British software developer Conseal Security has just launched a rather clever solution to the problem of securing the data on your portable media such as USB thumb drives and portable hard drives while at the same time maintaining fully centralized control of the management of those devices without breaking the bank.
Conseal USB is pretty cool in that it is, for a start, totally hardware agnostic: forget about being locked-in to particular hardware or a specific vendor, this solution will work with all your USB drives. A five license pack will allow you to manage the security of five devices from different manufacturers, mixing and matching different hardware without impacting upon the control you have.
The real beauty of this solution is how simple it is to implement though. Gone are the days of complex setup routines and configuration options capable of turning Stephen Fry into a mumbling wreck. At the heart of the Conseal solution is a triple whammy promise of encryption, management and control.
Encryption comes by way of a 'dual lock' AES-256 bit system to ensure your data is secured while on the move.
Management is provided courtesy of a simple cloud based management console accessible via your standard web browser or smartphone if you are on the move. This includes a complete audit trail of all access attempts against your devices, showing IP addresses, MAC addresses, drive serial numbers, system and login names etc.
Control is absolute: access rules can …
It's taken a while, but computing has finally gotten the green message. Many of the biggest IT vendors now ensure that they are being environmentally friendly in terms of the recyclablity of both components and packaging of the products they sell. But are you doing your bit once you get that kit home and plug it in? Perhaps more to the point, as well as wasting precious energy are you paying more than you need to when it comes to powering your tech?
The chances are that, like most of us, you could do more to help the environment and save money at the same time simply by driving a stake through the heart of vampire power. Vampire what now, I hear you asking? Vampire power is the new term being applied to the energy drain caused by electronics which remain plugged in when not in use, wasting precious electricity and dripping money down the drain when in standby mode. Research suggests that the average home something like 10% of the electricity bill pays for such vampire power.
The answer should be pretty simply, namely switching everything off instead of putting into standby mode when you are not using it. Unfortunately, with the amount of technology that the average home has and the fact that power sockets are often hidden behind furniture or other awkward to get at places, most of us find this far too much trouble to bother with.
Which is …
Having just written a glowing review of the new Microsoft Arc Touch mouse in which I was struck by the sheer beauty of the thing, I thought it only right to take a look at what is quite possibly the ugliest mouse in the world to get my reviewing karma balanced. In that Arc Touch review I happened to mention that it was pretty useless to hardcore gamers, which inevitably led to my getting emailed by gamers asking what I recommend they should be looking at when it comes to the cutting edge of gaming mice. This review is my response, and my recommendation is go forgo form and embrace the functional beauty of the robot pig ugly Cyborg R.A.T 9.
If you've ever sat back and worried that your mouse just doesn't come with enough in the way of interchangeable palm rests and 'pinkie' grips, then the R.A.T is the answer to your prayers as it comes with no less than three of each. Yes, you read that right, three pinkie grips and three palm rests for you to choose from. The palm rests include one with a soft-touch finish that matches the body of the mouse, one with an enhanced grip rubber inlay and another which adds 4mm to the height of the R.A.T should you require it. The pinkie grips, meanwhile, offer the same soft touch and rubber inlay options plus one with a unique wing-shaped design to allow for …
Looks, I am often told, can be deceptive. This is certainly the case as far as the Microsoft Arc mouse and the new Arc Touch mouse are concerned. Sure, at first glance there is not much different about the two in terms of that innovative arcing design; but look closer, and more importantly pick the Arc Touch up and start using it, for the differences to become clear. In other words, the form may be broadly the same but the function has moved on. 
There's the transformational function for a start, which no longer folds up into a mouse-sized clamshell but rather simply snaps totally flat. This 'curve for comfort, flatten to pack' concept is a great one for the Microsoft marketing and design people and I would argue for anyone who travels a lot with a laptop. Sure, there are those who would argue with some conviction that the average 'mini-mouse' designed for portable use is hardly difficult to pack away. Indeed, some of these such as the SwiftPoint which I reviewed last year http://www.daniweb.com/reviews/review330639.html is so small that you can comfortably carry it in your pocket or purse.
However, most traditional portable mice simply remain too 'thick' to pack comfortably in a fashionable laptop bag, a problem that is getting bigger as laptops and netbooks are getting smaller. The flattened Arc Touch overcomes this by having a very 'thin' profile: from 7mm to just 15mm at the battery end. So it …
There's an interesting discussion going on in this very forum, right now, right here, which poses the question: Which is best, an AMD or Intel Processor? The answer comes in the form of a rhetorical question, namely how long is a piece of string. That said, the real world consensus would appear to be, as it always has been, that Intel is generally faster but also more expensive.
At the risk of starting another Mac versus PC or Windows versus Linux debate, seeing as the latest AMD processor has recently dropped into my lap I thought it might be interesting to see just what the 'cheaper and slower' camp has to offer.
Right off the bat I think it's probably best to dismiss any thoughts of the Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition as being either cheap or slow to be honest. At $239 it's certainly not an impulse buy (although when compared to Intel pricing the word 'bargain' does start flashing bright) and when a little tweaking can overclock this baby to 4GHz (which is a welcome boost on the standard internal clock rate of 3.3GHz and Turbo Core rating of 3.7GHz) it is no slouch either. I've heard of folk overclocking this to 4.2GHz without any problems, so it really can fly if you want to be ambitious.
Indeed, the Black Ops overclocking ability is one of the stand out features as far as I am concerned and a very good …
