It's All In The Cards!!
by Gary Woods

It all started with my first digital camera. In order to get the pictures stored on my Smart Media card out of the camera I attached a cable to the camera and ran it into my computer. This got old fast so I came up with a Floppy Disk Adapter. I placed the card in the adapter, then into the Floppy Disk receptacle. This actually worked really well for a long time.

But, then I got a new 4 mega-pixel camera with a 256 Megabyte Smart Media card. At that point my Floppy Disk Adapter bit the dust. To get the pictures out of my new camera I once again attached a cable to it and fished around in back of the computer for a USB port.

A short time later I got a PDA with a Memory Stick for storage, then I got a PDA with something called a Secure Digital card and finally some other device with a Compact Flash Card for storing stuff.

It was pretty obvious that I needed some sort of solution to get my stuff from where it was to where I wanted it to be. What I found is the SanDisk http://www.sandisk.com 8-on-1 Memory Card Reader. This device has slots for 8 different types of memory cards and allows you to swap data from card to card without even copying it to the computer. For $39.99 you gotta' get one of these.

If you have any suggestions or questions for me please drop me a note at garyandlaury@santabarbaraproperties.com or see my column on the Internet at http://www.santabarbaraproperties.com or call me at (805) 729-0910