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A hard drive, or hard disk drive (HDD), is the storage device you use in your personal computer (PC). These are non-volatile storage devices used to store the data of your computermeaning you can be assured that whatever data is stored in these devices, it cannot easily be erased. However, there is no guarantee that your hdd would not encounter problems causing it to crash and causing you to eventually loose your data.

Inside the hdd, there are many mechanisms that move around to perform read and write functions. The hdd is made of rotating platters, commonly called disks. Each of these platters has a planar magnetic surface where the data is stored. This data is sent to a read-write head, which sends an electrical charge, executing the transaction. These moving parts and electrical charges could possibly cause the breakdown of your hdd, but manufacturers have already designed firmware into the hdd to allow more efficient scheduling of reads and writes if the hdd surface and the remapping of sectors of the disk fail. Also, hdd manufacturers have collaborated with motherboard makers in developing the Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology, or S.M.A.R.T., that can warn you of possible failures, allowing you to make necessary backups before data loss occurs.

An hdd is accessed with the following bus types: ATA (which includes IDE and EIDE), SATA, SCSI, SAS, FireWire (or IEEE 1394), usb and Fibre Channel. Aside from the connection, you have to select your hdd by the capacity, nowadays measured by gigabytes; the physical size, normally, if you are using a desktop, you would need a 3.5 hdd, whereas 2.5 is what you would use for a laptop; the reliability or the estimated number of uses before you hdd fails; speed or the number of reads and writes per second; power consumption; transfer rate; random access time; and the G-shock rating, which is very important if you plan to travel with your hdd a lot.

What ever happened to that game console we used to call the Sega Dreamcast? Why did it suddenly disappear after 2 years of production? Was the government involved in brainwashing our minds like in George Orwells 1984? All these questions will be answered as I investigate the Dreamcast's devastating decline.

Introduction

In the beginning it was good. Sega released a solid piece of hardware called the dreamcast that was easy to develop games for and kicked the competition's rear ends in terms of graphics and sound. It entered the market with a strong start, selling quite well upon its release. Although the dreamcast lacked 3rd party support, Sega's games were aplenty and the very best in quality. Sega seemed to be heading in the right direction, but two years later the company abruptly discontinued the dreamcast.

There were 3 main causes to the downfall of the dreamcast.

1. Piracy Issues

The dreamcast had a serious hardware flaw which gave it the ability to play copied games and downloaded ones from the internet. Many people chose to play the pirated versions of the games rather than shell out $40-$50 at a local gaming store for the real thing. As a result, Sega was losing money on the games that its developers had spent hours designing. I call that a sad waste of talent.

2. Loss of Faith in Sega Brand

Before the dreamcast, there was the Sega Saturn, an absolute failure. At that time, Sega was releasing new add-ons and consoles so often that nobody wanted to buy the Saturn because they feared Sega would introduce a new console and cut off game development with the current one. They were right. Sega soon released the dreamcast and rather than gain customers, it gained a bad reputation. The media attacked Sega and denounced the dreamcast with suspicions and doubts. The trust that Sega had once set up was now broken and people lost faith in Segas ability to produce game systems.

3. Overhype of the ps2

The #1 selling game console in 1999 was the Sony PSOne, so naturally people were hyped up about ps2. I definitely was. ps2 was the buzz in the gaming industry. It was said to have more superior graphics, sound, and games than any of the consoles at the time. Meanwhile, the dreamcast was already out in stores and shared similar hardware specs as the ps2, which would not be released until one year later. People overlooked the dreamcast because they were all so overhyped about ps2 when really the two had many similarities.

Given that it will rain, on average, 3 days a week and the average golfer will play at least one round of golf a week, you can reasonably assume that youre going to be spending some time playing in the wet, or the wind, or the cold. Or all three. So you need rain gear thats up to the challenge.

But if you forget about the terms waterproof, windproof, breathable for just a moment theres one other basic criteria that all rain gear should fulfil: it has to be comfortable.

Your rain gear can be made of the fanciest techno-fabric on the market, but if all youre thinking about is how its chafing under the arms, or its too tight across the back, how it rustles when you walk and screams when you swing, then you can be guaranteed that your mind is not where it should be: on your game.

And heres where outerwear manufacturers have really excelled. not only have they created waterproof fabrics that breathe like a second skin they move like a second skin as well.

And not only is the fabric itself supple enough to accommodate a golfers every move, but thankfully someone, somewhere has put a lot of thought into the actual construction or design of modern golf wet-wear.

As a result, when shopping for your ideal rain suit youll come across all sorts of nifty features like articulated knees to aid movement of your legs, stretch mesh lining for extra flexibility, and panels of super-stretch waterproof fabric across the back to help your swing flow without restriction.

Lets face it: the best kind of wet weather wear is the kind that you can almost forget you are wearing. That way you can focus on whats really important instead of worrying about the weather or feeling that you have to rush your shots to finish your round before the heavens open.

For the very best in Waterproofs visit your local Foremost PGA golf professional

James Langmead PGA Qualified golf professional and former callaway club fitter of the year http://www.thegolfshoponline.co.uk