Home & Small Office Computer Guide

The SteelSeries Qck heavy mouse pad is an absolute monster among cloth mouse pads. It’s super-sized and made of quality cloth material with a special non-slip rubber base.

As far as I know we have the last one in Australia right here at Fraser Coast Computers.

While gamers love this mouse pad it’s been in short supply in Australia for quite some time because the importers have to bring this item in by the container load and I guess they’re worried that they won’t sell that many of one item.

Rick has spoken to the manufacturers but they refuse to ship this item in anything less than a container load and so, for the time being, this SteelSeries QcK Heavy Mouse Pad seems to be the last one in Australia. If you want it then call Rick and he’ll send it by mail.

So scientific tests have shown that there are more germs and bacteria on computer keyboards and mice than there are on toilet seats but is there a solution?

Would you believe that there’s a keyboard and mouse that’s dishwasher safe?

Well there is and you can find them at Seal Shield.

Adding to its high performance, professional series CompactFlash card lineup, ATP have announced the availability of its 4GB ProMax CompactFlash (CF) memory cards.

With the data transfer speed rated at up to 22.5MB/s (150X), the ProMax CF card is the fastest CF card in the market today and is specially designed to maximize the performance of the latest digital SLR cameras and video camcorders such as the Nikon D2X, D2H, D200, D100, D70, the Canon EOS series SLR cameras such as 5D, 20D, 30D, etc., and JVC camcorders.

Does your keyboard take up too much space on your desk? Do you find all those extra keys confusing?

Well here is a keyboard that comes with just three keys - the Optimus mini three keyboard.

Over the years there has been much hype about computers producing the paperless office. Of course, if that were ever going to be the case why were printers every developed?

But if you still believe that we will see a paperless office here is what could be the final nail in the coffin for the paperless office concept.

It’s a USB pencil sharpener and it even comes with a flashing light just to enhance your pencil sharpening experience.

But that’s not all because just to keep this amazingly useful little gizmo company there is also a USB shaver for men and a USB nail care system for the ladies.

Hmmmm - where will the silliness end?

And you thought that USB was all about data transfer from peripherals to the PC?

Well maybe these three little numbers will change your mind.

Here’s a USB cup warmer - ideal for keeping your coffee hot while you’re lost somewhere out on the Web

You can find out more about it here

How about a massage ball to help relieve the stress and tension when that script isn’t working or your ISP has suddenly gone down in the middle of a upload?

You can find out more about them here

And then for just $US69.00 you can have a USB Aroma Generator. It comes with three different cartridges and each will last for around four hours. Hmmmm.

You can find out more about this one right here

Wacom has just released a new model in it’s range of tablets. This one is the Intuos3 6×11 and is designed for people who work with wide screen monitors.

The technical details are:

Tablet Dimensions: 16.5″ x 10.3″ x .6″
Active Area: 6″ x 11″
Pressure Levels: 1024
Resolution: 5080 lpi
Max. data rate: 200 pps
Accuracy: +- .01″
Tilt Range: +-60º

The kit that comes with the tablet includes an Intuos3 grip pen and a five button mouse.

The software bundle includes:

Adobe Photoshop Elements 3,
Corel Painter Essentials 2,
nik Color Efex Pro 2 IE from nik multimedia
Wacom Brushes 2.0

And the system requirements are:

PC or Macintosh computer running Windows 98SE, 2000, Me, XP or Mac OS 10.2.6 & higher with powered USB port,
CD-ROM drive & color monitor.
nik Color Efex Pro 2 IE requires Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 (included) or Photoshop 7 & higher.
Corel Painter Essentials 2 requires Windows 2000, XP, or Mac OS 10.2 & higher.

The bottom line is $US369.95 and you can find out more here

We’ve featured USB thumb drives here before but here is one that will store your data and lock down your computer as soon as you remove it from the drive.

The thumb drive and PC lock comes with a capacity of 256mb or 1Gig and you can find further details here

Now I bet you looked at the title of this piece and thought that it didn’t really apply to you because you only spend an hour or two on the computer every day.

Well, if you’re lucky it won’t ever apply to you but repetitive strain injury can occur through using a computer mouse whether you’re on the computer for only an hour or two ever other day or whether you’re like me and working online for many hours every day.

So one day you just may need an ergonomic mouse and that means that it might pay to read about what is on the market today.

They may look weird but I can tell you from first hand experience that they really work and if computers are part of your business then they can actually save your business.

You will find the review here.

Here’s a bit of information that I’m sure you really do not want to know … but I’m going to tell you anyway.

The latest edition of Australian Personal Computer magazine is reporting that scientists in Singapore have developed a battery that produces energy from urine.

Just imagine one fitted to a laptop - no more annoying toilet breaks in the middle of coding that next killer app - you can take care of it and recharge your laptop right there are your desk.

I wonder what unit of measurement they would use to assess the life of a urine powered battery?