Date:07/08/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/bline/ew/2006/08/07/stories/2006080700060100.htm

Back This one is for follow-up

YOU now have a gauge to tell you how much free space is left. - Bijoy Ghosh

You take work home frequently, and since you have been doing that for some time now, you are not sure if all the files you are carrying around in that external hard disk are the updated versions. Of course, one trick is to copy the whole folder, but what if some files of the files are older and only some are new?

So you use a synchronisation routine, like using the "My Briefcase" folders in Windows. But still, you don't know if all the files need to be updated, etc, unless you have the patience to look at the "Date modified" tab in the file listing.

How about it if you can tell how synchronised your folders are by just looking at your drive? Well, you can do that with the InSync Hard drive (http://people.interaction-ivrea.it/o.horev/morph/?p=32), a concept that is part of the shapeshifters project at Interaction Ivrea.

The drive shifts out of shape if there are a lot of files that have been changed: the more it is twisted, the more number of files to be updated. You can start synchronising the files by just twisting the drive in the opposite direction.

And for those who back-up everything on their computers and can't sleep because they worry about hard disk space, there is the My Book Premium edition external hard drive that has an external capacity gauge indicating how much free space is left.

It is a 500 GB drive, so if you keep looking at the indicator every day, there is something seriously wrong, and you need to look at your ISP bill!

N. Nagaraj