If you have a USB flash drive that you use to transport files easily, you might be interested in one of Microsoft’s latest free downloads, SyncToy 1.0.

This tool in another in Microsoft’s popular PowerToy line of small downloadable utilities for Microsoft Windows. SyncToy makes it easy to synchronize the contents of two folders, such as those on your flash drive and those on your desktop PC.

Now you can make sure that everything you were working on in those synced folders on your desktop will be immediately available on your portable thumb drive.

Upgrading my Netflix account today from five discs out at a time to six, I paused at the the thought of just how much of my entertainment is rented versus being outright purchased.

I get two discs of video game entertainment out at a time from GameFly and most of the music I listen to on an average day comes streaming through a monthly account through Rhapsody.

I used to be opposed to the idea of entertainment that you didn’t own, but the reality of the situation has started to change my way of thinking. I still buy games, movies and music, but only for products that I know I’ll watch or play quite often.

However, for games I’m unsure of or movies that I’ll only watch once or twice, it’s not only cheaper to rent as part of one of those services, but it also makes for less clutter as I don’t have unused boxes of discs sitting on a shelf taking up space.

The same is true for music through Rhapsody. I have several gigs of ripped audio tracks that often just sit on my harddrive doing nothing. While harddrive space is getting cheaper every day, I’m just as happy streaming something across my high-speed broadband connection. It’s one less thing to slow down disc defragmentation and something I don’t have to worry about backing up.

If you’re dreading the next few months of cold, snowy winter weather like I am, you might want to look into a hot chocolate machine like Mr. Coffee’s Cocomotion.

It’s a $20 pitcher-like device in which you pour your cocoa mix powder and milk for up to four cups and then press the start button. The device then mixes and heats your hot chocolate automatically, allowing you to pour it’s wonderfully frothy mix directly into awaiting mugs.

Fans of old-school video games will probably appreciate this well-crafted MK vs SF2 Flash video.

It starts out slow, but the fight scenes are wonderfully executed.

Evan Erwin has a “funny because it’s true” blog entry on his site entitled Top 10 System Administrator Truths.

There’s nothing there that anyone who’s ever been responsible for supporting computer end-user doesn’t already know, but sometimes it’s good for the soul to repeat these things and commiserate with others.