09.20.03
My Birthday
So it was my Birthday this last week and it was really nice. Finances being what they are, it was nice and quiet. But that didn’t stop Amy from getting me some k00l gadgets such as:
The Lexar JumpDrive Trio, which is a memory card reader the size of your average pen drive. The trick here is that you use it like a pen drive, but you can put your own memory card in it. MultiMediaCard (MMC), Secure Digital (SD) and MemoryStick all fit inside.
Your avage pen drive puts a 10% to 20% premium over the cost of simply buying a memory card flat out. With the Trio, I can buy the memory separately, and when the prices plumet for these memory card sizes, I can pick one up on the cheap and ‘drive home happy’.
So one quick run to Fry’s later, I’ve got a 32mb MMC card for just $15. I’m ready to go for my class at PSU. (Moving files around to the lab, to my laptop, to home is a drag… now it’s a drag and drop.)
Amy also got me the Kensington PocketMouse Pro Wireless, which is one small step away from the perfect mouse. See, it’s an optical wireless mouse that is great for laptops. Wireless mice (for the most part) need to have a reciever that will put the mouse in contact with the computer.
With this mouse, that reciver is about the size of 2/3rds of a stick of gum. Now here’s the cool part: when you’re ready to pack up and go, the receiver comes out of the USB port and stores inside the mouse! There’s a little compartment on the side that it fits into. Storing the receiver also switches the mouse off. It’s so James Bond!
It will be great to take to my class at PSU, because I won’t be completely tied down to the teacher’s station.
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After all this preparation, it turns out that due to low enrollments, my Intro to Web Graphics course has been pushed back to Winter term. Amy and I had been counting on that money for Christmas shopping, but it looks like we’ll have to figure out something else.