The techheads at Wired recently declared we’re in the “Petabyte Age,” in which massive quantities of computer storage can fundamentally change scientific research. Astoundingly, for just a couple hundred dollars, you yourself can own a terabyte of storage — just one notch below (a thousandth, in other words) the earth-shattering petabyte. (Just in case you aren’t good with the numbers, the terabyte holds 1 trillion bytes, or 1,000 gigabytes.) For a mere $220, for instance, Maxtor’s OneTouch 4 Plus can be yours, resplendent in brushed metal case and boasting a quiet operation that belies the muscular operations within. Just for your edification regarding the heft of a terabyte, entries on Wikipedia say that all of Walmart’s data is stored on 500 terabytes of data, and YouTube holds more than 600 terabytes of video. The Maxtor is compatible with both Mac and PC, the OneTouch naturally comes with backup software that stores duplicate copies of everything on your computer without your having to worry about it; it also can encrypt all that data for you, lest prying eyes want to snoop through personal records. Less common is its ability to sync data between multiple computers, eliminating the frustration that sometimes arrives when you’re in the middle of a project and realize you left an important phone number on your laptop at home. But backups and data-syncs are like laundry and dishwashing: Happily, having a terabyte at your disposal means all the chores can be done by one little corner of the hard drive while vast swaths of disk space are available for the good stuff: 1 TB, after all, is enough room to store a thousand hours of digital video (depending how it’s compressed) or nearly two years of continuous music. By the time you’re tired of all those songs, you’ll probably be able to afford a petabyte, which would hold enough music for the next two millennia.

There’s a long history in the audio-visual industry of fetishizing the little bits of gear that make the high-priced electronic components work together. If you’re going to spend a few grand on a stereo receiver, after all, you might look like an easy mark for salesmen hawking $100 Monster HDMI cable and 24 carat gold wire connectors — you might even be talked into spending $465 on a string of speaker wire with a “slender profile and jewel-like finish.” Who cares if the benefits of these hyped products are often dubious, with plenty of tech-heads providing hands-on analysis in exposés like this one. Consumer annoyance with this trend seems to have come to a boil recently, as influential blogs like Boing Boing Gadgets note that the luxury cable trend is migrating from A/V gear to mundane objects found in any computer user’s drawer. In response to Denon’s introduction of a 1.5 meter Ethernet cable costing $500 (pictured), Amazon users have taken to the barricades, using the site’s customer feedback system to post what BB describes as “perhaps the best Amazon reviews page of all time.” Scrolling through the list, Rob Beschizza found triumphs of facetiousness like a one-star review by a man who claims to “regularly spend over $1,000 on cables to get the ultimate sound” and warns readers that, if readers ignore Denon’s directions and accidentally plug the cable in the wrong direction, “your music will play backwards.” Others feign geeky ecstasy, praising the cable while wishing they could plug it into their own bodies or boasting that it moved data along with such speed the electrons left black holes in their wake. The cables also solve global warming, we’re told, and deserve “eleventy million stars.” Even for people who ignore customer reviews as a rule, the thread is well worth a read — and might even contain a few tidbits of non-sarcastic information.

“Life is difficult,” wrote M. Scott Peck in The Road Less Traveled. Some days are more difficult than others. The effect of stress on health is well-documented so it’s imperative that you find a reliable method for slowing down and relaxing. My tactic: Indulgence Day – kind of like spa day at home with truffles. It starts with a long soak in the bathtub, the at-home equivalent of a self-nurturing spa experience. Before sliding into the tub, light a scented candle. Le Cherche Midi ($50), is fragrantly reminiscent of an ocean-side retreat with beach grass and sundried driftwood and summer herbs. The appropriately named Ganesh Remover of Obstacles ($19.50) is scented with chamomile and lavender. A must-have is the Spa Sister bath pillow - or any number of other great at-home spa products at eBubbles. The pillows start at $7.50 and come in several soothing colors, including lavender. Consider this caddy with a magnified mirror ($65) for plucking eyebrows. Check out this caddy made with sustainable bamboo ($46.50, pictured), which has a place for your wine glass and a “Calgon take me away” girly book. Go to this site for a recipe for a cucumber face mask you can whip up in your kitchen and apply cold, straight from the fridge. Or head over to Perricone MD Pharmaceuticals for a firming facial mask and serum that promises to minimize the appearance of wrinkles and rejuvenate tired, stressed skin ($120 for set). Draw warm water into the tub and add essential aromatic oils and bath salts, including Therepe scented bath Salts (8 oz of Thai lemongrass ,$3). Use a long-handled bath brush ($125) to remove dead skin cells and invigorate the entire body.  After a nice long soak, dry off and wrap yourself in this fluffy Sonoma lavender spa robe ($135), made of soft microfiber plush, or the Diva Darling in pink ($68) with a shawl collar and generous patch pockets. Don’t forget the truffles (eight piece Godiva signature pack $16.50). Put on some relaxing music you love and breathe. Just breathe.

One of the things that distinguishes amateur woodworking from serious projects is sanding. If you’re willing to spend some time smoothing the edges, a do-it-yourselfer can make decent looking bookshelves without getting into any fancy joinery tricks. Sanding is also a prerequisite if you want to paint your project and have it not look like yard sale junk. But sanding is a huge time drain, and it’s hard not to blame a guy for skipping it. A new piece of hardware is intended to eliminate that step without diminishing the final product: The ominously named Final Cut blade sands cuts automatically as they’re made. The heavy-duty table saw blade has discs of sandpaper affixed to either side so that it power-sands as it slices (replacement sanding discs are available without the blade). Not only does that leave users with clean pieces of freshly cut work, it also allegedly cuts down on “kick-back,” the dangerous moments in which a board is pushed backward when it hits the saw incorrectly. Looking over sample cuts made on moulding, solid wood, laminated sheets and composition board, it’s hard to believe they came straight off a table saw. At $75 per blade, the FC isn’t cheap, but it’s not much more than high-end discs made by Ridgid and Craftsman — and that difference will seem pretty trivial if woodworkers suddenly find their projects taking far less time than they once did.

These kids today: They think all the world’s music should flow freely onto their computers and that musicians should work for the fun of it — don’t they? Well, maybe not. A new survey conducted in England (and given credibility by digi-savvy sites like Boing Boing) found that the majority of music fans between 14 and 24 (and 80 percent of those who currently swap files online) would be happy to pay for songs. The trick is, most won’t pay using the services that currently exist. Respondents evidently know what many iTunes customers don’t: That most files sold online come with burdensome restrictions and aren’t the highest quality possible; moreover, today’s commonplace pay-per-tune system makes it too expensive to try new music on for size. Instead, fans crave a subscription format — not one based on streaming music that can’t be downloaded, but one allowing files to be downloaded, stored on MP3 players, and burned to CDs. Though the survey’s summary doesn’t mention a price for this hypothetical service, it says respondents would “place a considerable monetary value on” it. Curiously, most of those questioned said they would continue to buy physical CDs even while paying for an ideal file-sharing system. One suspects they might even buy more than they do today, if only they felt that the record companies earning the proceeds had finally stopped viewing them as criminals and begun to understand their 21st-century relationship with music.

In less than ten years, CowParade fever has spread worldwide. Arguably the largest public art event in the world, CowParade has been staged since 1999 in more than 50 cities, including New York, London, Tokyo, Mexico City and Paris. The cows feature themes and artwork specific to the host city. After the cows are displayed in public places – such as train stations, parks – they are herded up and taken to auction. A substantial portion of the proceeds are donated to charity. Last month, Chinese officials put out a call for artists proposals for 2009 CowParade Taipei. You could even call CowParade a social mooovement for change. If you want to own a piece of this phenomenon, visit the CowParade store, a virtual mooseum where you can purchase ceramic figurine replicas of cows from official CowParade events. They can work as home décor accent pieces, gifts or just for fun. Check out Cowputer Girl ($40) featured in CowParade Instanbul 2007, Moo Moo in a Tu Tu ($23) from CowParade Las Vegas 2002 and Alphadite, Goddess of Shopping, from CowParade Manchester, England, 2004 ($27, pictured). The kitchen collection features 100% De Vaca ($23). Vaca De La Independencia ($27) would make a fetching centerpiece on your Fourth of July table. The Moo Potter ($112) is a large-scale piece of whimsical folk art that you could display in a den or sunroom. The cow is covered in hand-painted tea pots, cups and plates — she even wears tea cup earrings. For the art lover, the Moogritte ($66). For martial arts enthusiasts, Sam-Moo-Rai ($36). Create your own cow art with this set ($19). This affiliated site (scroll down) carries some of the most amooosing figurines, including Citizen Kow (Harrisburg, Penn.), Cowlumbus (Barcelona), Bovina at the Ice Cowpades (Houston), Cowbunga, Dude (Denver) and Cowbot (Boston).