You’ll find it really hard to find one as small as 30-40GB today.

The smallest regular external drivve that I’ve seen advertised in a long time is 160GB. These will use normal desktop-type hard drives and will have a power brick that plugs into the wall.

There are some really small GB sizes today — they have notebook drives in them and are about paperbook size — and are usually designed to plug into your PS2 ports or 1 or 2 USB ports to get their power.

Read more in Getting an External Hard Drive

One of the questions I answered recently was about computer overheating. In this case, the individual wanted to know the “right” temperature for his processor — but he didn’t mention which processor he was using or its speed.

His underlying problem was that his computer would spontaneously turn off occasionally. This is usually an indication that the motherboard has shut down automatically to prevent overheating and damage to the CPU.

Many computers allow you to monitor the temperature of the processor, the power supply and perhaps other points, too. You may have to run a special program for your motherboard or computer to be able to see these.

The average temperature for the CPU depends on which processor you’re using. Each manufacturer has difference specifications. For that matter, each of their processor models and speeds has different specs.

Read more in Is Your Computer Overheating?

DesktopLinux.com has a great multi-part article where the author is installing Vista and Linux on the same computer for a showdown.

A Vista vs. Linux Matchup describes the installation, issues and compares Vista Ultimate and SimplyMepis 6.1, which is based on Ubuntu Linux.

So far, the articles in the series are “Part 1: Leveling the Playing Field, ” “Part 2: Dual-booting Vista and Linux” and “Part 3: Hardware Wars.” The series has more to go…

Reuters reported today that Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates said on Tuesday the company’s Windows Vista operating system had been incredibly well received.

This is strangely at odds with some of the other articles that I’ve read recently.

Companies like Dell are pushing Vista on many of their popular models. Retail stores with the usual set of prebuilt systems are all pushing Vista. Why not? It’s the first new Microsoft operating system in 5 years! For most people, new OS means New Computer! Yippee!

I ran across a great, positive review of Windows Ultimate.

Steven Cooper at MBReview.com wrote Vista Ultimate First Thought This is a very positive review, but I get the feeling that the author was attempting to be “fair.”

George Ou at ZDNet reports, based on an Arstechnica article, that Windows Vista Upgrade Edition will not permit “clean installs.”

For years, just to make sure we have completely clean installations, we have been able to boot an upgrade CD, insert our valid previous Windows CD to validate it, and then install Windows (95, 98, 2000, Me, XP) in a partition of our choice.

No longer. Now, we have to install Windows XP or Windows 2000 first — then upgrade it to Vista.  He also reports that there is one workaround — if you tell Vista to wipe the hard drive after validating an existing Windows XP installation, it will install as a clean copy.

Got a new hard drive? You’ll have to install XP first. Then, you can upgrade it to Vista.

What brain-dead, clueless idiot thought up this?

ZDNet has an interesting article by David Berlind about Intuit’s Quickbooks and its incompatibility with Windows Vista.

More interesting is George Ou’s article, quoted and linked from there, that puts the problem squarely on Intuit — who apparently decided long ago not to make the application capable of getting certified for Windows XP. Unfortunately, those same things that were “no-no’s” in Windows XP are now blocked in Windows Vista. Seems like Intuit was sending communications to other applications via the Windows Registry…