Have you noticed the prices dropping on USB backup drives and other USB devices? Well, before you decide to use your Paypal account to go on a shopping spree and purchase that "special" 4TB USB drive and those "awesome" 64GB USB sticks, there's a few things you may want to consider.  First of all, is the product being advertised as supporting USB 2 or USB 3.0? Why does that matter, you ask?  Well, in the simplest terms possible, USB 3.0 equates to a much, much faster file transfer speed.  So, if you plan to transfer large files or backup that huge music collection of yours, you may want to consider buying a USB device that supports USB 3.0.  But, before you make that purchase, make sure your computer has a USB 3.0 port!

Well, for those of you that are running multiple computers and small render farms out there, Microsoft has finally come up with something that’s not only cool – but it works and is FREE.  That’s right, you read that correctly; Microsoft, cool, works, and free, all in the same sentence.  Microsoft’s Garage has provided a program that will allow you to use a single keyboard & mouse to control multiple workstations.  The computers must be on the same network but can have different operating systems.  For you Apple fans – the software works with Windows OS’s and Linux but doesn’t work with the Mac OS (hmmm, an intentional outcome or not…I’ll let you be the judge).  For those of you that do have an OS X to add to the mix, you'll want to try a program called Synergy. Here’s the link to Microsoft’s site to download the software: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35460 For cross-platform systems that include at least one Mac OS X, here's the link to download Synergy:   http://synergy-foss.org/ And now for the other “miscellaneous” techie stuff. Have you heard of the International CES show? It’s basically a very, very large technology show that’s held every year. The 2013 show ended on January 11th. Here’s a link to PC Magazine’s review of some of the technology trends they noticed at the 2013 show: http://forwardthinking.pcmag.com/none/307264-7-more-big-trends-from-ces-2013 Well, that wraps up this post. Be smart out there…..but have lots of fun too!