Flash memory drives, the size of your thumb, are dirt-cheap and offer gigabytes of storage. It's tempting to fill one of them with important computer files, clip it to a key chain and hit the road.
But what if you lose it while fumbling for change at Starbucks and the hacker in the corner finds it? This is not a good thing.
That's where a new breed of flash drives comes in — chock-full of military-strength encryption and passwords and keypad combinations that must be entered before the data can be accessed.
I put a few secure flash-drive solutions to the test: Take Anywhere's Pocket Safe ($59.95), the IronKey ($149) and TrueCrypt, a free software program that works with any USB flash drive.
Each had its strengths and limitations, but I liked the IronKey unit best, with its built-in Firefox browser, large storage space and powerful password protections.
YOGGIE GATEKEEPER PICO
Before moving on to the flash drives, here's something for people who want plug-in computer security: the $149 Yoggie Gatekeeper Pico. This unit looks like a flash drive but instead serves as a physical barrier of security for the laptop or desktop it's plugged into. Instead of relying on installed firewall security on your personal computer, the Yoggie asks that you uninstall your security software and let the flash drive itself do the protecting.
Once the Yoggie management software was installed and launched on my PC, I couldn't conduct any online activity unless the Yoggie was plugged into the USB port. The makers of Yoggie say it's better to block Internet virus and malware threats before they reach your physical PC, rather than depend on installed software to root them out after they've arrived.
It generally worked, although the Yoggie software was sluggish, and the unit wasn't always recognized by my PC. Sometimes the little blue lights on the Yoggie device blinked happily and let me proceed online; sometimes they didn't. Even when it was working, the Yoggie took too long to be recognized by its own software companion.
IRONKEY
Setting up my 4-gigabyte, brushed-metal IronKey drive was pretty painless. After putting it in a USB slot on my home PC, I was asked to create a user name and password before I could access any of the storage space or other features. (Among those extra features: You can create an encrypted backup of the IronKey's contents on a PC desktop.)
Then, every time you plug the IronKey into a computer, a control panel appears on the screen to ask for the password again. If there's no password, there's no reading or tinkering with the drive's contents. In fact, you have to be careful, because if you enter the wrong password 10 times in a row, the unit permanently deletes all of your data and is no longer usable. You can't even reformat it. That's tough love.
My favorite IronKey feature was the built-in Firefox browser. It let me take my favorite Web bookmarks and login information with me, along with my Web-surfing cookies and site history. This means I left no trace of my Web browsing on the computers I plugged the IronKey into.
The IronKey works best with Windows XP, Linux and Mac OS X, according to the company.
POCKET SAFE
Next up was the Pocket Safe (for Windows only), from Take Anywhere. The 1-gigabyte device sports a numerical keypad on its case. If you don't remember the password you create, you won't be able to launch the drive's software control panel.
I picked a four-digit password, but there are two numbers for each of the five entry buttons on the keypad. So if my access code were 1-2-3-4, someone could guess it by keying in 0-3-2-5 or 1-2-2-4 or other shared-button combinations. This was disappointing.
Once I keyed in my correct password, a green light began to blink, telling me it was safe to insert the Pocket Safe drive into my USB port.
The Pocket Safe's on-screen control panel features a column of icons down the left side, for categories of data such as financial accounts, Web site logins and vehicle records. This is handy for staying organized.
By default, Pocket Safe times out after 20 minutes of zero interactivity with the control panel, which became annoying. I had to go into the settings and beef it up to an hour.
TRUE CRYPT
TrueCrypt (for Windows 2000 and XP, and Linux) is a piece of open-source software that promises to turn almost any USB flash drive into one that Jason Bourne would be proud of. TrueCrypt creates and then hides a password-protected partition on the drive.
I installed the TrueCrypt application on my laptop and plugged in an old 512-megabyte flash drive, a giveaway from a tech convention. TrueCrypt let me choose between creating a file container on a portion of my flash drive (recommended for newbies) or encrypting the entire drive. Both methods worked flawlessly.
As a test, I plugged my TrueCrypt-encrypted flash drive into a PC that did not have the TrueCrypt application installed.
I found the flash drive listed under "My Computer," but the PC recognized zero bytes of used space and zero bytes of free space. Only installing TrueCrypt and knowing my password would uncloak my data. The method seems secure.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Flash memory drives, the size of your thumb
Tucson-area service station started charging less than $3 a gallon for fuel this week.
After months of skyrocketing gas prices, at least one Tucson-area service station started charging less than $3 a gallon for fuel this week.
Statewide, fuel averages fell to a six-month low Friday of $3.29 per gallon for regular fuel, according to the automobile club AAA. A gallon of regular gasoline in Tucson averaged $3.21, the lowest price in the state.
Increasing inventories of both crude oil and gasoline coupled with a reduction in demand for fuel led, in part, to the drop in prices, said Michelle Donati, a spokeswoman for AAA-Arizona. The weakening economy also contributed, she said.
The price of crude has fallen sharply since it reached a record high of $147 a barrel in July. In the three months since then, a barrel of oil has lost 47 percent of its price and on Friday it closed at $77.70.
While the price of oil has been falling since July, the cost to the consumer dropped more slowly because the oil market remained volatile, with occasional increases in the price of crude, Donati said.
Also, gas stations have been paying higher wholesale prices during the spike and had to gain back some of the money they lost, she said.
"Before they can lower their fuel prices they have to recoup their losses," she said.
Pete Jacoby, the owner of Tucson Mountain Motors, said he's been charging $2.94 per gallon since Tuesday and he expected to lower his price another 10 cents per gallon today.
Jacoby said his service center, at 3045 S. Kinney Road southwest of Tucson, has a standard markup, so when his costs go down, he passes the savings on to the customer.
"Sometimes I'm a few cents more than the Circle K down the road," he said. "And sometimes we're a few cents less."
His customers have noticed. "Everybody's thrilled," he said.
The falling gas price also reduces the pressure that credit- card processing fees put on gas station owners, Jacoby said. As the price of gas climbed, so did the interchange fee the station pays to a credit-card processing company.
As gas approached $4 a gallon, that pushed the fees toward 10 cents a gallon, and stations that typically marked up gasoline by 11 or 12 cents a gallon saw profits shrink.
Some gas station owners went far enough to charge different prices for cash and credit card transactions, Donati said.
On the East Side, Union Gas, at 7980 E. Speedway near North Pantano Road, held a promotional event Thursday and charged less than $3 per gallon. That forced a nearby FasFuel, at 8530 E. Speedway, also to drop prices below $3 for a few hours, said owner Muhammad Rana. His regular prices were at $3.08 Friday, he said.
The credit crisis sparked by the subprime mortgage fiasco has driven down energy demand.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Our best shot in Ohio-Michelle Obama
First Name --
We're right in the middle of a very narrow voting window that could make the difference in this election. And we have to act fast.
Ohio voters have until this Monday, October 6th, to register and vote early... all in one step. This is an extraordinary opportunity to get the votes we need to win Ohio.
And since Ohio is a key battleground state -- and played a pivotal role in the last presidential contest -- winning in Ohio could help us secure a national victory.
So what can you do to help Barack win in Ohio? You can help us Get Out The Vote -- and tip the balance in this election -- right from your own living room.
Get a list of potential Ohio supporters and their phone numbers right now. Give them a call and make sure they vote early for Barack.
Republican officials in Ohio didn't want voters to have this opportunity. In fact, they challenged One-Stop Early Vote in court. They tried to prevent new people from entering the political process. But we fought back, and we won.
This is your chance to make a huge difference in a crucial battleground state. Polls in Ohio are extremely close. You can help push us to victory.
The calls you make today could change the direction of our country for generations. We have to seize this opportunity -- for our children, our country, and our future.
Get your list of potential supporters in Ohio and call them before this narrow three-day window closes:
http://my.barackobama.com/n2nOhio
There are just 30 days left until Election Day.
To win this election, we've got to make sure as many people as possible come out and vote -- and make their voices heard.
It's up to you to make it happen. First in Ohio, then in your state.
Thank you so much for your support of this campaign. We could never have come this far without you. Now, let's work together all the way through Election Day to bring the change our country needs.
Michelle
Placido Domingo's concert at the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza
MERIDA, Mexico —
Placido Domingo's concert at the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza tonight is being billed as "the world's greatest tenor at one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World," a claim few lovers of opera or history would dispute.
But some Mexicans question whether the show should go on at all.
Archaeologists are pressing for criminal charges against the organizers, reviving a debate over how to use treasured ancient sites.
It's a balancing act that many countries face as they try to promote and protect their cultural heritage. As artists seek to perform in stunning places — from the Great Wall of China to India's Taj Majal and ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian structures — many worry not only about damage but also about cultural propriety.
Domingo sought to reassure his critics Thursday, saying, "I know there has been some discomfort in Mexico because I was going to perform at this site, but we have taken care of every detail to carry out this event."
Mexico's federal government turns down almost all requests to hold concerts at ancient temples, but it is increasingly pressured by state governors to promote ruins that already are swamped with tourists.
Domingo's concert inside Chichen Itza violates a law that requires the ruins to be preserved to educate Mexicans about ancient cultures, said Cuauhtemoc Velasco, a leader of the archaeologists' union.
"These monuments are not there so that rich people can hold events at them," said Velasco, noting that the tickets cost between $45 and $900 in U.S. money, and Mexico has a minimum wage the equivalent of about $4.50 per day.
For present-day Mayas such as Amadeo Cool May, who hosts a Mayan-language radio program, the concert "is an event for foreigners who come here on vacation. It is something completely alien to the Mayas, because of the ticket prices and the type of music."
Jorge Esma, who is organizing the concert for the Yucatan state government, counters that people without tickets can watch it for free on local television, and that the Mayan temples will be well-protected. The government has required light stage structures, has forbidden anything to be anchored into ancient stones, and will have experts on hand to evaluate the impact on the 1,200-year-old temples.
But a researcher at the government archaeology institute filed a criminal complaint with federal prosecutors, seeking to punish the organizers for "degrading" Chichen Itza by using it as a "simple backdrop."
The concert is expected to draw 4,000 people, the number set by the government as a maximum. The site, voted one of seven modern wonders in a global 2007 poll, is visited by as many as 12,000 people a day, leading to concerns of overcrowding, and wear and tear.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Brain Myth 9: Listening to Mozart Makes You Smarter
Brain Myth 9: Listening to Mozart Makes You Smarter
Don't you just feel cultured when you tune in to a classical music station and take in an opera or a symphony by a great composer like Mozart? Baby Einstein, a company that makes DVDs, videos and other products for babies and toddlers incorporating classical art, music, and poetry, is a million-dollar franchise. Parents buy the products because they believe that exposure to great art (like Baby Mozart DVDs and CDs) can be good for their children's cognitive development. There are even classical music CDs designed to be played to developing fetuses. The idea that listening to classical music can increase your brainpower has become so popular that it's been dubbed "the Mozart effect." So how did this myth start?
In the 1950s, an ear, nose and throat doctor named Albert Tomatis began the trend, claiming success using Mozart's music to help people with speech and auditory disorders. In the 1990s, 36 students in a study at the University of California at Irvine listened to 10 minutes of a Mozart sonata before taking an IQ test. According to Dr. Gordon Shaw, the psychologist in charge of the study, the students' IQ scores went up by about 8 points. The "Mozart effect" was born.
A musician named Dan Campbell trademarked the phrase and created a line of books and CDs based on the concept, and states such as Georgia, Florida and Tennessee set aside money for classical music for babies and other young children. Campbell and others have gone on to assert that listening to Mozart can even improve your health.
However, the original University of California at Irvine study has been controversial in the scientific community. Dr. Frances Rauscher, a researcher involved in the study, stated that they never claimed it actually made anyone smarter; it just increased performance on certain spatial-temporal tasks. Other scientists have been unable to replicate the original results, and there is currently no scientific information to prove that listening to Mozart, or any other classical music, actually makes anyone smarter. Rauscher even said that the money spent by those states might be better spent on musical programs -- there's some evidence to show that learning an instrument improves concentration, self-confidence and coordination.
Mozart certainly can't hurt you, and you might even enjoy it if you give it a try, but you won't get any Smarter.