Storage Bits

RFID passports: a tragedy waiting to happen

Robin Harris — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:59:39 +0000

You’re strolling in the south if France when a van stops, men burst out and in seconds hustle you into the van. “American scum!” they hiss as they hood you. But wearing a Sorbonne t-shirt and no fanny pack, how did they know? Thank your government - and a bad storage choice. In a recent article [...]

Chrome OS: good for you; bad for Microsoft

Robin Harris — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:34:19 +0000

Google’s latest announcement is good news for all computer users. It helps loosen Microsoft’s death grip on the PC market and promises lower prices, higher reliability and smarter design. Unpacking Google’s announcement This announcement was carefully calculated - not an over-caffeinated coder’s late-night howl. Timing. Note the 12-18 month delivery: they’ve been watching how M$ freezes the [...]

Modern threats to American liberty

Robin Harris — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 23:55:05 +0000

Cash, currency and coins, is a store of value. In the US, “legal tender for all debts, public and private.” Carry too much of it though and you are marked for suspicion (per the Wall Street Journal]: Steven Bierfeldt, treasurer for the Campaign for Liberty, a political organization launched from Ron Paul’s presidential run, was detained [...]

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Sat, 04 Jul 2009 23:55:05 +0000

Why Windows 7 should be free

Robin Harris — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:49:41 +0000

After the Vista fiasco, Microsoft owes its long-suffering customers more than a “screaming deal.” They’re owed an apology from Steve Ballmer - and a free copy of Vista SP3 Windows 7. The backstory Vista’s market failure was not a surprise inside Microsoft. Senior development execs - people who’d actually cut code on large enterprise-quality projects - knew [...]

Blu-ray's Blo-tards bite back

Robin Harris — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 02:30:12 +0000

Someone hired the PR/lobbying firm Corporate Advocates to bite back at Storage Bits. Their message: the Harris Poll on Blu-ray was wrong about the number of homes with Blu-ray players. A fact, it so happens, I never mentioned. But blow enough Blu-smoke and people will forget what they see with their own eyes? I don’t think [...]

Blu-ray buzzkill: the death-spiral

Robin Harris — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:28:44 +0000

Will consumers upgrade to Blu-ray? The CEO & co-founder of fast growing Netflix believes mailed DVDs shall be replaced by web-sent movies. And a recent Harris [no relation, darn it] Poll finds that people today are less likely to buy a Blu-ray player than they were last year. Now would be a good time to panic Forget [...]

Outrageously cool new hard drive

Robin Harris — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:11:44 +0000

DataSlide has come out of stealth mode with a very creative SSD replacement technology. They call it a Hard Rectangular Disk or HRD. Here’s DataSlide’s quick overview: DataSlide applies technology in new, patented ways to achieve unprecedented high performance 160,000 IOPS & 500MB/sec and low power

Apple's MacBook flop - fixed!

Robin Harris — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:38:26 +0000

6 months ago I asked: Apple’s new MacBooks: flop or fiasco? Apple answered “flop” by backpedalling on pricing, the unibody and FireWire - in record time! The big loser? Microsoft’s successful ads focused on price. Maybe that’s a card you don’t want to play. Pricing The 32% price cut on the slightly upgraded SSD MacBook Air - 1.86GHz [...]

Cut. Scan. Read.

Robin Harris — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:31:30 +0000

Google books has nothing on me: for months now I’ve been cutting the pages out of old books, scanning them into PDFs, storing them on a hard drive and recycling the paper. OCR makes the text searchable and selectable. Most important: I’ll never schlep them up a flight of stairs again. Ripping books. Literally. I have a [...]

The $17.5 million hard drive

Robin Harris — Tue, 26 May 2009 03:03:24 +0000

Some employers think they own you when all they’re doing is renting your time. It cost 1 company $17.5 million to learn that stealing an employee’s hard drive is really, really stupid. It’s about time. Wha’ happened? An RV sales manager was hired by an RV manufacturer Forest River, told he was going to get a big raise [...]