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The Swiss Army Knife of USB Drives
Mudzy writes "The Tech Zone reviews what has to
be the coolest Swiss Army Knife ever made. The Swissmemory USB Victorinox is the
first knife to be equipped with a USB flash drive. " Besides 64 or 128mb of data, it includes such useful items as a ballpoint pen, red light, scissors, nail file, and not surprisingly, a knife.
These have been available from Thinkgeek for a while now. They also make a "travel version" without those fearsome weapons of mass destruction. (Meaning the scissors, nail file and that itty-bitty knife.) Not that the travel version is necessary, since the USB drive is removable.
===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====
Until you can't take it on a plane with you.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
Shot by an airmarshall whilst trying to back up my data
a) Hasn't this been out for a while? b) Why do I want a USB drive I can't take on a plane?
Swiss army knives traditionally used out in the wild on camouts, hiking, fishing trips, etc.
The concept of this gadget is cool, but could someone enlighten me to the uses of a USB flash drive out in the wild?
Thinkgeek, OWNED by OSDN if I'm not mistaken, has been selling USB swiss army knives for months now.
/. has happily traded in sanity for advertising dollars?
Is it obvious to anyone else that
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
I have to wonder how this thing would hold up, though. I'm rough on pocketknives, and while it's true that there aren't many parts, I don't think it would take me long to render the flash drive useless.
Well, the site's already /.'d, but 64 or 128MB? I picked up a 128MB Lexar Sport a few weeks ago 'cause it was cheap, and have already found times when it wasn't enough memory.
Too little, too late.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Specifically, it can be used to circumvent the process of blood traveling through the aorta.
...storage devices.
I always have it with me, and it has my emergency backup documents plus it functions as an emergency boot disc. It also has all my contacts, registrations, passwords etc. Obviously it functions as a transfer disc too. The only thing it doesn't do well is function as a card reader, which would be the icing on the cake. Oh yeah and it plays music.
I have a nice SAK that I use for back country camping, during which time the USB drive does not get much of a workout.
I'm not wrong. You haven't thought about it hard enough.
They should have used the dual xeon pocket knife.
You can backup your data and file your nails. If you do it that the same time, you're going to look silly rubbing your laptop over your fingers.
I'm not a doctor, but I play one in bed.
OK I just about understand this that its a good idea in that you won't forget both the USB and knives. However what next? Prehaps an ice-cream make with built in WiFi. The point is though its cool do we really need it?
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
Don't know about you lot, but I'm quite happy having them seperate. I've got a 15 year old swiss army knife. It's been soaked/dropped/heated and been through every other possible mistreatment and it's still great. I don't see one of these coping with that.
Will 128mb still be enough space for useful storage in 15 years, will we still have USB?
My way I only ever buy top quality tools and keep them many, many years. My technology I can replace whenever I like.
It's not only old news, it's also a dupe.
it includes such useful items as a ballpoint pen, red light, scissors, nail file, and not surprisingly, a knife.
Okay a few things:
1. Wow, a red light! Thats so...useful?
2. What the f*ck does a techie that buys this need a NAIL FILE for?!?!
As everybody seems to point out, you can't take it on a plane, which makes me wonder: How much do you think security issues have hindered sales of products of this nature? How long before victorinox starts selling swiss army knives without any type of blade? If they did, would they still call it a Swiss Army knive? And even if they did, how many times do you think the security guy would tell you that you can't bring it in only because it has the Swiss Army icon? Hmm.....
Wierd that they didn't make a variant of the Cybertool with USB, since it is actually targetted at computer support people. A generic swiss army knife with USB doesn't make sense.
- Posted via Danger HipTop2 / T-Mobile Sidek!ck II -
Back in the day when MacGyver got stuck in that "smart building" and got attacked by dalek robots, he had to devise all kinds of things to stop them... if he had this he could have done a Jeff Goldblum-esque "upload virus" from his Swiss Army knife and have the rampaging robots under his control!
"Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it." -- Linus Torvalds
The USB memory is only the first step. Now put a little GPS reciever in the knife, and let me load the USB memory with maps of the area I am camping/traveling in. It would need a little LCD screen to show basic roads or trails as well I suppose.
Basically I am looking for a leatherman, combined with a Garmin Etrex (or your favorite GPS). Now that would be useful...
All I ask for in a knife is:
- A blade
- A large flathead screwdriver/bottle opener
- Small flathead screwdriver/can opener
- Philips head screwdriver
- 256M+ USB stick
- Built in Photon III, preferably in White
- Scissors
That's all I want. Is it really too much to ask for?I read the internet for the articles.
Well-kempt geeks?? *guffaw*
MCSEs
Dunno about the USA but in the UK we have the same rules... and penknives tend to come into the safe category. Also, the fact that a penknife is not a locking knife means that you're able to carry it if it is useful for your job, etc. I always have a 2" penknife on me for cutting cable ties, opening bottles, etc.
And it only cost you 400 bucks!
Awesome!
A 120gig HDD and USB2.0 enclosure would run you about 80 if you shopped smart. And it won't overheat if you actually try to use it as a HDD for any extended period of time. I've seen them used as HDDs, they get real hot. And they don't charge over USB. And the batteries arent replacable.
Backups you always keep with you? Burn it on to a business card sized CD. Total cost? About a buck including a nice little hard-case that fits in your wallet.
Why do slashbots keep modding up people who tout the virtues of a $400 dollar iPod as a $90 external drive, when it's really a pretty miserable external storage solution.
I could tolerate the endless Mac advertarticles, and even quietly ignore people who claim Apple invented (well, anything really). But come on, this is supposed to be a geek tech site.
Yeah, you can use an iPod as an external HDD. But you shouldnt because it sucks at it. Actually pretty much any mp3 player can do the task. I can use my cell phone as a USB drive and mp3 player, but I dont go around recommending people piss away 600 bucks on the thing to back up their files.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
How does the Swiss Army defend itselves against Nazis, Commies, and Al Queda with those itty-bitty knives? Do they know something we don't?
Best Buy can have you arrested
It looks like the USB Knife is on the same pattern of the executive line, so that's just about a two-inch blade, but most Swiss Army knives have bigger blades; around three or four inches. My old favorite was the Tinker because it had a phillips head screwdriver. (Honestly, did anybody ever use that stupid corkscrew?) But I've since replaced it with a Leatherman because of the pliers. Unfortunately, it looks like the only part of the Leatherman line that has blades of two inches or less are the Squirt, Micra and Mini-tool.
===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====
you know you're on the cuting edge of technology when Stuff and Maxim have both already covered your articles in print. come on, this is retarded. raise your hand if you didn't already hear about this. everyone else, reach over and smack those people.
"the wheel".
Overall the gadget is great, has been very useful. Oddly I think the ballpoint pen has gotten a fair amount of the use, but it's great having some portable storage. I was on vacation last week and it was perfect for use at Internet cafes.
I tried to get Firefox installed on it however it's not fully working yet, but I'm sure that's my fault.
"Luck is the residue of design" -- Branch Rickey
Geeks have plenty of uses for a knife. I've spliced together hundreds of electrical connectors and done many many other computer maintenance tasks with nothing other than a small knife, mostly because it was what I had with me. From troubleshooting your car's electrical system in a snowstorm to cutting off a frayed shoelace, not too many items are as useful as a swiss army knife.
Some other posters have hit the nail on the head regarding the portability of this item... They simply can't be taken with you when travelling by air because the airport security terrorists will steal it from you, fine you if you complain, and detain you if you press them for such details as the name or badge number of the goon who stole your stuff.
But for those who don't have to travel by air, this little gadget would be a very cool and useful thing to slip into your pocket. Add come-as-you-are antivirus and other system recovery services to your list of things you can do without any other hardware or tools. Neato.
I've now got two of these in my wallet. They are about the only USB drives thin enough to allow this.
t ick+usb&btnG=Search+Froogle
USB1 version has a write-protect switch and an activity light. USB2 version doesn't have a switch but fewer moving parts on something so tiny is probably a good thing. (I'm not affiliated with PQI. I just like their stuff.)
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=intelligent+s
http://www.pqi1st.com/products/istick.asp
Does anyone know of cross platform security software for removable drives? PGP/GPG doesn't count!
--
"Extra Anus Kills Four-Legged Chick" -- Headline
Or I'll slice you!
Learn About Outsourcing. http://www.pioutsource.com
I'm lazy. And I carry too much crap as it is.
A 120gig HDD and USB 2.0 enclosure will generally need an external power supply. That's more bulk than an iPod.
I have a Mac. Lots of people do. Many Macs have slot-loading drives which will *die* when you try to use a business card CD.
I'll grant you that the iPod is not the best portable storage device, but it's a damned good music player that happens to pull double duty. Why bother carrying more crap than you need?
Raptor
"Procrastination is great. It gives me a lot more time to do things that I'm never going to do."
This was on /. six months ago.