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Wow. For the first time I can actually match my external 500GB backup drive to my laptop for seemless backups. 

The Travelstar 5K500, available in either a 400GB or 500GB model, is the fourth-generation Hitachi mobile drive to use perpendicular magnetic recording technology to deliver breakthrough capacity and reliability. The half-terabyte drives can store up to 500 hours of digital video, 178 feature length movies, 250 games or 125,000 four-minute songs. Travelstar 5K500 drives are available with a 3.0Gb/s Serial ATA (SATA) interface for enhanced system performance.

The Travelstar 5K500 drives also feature optional Bulk Data Encryption (BDE) for hard drive level data security. Previously, data on a hard drive could be protected either through software-based encryption or a system-level password. However, hard-drive level encryption provides improved performance and a higher level of security than any of the previously available options. BDE models ship exclusively with a 1.5Gb/s SATA interface.

Technical Specifications:

Travelstar 5K00

400/500 GB *
12.5 mm in height
5400 RPM
260 billion bits per square inch maximum areal density
3 glass disk platter (s)
6 TMR recording head(s)
1000 G/1ms non-operating shock
400 G/2ms operating shock
5.5 ms average latency
12 ms average read time
0.95 W active idle
0.7 W low-power idle
1.8 W idle power (EA version only)
Serial ATA 3.0Gb/s, 1.5Gb/s encrypted
148 grams in weight
2.2 Bels typical idle acoustics
2.4 Bels typical operational acoustics

** Technical Specifications from Hitachi’s website.

I feel with the advent of larger drives for laptop storage, we might even see more RAID solutions for latops coming of age as components continue to shrink.

Tags: Learning Lab, Personal Computers

After being a Firefox promoter for about 2 years now, I was excited to hear about the Firefox 3 verison of the browser. Here are some of the improvements over version 2 o Firefox.

1. Better handling of downloads. You will be able to view not only what you are downloading, but from where you are downloading it from.

2. Better address bar (location bar for Firefox users).  This feature will allow you to have autocomplete now, but not only from where you have been but also from your but also URL’s from your bookmark list.

3. A workable Bookmarks organizer. For me this was one of the “downfalls” of V.2, so I’m glad they are working on it.  It will allow you to immediately change the bookmark attributes rather than having to do to properties of the URL.

4.  Better memory management. This is something I wish came out earlier, but better late than never.  We are yet to see a huge improvement, so we’ll be looking at the final beta and final version to include these items.

Here is the link to the Beta link.

If you find this useful, please comment. I’m looking to improve the site and wanted to see what people think and recommend.  Thanks - Paul.

Tags: Free Stuff, Internet, Personal Computers