Here is a great gift idea that includes a splash of tech…give the gift of millefiori glass with a USB stick tucked inside.  Granted, the picture is what caught my eye for this article, but the bottom line is that:  it IS a good gift idea.

Personally an image like this might work even better…but who am I to judge.

To create the millefiori USB drive can be done in several simple steps.  If you haven’t heard of millefiori then let me tell you: Millefiori is a glass work technique which produces distinctive decorative patterns on glassware.  The term “millefiori” is a combination of the Italian words “mille” (thousand) and “fiori” (flowers).

The millefiori technique has been applied to polymer clays and other materials. Because polymer clay is quite pliable and does not need to be heated and reheated in order to fuse it, it is much easier to produce millefiori patterns than with glass.  And this is what we are going to do today.

In seven steps you can produce a nice looking USB necklece.  The detailed how-to is over at Instructables but here is the general idea.

Get a small USB flash drive and take it apart.  Get some polymer clay, such as Fimo Soft or Fimo Effect.  Prep the millefiori material into a cane like shape.  Include a core in the cane shape as this is where the USB stick will go.  Cut the cane so you have

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a USB tattoo and it isn’t the first time we’ve asked ourselves “why?”  But here we are…asking that question again:

Is it me, or does this arm look like it belongs to a woman?  Interesting.

MSN did an interesting article on the top 15 tech tattoos – which is the full story – check it out.

Sometimes you need a USB stick to always use the same drive letter.  Whether it’s backup software needing to point to a specific storage device, or you use a Windows Office application which requires a specific drive letter – sometimes it is just needed.

Given that Windows will assign a drive letter as a first-come, first serve basis to removable media it can get frustrating to always try for the same drive letter.  Here is one way to assign a specific drive letter to a USB drive.

Before you can assign a drive letter to a USB device, take a look at what drive letters you have available.  This will vary depending on what’s connected, networked drives and mapped drives in your system.  Simply go to START > MY COMPUTER and take a look.

Next, plug in your USB drive to your computer and let Windows enumerate it [see it].

Navigate to:  START > CONTROL PANEL > ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS > COMPUTER MANAGEMENT >

An alternate way to get to the same spot is START > RUN > “diskmgmt.msc”

In the left panel expand the Disk Management icon.  On the right side you’ll see all the drives available.  Right click on the Removable drive and select “Change Drive Letter and Paths”

Click the Add button and choose a drive letter not already in use from the drop-down list.  Click OK.

Now exit or close all the dialogue windows and you’re set.  Now, each time this specific USB stick is plugged in, Windows will assign it the same drive letter.

Note:  Windows is associating the serial number of the device to the request you’ve entered above, SO, you’ll need to perform this same process for different flash drives.

Spread the word and enjoy.

Albiet a concept design, this is one portable looking USB vinyl record player.  Comprised of just two parts, a base and top, the USB vinyl record player is meant for table top play back.  Granted, you’ve got to ask yourself who’s in such need of a portable solution, but for the die hard vinyl fan who just can’t stand MP3 this is a sure bet.

Published on Pyott Design they give you 3 easy steps:
1)  Carry around & store as needed.  To play separate base and player via side button.2)  Place record on base spindle and reattached top player

3)  Plug in power jack to USB port and additional audio jacks if needed.  Will play 35/45 RPM

4)  Place needle head on desired track and play.

In the beginning of July Engadget posted an article about a new release of Star Wars USB drives, not that we need more, but it was a fun little gallery – yet, not impressive enough to make you buy.  Today that changed with this artist’s rendition of what he thinks a Star Wars USB drive should look like.

It should look like Luke Skywalker’s hand just got cut off.

That’s right, to gain access to your portable storage you need to sever Luke’s hand.

What’s more impressive is the detail of this home-brewed USB stick and the agony you can see in Luke’s eyes while you detach his hand just to store the latest collection of Tera Patrick photos.

No price as I don’t think these are for sale, but definitely a sweet little project for some bored teen.

We all know the MinoHD Flip is a great hand held video recorder and is probably the most popular one, but there is a new star on the horizon, the Samson Q3.

Where the Samson Q3 differs from the Mino Flip is the great ability to capture audio.  Just look at the thing…there is a towering microphone perched.  Ready to capture the best of moments.

I would like to see what Jake & Amir can do with this thing?

In addition to the well positioned microphone, the Samson Q3 also has an expansion slot via SD card for additional memory capacity.  Up to 32GBs to be exact.

The Samson Q3 also has VGA output so you can easily connect the device to your TV for instant viewing. 

If you are like me [and most people] you have a favorite flash drive.  It’s not necessarily because of the way it looks, but rather – over time – all of your important information has accumulated to one stick.  You get to a point where if you are going to save any kind of data to your USB drive, then you might as well save it to the one which has everything else.

This is where RecycleUSB.com comes in…if you have extra sticks lying around, which aren’t gett’in the love – donate them.  Recycle USB has partnered with SugarLabs to turn donated USB sticks into portable learning computers.

What do I mean by portable learning computers?

Well SugarLabs created a Linux distro [based off Fedora] which boots directly from a flash drive.  The distro is a customized learning platform for kids to