http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/flash_drives/ocz_throttle_esata_flash_drive

My new PC has powered eSATA ports right on the front next to the USB ports.  The difference in performance between eSATA and USB is night and day (think 20MB/sec max vs. 100MB per sec).

What this means is that when 32GB or better yet 64GB eSATA sticks start coming out I could carry around some sort of virtualized version of my machine and just plug it into someone’s box and get going rather than lugging around a laptop everywhere.

We’re still a bit off from the above fantasy scenario but it’s good to see powered eSATA starting to get supported.

Now, looking at SanDisk, hurry up with a Cruzer® eSATA!

http://www.duracellflash.com/

This seems to be something I wouldn’t expect them to get into.

http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/02/ted-digital-six.html

LONG BEACH, California -- Students at the MIT Media Lab have developed a wearable computing system that turns any surface into an interactive display screen. The wearer can summon virtual gadgets and internet data at will, then dispel them like smoke when they're done.

Some light reading, more stories to post later today:

WIRED

http://blog.wired.com/games/2009/02/stardock-openin.html

Gamasutra

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=22173

WorthPlaying:

http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=59508

Joystiq

http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=59508

VoodooExtreme

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/44502/State-Tax-Breaks-Allow-Stardock-to-Create-New-Jobs

Gamespy

http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/951/951081p1.html

BluesNews

http://bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewstory&threadid=95401

Shacknews
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/57090

Gamer’s Hell

http://www.gamershell.com/news/68738.html

Gamepolitics:

http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/02/04/michigan-guv-gives-stardock-shout-out-state-state

Big Download just posted:

www.bigdownload.com

Joystiq update:

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/02/05/stardock-talks-staying-afloat-in-the-great-lakes-state/

Update:

TechDirt (woot!)

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090205/0401163660.shtml

GameIndustry.biz

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/stardock-to-open-michigan-studio

Gamedaily newsletter (woot!)

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/stardock-to-open-michigan-studio

GameFreaks365

http://www.gamefreaks365.com/newsarticle.php?sid=2998

IGN

http://pc.ign.com/articles/951/951084p1.html

1up

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3172625

Zergwatch

http://www.zergwatch.com/Newsfeed-105149/interview-stardock-to-develop-new-rpg-resume-society-production-elemental-war-of-magic.html

Quick video demo of Fences in action.

Download at https://www.stardock.com/products/fences

If you have a Windows PC you should download this program. Seriously.

http://www.womansday.com/wd2/Content/Family-Lifestyle/Evolution-of-the-Household

This article really brings home (not intentionally) how much our standard of living has improved over the last few decades even as wages have “stagnated”.

Before…

After…

Stardock’s new killer app: Fences. Download it, it’s free!

https://www.stardock.com/products/fences

http://www.financialweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090203/REG/902039977/1003/TOC

Barney Frank supports legislation that would put a cap on executive pay at all US companies.

Now, I happen to think that if the government is handing out bailout money to a company that the government has every right to attach any strings they want. The company, after all, can decline said bailout if they don’t like the strings attached.

But the idea that the federal government should have a say over how much executives make in general is ridiculous.

For instance, congress wants to limit executive pay at any company receiving TARP funds to $500k a year.  Okay, if they want to do that then that’s between them and the companies receiving the money.  I happen to think it’s probably a bad idea but whatever.

What people tend to forget is that $500k is not a lot of money when you’re talking about the cream of the crop.  $500k is less than what many TV stars make per episode.  The TV show “Friends” had each actor making $1 million per episode.   The minimum you can pay a first-season NFL player is $200,000. That’s the NFL’s minimum wage.

So if you want the attract the best and brightest to run these multi-billion dollar companies, you are going to have to pay them extremely well.

But let’s talk about entrepreneurs.  If I knew my pay would be capped by the government, I never would have bothered to have my company in the first place.  People who have never started and built their own successful company have no conception of what it takes to do it. It’s a combination of consistent hard work over a long period of time, consistent, sometimes painful personal sacrifice and of course the right combination of relevant skills in order to have a successful business.

So I’d be rather appalled at the idea that my skills and work and sacrifice were somehow treated by society as being less valuable than what a TV actor makes in a single week.

If the government were to suddenly tell me how much I and my team could be paid, that would definitely be the thing to cause me to either move out of the country or sell out and live on the accumulated wealth.

So I’ve started loading up my new Windows 7 machine with stuff. 

First thing I loaded was Impulse which gives me access to a lot of the programs I own.  I’ve also put on Incredibuild which we use to help make builds a lot faster.  I’ve got Office 2007 installed, various version of Visual Studio, Adobe Acrobat, Skype, VMWare Workstation, Adobe Photoshop, Beyond Compare, WinCVS, and so on.  I tried to install Corel Draw X4 but don’t have enough activations left (GRRR) (I wish there was an easy “de-activate other installations) since I only have the one copy in use.

Of course at this point my desktop is starting to get a lot of junk on it.  So just in time, I am installing the first generally available Community Tech Preview version of Stardock’s killer new app: FENCES. 

At the risk of hyperbole, Fences is probably the single most significant piece of desktop software to be released since…well I don’t know how long. I predict Fences will become one of the most popular programs out there in a short amount of time. 

Let’s see how well this runs on Windows 7 because it is an amazingly powerful program that integrates deeply into the OS.

Installing Fences on Windows 7.

On first-run.

It creates some default fences to clean up my desktop:

Now my desktop has some fences on it that let me organize my icons easily.

For my next trick, I exclude the recycle bin from quick-hide (which I’ll show next).

Double click on my desktop and…

A clean desktop other than my recycle bin.

What’s nice about Fences is that it lets me organize my desktop easily without having to create bunches of folders. It enables my cluttering rather than trying to force me to organize.

Anyway, so Fences is working in Windows 7 which is no small feat.  Windows 7 64-bit for that matter!

BTW, for you power users you’ll love this:

SSD? Bah.  64-bit with lots of RAM = mega speed because everything ends up in the disk cache.  Of course, having a Core i7 is nice with 8 virtual CPUs is helpful too. It’s a long day from the OS/2 SMP days.

I’m running the BETA of Windows 7 and it’s been running so well that I’ve decided to make it my quasi-production machine.

Windows 7 is a massive usability upgrade from any previous version of Windows.  Much of the changes are just minor in terms of effort but just make the whole system feel a lot better designed.

For example, if I want look at my connected devices I see this:

Notice I don’t see a bunch of crap. I just see the stuff actually connected to the machine. It’s a very nice change from what has been in Windows before.

One of the purposes of this series of articles is to let you know what programs I have problems with, and which ones work right.

Over the coming weeks and months I’ll give you generalized reports on the progress of our software (Stardock’s) running on Windows 7 as well as highlighting cool little touches in Windows 7.

Now, for the purposes of making life hard on Stardock, I’m not just running a beta of Windows 7, I’m running a beta of Windows 7 64-bit.  By the time Windows 7 is released, all applicable Stardock software must run on this machine.