Tom Parette

We all have personal data that needs to be secure. Be it password files, financial data etc.
I use Truecrypt to encrypt my important data. It does not matter if it is on a hard drive or a memory key any other media.  You create a Truecrypt volume or volumes of any size and it becomes a virtual encrypted drive. The product uses AES-256 encryption, is fully open source and best of all it is free. You can also use Truecrypt for whole-drive encryption. Using Truecrypt is easy, when you want to access the data you start up the UI, select the file, click mount and you will be prompted for the password.
I also have an encrypted volume on the memory key I have attached to my car keys. The file appears to be
a 1G file of random data but I would be comfortable handing it to someone knowing that with a strong encryption key the data is very secure.

Many large corporations have research divisions that have helped create many great products.  This is not one of them.  Microsoft Research created Songsmith.  The intent of this effort was for the user to sing lyrics and Songsmith will create the music accompaniment.  Below is the video created by Microsoft which itself is pretty bad.

The fun part of this story is people have been using this, playing lyrics of hit songs into it to see what the song would sound like.  The song below, Roxanne by the Police is a hilarious example of the music Soundsmith created.  People have posted many Songsmith songs on YouTube.

My guess is Microsoft intended this to be similar to Rock Band.  Not quite there but it is good for some laughs.

As I mentioned earlier I love my iPhone.  One of the many features I use is the iPod video capability while traveling.  Commercial air travel can be brutal but having a device you can load lots of video content to will make the trip a bit less painful.  The form factor of the iPhone is easier on an airplane compared to trying to watch video on a laptop.  Currently I have about 12 hours of video on mine including three Nova programs from PBS, the FDR series from WGBH, three episodes of Married with Children, a history of NASA DVD and an iTunes u web lecture from MIT.  Even with that,  a large music library and photos I have taken I still have ample capacity.

The TV programs recorded on the DVR are burned to a DVD in standard format.  I use Handbrake to rip them.  The latest version rips directly to iPod/iPhone format and are able to be directly imported to Itunes.

During my most recent trip Google Maps was a lifesaver as I didn’t know my way around Minneapolis and who wants to get lost when the temperature is near zero.

The genius of this device is the notion of a general purpose “platform” with capabilities that continue to be added with software updates.