I have to admit, I was amazed anyone in the business would believe any piece of computer hardware is impervious to failure. If it’s build by humans, it will fail. And flash drives do fail. I’ve had one die on me as have others. Ah I hear people saying “what’s a flash drive?” Flash drives have a number of names – pen drives, thumb drives, flash drives, USB drives, key chain drives. They are thumb sized hard drives that come in a variety of storage sizes. They have taken the place of the old floppy disks and for many of us cds. I always hated burning cds – was such a nuisance. Flash drives are great, pop them into a free USB port and drag your files to them and bingo you are good to go. Flash drives are great because you can plug them into any other machine and access your files quickly.

Couple of problems though:

Flash drives are so small, they are easy to lose. I’ve lost 5 of the little buggers in the last 2 years. I never take important files out on the flash drive unless I’ve backed the data up at home and encrypted the drive. If I lose the drive, I suffer a mild annoyance but am confident I’ve not lost any private information that can be used by someone else. I also know a duplicate set of the files are safely sitting at home. It’s not worth the risk so either leave the drive at home or encrypt your data.

Flash drives do fail. Back your data up onto cds/external hard drive constantly and file them in a safe place. Do it… back up, back up, back up. Files become corrupted, flash drives die, files are lost. One of the most impressive flash drive deaths I’ve seen was the flash drive someone accidentally drove over. The customer didn’t know the flash drive had fallen off their key chain and they must have kicked it under the car wheels. CRUNCH… they found the drive when they returned home later that day. Nothing was recoverable, well, except for a few interesting pieces of plastic that could be arranged into some kind of miniature pop art.

Flash drives are inexpensive, your personal data is priceless.

I love my laptop computer, but there are times when I want to sit at my desk and see everything on the big screen. This is especially true when I’m working on an article or document for a customer – that extra screen space of a 19″ flat panel monitor makes the job easier.

Computers are moving out of the dusty basements and into the living areas of many homes. Unfortunately the traditional computer is a bit unsightly.  Face it, computers don’t blend in very well and they take up a honking chunk of space. If you don’t have the space (or just don’t want to look at the ugly big box all the time) and want the size and luxury of a large monitor, look to what I’m calling the mini computers. They have all the advantages of a big box computer but a fraction of the size.

Acer has one of note at the moment -  the Acer ASL100-ED403. It’s small – 2.4″w x 9.8″ d x 7.9″ h in size.  Add a nice 19″ monitor and you have the perfect system for a home office or internet cruiser. I don’t think it would be the best for gaming – I read the power supply is relatively light weight, so if you have a family member who is a hard core gamer, look elsewhere. This system won’t do for big games.
The computer, despite it’s size, is a heavy weight with a 2.1 Ghz processor, 1 gig of ram, Nvidia graphics (adjustable to 256 megs), 250 meg harddrive and more. For those who don’t speak geek, this translates into a fast and powerful machine. A bit of overkill for the average user, but better too much than not enough.

I doubt it is the most upgradeable system because of its small size, a bit of a drawback, but many home users shouldn’t be too worried about that. Most of my home and home office customers rarely need system upgrades. The basic out of the box computer is more that enough.

The computer runs Vista already, take it home and it’s ready to run.  Pick out the right monitor and you will have a great system. Shop around for the best price – in Toronto at the moment the best price is Best Buy for $699 + taxes, the monitor is extra. If you have a nice flat panel monitor, use it, you don’t have to purchase a new one.