Western Digital recently strayed from its platter-based roots and released an HD media streaming unit. The WD TV HD Media Player claims to "turn your USB drive into an HD media player, allowing you to watch your favorite HD movies on your TV." Basically, it allows you to plug in your USB key or USB hard drive and play back multimedia clips up to 1080p on your HDTV. The unit works via the HDMI / composite outputs. The box is sized at 1.6- x 4.9- x 3.9-inches and is priced at $129.99. The company unveiled the product with little fanfare, as it’s already sitting on store shelves.

I have nothing against wealthy people. In fact, I’d like one day to be just like them. For example, I’d love to drop $699 on this Lacquer and Palladium 2GB USB Key from S.T. Dupont, even though I could go to my local Costco and get three 2GB USB drive for $49.99 ($39.99 after instant rebate). The fact that they’re also available in turquois blue, soft pink, and black would just make me want to buy more than one, were I able. 

Kids can be pretty resourceful creatures and there are not many ways of stopping them from doing who knows what on the PC. That is until KidSafe came along, a USB key that is exactly that a key for your PC.

Computer geeks and white-hat hackers in the UK developed the KidSafe Parental Control Key to help lock down computer access in the easiest and most secure way possible. Each key is unique and cannot be duplicated. When inserted, the key allows your computer to boot and access the internet. When removed, the computer is locked tight, and unusable.

Kids today are smart, and can get around Windows passwords, and Internet filtering programs pretty easily. Proxies and workarounds exist for even the most draconian firewalls, but the KidSafe key protects your computer and your kids with a physical key. It’s stronger, more reliable, and more convenient than passwords. It can’t be uninstalled or worked around – even by booting to safe-mode. They’ve even got processes to keep your computer from booting to a live CD or other boot device.

You can buy the KidSafe security key from Think Geek for $59.99.