I have wanted to do this with my kids for some time.  I have seen several kits that are expensive that I just don't care to purchase.  Well now I have no excuse http://homepage.ntlworld.com/telescope/Rocketweb/index.htm

 

Well I have wanted to get an external drive to solve one primary problem I have. Desktop and Laptop synchronization.

First Some Background

I am a permanent virtual employee for a company in Scottsdale Arizona. I use the company desktop PC in my home office. I routinely travel to Scottsdale which forces me to take along a laptop. The main problem I have is getting my files off the desktop and onto the laptop for the trip. Then when I return from the trip I like to move the files from the laptop onto the desktop. Well to transfer a large amount of files over ethernet from desktop to laptop and back can be a very slow process while VPNed in. The transfer goes through Scottsdale. I can't even use local IP addresses to route the traffic. Currently I only had one option. Disconnect from VPN and transfer the files. This basically keeps me from working at all while the copy is happening. So I needed another solution.

Enter the solution

Since I had a Comp USA gift card of a sizeable amount I decided to start at my local store looking for an external drive solution. I had an old 5 1/4 30 gig hard drive that I intended to just get an external USB case for. The drive came out of an old computer and I wasn't even sure if it was fully functional. Looking at external cases they where around $40. Seemed like a large amount of changed to drop on just a case. So I started to look for another solution. I stumbled across the Hammer Storage 80 gig USB 2.0 device that was on sale (with rebate) for $69. Most other external drive solutions started at $99 so this seemed in my price range. So I grabbed one of these drives and took it home.

Conclusion

I am very happy with the device. You don't even have to load any drivers for it! It just works! I made some simple batch files to copy the data from my desktop to the external drive. And it worked relatively fast. The best thing is that I can continue to work as it is copying files. Now getting my laptop ready for a trip is no longer a painful process.

Well I got my Dell Axim x50v before xmas so I had to give it a spin. First thing I wanted to do was try some Video and Audio out on the Media Player. Well as long as you have a file under 10 mb the mp3s would work ok but over 10 mb the player would pause. Sounded like the player was having an issue with memory when trying to play a large file. So I searched around a bit and I found MortPlayer. It is a freeware application that handles the larger files. I played an 18 mb mp3 file with no problems at all. This application looks like it is packed full of features. I am sure it will replace Windows Media play just fine for my audio needs. Now I just need to find a good video player.