Sneaky Bastard » Hardware

Made in USA!*

joseph — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 03:37:50 +0000

This sort of packaging makes my stabbing arm very twitchy. On the front is a very patriotic icon, leading a person to believe that the product was made in the USA by an American company. On the back, they clarify that it was made in China. I don’t know why it matters to me, but it seems deceptive. I assume everything is made in China, so when I see packaging that leads me to believe otherwise, I get a little excited. Don’t know why, I just do.

I don’t mean to single out VDC Electronics. Apple does the same thing with their “Designed in California” package labeling. That’s supposed to be more hip than a tacky patriotic symbol, I guess.

Obviously, I just unpacked the BatteryMINDer lead-acid (AGM, Gel, Flooded) 2/4/8 amp battery charger. I’ve charged up two 7 amp-hour batters in a few minutes. I wish it had a built-in LCD with voltage and amperage displays. Oh, and an iPhone dock, and…

UPS Battery Discovery

joseph — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 07:00:37 +0000

While exploring battery options, I decided to open up a few of my UPS cases to see who manufactured the batters in the APC Smart-UPS rack-mount units. The answer is CSB Battery Technologies. However, the surprising part was the discovery that the batteries were all bloated and corroded.

I opened the APC Smart-UPS 2200 first, and I was surprised to find such deformation of the plastic tops. It turns out, these are the best looking of the lot, and they actually slid out of the unit without a fight.

In another rack, I have an old APC Smart-UPS 1000. I didn’t expect it to look like brand new, but I did expect the acid to stay contained within the battery. I destroyed the steel chassis getting these out.

Finally, I decided to check on my APC Smart-UPS 1000 that has only been in service a couple years. Its batteries are also swollen within the chassis. I’d rather not ruin this UPS, and I don’t feel comfortable letting it operate the way it is.

What a fun Friday this has been.

My Wish List

joseph — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 08:36:49 +0000

Here is your call to action, my minions.

1Password – I own it!
TextExpander – I own it!
Versions
Final Cut Studio 2
iLife ‘09
Adobe Creative Suite 4 Web Premium Professional Extended Master Complete
Apple MacBook – I own it!
Apple AirPort Extreme
Drobo 2nd Generation 4Tb Bundle

Take that, sluggish economy!

Another reason to keep one Windows PC around

joseph — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 19:51:37 +0000

I was at my local Office Depot late last night to pick up a USB flash drive for a project. I needed a simple device — 1 Gb was plenty of space to move some security certificates and keys between computers. I ran into the store just as they were closing and grabbed the cheapest USB flash drive I could find (SanDisk Cruzer Micro 1 Gb for $14.99). I had heard about flash drives that contain the U3 root kit, but never used one. I stuck the drive into a Mac and reformatted the partition. I then discovered that the device still emulated a CD-ROM drive and did not show that as a real partition. Ugh.

After reading about U3 “enhanced” flash drives, it became apparent that the only way to turn the device into a plain flash drive was to use their uninstaller application from Microsoft® Windows™. Luckily for me, I still have one PC that runs Windows. I don’t use Windows inside a virtual machine, although I certainly could. I’m not sure the VM would have had enough hardware access to the USB device to uninstall the root kit anyway. Regardless, I ran the uninstaller and created a perfectly usable device for moving bits around. Neato.