Proposal: Select Bootable Images from USB

Prelude

A major deciding factor for the size laptops is the types of media readers they possess. Storage media such as SD cards, optical discs such as CD / DVD / BD (BluRay Disks), and of course, hard disks. If some of them could be removed from the chassis, laptops could be made more portable. Card readers can be replaced by USB ports, as almost every modern media recording device comes with the option. Hard disks are harder to substitute, but solid state drives are a move in the right direction. That leaves optical media.

Why Optical Media can't compete

I, for one, don't trust optical media for several reasons - They are:

• Non-reliable: They get scratched easily
• A Waste of money: They are much costlier than hard disks per GB of storage
• Inconvenient: It's not easy (if even possible) to stop copying data to them once the process has started and then resume copying later. You can't rearrange files in it after you're done, either.
• Non-Reusable: The most affordable - therefore popular - versions of optical media are read-only, and can only be dumped after their intended purpose. (You'd think there is a case for movie rentals - no, streaming is better. NETFLIX seems to understand the idea.)

The only possible situation where downloads can't be used as a replacement for optical media is in the case of bootable devices. If you have a recovery program that creates bootable disks, how do you boot from it without an optical drive?

Available Options

The only reason I use my DVD±RW drive has been to burn Ubuntu installer images onto CDs. Over the years, I've built up a whole stack of them. But recently, I stumbled upon UNetBootIn which enables the creation of bootable partitions on USB drives. Now, there is a 700MB partition on my external hard disk which I can boot from, to install or try out Ubuntu. The drive letter associated with that partition was removed, so that the drive doesn't show up in my drives list or start auto-play every time I plug it into my computer.

But there must be a better way than to have a dedicated partition for each image you want to boot from. Someone who happens to have a handful of bootable images shouldn't be forced to create dedicated partitions for each image. Given the delicacy required when changing partition tables, the chances of messing up are considerable. I should be able to plug in my hard disk, choose a bootable image from the disk, and boot from it!

Software Emulator

There are many ways to create multi-boot USB drives, such as Plop Boot Manager. However, they tend to be too complicated to set up. The simplest way of setting up a multi-boot USB hard disk that I can think of would work like this:

1. A software installer creates a small bootable partition on USB hard disk or thumbdrive,
2. Reboot and choose the USB as the boot device,
3. A file browser window opens with which you can select an ISO file stored anywhere on the USB, the computer, or a local network share and add it as a boot option 
4. Reboot and select the option to boot from it.

Dedicated Hardware

A little more involved, but much easier-to-use way of doing it would be to have a USB bridge with software on it to emulate a bootable disk, with the option to browse for ISOs as before. This proposed device would look like a USB thumbdrive, but will have a USB port on it into which storage devices could be plugged in. An adapter, if you will. If you want to boot from an ISO,

1. Copy the ISO to a thumbdrive or an external/portable hard disk,
2. Connect the drive/disk via the adapter to the computer,
3. Reboot and choose the adapter as the boot device,
4. Browse for the image and add it as an option,
5. Reboot and select the option to boot from it.

End Notes

1. Instead of a device, the circuitry and software could be integrated into the drives/disks themselves, but by using an adapter, the functionality could be used to boot from legacy USB storage devices as well.
   
2. A writeable virtual CD/DVD/BD burner would come in quite handy when dealing with software which directly write to the optical disks instead of giving an ISO you can burn yourself. The virtual disk driver should spit out ISO images, like how virtual PDF printers spit out PDF files when printed to. Ever heard of one?

Do let me know if you have come across something that is as easy as (or better) than this idea.

[Wishful Thinking] The perfect mobile device?

I want a mobile device (not just a 'phone') that:

• Supports reception and transmission all radio frequencies used worldwide (that means WiFi, radio, all the mobile phone freq.s, all the data freq.s (2G/3G/3.5G/4G/LTE et. al.)
• Captures 1080p ('Full HD') videos at 60fps and 12MP images with perfect low-light capture (output as clear as what a human eye could see at night), with extra bright flash (Infra-red capture? nah, v2.0, maybe),
• Captures HD audio with background noise elimination,
• Has fingerprint and retina scanners,
• Is rugged enough to keep working from -100 to +120 degrees celcius or under water upto 100m under the surface and immune to household chemicals of any sort,
• Has batteries that last 48 hours on a single charge on average normal use or 2 weeks on stand-by and charges from 0% to 100% in 2 minutes,
• Has 400dpi, 4-inch, 16:9 multitouch display,
• Can support up to 10TB of external storage (HDDs & such) through a USB (3.0) cable (For >64GB, may require connection to external power),
• Has SD card support upto 256GB and internal storage of 64GB
• Weighs under 200g and is less than 1.5cm thick
• has Physical buttons for camera, volume, screen lock, silent mode, media playback - all designed to prevent accidental presses,
• Has temperature sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity, ambient light, GPS, compass.
• Supports all media formats used in more than 1 million files worldwide (that should cover everything you would ever use)AND,
• Has hardware required to run all this fast and efficiently (at the same time, where applicable.)

Would you call it the perfect mobile device?

Apple cuts 8GB iPhone price to $399, Early Adopters of $599 phone left crying in streets.

Just after two months of its release, Apple has cut th price of the most hyped cellphone in the history of technology, the iPhone, by 33% from $599 US (~24,500 INR) to $399 US (~16,300 INR). We all know that technology gets cheaper with time, but this is ridiculous!

Those who were having second thoughts due to the high price tag of the iPhone will surely be much more willing to get one, but people who waited outside Apple stores for days on end to be the first in line to get one could be feeling ripped off.

Indians won't get to have one at least until a couple of years (unless they can get from the gray market). However, Rs. 16k for a touch-screen cellphone with an in-built iPod, not to mention dozens of high-profile websites having custom versions for just this phone, is as much bang-for-the-buck as it gets!

Source: Engadget

Update: After receiving 'hundreds of' emails from upset customers, Apple has decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. In an open letter to all iPhone customers, Steve Jobs justifies the price drop, saying that Apple is using the price drop to 'really go for' a wider customer base this holiday season.