto Black, Blossom White or Coffee Cherry Red accents.

The Jura-Capresso ENA collection has an actual retail price range from $899 to $1,199 and will be sold at specialty and online retailers. Jura-Capresso.

Do you boil a lot of water to make tea and other hot drinks? Do yourself a favor and start saving money on every cup with Jura-Capresso’s cordless H2O Plus glass water kettle. Not only does it boil water ten times faster than a tea kettle on a stovetop, but it uses much less energy to boot. The H20 boils water fast, quietly and safe…then shuts off automatically. A gleaming stainless steel dome which is easy to clean covers the concealed heating element. The German-made SCHOTT heat resistant glass has ounce and cup markings for easy filling. $60. Jura-Capresso.

Google the Intertubes for “Going Green” and you’ll be swamped with articles extolling the miracle of eco-friendly illumination known as the compact fluorescent lamp, or CFL. “New Compact Fluorescents Finally Look As Good As Incandescent Light!” they’ll jibber. “Replacing Your Home Lighting With CFLs Will Make Dolphins Like You” they’ll jabber.

Bullshit, I say.

The “new” compact fluorescents are nothing but the same junk that’s been hurting our eyes and making us all look like the walking dead in offices for years. So they now make them shaped like a real light bulb — who gives a rat’s? They still throw the kind of harsh, flickering, unnatural light that makes everything look terrible. Like a gas station men’s room bathroom at 3AM. You ever look at yourself in a bathroom mirror lit with fluorescents? You want this in your HOME?! Hell no. You think Laurie David’s got CFLs at her house? Not a chance.

And you know what else? Forget vanity. I have a better reason for you to shun CFLs like lepers. Mercury. In every single serving of CFL, you get a heaping helping of MERCURY to do who the hell knows what to you and your family. Read the fine print on these so-called “eco-friendly” bulbs:

“Fluorescent lamps contain mercury. Mercury at atmospheric pressure is a silver colored liquid that tends to form balls. Mercury is a hazardous substance. When one lamp is broken, the best thing to do is to wear chemical resistant glove to clean it up. The gloves can be vinyl, rubber, PVC, or neoprene. The gloves you buy in the supermarket for household cleaning are sufficient. The gloves protect your skin from absorbing mercury and from getting cut by the glass. The remains of one lamp can be disposed as normal waste since the amount of mercury is small. However, for future reference, when large quantities of lamps are being disposed you must follow your state and the federal regulation for disposing of mercury-containing lamps.”

That’s from the web site of frickin’ GE, one of the biggest pushers of CFLs. And when your bulbs burn out, don’t even think about tossing them in the trash. The fine print says you need to take them back to where you bought them and they’ll recycle them for you. Uh-huh. I tested this by taking some CFLs back to Home Depot and told them I was returning them for safe recycling — you never saw a more slack-jawed, bewildered stare in your life. These people have no idea they’re supposed to take CFLs back and get them to the right (?) authorities who will somehow dispose of the mercury so it won’t leech back into the environment and poison even more kids. I asked the guy what he was going to do with the dead bulbs I gave him, and he said, “I don’t know, I guess throw them in the dumpster out back.” The less you know, the happier you are, especially if you wear a fucking orange smock all day.

If you told Kafka about this stuff, he’d laugh and say, “Naww, you’re makin’ this shit up. Not a chance. Nobody’s that stupid to push such a dangerous product as being good for the environment.”

So repeat after me: JUST SAY NO TO COMPACT FLUORESCENTS. Affordable LED bulbs will be here in a year or two, with excellent light and zero environmental baggage. The good old incandescent bulb can carry us a few more guilt-free years. You’re doing more for the planet by staying away from CFLs than you would be using the evil things. And the people who are pushing them are going straight to hell. Trust me. I know about such things.

Dads and Grads Gift Ideas

Char-Broil Red BBQ Grills: What Dad Wants

The secret to superior grilling, once found only in fine steakhouses and professional-grade grills retailing for thousands of dollars, is now available to dads everywhere thanks to the Char-Broil RED™ infrared grill. This brand new type of gas grill features the Char-Broil U™- a new U- shaped emitter that evenly distributes 100% infrared heat, top to bottom, side to side - eliminating hot or cold spots on the grill for mouthwatering dishes in a flash.

The Char-Broil RED™ infrared grill has exclusive porcelain coated cast iron cooking grates on a large grilling surface. Wood chips can easily be dropped between them to add a wood flavor. An integrated indoor-range style ignition is the latest innovation in grills, making it easier to rotisserie, barbecue, grill, sear, and even clean. Available exclusively at The Home Depot for $599. Charbroil

Gateway M-Series: High-End Gaming Laptops For Grads

The Gateway M-Series features a gorgeous Garnet Red or Pacific Blue color with high-quality metallic finish, metal trim and Razr-like multimedia control panel, starting at just $699. Cutting-edge technology features – integrated web cam, high-speed wireless, powerful Intel Core 2 Duo processors, etc. HDMI interface means you can show content from the notebook on a huge HD display. The M-Series is available direct from Gateway or through major retailers nationwide, and Gateway customers enjoy 100% US-based telephone tech support. Gateway

Clickfree Backup Drives and DVDs: No-Brainer Backup For Everyone

With the Clickfree Portable Backup, protecting valuable information on a computer has never been easier. Existing backup drives, including those from the leading “single-touch” device manufacturers, require complex setup even before the first backup can be completed. This means software installation, system reboots, hardware set up and software configuration. In addition to taking a long time to set up, these products require the user to learn new, confusing terminology. With Clickfree, all of these complexities are removed. To run the backup, simply remove the device from the box and connect it to a computer – that’s it. The backup automatically starts by itself and backs up files without any user interaction. Hard drive version $149, 5-pack of backup DVDs $15 Clickfree

Smart Pen

Just slightly larger than a Montblanc, Livescribe’s smartpen is designed to replace the everyday pen as a user’s primary writing instrument. Leveraging recent breakthroughs in memory, storage, microprocessors, connectivity and component size, the smartpen is an advanced paper-based computer, with both audio and visual feedback, powerful processing capabilities and substantial built-in storage.

Pulse’s core application enables users to record and sync audio with whatever they write, so they never miss a word. With Paper Replay, users can tap on their notes written on paper to hear exactly what was said. They can also fast forward, rewind, jump ahead, pause, and even speed up or slow down their audio recordings using controls printed on the bottom of each page.

The Pulse smartpen is a sophisticated mobile computer that includes: a high speed infrared camera with a Dot Positioning System (DPS); rechargeable lithium battery; high contrast display for easy indoor/outdoor viewing; dual microphones for clear recording and noise cancellation; an embedded speaker and an audio jack for Livescribe’s 3D Recording Headset.

Every registered Pulse user receives 250MB of online storage to upload and share notes and audio as interactive Flash movies or PDF files. Users can choose to share with the Livescribe community, selected contacts, or other sites like Facebook. Text and audio transcription services will also be available online.

With a sleek, ergonomic design and charcoal blue anodized aluminum housing, the smartpen weighs in at just 1.3 ounces. Pulse is available in two models. Priced at $149, the 1GB model provides storage for recorded audio (over 100 hours), digital notes (over 16,000 pages), or add-on applications. At $199, the 2GB model doubles the storage capacity and provides more flexibility for downloading future applications.

For more info, go to Livescribe’s site.

Seagate FreeAgent Pro 1TB

I’m going to spare you my usual Grandpa Simpson “when I was a boy, dang nabbit” jibber about how my first PC had no hard drive at all, just a pair of floppy disk drives, and DAMMIT THAT WAS ENOUGH cough cough hack hack. I pitch this rant at any young ‘un within earshot whenever hard drive storage hits a new milestone, which it has yet again with the latest terabyte drives.

Think about that for a moment. A freakin’ terabyte. That’s a thousand gigabytes, sonny. Fine, so five years from now we’ll read this back and laugh ourselves silly because AT&T’s giving away free 1TB iPhones with a 2-year contract. But circa Q1 ‘08, a terabyte hard drive is pure, hardcore geektastic. The biggest hard drive you can buy.

I’ve been rolling my own DIY external drives for awhile now using Vantec external drive enclosures from Newegg, which have worked flawlessly in my various computer systems over the years. You can usually save a few bucks by going this route but not everyone’s a geek like that. And quite frankly, I’d much rather be able to buy a ready-built external from the big boys if it was just as rock-solid and good looking as the DIY drives I’ve put together.

Seagate’s FreeAgent Pros have been the high-end external drives of choice since they hit the market. Visually, they’re way cooler than anything you or I can build. The enclosure design blows away anything else out there, hands down — the black aluminum FreeAgent Pro has a 2001: A Space Odyssey upright monolith thing going on that all but makes a silent mockery of whatever other external drives you’re currently hiding under your desk.

And now you can get this sucker with a 1TB Seagate drive inside. Really, just get one. It’s that simple. This is not a hand-wringer, a data-miner, a decision you need to obsessively research. Just get one, plug it into your PC or Mac, and be done with it. You’re not going to do better than this Seagate, I don’t care who you are and what parts you manage to scrounge together. At the end of the day it will cost the same or more, it will waste your time slapping it together, and it will look like, well, like a generic external drive instead of a FreeAgent Pro. Been there, done that. Now I use FAPs.

PC users will enjoy the easy-to-set-up backup software Seagate includes with the FreeAgent Pro — it works well, and is a good choice for someone new to the concept of external backup storage. Mac users like me don’t get any software freebies from Seagate — we just format the drive for OSX and use it with Time Machine, where it will sit there silently henceforth and free us up from ever having to worry about backing up our data again.

The FreeAgent Pro comes with three connection options, in ascending order of data speed — USB 2.0, FireWire 400, and eSATA. I’m guessing most of you don’t have an eSATA connection on your laptop or desktop computer, so use FireWire to connect the Seagate to your system — USB 2.0 is okay in pinch, but I find it inconsistent from system to system, and it’s definitely not recommended for any sustained throughput duty like video capture, etc. For straight backup drive duty USB 2.0 is more than adequate, but if you’ve got a free FireWire port on your computer, I recommend going that route instead. You’ll get faster data movement and a more reliable connection.

I’m not going to bore you with a bunch of unpacking photo porn (seriously, nothing creeps me out more than three dozen badly-lit Flickr pics of a gadget in the various stages of unboxing — what is WRONG WITH YOU STUPID KIDS?! 40 unboxing shots isn’t a substitute for actual hands-on expertise when reviewing a consumer electronics product. Or maybe I’m being Grandpa Simpson here.) Nor am I going to waste your time with a bunch of artificial hard drive benchmark tests that have zero real-world relevance beyond making you feel psychologically better about buying that Hitachi drive instead of the WD because someone you never met and whose expertise you haven’t a clue about set up both drives to perform a particular task that bears no relation to anything you or I will ever ask our hard drives to do. But we both know you’re above all that.

Interestingly, Seagate sells the same drive for the same price (though minus the eSATA option) as the Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus. Makes sense since Seagate now owns Maxtor. The OneTouch is an upright slab too but not heavy black aluminum like the FreeAgent Pro, more of a brushed aluminum and black plastic offset wedge. Inside is exactly the same Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000340AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s hard drive that’s inside the FreeAgent Pro. I know because I cracked them both open and eyeballed the drives myself. Call me Cyber Columbo. Oh, and just one more thing — the AC adapters that come with these two external drives are identical as well, as is power draw. So if for some reason the black slab isn’t your thing and you’d rather have a more conventional looking 1TB external drive, you can have the same burger in a different bag with the OneTouch 4 Plus.

Some products are right for most people, and some products are only right for a select few, so I usually target my recommendations and couch them with caveats. But rarely is a product a must-have for anyone who’s reading these words on a computer screen, which means you own a computer, which most likely means you have no backup drive, just your main drive slowly running down the sand grains in the hourglass until it decides one day, when you need it the most, to crash and die and instantly delete all your photos, documents, and music. So listen to me here: buy this Seagate 1TB external drive. Don’t argue with me, just do it. Right now. Right this second. Here’s the link where I buy all my stuff. It’s the best money you’ll ever spend on your computer, and you won’t have to worry about your data for many, many years. Do you know how many people — good, honest, innocent people who’ve been good and supportive to me — I would’ve gladly killed with my bare hands to have a 1TB backup drive of this quality just a year ago? Didn’t exist yet. Now it does. I can’t tell you how much better I feel about everything in my life now, with a terabyte monster drive watching my back 365/24/7. Nothing bad will ever happen to me again, nor to you.

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