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If portable hard drives can come in leather and real gold, then surely one can come in pastel.

The "Store-It Pro," which is available in sizes ranging from 40GB to 160GB, comes in pink or black for the ultimate hers-and-his geek gift set. Or, if it's just for the sake of expressing one's individuality, free engraving could make for some interesting statements as seen in the photo here on Techie Diva.

That, however, doesn't mean that the black version should be treated like a mud flap.

IBM is launching an initiative to give its corporate customers a way to measure and potentially monetize energy-efficiency measures in their data centers using an emerging form of currency.

The computing giant on Friday detailed a program that will let companies earn energy-efficient certificates, which are awarded after a company undertakes a project to lower its data center power consumption. It's part of its Big Green Innovations program to invest in clean tech.

IBM is partnering with Neuwing Energy Ventures to verify the amount of kilowatt hours reduced through data center makeovers.

Companies can either claim those energy reductions … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--The most important thing right now is to make sure no one gets hit by flying watermelons.

Under usual circumstances, this might be an odd concern. But I'm here in the Texas capital for Maker Faire, and the three organizers--Dale Dougherty, Louise Glasgow and Sherry Huss--just want to be sure that there are no safety issues with the fruit-launching trebuchet that has been set up on the west side of the event.

I've been riding around with Glasgow, Maker Faire's event producer, for a little while, hoping to see what she encounters in the course of … Read more

They're fast disappearing in my neighborhood. The Blockbuster shuttered a while back and only two of the five independent shops are left, but their days are numbered. For me it's like deja vu all over again, I remember in the '80s and '90s when record stores were dropping like flies. The real death knell came last year when Tower Records slid into oblivion, and I really miss the two NYC stores.

I think it's sad when local businesses whither and die, and we customers send our dollars and those lost jobs out of state. NYC is turning … Read more

Here's a potentially very useful service for traveling geeks: TripIt. If you forward your electronic travel confirmations (from the airline, the car company, the hotel, etc) to it, it will intelligently collate them all into one place, parse the information, and add related information as well, such as maps, weather, events (from Eventful) and photos of where you're going (from Flickr). The goal being to replace all your pages of printed confirmations with a single online page that has all the relevant info, nicely organized for you.

The TripIt "Itinerator" has a social function: If you … Read more

It was bound to happen: Two gadgets that act as remotes for each other.

That's right, the cleverly named "Find It" remote will locate your lost keys as long as their attached sensor is within earshot. But the opposite is also true (which, in our case, is far more important)--just click a button on the keychain, OhGizmo says, and your perennially misplaced remote will be magically found.

And it makes perfect sense that this latest invention should come from GE, which is apparently trying to corner the remote market with such creations as its "Flip&… Read more

Most software categories have their share of free and commercial, good and bad samplings. Screen capture applications, which are more powerful and specific than a PC's native Print Screen function, and which seem like they should be straightforward, are also a varied bunch.

I captured every pixel of my display a few times over while testing four screenshot products--FullShot, SnagIt, Gadwin PrintScreen, and ScreenHunter Free. Because we evaluators just love criteria, I looked at image quality, editing features, and ease of access--the quickest, most natural way to get from screen to a shareable image. Ready for some findings?… Read more

Like their real-world counterpart, a quickly jotted digital sticky note placed prominently on the desktop can be just the reminder or inspirational message you need. And it won't bulk up the landfill when you trash it.

Software sticky notes are simply movable widgets that contain text, and even the simplest possess some font, color, and formatting customization. Most of the apps I looked at let you add alarms, sounds, and hot key shortcuts. The more advanced programs are surprisingly powerful, adding sophisticated synchronizing features and management platforms to track notes and reduce desktop clutter.

Not all the sticky notes products are free (NoteZilla) , and not all the paid products are good (StickyNote). Here are six popular studs and duds you should take note of.… Read more

I'm sitting on the exquisitely uncomfortable benches in the San Francisco Metreon, listening to companies at the New Tech Meetup give their pitches. Two of them we've covered recently: AdPerk and Truemors. The news about Truemors: a Facebook port is forthcoming. The other three companies are also worth some bits:

Blabberize is a freaky little product that makes Monty Python-like animated graphics of faces from photos you upload. Then you upload a recording of your (or someone else's) voice. It syncs the audio or recorded speech to the moving mouth. Good for a laugh. Likewise the pitch. … Read more