In our house we have way too many cables (just ask my wife!). While a lot of the cables are just regular mains leads (though we try to optimize the way we use those) there’s quite a few wall warts for charging cellphones and the like.

While it’s not going to solve every problem there are a couple of mains chargers that also provide USB power – from iGo and Belkin for instance – but they still require cables. Well, I think my wife would approve of this idea – a mains outlet with built-in USB connectors (that only draw power when something is plugged in).

The TruePower UCS is available pre-order for only $10 – due in early 2010 as soon as it gets final UL approval.

It can be installed to replace any standard dual wall socket and provides standard mains power as well as 5V DC 600mA power to both the USB outputs.

This should help with some of the clutter though it doesn’t help with all the other transformers for the cableTV set-top box etc it’s a start.

Of course cable free power charging like the PowerMat is the real answer to the cable crunch but I suspect it’s a while before we can cut all the cords.

I hate passwords. I love the security they bring but having to remember them, manage them and above all type them in on some of the devices I use drives me to distraction.

While it’s not a perfect solution I have found one tool that allows me to use my Windows Mobile phone as a secure physical token to control access to my PC.

The Rohos Logon Key is one of the best sorts of utilities. It’s almost invisible once you set it up!

It allows you to store a “key” that you can use to unlock your PC on a USB Flash key, a memory card, a YubiKey or best of all (if your PC has Bluetooth support) a bluetooth equipped Windows Mobile phone or other smartphone.

When you have installed the utility and defined a key simply making it available to the machine will log you in – so by plugging in a USB key and entering the PIN, or placing the Mobile Phone in proximity so the ID can be read.

No more typing, fumbling and cursing!

You still need to update your password on a regular basis (as it can still be used to log in without the device) but it means you can choose longer, more complex and hard to guess ones without having to learn to type them every time.

It doesn’t help with things like syncing the changed password to your phone (for instance if you need it to access your Exchange server for Outlook Mobile via ActiveSync) or if you need to type passwords into web or network logins… maybe one day.

Oh, and the USB support does also include provision of an encrypted partition for you to store files on so even if you lose the key your data is still protected.

I really liked my Jabra BT800 headset and when it started to die more than be useful I was all set to get either a JX10 or a BT8040.

Instead I spend about 2/3 of the money and got a perfectly adequate Motorola H700 instead (in Fire Red if you must know).

Why?

It didn't fit any better. It didn't do anything that the other two products did (in fact it has less bells and whistles). It (like the others) has a really annoying blue flashing light to point out to strangers that I'm a wanna-be cyborg.

The winning factor... Mini USB charging connector.

Why you ask is that so important?

Simple convenience. I already carry a USB cable I can use to charge/sync my phone, my camera and my GPS unit. Why oh why do I want to carry another cable just for one device.

The headset is useless without the phone. Therefore making sure your device doesn't impose any new requirements on the phone user should be a fairly simple way to appeal to the road-warrior. I don't care what the plug looks like as long as I only have to carry one to charge and sync everything.

Of course one day ubiquitous SplashPower will ensure every device is constantly fed power and UWB will replace Bluetooth for local sync.

In the past I've used SyncToy to keep files on a couple of computers and my iPod in sync so I was pleased to discover a new version that's even smarter is now available in beta for us to play with.

So, what's new? Lots that what....

• Dynamic Drive Letter Assignment: Drive letter reassignment will now be detected and updated in the folder pair definition
• True Folder Sync: Folder creates, renames and deletes are now synchronized for all SyncToy actions
• Exclusion Filtering Based on Name: File exclusion based on name with exact or fuzzy matching
• Filtering Based on File Attributes: The ability to exclude files based on one or more file attributes (Read-Only, System, Hidden)
• Unattended Folder Pair Execution: Addressed issues related to running scheduled folder pairs while logged off
• Folder Pairs With Shared Endpoints: Ability for folder pairs associated with the same or different instances of SyncToy to share end-points
• Command line enhancements: Added the ability to manage folder pairs via the command line interface
• The SyncToy engine has been rearchitected to provide scalability and the ability to add significant enhancements in future releases
• Sync engine is also more robust insomuch that many single, file level errors are skipped without affecting the entire sync operation
• Sync Encrypted Files: Sync of Encrypted files works when local folder and files are encrypted, which addresses the common scenario involving sync between local, encrypted laptop PC folder and remote, unencrypted desktop PC folder
• 64-bit compatibility
• Folder pair rename
• Sub-folder Exclusion Enhancements: Descendents created under excluded sub-folders are automatically excluded
• Folder Pair Metadata Moved: Folder pair metadata removed from My Documents to resolve any issues with server-based folder pair re-direction setup
• Removed combine and subscribe actions

So, stop reading and go and have a look.

If you just want to keep machines in sync automatically over the internet then check out FolderShare - a Windows Live service currently in Beta to keep files in sync and allow web access (secured of course) to any files you designate. Not to be confused with SkyDrive of course - that's a cloud storage space for you to dump files in manually... no synchronization, just convenience!

Recently I managed to do some damage to a Vista install (note to self - while resizing a partition from a Linux app works it's best to follow the instructions EXACTLY) and needed to run a repair.

Being a lightweight and ultra modern machine the one thing that was lacking was any sort of removable spindle media... like a DVD drive. That meant I needed to be able to create a bootable USB thumbdrive that I could copy my Vista ISO onto in order to run the repair (originally I'd used an external DVD drive but I didn't have it and needed my machine quickly) so... on my other Vista machine (everyone should have two computers) I fired up a command prompt in adminstrator elevated mode (find Command Prompt in the programs list, right click, "run as administrator" then followed these easy steps:

Run Diskpart at the cmd prompt and then enter these commands

• Rescan
• List disk (will list all your disks)
• Select disk # (where # is what you found from the previous step for your usb key)
• Clean
• Create part pri
• Select part 1
• Format fs=ntfs quick
• Active
• Exit

You USB key is now bootable and you can copy the contents of the iso across, plug it into the other machine, reboot and ... voila - I'm trying this from the repaired machine.