A reader sent me a link to a great site called Think Geek, which is filled with all kinds of useful and ridiculous gadgets, from a CD/DVD shredder to a Zippo Lighter Spy Camera. Other goodies include USB Lava Lamps, a Swiss Army Knife with a USB flash drive, a USB Microscope, and a wristwatch with a built-in universal remote. Truly a site for the Maxwell Smart in all of us.
After Joe Konrath’s recent blog post about savings data, I finally dug out the flash drive I received from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit for giving a book talk last summer and used it. Of course, it helped that one of my disks containing about 20 pdfs of published magazine articles that I use as clips got corrupted (I have backup), but I decided to save essential materials like clips and novel manuscriptss and resume and financial records to a flash drive that I will perhaps carry with me. And the notion of a flash drive/Swiss Army Knife seems particularly appealing in that regard. Have data, will travel.
The one gotcha with USB Swiss Army Knives is that if you think of it as a USB device you may forget you need to pack it in your checked luggage and then see it confiscated at Security.
We’re on our second one.
I bought a watch with a flash drive from the site about 3 years ago. I used it every day when I was working between machines.
The 512MB USB knife is on sale now at CompUSA.com for $30 after rebate. I’m about to pick one up for my brother-in-law.
Also, Keith, they do make a version of the knife without any blades–airport safe. Plus, you can snap the USB drive out of the knife and just carry that if you prefer.