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USB Swiss Army Knife
finno writes "The Register has a heads-up on a new Swiss Army knife by Victorinox. As the article says, 'Given that you can buy a Victorinox Swiss Army Knive with just about
every gadget known to man, from horse-hoof awl to Hubble Space
Telescope lens polisher, it's no real surprise that the company - in
association with flash memory outfit Swissbit
- is now offering cutting tools plus USB flash memory stick.' In my
home state of New South Wales, it is illegal
to be carrying a knife without a reasonable excuse such as 'the
lawful pursuit of the
person's occupation'. I got me a reasonable excuse now!"
Nice, except flash memory is just a start.
What I would really need is a combination pendrive, wi-fi, and bluetooth adaptor, and MP3/OGG player.
Currently I carry a seperate USB flash drive, and MA401 pen-style wi-fi transceiver. The lack of built in memory on the MA401 means I need to plug in the pendrive every time I need to load the drivers.
I need a 3 1/2 or a 5 1/4 disk to move my files around.
Maybe in the next version they can add this and DAT disk support.
Now I can be stopped at the airport for security violations AND supposed music piracy!
I have to use my pocket knife to operate the RO switch on my USB stick. Will this new knife have a detable device for setting it's own RO switch?
And if you thought that was boring you obviously havn't read my Journal ;-)
I want a Leatherman version with at least 512MB and it's bootable. I would pay decent money for that. Swiss Army Knives are toys, Leatherman's are tools. Never trust a tech without one.
I take it you work in technology? Then there is an easy way to prove you need a pocket knife for you job. I am constantly using my pocket knife to open boxes with parts, shrink wrapped software, and new computers. I also use my pocket knife to cut zip tie bundles and the like.
;)
Not being allowed to carry a pocket knife? In AU? Don't you need one to keep off all the crocs?
But I want to know why the SwissFlame isn't allowed for sale in the US.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Amazing how much we hear about the US trouncing civil liberties from people on that side of the pond, when they refuse to look around and realize they have NO rights left!!
..Is what I get when I try to load Victorinox at school. What are they afraid of, me attacking other students with Swiss Army Hubble Telescope polishers?
HEHE, silly NSW person!
Anyway the only concern I have is a) I already have a Swiss army knife and a pen disk and b) the pen disk I doubt would put up with the beating it would receive on a camp. (Though my pen disk recently survived a trip through the washing machine and dryer so I might revise that above thought later.)
I ate your fish.
from horse-hoof awl to Hubble Space Telescope lens polisher
They located these two attachments too close, if you ask me. Why, when I was cleaning the Hubble Telescope last week, I got the two mixed up. I hope no-one notices that huge gouge on the lens. The horse sure has shiney hooves, though.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
This reminds me of the USB Foreman Grill April Fool's Joke. However, this seems equally useful/useless depending on how you look at it. So, I guess my real question is, how do we know this is for real?
Well, this silly rule doesn't apply in my jurisdiction, but in my network rounds I always carry my trusty CyberTool. Bought mind at an airport in Belguim. Haven't met a machine this knife couldn't take.
Boy Scouts always taught me to carry a pocket knife, either in your car or pocket, you never know how useful it will be.
Now that's what I call cutting edge technology!
You know the author said in New South Wales it was illegal to carry a knife unless you need it for your job. God knows how many stores are held up annually by someone with a pocket knife. I mean really what would someone do? "Give me all your money, or I'll pick your teeth." Lighten up Parliment, I doubt that people with pocket knives will overthrow the throne.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
Wow. I like that ad for that new product "Internal Server Error". Good use of whitespace in the design. ;P
Un-news
Are you referring to the Windows 2000-enabled version of the Leatherman, affectionately known as the "Blue Knife of Death"?
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
...the blade mades it impossble to take on a plane. As someone that's about to travel with only 128MB of flash RAM (no laptop, no iPod), I'd think it would be handier if it looked to the Cybertool for a whole bunch of blunt(ish) stuff like the screwdrivers, pen or pliers.
I'd bet that devices like these give security officers, IP hoarders, and trade secret people the willies. The idea that someone (employee, vendor, or confident hacker) could walk into any office, stick their keychain USB drive into a PC and transfer files to/from an internal network is not too pleasant to contemplate. Seems like a great way to introduce trojans or snarf sensitive files. I wonder if some companies disable USB Mass Storage on their PCs to prevent this type of unauthorized access?
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Passes that kind of a law banning any kind of blade in any public place? It's the kind of law that can almost only be there to provide an excuse to throw more charges at someone - "He jaywalked, and he had scissors! Because this is his second offense, we'll be seeking the maximum of 12 months in prison."
fencepost
just a little off
... is the lack of a kitchen sink.
/. joke based on moving from Windows to Linux)
(Sorry, bad
It looks great, but for a PC technician, I hope they make one with a philips blade rather than scissors.
To a politician, one email equals one voter.
I don't know if it would be an issue or not, but how heavy is this thing? Generally it's not a good idea to plug things into your PC ports that are anywhere close to having a significant weight. I'd hate to bend or break my USB ports from plugging this thing in...
Check out the best P2P sharing website: MEDIACHEST.COM
I don't know. Could this be an early April Fool's hoax?
If the picture is accurate, it looks like the USB connector won't fit folded up. Looks like a bad cut & paste to me.
My Swiss Army Knife is with me constantly because it's so useful. Had it for years. I've lost the toothpick and the spring in the scissors, but it's still indispensible.
So, with the recent crackdown in the USA on small scale implements of terrorism such as nail clippers, I try to remember to put my knife in the glove compartment before a flight.
I forgot once. And I sure didn't want to give away my knife. The TSA inspectors must have 10 million pocket knives by now. What to do before getting in line for the security scan?
I found an fake potted plant in an isolated corner of the airport and hid the knife under some bark chips.
When I came back 3-4 days later I just picked it up on the way out.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
I saw an old guy at Ozzfest using it as a roach clip
I think that was Ozzy himself. Nothing helps take the pain of remembering that you destroyed your brain through drug-abuse than a little more self-medication.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Apparently you've got enough exceptions to keep yourself out of trouble:
Hopefully wood carving and popping bottle caps aren't illegal yet.
- Blade -- Every knife needs one. A combination large and small blade is nice but not necessary on this knife
- Scissors -- From cutting down labels to just about anything else, the Scissors are mandatory
- Phillips head screwdriver -- Or replace this with the socket set
- Flathead screwdriver -- Or replace this with the socket set
- Inanimate carbon-steel rod -- In place of the useless tweezers, for ejecting stubborn CDs or rebooting PDAs
- Micro-flashlight -- Built into the case, a small white LED bulb at one end is activated by pressing on a certain spot on the handle. The battery is stored in the case. I don't think any knife has this yet, but I know I've wanted it for ages. The light switch should be a toggle, so you don't have to keep holding it down while you're working.
That's all I'm looking for in a knife. I'd pay $100 for one like that, especially if they called it the Geekman.I read the internet for the articles.
In my home state of New South Wales, it is illegal to be carrying a knife without a reasonable excuse such as 'the lawful pursuit of the person's occupation'
I fail to understand how a society can function without pocketknives. I'll be sure to use paper shipping tape on the next thing I send to Australia.
who are those slashdot people? they swept over like Mongol-Tartars.
The law is similar in the UK. As in New South Wales, an exception is if a knife is a tool used for one's occupation. This is quite useful, since if I'm stopped by the police, I can explain that I'm a mugger and therefore the knife is a tool of the trade.
I used to carry a swiss army knife, but found it difficult to get leverage and even more difficult to get to small, recessed screws and the like.
"He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
how does it match up to the USB Toothbrush???
It's a "hoof pick".
Ignore it when it's needed, and you'll find out that tech is cheap compared to large-animal vets bills.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
... or a pointy stick?
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." -- George Orwell
10. DRM-enabled so you don't cut anything you are not licensed to
9. Large surface area on side with room for the Trump logo
8. "Martha Steward" edition. It slices, it dices, it puree's, and it has a file for jail bars.
7. "Matt Helm" special: knife inflates into full-sized bedroom complete with bed.
6. Built-in $29.99 cell phone backup battery
5. Special iPod opening tool for those rare occasions when you need to do battery work.
4. Linking feature to enable a Beowulf cluster of swiss army knives
3. "French Army Knife" version; opens wine with ease and aids in an easy retreat.
2. "Rush Limbaugh" attachments: knives only on the right side, contains secret compartment that holds up to 80 pills (one morning's supply).
1. FCC compliant - prevents carving of profane grafitti with its blades; and contains needle and thread to repair wardrobe malfunctions
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
I really hate the TSA. The ban on nail scissors is ridiculous. Any of my friends that are serious about martial arts could hurt someone much more badly with their hands (or a nice, heavy, blunt object, which *is* acceptable) than a dinky half-inch blade. I'll bet that if I was intent on smuggling a blade in, I could hide a much larger blade in something metal (come *on*...if there's a metal plate normally in some electronic device and someone slices the thing at a diagonal to produce a *big* blade, then puts the halves together, who is going to notice on an X-ray machine?).
Plus, I forgot about the nail scissors that I carry in my travelling case. It wasn't until the fourth flight that the TSA guy grabbed my scissors. Of all the pointless laws...
I can understand having to not have guns in carry-on. I can even consider large knives reasonable (You don't need your machete in-flight). However, taking pocket knives/keychain knives/nail scissors is just plain annoying. I'm sure the respective industries have done quite well, though...
May we never see th
According to the page you linked to, you don't need to buy a boring USB drive to let you carry the knife. Just keep a supply of beer bottles with you at all times and say you neeed the knife to open them!
Homme petit d'homme petit, s'attend, n'avale
Can't carry a knife? I always leave a rather large knife in my truck/vehicle, and most of the time I have a folding pocket knife on my belt. I've used it several times outside of work, even as a makeshift screwdriver.
:)
Well... I guess that's not as important as the 9mm hole punch I keep on the other side of my belt whenever possible.
-- Liberalism is a mental disorder.
The point about legal carrying of sharp edges raises another interesting point. I mean, have you ever tried stabbing anything with most penknives? You'd have more joy sticking a biro through someone's chest. (Yes, I realise there are some very high-quality penknives out there too.) Yet there's no attempt by many law-enforcement agencies to differentiate between a useful basic tool and a dedicated weapon. Rather similar to the data/MP3/filesharing situation.
Ph-nglui mglw'nafh Gates M'dna wgah'nagl fhtagn.
Now if extortion for the pictures I have on my flash stick doesn't work I can just stab the guy. Thanks Victorinox.
Haven't you heard of PKML? Pen Knife Markup Language. It's a mechanism for allowing you to describe the layout of your penknife.
(I can't seem to indent the above. Bummer.)
The knives use Bluetooth to announce each other to the other pocket-knife fans in the vicinity. This is useful because frequently you find that you don't have quite the right tool for the job --- but with wireless networking you can find a fellow knife-wielder who happens to have to right one. (It's also useful to try and find someone who hasn't lost their tweezers.)
It's a great way to pick up... uh, guys, too.
And it's encrypted, of course, because otherwise They will find out you have a pen-knife and confiscate it (US versions only).
If you're going to carry a knife, carry one that you abso-fucking-lutely KNOW will cut whatever it is you want to cut, in extremis, and not simply break or saw away uselessly....
I've carried Buck 110's for more years than I care to think about now, it is the only knife I'd be prepared to trust my life to, and it has in fact already almost certainly saved my life on two occassions (both times from drowning) when quite simply there was about 5 seconds to cut something or die.
Yes, it is now illegal to carry a knife such as a buck in the UK, doubly so when one's sole method of motorised transport is a motorcycle, but it doesn't stop me, because apart from it's every day uses opening packaging and so on, I know one day I will once again REALLY need to cut something and only uncle buck is good enough for me...
http://www.buckknives.com/
peace
http://slashdot.org/~GuyFawkes/journal
Take a look at These pics of items apparently confiscated in Sacramento.
coming out this spring or summer. You can see a picture of it here. Nothing about it at victorinox.com which is pretty lame for info on their own products. Nothing on swissarmy.com even though they have the the SwissTool Spirit in a printed brochure. The nice thing about SwissTool is the bit tool. The attached tools in a multi-tool are pretty much useless as far as I am concerned due to the awkwardness of using them. The bit tool, which uses standard 6mm or 1/4" bits, pretty much solves that. The redesigned bit tool for the Spirit not only looks like it could take more torque on the right angle socket but you could use a short bit of hex stock to make it a T handled socket tool. Sweet.
...and was considering buying a Leatherman.
Ergonmically the Vic is useless, too wide to be a screw driver, to hard to open the blades. I managed to wreck the wirecutter part, and parts of the pliers are starting to rust.
I'm not saying you are wrong about the Leatherman, just that I was hoping they were better, and if not, I can save some serious $$$
(Slashdot eats Euro symbols. Take $$$ and divide by ~1.2 to get what I was really trying to express)${YEAR+1} is going to be the year of Linux on the desktop!
If you pack a bunch of adult humans in a really small cage, and give them all swiss army USB devices...
Same principle on the guns/city thing; while I don't think it's correct - morally or legally - to infringe someones right to bear arms, if you pack them in like sardines they are going to start cutting / blowing holes in each other.
Of course, thats why I live someplace where I can open the door a few feet away from me and fire off a clip from my SKS and nobody is going to think twice about it, unless it's midnight.
We have, in general very intelligent, polite criminals in rural tennessee; the dumb ones got shot / eaten / gruesomely dispatched a long time ago and didn't reproduce.
Why, yes, I AM a Pagan Libertarian.
As for the pocket knife, that would be great but you can't carry it on an airplane anymore. I bet that sales of Victorinox have gone down since 9/11. I don't even know where mine is anymore, I used to carry it with me everyday.
Lasers Controlled Games!
If knives are outlawed, only outlaws will have knives.
Have to admit, I hadn't heard about this law before. I carry a Gerber multitool-whatever-they-call-it. It has a knife blade, but more importantly it has a #2 Phillips screwdriver tip, perfect for opening just about every PC case made. I already have my excuse.
Sleep is just a poor substitute for caffeine, anyway. -Bob Lehmann
Click here for more info on the USB Swiss Army Knife.
Kalashnikov is now offering an AK-47 complete with 120GB firewire hard disk. Never be caught off guard again! Not only is this weapon the choice of counter-government revolutionaries around the world, but now it stores over 15,000 MP3's.
bash-3.00$ uname -a
SunOS panda 5.10 Generic sun4u sparc SUNW,Ultra-2
I'd bet that devices like these give security officers, IP hoarders, and trade secret people the willies. The idea that someone (employee, vendor, or confident hacker) could walk into any office, stick their floppy disk into a PC and transfer files to/from an internal network is not too pleasant to contemplate. Seems like a great way to introduce trojans or snarf sensitive files. I wonder if some companies disable Floppy Drives on their PCs to prevent this type of unauthorized access?(bold=changes)
The point is, portable storage isnt new. And disabling it, is relativly simple.
It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
Wenger does offer one with a laser pointer built in. For a comparison of the two companies, see http://outside.away.com/magazine/200007/200007disp 3.html.
The "Sting" version glowed blue when it was near any Microsoft product?
Argh. I meant New South Wales of course. I realize we're talking about Australia here :-)
Sure is nice with this combination, but a nail file?! I mean, which geek out there regularily needs and uses a nail file? I would much rather have those small pliers to pull jumper tabs with.
Truth is, my combo of choise is a Swiss army knife, Space Pen (HP schwag), a LED Lenser flash lite and a USB memory fob that plays music. The USB memory will be outdated in about a year and a half and the flash light has already dropped the little rubber thingy on the switch. But i have had that same Swiss army knife for ten years, used it and abused it (and happily pulled little jumper tabs with the small pliers) and i won't leave home without it. Well, except for the plane.
You forgot lightsaber... honestly what good is such a device without a lightsaber?
Just for those who are a little confused, New South Wales is a state in the Commonwealth of Australia. Wales is a small country sitting right next door to England.
You'd probably have to explain that the sharp edges were for cutting away buggy code, the guard was to prevent you from becoming infected with a virus, and the ball n the hilt for beating worms into submission.
And if that doesn't work, behead 'em and claim you're a freelance executioner between jobs...
...and you run and you run and you can't stop what's been done...