budget, consider going with a Zip drive that stores a smaller amount of information. A 250 MB drive costs about $130 and a 100 MB drive is about $80. The 250 and 100 MB disks run around $11 and $10 respectively.
Flash key pen drive
Capacity 256 MB
Cost: $84.99
Size: .6-by-1.1-by-3.3 inches
Weight: .6 oz.
System requirements: USB port
Notes: Not cheap, but good capacity and the most
portable option. Most computers have USB
ports, and this pen drive requires no software.
Drives come in different capacities.
The Zip disk's biggest competitor is the rewriteable compact disc, or CD-RW, according to Tom Mainelli's article. "Iomega Pushes Zip Drive
Storage to 750MB" on pcworld.com. CD-RW drives are more common on the average desktop computer and can be bought for as little as $65 at Best Buy. The CD-RWs are often less than $1 a piece and can be bought in bulk. The CDs can hold up to 650 MB of information. The Zip disk's one advantage is that it is more reliable than the CD medium.
according to the PC World article.
The hot new celebrity for computer storage is the removable flash drive. No larger than a five-stick pack of gum or a tube of lipstick, these little
wonders can store anywhere from 32 MB to 1 GB or more of
any file format. You can plan to spend from $30 to $350 depending on the brand name and your storage needs.
A 256 MB flash drive, which can run anywhere from $60 to $90, is comparable to 200 1.44 MB floppy disks — imagine trying to juggle those. Removable flash drives are convenient and fashionable Some brands include a lanyard, so you can keep it around your neck at all times.
10-pack CD-RW disks
Capacity: 650 MB
Cost: $16.99
Jewel case size: 5.5-by-5 inches
System requirements: CD-RW drive
Notes: Large capacity, but most campus computers do not have CD-RW drives.
The next trend that Landers sees is the write-able DVD. Many computers now are being manufactured with a DVDwriter option. A single, two-sided, 9 GB blank DVD will cost you only $12. It can hold eight times the amount of information of a CD-R, but the blank DVDs are not standardized yet, says Landers.
So whether you're planning to write your resume, the manuscript for your first novel, or edit a movie or PowerPoint presentation, there are many options out there to suit your computer storage needs. Research prices, storage capabilities, brand names and talk to your local electronics retailer to find the best storage option for you.
Another reason to trash your floppy disks is that floppy drives are no longer being manufactured in laptops and desktops. You can buy a fancy new computer, but you'll have to spend the extra cash to add an external drive, says Landers. That's all the more reason to invest in Zip drives or removable flash drives.
with floppy disks or anything."
It's a great way to transfer documents from school to home, says Jerry Landers, technology consultant and sales specialist at Office Depot, 2525 Iowa St. "You can walk up to your computer and plug it in. You don't have to monkey around
-Kim Elsham and Becky Rogers, Jayplay staff writers, can be reached at kelsham@kansan.com and brogers@kansan.com.
External hard drive
Capacity: 120 GB
Cost: $209.99
Size: 2-by-5-by-7 inches
Weight: 5 lbs.
System requirements: Firewire card or USB
System requirements: Firewire card or USB port
Notes: Extremely high capacity but low portability and high cost. Most computers have USB ports. Capacity varies.
THRIFTY SOFTWARE
Does the price of software have you down? Would you rather spend $200 on groceries than on Microsoft's latest office suite? Foar not yellow penny pinchers and cheapskates, you don't have to resort to illegal downloads to save money on software.
OpenOffice.org 1.1 Office Suite
The OpenOffice suite includes a word processor, a presentation manager, a spreadsheet and a drawing program. Sound familiar? It should; it provides all the functionality of Microsoft's OfficeXP standard edition and can open and save Microsoft documents so you can keep your previous work. The program works on most platforms and offers 25 localized versions with support for Hindi, Spanish and Chinese.
Check out the OpenOffice.org Web site. www.openoffice.org, for the latest version of the office suite.
Opera 7.20
Microsoft Internet Explorer is free, so why use a different browser? The Opera Web browser offers users speed, security and privacy, which provide a wonderful Websurfing experience.
Opera's downside is that it is ad-supported. The program displays unobtrusive ads in the upper-right corner of the window. After using Opera for more than 10 minutes, you won't even notice the ads.
Opera lets you choose how it handles pop-ups. Don't want any pop-ups? Want only the pop-ups you request? Not a problem. Want all the pop-ups you can get your hands on? Opera will gladly serve them up.
Head to www.opera.com for more information on Opera.
Ad-aware 6.0
If you open your Web browser and receive five pop-ups, it may be time to download Ad-aware. Ad-aware is a program that eliminates spyware, tracking cookies and other information-gathering programs that surreptitiously find their ways onto your computer.
Spyware monitors your computer usage like something out of 1984. George Orwell may have missed the date, but he got the spying right. Spyware often comes as part of another program's installation. Kazaa was notorious for including Gator, the granddaddy of spyware, in its installation program.
Ad-aware makes removing such nasty pieces of software easy. After installation, simply update your reference file, a list of known pieces of spyware, and scan your system. Ad-aware will show you a list of nosy programs and cookies and prompt you to select which ones get the boot.
Select which site you want to visit.
For more information on Ad-awards, point your browser to www.lavasoftuss.com.
thursday, october 2, 2003
jayplay.17
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