They say that you can never have too much memory (in your PC), but with 32-bit Windows XP and Vista you can.

On machines with more than 3GB of RAM, Windows XP and Vista will report total System memory (RAM) of less than 4GB, often considerably less.

So why is this? Oversimplified, ranges of physical memory are shadowed to support devices in a PC, and above 3 GB larger chunks of memory are used. Daniel Rutter explains it quite well on his Blog “Dan’s Data” in the article “Ask Dan: What’s with the 3Gb memory barrier?“.

The Microsoft knowledge base article No 929605: “The system memory that is reported in the System Information dialog box in Windows Vista is less than you expect if 4 GB of RAM is installed” explains how memory above 3GB is used. Naturally Vista Service Pack 1 has a fix - knowledge base article no 946003: “Windows Vista SP1 will report 4 GB of system memory (RAM) on systems that have 4 GB of memory installed“. Of course this is “a reporting change only“, so the actual amount of RAM is reported corrected, but large chunks above 3GB are still used in the same way.

Basically what this all boils down to is that on a 32-bit Operating System, more than 3GB of RAM is a waste. So the HP (Hewlett-Packard) Pavilion dv9810us Notebook with 3GB of RAM has enough RAM, not too much.

My previous blog about Memory Cards got me thinking, so here is more about Memory Cards:

Physically the largest memory card available is the CompactFlash Card. This format has been around since 1994, and is still popular in high end digital cameras. The largest capacity currently available is 32GB, with Samsung having announced a prototype of a 64GB CompactFlash card in 2006.

On the other end of the scale, the tiny, fingernail-sized microSD Card is physically the smallest. I always get a bit nervous when handling a microSD card as I’m concerned I may drop it and never find it again. Fortunately microSD cards are almost always packaged with SD Card adapters, so they can be read in SD Card readers. MicroSD cards are mainly used in cellphones, portable media players and handheld GPS devices. The largest capacity microSD (actually microSDHC – High Capacity) card currently available is 8GB.

Somewhere in between the microSD and the SD card format is the miniSD card format. It was originally intended for use in cell phones, digital cameras and MP3 players. It seems to be slowly being supplanted by the microSD card.

Some card manufacturers have a neat product which can be used as a microSD, miniSD or SD Card – like the SanDisk 2GB microSD Card with miniSD and SD Adapters.

The first time I came across a memory card was with my first Palm-OS based PDA, the Sony Clie PEG-S300. This was Sony’s first Palm handheld, and it shipped with an 8MB Memory Stick, which was about the size of a stick of gum. This Sony 32MB Memory Stick looks almost identical to that first 8MB Memory Stick. Only a few years later I used a 128 MB Memory Stick with a Sony Clie NX60. A flash update allowed the use of the new Memory Stick PRO format which started at 256MB. From there the Memory Stick spun off into multiple variations (see the “Memory Stick” article in Wikipedia). Nowadays the Sony PSP uses the Memory Stick Duo and Memory Stick Pro Duo format.
Although the Sony memory Stick is produced by other manufacturers like Sandisk and Lexar, they are almost exclusively used in Sony branded digital cameras, PDAs, cellphones. The Sony VAIO line of personal computers includes Memory Stick slots.

When Sony pulled out of making Palm PDAs, I switched to Palm branded handhelds. These, and most Windows Mobile handhelds use the Secure Digital Card format. The postage-stamp sized Secure Digital Card format supports capacities from 8 MB to 2 GB. The SDHC card supports sizes from 4GB to 32GB (see the blog entry “SD, SDHC Cards, Say what?“).

There is just no space to go into the myriad of card formats here: CompactFlash, SmartMedia, miniSD, microSD and many other variants. Wikipedia’s “Comparison of memory cards” has an extensive table and comparison of memory card formats.

Computerworld recently ran a fascinating review of a bunch of USB flash drives with built-in security. That’s a good thing to think about. You might use these little devices to keep all kinds of valuable data – and they’re easy to misplace. I do it all the time. That’s why security is so important on these devices. The idea is that for a bit more money, you can ensure that whoever finds your lost USB drive won’t be able to do anything with it or its content.

The reviewers use Pricegrabber.com to provide pricing information about each of the seven drives they evaluate.

On that topic, the least expensive model tested was the 1GB Corsair Flash Padlock, which also is available in 2GB and 4GB versions. Unlike the other USB drives considered, this one uses a combination lock to secure its contents. (Out of the package, it comes unlocked and can be used as a standard device without security.) Interestingly, reviewer Lucas Mearian includes a sidebar that describes his attempt to remove the padlock and access the data. Yes, he succeeds!

The most expensive USB thumb drive evaluated was the 8GB Kingston DataTraveler Secure, which also comes in lower capacity editions. It offers 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption. From the description in the article, this one sounds like it’s probably a government favorite. Just look at that straight-as-an-arrow gray body! In fact, the word, “fortress,” is used at least once to describe it in the review.

I’m not going to divulge the ending of this particular drama by telling you which drive comes out on top. Let’s just say that layering in security matters. The more ways you can use to keep prying eyeballs out of your stuff, the safer it is. Plus, you don’t have to spend a fortune but you do have to spend a bit to play securely when it comes to flash thumb drives.

Earlier this week at the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2008) in Las Vegas, SanDisk announced a 12GB microSDHC (High Capacity) card, which will be available later this year.

Sandisk also announced a 32GB version of its Sansa View Media Player. However, another 32Gb flash based media player, the Creative Zen 32GB had already been announced in November last year. This brings the capacity of flash-based Media Players in line with the previous generation of hard drive based players, which started at 30GB.

Now with the 12GB microSDHC card, you can increase the capacity of your 32GB Sansa View to 44GB, for a yet to be announced price. As for the 32GB Creative Zen, it has a SDHC (Secure Digital high Capacity) expansion slot, and the largest SDHC Card currently available is 16GB, with a 32GB prototype SDHC already being shown by Panasonic at CES this year. So the 32GB Creative Zen could be increased to a total of 48GB of storage, and in several months that would be 64GB of flash memory total. All this in a flash player the size of a credit card. In comparison, the Sansa View is large for a flash-based MP3 Player, rather like an oversized rounded version of SanDisk’s popular e200 series of MP3 Players.

Of course microSD cards are not only used in MP3 Players, but also in cellphones and cameras.

That was my first reaction when I first saw the acronym SDHC. I knew SD meant Secure Digital, which is a type of Flash memory card like the Compact Flash Card or the Sony Memory Stick. Apparently, the acronym SDHC means Secure Digital High Capacity. Since Secure Digital Cards are used in devices as diverse as PDAs, Digital Cameras and Camcorders, Gaming Consoles like the Sony PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii, and even MP3 Players it is important to know whether your devices supports SDHC.
This is especially so since SD and SDHC Cards look physically alike:

If I was to buy the Kingston 8GB SDHC Memory Card, thinking that I could add 8 GB to my Palm TX I would have a problem – the Palm TX does not support SDHC cards. I could use the Kingston 2GB Secure Digital Card on a Palm TX, but not a 2 GB SDHC Card.

The reason is that SDHC cards use a different memory addressing method than standard SD Cards. SDHC cards only work in SDHC compatible devices, but standard SD cards work in both SD and SDHC devices.

To try to clarify which devices work with which Card, SanDisk has a website: SanDisk SDHC, which lists SDHC Compatible Devices. Of course since this is a SanDisk website, SanDisk Cards are recommended. For more neutral information, the SD Card Association has a webpage about SDHC Memory Cards.

This Christmas I was going to get a Desktop computer. I had been planning for it since March. However, I was enticed by another gadget. Of course I had to make a choice between the gadget or the Desktop Computer. I couldn’t get both as the gadget is rather expensive, although nowhere near the price of a computer. So, despite common sense, the gadget won. What is it? A secret until Christmas of course. So the Desktop Computer is being delayed for a another special occasion.

As for the Desktop Computer, I was looking at a Dual Core Pentium with between 3-4 GB RAM, a discreet graphics processor (as I need to do a fair amount of video processing), a hard drive of at least 250-300GB, and a 17 inch LCD Monitor . Something like a customized Dell Inspiron 530 Desktop or HP Pavilion A6250t Desktop.
For the Operating System, I would like to have the option of running Windows Vista later - but probably run Windows XP initially until Vista Service Pack 2 is released. The reason for this is that I have heard of so many problems from people using Vista, mainly stability issues.

Instead, for my current Desktop Computer, I’m hoping to upgrade the RAM to 2GB from 512MB to tide me over, but I’ll leave the Operating System at Windows XP.