memory for your mother, for Mother's Day

Mother's Day is Sunday (May 9th). Lexar is suggesting that you consider giving portable memory storage (for data) as a gift...

At first thought, it may not seem like a great idea...but, hold on: it's something she can keep things on and take with her anywhere she goes. She can put important information on it, like a will and health records. Pictures and videos can be available for her to show-off. And, she can copy some music files so she can listen to them.

They can be very stylish. For example, Lexar has drives available in different colors and sizes:

16GB JumpDrive FireFly (Red)

8GB JumpDrive FireFly (Charcoal)

4GB JumpDrive FireFly (White)

2GB JumpDrive FireFly (Black)

"...It also serves as a fashionable accessory and comes with a key chain hole so it can be easily tethered onto a key ring, attached to a backpack, or hooked to a purse or briefcase..."

To enhance it as a gift, I thought you can: purchase a USB drive...copy files to it that she will love (pictures, audio recordings, and videos of and from family)...and then give it to her on Mother's Day. With a tissue, because there's a good chance she might think it's so sweet she'll shed a tear or two...

http://lexar.com/jumpdrive/jd_firefly.html

reQall

reQall
What is it? What does it do?
Have you ever forgotten and important meeting, birthday, anniversary or whatever?

Well now - is this the solution for you?

You have the ability to use your voice, instant messaging, email, and/or test messaging to send yourself a reminder or note so that you do not forget something.

This program or memory tool makes it very easy to capture, retrieve and share that information that you need on a daily basis. You can get it anywhere and anytime!

There are two versions: Standard (free) and Pro ($25.00 per year)

Here is the Pro vs Standard comparison: http://www.reqall.com/about/compare_pro_standard

new 2 TB memory card format

There are various formats for memory cards. SD memory cards can have capacities up to 2 GB. I use them in my computers, portable digital assistants, cameras, and telephones.

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I knew the day would come when I would need to seriously consider "the next format"...that day always comes. I have a tablet PC that would not read 1 GB SD cards...until I updated the BIOS. When necessary, I had been using USB card readers to access memory cards (that my computers would not).

At ShowStoppers (at CES), Kingston gave to me an 8 GB SDHC card. I have found that my readers don't work with SDHC cards. Time to go shopping...

The SD High-Capacity (SDHC) cards go up to 32GB, and:
"SDHC-enabled products accommodate SDHC memory cards and are backward compatible with SD memory cards. Data on SDHC cards is protected even if inserted in an incompatible device. SDHC cards also work in standard SD slots with a firmware upgrade."

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Beyond SDHC, SDXC (eXtended Capacity) memory cards are coming: up to 2 terabytes (TB) of storage per card...that could be 100 HD movies per card.

I was thinking about allowing myself to "fall in love" with blu-ray. But now...

kudos to SanDisk

After using Windows ReadyBoost, I cannot recommend it:  I did not notice any performance enhancement...
 
I was using ReadyBoost on a SanDisk Cruzer Micro USB Flash Drive.  I decided to cease using ReadyBoost, and use the drive for storage.  I was unable to format the drive (I suspect ReadyBoost may have written to the drive too much:  as with other types of storage, flash drives have limitations as to how many times they can be written to).

I contacted SanDisk for assistance.  We traded a few messages about troubleshooting back and forth.  After not being able to get it to work, I was told to send the drive to them...and they would pay for shipping!  (I had to print the label, and package the drive.)

I always tell people, BEFORE purchasing something, inquire as to the return policy.  I recommend you consider SanDisk for your memory and storage needs:  I was not put through "support-hell"...I gave them the benefit of considering their suggestions, and they trusted I had done reasonable effort to resolve the issue.

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When I plugged the new drive into a Windows XP computer, the U3 software launched...and seemed to be causing my computer to become unresponsive.  I was able to remove the software, but it did not go very smoothly.  I have an identical SanDisk Cruzer Micro USB Flash Drive with U3 software, and have had no problems with it.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Windows memory limits

Dave called after installing Microsoft Windows XP, and the issue of memory limits arose...

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Before you go to the website I'm about to mention, you may want to lower the volume on your speakers: I was greatly annoyed by an advertisement on this site that had sound. The best "plain English" answer I found was at the "Dan's Data" website:

"...you shouldn't install more than 3Gb if you're not running a 64-bit operating system.

"...a plain PC running a 32-bit operating system...shouldn't have more than 3Gb of RAM...

"If you install 4Gb, there is no way to make all of the RAM between 3Gb and 4Gb available without installing a 64-bit OS, which you can't do unless you have a 64-bit CPU. And even then it won't necessarily work."

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Per Microsoft...

Physical Memory Limits: Windows Vista
32-bit Windows
4 GB

Physical Memory Limits: Windows XP
32-bit Windows
4 GB

Call of Duty 4

Well, even though we had to send back the Alienware ALX this week... I'm still pretty excited about getting my computer back. (Thanks Andy). So far I've installed ONLY the stuff I absolutely need on it. With that being said, I'm still able to run Call of Duty 4 on the computer with a NVIDIA GeForce 6600 and 1GB Memory and with my settings on low, the game does not run bad at all.

I still wouldn't mind getting another gig of memory in this thing until I get a new computer which I really need. The Dell I have is now 5 years old. Think it's about time for a new one.

Anybody have some DDR memory laying around they want to sell me?