More USB Bling (Edited 30/03/2009)

Have you survived the financial melt down? Are you a retiring Banker or CEO? Why not shout yourself one of these?The Gold Disk On Key is a USB drive made out of 14K gold with three diamonds inset that are backlit and light up when the drive is working. The drive also has a 4GB capacity, which means it's totally worth the US$2,000 price tag. Although it's still cheaper than the US$3,500 Gold USB below. Which means if you show up to your annual rich person's meeting with the Gold Disk On Key you'll be laughed out of the room.


This Gold USB stick comes in either 14 or 18 carat gold and is available with diamonds for US$3,500 or without diamonds for US$2,800. It doesn't even list the storage capacity because, well, who cares about that. If you have to ask its capacity you can’t afford it.. The only goal when you buy something like this is to show off how rich you are. Personally, I just tape a bunch of cash to my USB stick. $100 bills, baby. That's how I roll.


Have an urge to do a bit of espionage?

The Thanko Spydisk packs an SD card reader/writer along with 512 MB of its own flash memory into a pen the size of one of those jumbo pencils you used in kindergarten because you had no hand coordination. The USB connector is hidden under the pen cap, and the card reader is behind the pen's clip. I question its spy-worthiness. Of course, I'm not a very good spy. The last time I tried to steal a company's trade secrets I didn't download anything and accidentally uploaded my personal banking information, along with some private pictures my girlfriend.

This one is for those of us who want to strengthen our Apocalypse Fortress. Although not a Data storage device, it is USB Powered.

The "vCrib" is a USB powered sentry gun that can be controlled via a remote computer. Moreover, the weapon actually packs a webcam on the barrel, allowing users to login via computer, tilt / swivel the gun with simple mouse flicks, and fire away if you spot any intruders within its broad line of sight.

EDIT 30/03/2009
OK I've done some research into the vCrib gun. It is still in the development stage but it has good possibilities. I think we could adapt it to our purposes. Have a look at the video and let me know what you think.




Stay Good and be Kind to each other.

Damn these little blue pills

It is about 2100hrs Friday, and this is about the third time I've tried to write this.

I keep getting distracted by the dancing monkey outside my window.

Oops. Wrong Monkey

No wait, the Blue Elephant just sat on him.

I am back home again. I managed to escape from the hospital at about 7 pm Thursday. Spent most of today sleeping. Had to get up at 7am to pop a heap of meds and went back to bed.

Everything went well. Even the Administration people were a pleasure to deal with.

It turns out that it was a severe infection around the previous operation site (the one I had at Christmas) that is doing all the damage. The Surgeon cleaned it up and prescribed a massive dose of antibiotics to combat the infection. He said that there was no sign of any cancer so that is the good news.

I see the Cancer Specialist on 1st April to discuss if further Chemo is needed and future management which will most likely be a check operation (usually involving Keyhole Surgery) every three to six months for the next 5 years. The check operation is where they have a look and make sure that the cancer has not returned. There is also regular blood tests and CT Scans involved which will indicate early signs of it returning. Hopefully that was the last major surgery that I have to have.

But I'm not declaring victory just yet. Still a little way to go to get fit and healthy again.

So far I feel pretty good but I suspect that the little blue pills may have something to with that.

Now where did that Blue Elephant go?

Stay good and be kind to each other.

Off to Hospital... again.

Wednesday: Well off to hospital, again.

See ya'll when I get back.

Meanwhile enjoy this bit of music which says it all.

Need a present for someone special?

Need a little something for that someone special. Consider a USB Drive. There are many varieties, shapes and sizes. Here is a small selection.

Firstly how about a real Thumb Drive?

A Terra Cotta Drive.

A Swiss Army Knife Drive

A Gold, Jewel Encrusted Drive with Silk Tassell - About US$800

This one is for Nautilus - Should scare a few clients.

One for the Kiwis among us - A Tiki Drive

One for NatalieV

One for BarnsM - Waterproof, Shockproof and Zombie proof

Guess who this one is for?

For that Military man in your life - Dog Tags Drive

One for Mr Havock - Bullet Drive

This one is for NowhereBob

For the sadists among us - Rip off the Doll's head and shove her in your Laptop

Don't want to rip off a doll's head - Try a Teddy Bear instead

For the security conscious - Use it to secure your bike as well.

This is for YankeeDog

and finally - One for The Sausage King

Well I hope I have helped with you next Office Birthday present.

Arrrgh, here be treasure me hearties!

There are rumors, speculation, legends and documented evidence that other nations sailed the waters of this great brown land long before Captain James Cook stumbled upon us and claimed it for Queen and country.

The Chinese and Japanese sailed our East coast. The Dutch explored our West and Southern Coasts. In 1642 Able Tasman, a Dutch explorer, mapped and named Anthoonij van Diemenslandt (Van Diemen's Land) now known as Tasmania. The Portuguese and Spanish may have also poked around. Terra Australis (Land of the South) appeared on European maps from the 15th to the 18th century. There are shipwrecks aplenty around our vast coastline.

The Stradbroke Island Spanish Galleon story is one of Australia’s most enduring historic shipwreck mysteries and, along side Victoria’s Mahogany Ship, is the most controversial as it may yet prove that the Spanish reached Australia long before Captain Cook. The shipwreck is situated in the 18 Mile Swamp on Stradbroke Island. The supposedly Spanish shipwreck has been causing controversy since the mid 19th Century when the first reports of a mysterious oak shipwreck in the swamp began to circulate amongst the people of the young colony of Moreton Bay.

The first recorded investigation of the Stradbroke Island shipwreck appears to have been in about 1860 by the Moreton Bay pilot and light keeper Mister Graham who found both the wreck and an ancient wood stocked anchor in the vicinity of Swan Bay at the south end of Stradbroke Island. He retrieved the anchor and had it on display at his home near Nerang for some years. His wife, who was of Aboriginal descent, recalled that the Aboriginal people had known of the shipwreck’s existence for a long time; this position is supported by a number of oral histories that tell of whites being shown the wreck by Stradbroke Island Aborigines.

The story that the shipwreck was of a Spanish Galleon in the Swamp of Stradbroke Island appears to have begun in the later 1880’s or early 1890’s, started either by two young Russell Island residents, John Willes and Ivan Bond, who found the remains of the shipwrecked “galleon” on the ocean side of Stradbroke Island in about 1886 or by Mathew Heeb, a timber getter and shipwright, who found the remains of ship with a “high poop and forecastle” in the 18 Mile Swamp near Swan Bay.

The discovery of a sailor's dirk, a brass walking stick head, a brass button, a sword blade, a fishing weight and a corroded silver coin dated 1597 on Stradbroke Island is presented as evidence of the existence of a Portuguese or Spanish Galleon buried in the 18 mile swamp.

Up until the mid 1930’s a number of people had found the mysterious shipwreck in the swamp on Stradbroke Island, often shown the location by Aborigines. Two well documented and successful expeditions to find the Stradbroke "galleon” occurred in 1934 after a huge fire burned through the Eighteen Mile Swamp from Swan Bay to Blue Lake and burnt the timbers of the wreck that were above ground level to a point where only the thickest of them remained. Since that fire it appears that only one person has seen the wreck. A member of a sand mining crew who saw it immediately after a fire burned through the Swamp in the late 1970’s.

History tells us that Captain Cook was the first European to reach the east coast of Australia and finding a pre-Cook shipwreck on Stradbroke Island would mean that all the history books would be wrong and have to be re-written.

Within the local history of Stradbroke Island there is a significant body of historic material that links the Stradbroke Island Galleon with members of the Aboriginal population of Stradbroke Island. There are also numerous stories which state that the Stradbroke Island Aborigines have had Spanish gold coins in their possession as well as other artifacts from the Spanish Galleon, some stories even state that certain Stradbroke Island Aborigines are custodians of the secret location of the galleon’s hidden treasure and that this knowledge is passed down carefully through the generations.

Is it a lost Portuguese or Spanish exploration ship, a caravel or carrack? Or is it the wreck a Mexican treasure galleon or a Manila Galleon, carrying millions of pesos in silver and gold coin, shipwrecked on the Queensland coast by some ancient storm now waiting in the 18 Mile Swamp to re-write maritime history?

Historic and archaeological evidence suggests this mysterious Queensland shipwreck is likely to be either Portuguese or Spanish vessel shipwrecked whilst exploring Queensland's coastline.

Now if you will excuse me while I find my metal detector and head off to Straddie.

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

At the Southern end of Moreton Bay is two Islands - North and South Stradbroke Islands. This was not always the case. They were originally one island - Stradbroke Island.

Stradbroke Island was gradually severed in two in the mid 1890s with the breakthrough of the ocean at Jumpinpin. It all started with a shipwreck.

In the early morning of the 3rd Septemember, 1894, the barque, Cambus Wallace ran aground in the heavy seas near the narrow isthmus of Tuleen. Some of the crew managed to make it to shore, but five men drowned.

The hatches broke open as the tide rose and tons of cargo washed overboard. The vessel was carrrying whiskey, beer and cases of explosives consigned to Thomas Brown and Websters, general merchants in Brisbane.

Assistance came from Southport residents and families living at the island's oyster camp at Currigee. Custom officers and the Police from Brisbane travelled by steamer to the wreck. After taking care of the survivors, the rescue party buried the dead on a hill between two pandanus trees.

In later weeks a salvage operation began. The explosives from the cargo were piled together and detonated. All this activity concentrated in one area, plus the storm and tide action, weakened and later eroded the sand dunes along the narrow spit of land.

By the spring of 1896, the tide had divided Stradbroke Island in two. The graves and memorial to mariners from the Cambus Wallace washed away into the waters of the new Jumpinpin Bar.

Stay good and be kind to each other.

Birmo didn't mention this in "He Died with a Felafel in his Hand"!

 

Cat 'stuffed in homemade bong' by owner

Nebraska authorities cited 20-year-old Acea Schomaker on suspicion of animal cruelty on Sunday after catching him smoking marijuana from a contraption that had a cat stuffed inside its 30cm by 15cm base.

Read the full story here.

I wonder what the price of a foil of Moggie is on the street?