Official TechtalkRadio Blog

Friday, there will be a solar eclipse:  the total blotting out of the sun by the moon.  At its peak it will last for 2 minutes and 27 seconds, and can only be seen:  in the northeastern edge of Canada, the tip of Greenland, parts of Russia, China and Mongolia.

It will reach its peak at 7:09 a.m. EDT.  The northeastern part of Maine might be able to see a little bit of it immediately at sunrise.

NASA will broadcast the eclipse live on the Internet.

Today/July 25th (the Last Friday Of July), is System Administrator Appreciation Day.

This is the person you should schmooze so that when you break your computers at work, they’ll consider fixing it without reporting that you were doing something with it you shouldn’t have been…
This is the person that might be able to recover your email you thought was gone forever, and the same person who might not tell what you’ve been sending out…
This is the same person who MIGHT help you when your personal computer has a problem…

Just like the The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, there’s a League of Professional System Administrators (LOPSA).  Except they don’t have a cool submarine.  And motor vehicle.  And additional physical abilities (other than their intellect).  But they have a club YOU can’t join unless you’re one of them.  If you are the boss of a SysAdmin, as a gift, you could pay for their membership…

Don’t send ’em a paper card:  they’re tech-savy…send an electronic card.

Giftage, even if it’s late, is always accepted.  Buy two things this year, and be on time next year.  ThinkGeek is a great “toy store”.  (When in doubt, it might be safer to go with a gift certificate.  Don’t be cheap about it…)

We’ve discussed how to prepare hard disks before you:
sell your computer…
give it to someone…
or dispose of the hard drive.

Using software is the most cost effective way for most consumers to do it. But if you need to erase hard drives completely, and somewhat often, you may want to consider a degausser.

I found two that Fujitsu produce.

SEM has Magnetic Media Degaussers…one that caught my interest is the Mag EraSURE P3M for “hard disk drives and other magnetic media”.

“…the SEM Model ME-P3M…is desgined to
degauss…Hard Drives and/or Magnetic tapes…The unit is operated by a
MANUAL HAND CRANK…”

The Mobile Mag EraSURE degausser is available, as well (and I’m unable to determine what the difference is between it and the P3M (other than style of the crank handle and the metal cover over where the media is placed).

Cost for mobile/portable versions of degaussers seem to be double and triple that over those not intended to be moved…as much as $40,000.

We got a very strange package today for Slick to take a look at. We’re not exactly sure what it is? what is does? We can’t find an On/Off Switch on it but I am sure it has some kind of tech use that Slick will share with us.

It’s from a company called SetGo, we’re worried though because it looks like something he would have to wear. With all the gear he has on all the time, its going to look like he’s going to jump from an Airplane! Slick, What is this thing!?