http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/ Engadget Comments for Kanguru intros pricey standalone USB Duplicator http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/Dec 13th 2007 7:56PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/Dec 13th 2007 7:57PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/Dec 13th 2007 8:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/
Geek Squad, we got a BSOD

MOVE OUT! *they all pull out thier usb sticks*]]>Dec 13th 2007 8:17PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/Dec 13th 2007 8:20PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/Dec 13th 2007 9:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/Dec 13th 2007 8:28PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/
Its pretty stupid if you ask me.]]>Dec 13th 2007 8:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/Dec 13th 2007 8:49PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/
You know, actually, I must be wrong. Silly Microsoft wasting all their money on factories pressing CDs of Vista. Why not just have someone in China individually copy each DVD with some software and an ISO, and some Wal-Mart DVD Rs? You have the best ideas, man!]]>Dec 13th 2007 9:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/
Pressing discs and copying information from a usb drive are two completely separate projects. When is the last time you saw a cd burning hub? Exactly.

Anyone could purchase a few cheap usb hubs and create a simple batch file to copy all the information to each drive. Although this device takes out the middle man (a computer) it is nowhere near cheap enough to warrant it.]]>Dec 13th 2007 9:51PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/
You can make a script that copy&paste automatically each time a blank drive is inserted

And, who said it saves you human intervention?

A human is needed to physically swap the USBs

If you have a robot that swaps them on this thing, I don't think it will be that of a problem to re-program the robot to swap them from the HUB...]]>Dec 13th 2007 11:50PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/
Sure you can get a big hub and manually copy everything over in a clucky and messy way and if you only need it once, do that. If you do this often, in an commercial environment, this does make sense.

It would be faster if it truly copies all 10 drives simultaneously verses a computers traffic conflicts on so many drives...
M
]]>Dec 13th 2007 8:36PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/Dec 13th 2007 8:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/
Step 1) Fill up hub ports
Step 2) Push Up, Enter.
]]>Dec 14th 2007 10:00AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/
It doesn't take much to type dd /dev/usb001 /dev/usb002 (not only that but dd is TRUELY unaware of the data being copied, it's a bit per bit copy) a few dozen times and given the price they are asking I would wager you could pay yourself quite the wage to do it. Heck you would spend more time plugging and unplugging than hitting the up arrow a dozen times.]]>Dec 13th 2007 8:37PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/Dec 14th 2007 11:26AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/Dec 13th 2007 8:45PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/Dec 13th 2007 11:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/Dec 13th 2007 9:30PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/
For example if you wanted to offer live mp3 of the concert someone just attended this drive can put them on flash drives so they can by one on their way out. ]]>Dec 14th 2007 4:00PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/
Stupid product, it's the answer to a problem that never existed.]]>Dec 13th 2007 10:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/Dec 13th 2007 10:51PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/Dec 13th 2007 10:51PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/
then again i like the eeepc dongle version

cheaper and way more uses]]>Dec 13th 2007 11:32PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/
USB Flash Drives - http://www.aleratec.com/al1usbfldrco.html

USB Flash Cards - http://www.aleratec.com/al16flmecaco.html]]>Jan 8th 2008 8:17PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/
Sure there are a lot of peeps that can find ways to automate on a linux machine for cheap. Problem is that if you are in the market for one of these products, you probably don't have the technical expertise or the time.

Technicians, Programmers, and Linux Geeks are very poor critics of products. These product lines were not made for us. Of course we could find a way to do it cheaper, faster, better. But then if we had the balls we would make a product and charge for it.

Do you want to sit there for hours doing it? Probably not. Do you want to pay some kid $7 an hour to do it for you? Most Likely.

Do you think a kid that could use the DD command on a Linux box would sit there and do it for you? Hell No.

Do you think some kid, that didn't know his ass from a hole in the ground that could just as easily be picking his nose then picking up the lettuce with same hand to put it on your whopper before wrapping it up and handing it to you, would want to sit in an air conditioned room doing it for the same wage as a crappy fast food place? Pretty Damn Good Chance.

So if I had to make hundreds or thousands of copies of USB flash drives, I would want to get a system like this.

1) No windows interface, which reduces the time it takes for the system to even recognize the drive and mount it.
2) No Linux interface, which just requires flat out skill and intelligence to operate at all.

A simple tool that any moron (including Monkeys that apparently do math better then humans now) could operate repeatedly.

I can calculate my base cost on the USB drive to be the 1) The cost of the USB stick, 2) The cost of the "Monkey", and 3) The cost of the Monkey's Tool.

I would bet that in the long run it is cheaper for me to get this product (The Aleratec) and not have to deal with it then it would be to spend a lot of time doing it myself or training some idiot to use Linux. Windows is not even a solution at all. The base cost of the hardware and license fees is going to be at least $500 anyways.

It just bugs me a bit when technical people turn their noses down at something before using their brain a little bit. That's because most technicians don't understand business, marketing, or the end users one little bit. You guys need to remember that the end user (the market) is the most stupid fucking idiot on the planet. Can barely remember to breathe. Don't believe me? Ask a buddy doing tech support in a Call Center. But do it quick, cuz every guy I knew eventually went to to tall building with an assault rifle and a scope.]]>Dec 14th 2007 9:09PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/kanguru-intros-pricey-standalone-usb-duplicator/
How many of you have inserted hundreds of devices into USB ports on your computer? or USB hub? I have burnt out more USB ports on computers and entire hubs (like the $50 7-8 port hubs). It makes duplication very difficult. Also, Windows copies files slowly! A duplicator would be operating of a RISC processor and able to copy the files at a much faster rate to more devices, and being able to have more devices connected as well. We have issues with our duplication process if we plug in more than 14 USB drives (plus mouse and keyboard) because the USB bus gets severly overloaded.

We are actually looking in to getting the 60 USB port duplicator, but it is over $6K, but are leaning toward the costs being justified.

And to the above poster who said "When is the last time you saw a cd burning hub? Exactly.". You obviously have never seen a CD duplicator. They are extremely popular and have been in every office I have worked in for the last few years.]]>Dec 15th 2007 12:02PM