Question: My hard drive has several folders called FOUND with a number after them. Where did those come from?
Answer: Sometimes when you shut down your computer, it turns off before your hard drive is finished working, no one quite knows why. When this happens, the system’s bookkeeping may not be all done. This corrupts the hard drive information. When Windows notices the problem, it runs a program called CHKDSK to try to fix the problem. When it finds that a folder was missing, it doesn’t know what to call it, so it gives it the name FOUND. Because filenames have to be unique within a folder, it adds a number. These folders can usually be deleted, but I always keep them around for a while, until I'm sure I don’t need them anymore. After all, if it found some stuff I've already deleted, what do I care?
Cool Site: LetMeGoogleThatForYou.com: This site's either a hoot or a help, I haven't decided yet. I believe the site is intended to be a joke, but I can also see it being useful in a classroom teaching people how to find things in Google. When you go to the website, you just type into what looks like a Google search box whatever you want to find, then click Google Search or I'm Feeling Lucky. Now, instead of performing the search, you'll get a web address that'll do the search instead. Now, this search has a twist though… it's a bit smart-alecky because when you click on the link it generates, the site shows an animation of a mouse pointer moving over to the search box, typing the search criteria in, and clicking whichever button you clicked. It says, "Now was that so hard?" and then goes on to the results of the actual Google search.
Cool Gadget: PowerMat: This is a mat that looks kind of like a lunch tray that uses magnetic induction power to recharge your devices just by laying them on the mat. Now, the Palm Pre has this kind of charging built-in, but other gadgets will require an adapter to work with this. I think this really represents the future of recharging all sorts of devices, but it is still brand new. See, the really nice thing about the mat is that you don't have to have a bunch of power adapters plugged into an extension cord or whatever. You only plug in the mat and it does the rest.
It's All "Geek" To Me: Cracker: Last week's "All 'Geek' To Me" term, "hacker", had both a positive and negative connotation. This week's word, "cracker" has only the negative connotation. It means someone who either writes malicious software or accesses networks with malicious intent. The thought is similar to safe-cracking, wherein the safe is broken into in order to steal its contents, not because the owner lost the combination.
