Hammer Storage, a division of Bell Microproducts, has released the morespace Portable hard drive. The pocket-friendly drive is light, weighing in at less than five ounces. Inside the beast, however, exists a 2.5 inch HDD ranging from 160GB to 750GB. It’s a USB 2.0 device and can be customized with your own protective and decorative skin. Pricing is "upon request" so shoot them out an email. The 160GB – 500GB units are available now with the 750GB unit holding off until January of 2009.

Windows Vista SP2 (Service Pack 2) has just been released in a private pre-beta to selected testers. If you can’t wait to install Windows Vista SP2 pre-beta version, then we’ve got a solution.

The Windows Vista SP2 pre-beta build is 6002.16489 (lh_sp2beta.080924-1740). To install it you’ll need a batch command script that will add the necessary registry keys and values into the system registry to allow Windows Update or Microsoft Update to automatically detect and verify the availability of the service pack to your computer.

The file can be downloaded from here, or here. After downloading extract it to a 6002.16489.bat file.

WARNING: By applying the registry hack, the user will download and install a non-stable version of pre-beta version of upcoming Windows Vista SP2, which is not intended for non-technical person. The Vista SP2 currently may be unstable, and cause more harm to the system rather than solving any problem.

If you are unable to download the file above, you can create a file called either 6002.16489.bat, or 6002.16489.cmd, then open the file in Notepad, or Notepadd++ if you have it, and copy and paste the following code:

@echo off
reg delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\VistaSp2 /f > NUL 2>&1
reg delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\VistaSP2 /f > NUL 2>&1
reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\VistaSp2 /v Beta1 /t REG_SZ /d C21A5C64-2530-CC19-042F-9ABDB4ED27F9 /f
IF NOT %errorlevel% == 0 ( goto ERROR)
:SUCCESS
@echo.
echo ================================================== =========
echo Windows Vista SP2 registry key has been set successfully.
echo Please check for updates in Windows Update.
echo ================================================== =========
@echo.
goto END
:ERROR
@echo.
echo ================================================== =========
echo FAILED to set Windows Vista SP2 registry keys.
echo Please run this script by right clicking and selecting
echo "Run as Administrator".
echo ================================================== =========
@echo.
goto END
:END
pause

You may need to right click and Run as administrator.

These are instructions on how to install an SATA hard drive into your desktop. The instructions here are most useful for those who want to add a second hard drive.

A much easier alternative is to hook up an external drive using a USB 2.0 or Firewire port. External drives have the added advantage of being portable.

Ah, America. Mom. Apple pie. Baseball. Cheating? Maybe my grandfather was right when he said "Computers? Buncha mumbo jumbo." Diebold recently admitted their voter machines were about as easy to hack as an Apple 2e and now this.

Princeton researchers spent a lot of time with the Sequoia e-voting machine and things don’t look pretty for the future of America. They released a 158 page report detailing just how easy it is to hack into it. A researcher was able to bypass the security mechanisms in thirteen seconds. This, also, was with the device located inside of the standard-issue lockbox. Thirteen seconds.I yawn longer than that.

Also, once hacked, it’s easy to transfer malicious code to other units as they are all networked together. Well, look on the bright side. Now I’ll finally be able to get ALF elected to congress. I’ve been dreaming of that since elementary school. Ha! I kill me!

Here is a link to the report.

In an ominous moment designed as a harbinger for the coming "search engine wars", Google has bought a fighter jet. NYTimes reports the company has acquired a Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet, a light attack and trainer jet used by air forces around the world. What, besides destroying the three remaining Altavista compounds, is Google going to be doing with this fighter jet?

Helping NASA conduct experiments of course! They already loan out some of their other planes to NASA on occasion, being as how they share an airstrip. The jet was acquired to carry scientific instruments that could not be rigged up to the Boeing 757/767s and Gulfstream jets the company already own. Word on the street, is the jet could be used to help with the day-to-day functionality of the ESA Jules Verne satellite. Aw, those Googlers. So sweet.

In related news, Jeeves of Askjeeves.com recently bought a Supersoaker 2000. Go get ’em Jeeves!