Bet for your Mother's Day gift

Feel the pinch of increasing food prices and can't afford to buy your mom a gift this Sunday? Sure, you can buy a lottery ticket and hope to win the big one, but before you do that, check out this unique auction site which promises items for a faction of the retail price.

When one of our bloggers first wrote about Tatarah auction site, she did not have a chance to try out the special bidding system. At first blush, it looks like a scam Web site. After all, how can a business offer a brand new PlayStation Portable for a mere S$80 (US$52.63) without eventually going bankrupt? We took a closer look at how it works.
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The Hard Disk Crusher doesn't mess around

Oliver North found out the hard way that erasing e-mail doesn't mean it's gone forever. And in more than two decades since, countless others have shown that they still hadn't learned that lesson.

But there is one foolproof way of confounding even the best IT sleuths: The Hard Disk Crusher.

This no-nonsense machine from EDR Solutions does exactly what its name says, destroying a hard disk in as little as 10 seconds. "It basically 'drills' through the hard drive's spindles which physically creates ripples in the platters making it impossible to recover any data," OhGizmo says.

The Crusher can even work with an emergency hand pump in case your building is surrounded by enemy forces who have cut off the power. The only problem--and it's a big one--is its US$11,500 price tag. For that kind of money, a few medium-range explosives would seem more cost-effective.

Via Crave CNET

Logitech's mini keyboard for media PCs heading this way

It's taken a while for Logitech to bring its palm-sized diNovo Mini keyboard to Southeast Asia since first debuting at the Las Vegas-based CES tradeshow in January this year. But for many users here who have their PCs connected to their TVs, it may just be worth the wait.

Possibly one of the coolest-looking keyboards we've come across thus far, the diNovo Mini was designed to replace the clunky keyboard and mouse in a PC/TV living room setup. It's about the size of the Nintendo DS handheld gaming console, which makes it really easy to use (especially seated on the couch). Nor will it clutter your coffee table. Because it uses Bluetooth 2.0 for connectivity, the keyboard is wireless within a 30ft radius without the hassle of messy cables. An internal rechargeable Lithium-ion battery, which can last for about a month between charges, also takes away the inconvenience of frequent battery replacements.
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Quick Tip: Closing pop-ups the safe way

Confronting a pop-up is one of those times when your gut reaction might lead you down the path of frustration and tears. If the "X" is spring-loaded with malware, anywhere you click on the pop-up could trigger that virus.

This is the path less traveled--the majority of pop-ups truly are the ads they appear to be--but when a pop-up does deliver malware, undoing the damage could be a tense, jittery journey. We get enough panicky Spyware Horror Story submissions to know that so-called button flips and booby-trapped Close buttons continue to deliver malicious payloads.

So what is the best practice for closing a pop-up? CNET Executive Editor Tom Merritt demonstrates in this Quick Tip video.

The future of PC design

Since it was first shrunk from a room-sized machine to the familiar desktop-sized box, little has changed when it comes to the CPU component of a PC. Sure, there have been enthusiasts who literally think out of the box and have created amazing designs to hold the essential computer components, but the average consumer has had to be content with a boring rectangle chassis.

Microsoft's NextGen PC Design competition recently harnessed the collective creative juices of PC designers to rethink how a PC chassis will look like in the future. The competition is now closed, though a winner has yet to be announced. You can check out the finalists here.

Frankly, some of these creations are way too wacky to be practical. Some of them would look unbelievably gorgeous in the living room, but we seriously doubt any of them will hit mass production anytime in the future. Another consideration is the difficulty in upgrading as some chassis look impossibly small or cramped. So what do you think? Will we see some of these designs hit mainstream, or will boxy CPUs stick around forever?

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