flashdrive
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The lego flash drive
If you've got some spare Lego bricks, a rather tiny USB flash drive (might we recommend a Lexar USB FlashCard?), a bit o' spare time, and no discernible fears for the safety and well being of your digits and extremities when applying tools to rather small, hard plastics, then we'd like to point you to Stickman's Lego flash drive how-to. Novelty, yes; but why is that a bad thing?[Via MAKE: Blog]
PQI's U510 squeezes 16GB into a 3mm thick drive
We've seen plenty enough units claiming to be the "world's ____ flash drive," and while we think most of the size awards can safely go to the iDisk Diamond, it's hard to begrudge the title of "world's thinnest flash drive" to a 3mm thick unit that features a whopping 16GB of storage. The new U510 from PQI in Taiwan takes its credit card form factor seriously at 3.3 x 2.12 x 0.1-inches, and the USB 2.0 device features a thin retractable USB jack. No word on pricing or availability, but we're guessing it's not going to be cheap.[Via New Launches]
Flash drives containing US military secrets for sale next to Afghani base
Despite the government's best efforts to secure its classified electronic data, the L.A. Times is reporting that it was easily able to obtain a thumb drive full of sensitive military information -- from a bazaar right next to a US Air Force base in Afghanistan. According to the Times, the 1GB flash drive -- which, at $40, was quite the bargain -- contains details that could put the lives of several informants and sources at risk, including pictures, phone numbers, and even the names of their family members. Furthermore, even though files on the drive lay out specific military procedures and intelligence gathering strategies and contain photos of the base inside the perimeter, few of the documents are encrypted or password-protected. Although Army officials claim to regularly shop the bazaars for stolen material, and have ordered a review of their data security protocols, the fact that such damaging info can be purchased so easily would seem to indicate that the matter is a bit more urgent.[Via Slashdot]
