Gadget love update

A little while ago I posted my annual "summer gadget love" update, outlining some of the interesting tech toys I have acquired. I thought I'd provide a few updates.

1. My Vantec hard drive docking station ("drive toaster") has essentially died after a year. It keeps unmounting and mounting the drive all by itself, which is damned irritating.
2. I am replacing it with a fan-cooled hard drive enclosure from Rosewill. Newegg customers seem to give it a big thumb's up. I will let you know. It's not quite as "cool" as the drive toaster, but might be a tad more reliable. I priced other drive toasters online, and this fan-cooled enclosure is right about the same price, so I thought I'd give it a try.
3. Amarok is crap as a media player. On my netbook I'm now using Songbird. Since it's a Mozilla app there are about a million plugins (well, maybe a few less than that) so I've been able to get it set up the way I want it. It doesn't seem to work on my home desktop machine, so there I use Rhythmbox. When I run Windows I use MediaMonkey. No other media player even comes close to MediaMonkey.
4. Truecrypt file encryption software. It runs on Linux and Windows. I have tested it on both platforms, and the encrypted data is readable in both places. You can "format" entire drives as encrypted drives, or create container files for encrypted data. I am still a little unsure that I would put my only backup of a file into a Truecrypt-encrypted container, but if I have private stuff that I want to keep private, it looks like the hot tip. Getting my portable hard drive stolen from work got me to thinking about this.
   
5. KeePass, and KeePassX. Password encryption helpers, runnable on Windows and Linux. Not quite as functional as RoboForm, but free. There are plugins for KeePass to make it work with various browsers, but I haven't tried them, yet. I do need a password encryption solution that runs on Windows and Linux, so stay tuned.
6. LaCie 250GB portable hard drive, already inactive at Newegg. This little drive isn't quite as functional as the drive that was stolen, but it's small and light and fast. The USB cable retracts into the case, though it's only about 3 inches (8 cm) long. So far it's working fine, but I do have concerns about the retractible cable. It does come with an extension, however.
   
7. Verizon Wireless USB760 G3 cell modem--no link. Doesn't frigging work on Linux. Supposedly you can get it to work, but I have not, so I am returning it. It was sold to me as working on Linux, but obviously he lied. Maybe in another year, or so, the major carriers will have this figured out.

My Transcend 160GB portable hard drive was stolen off my desk at work. Too bad, it was a really good little drive. The replacement is so far working well, but I have my doubts since Newegg discontinued it so ... quickly. We'll see.