I came across this very interesting USB hack from TechOat the other day.  The concept of this modification is taking the key of a power box in your computer and turning that into the physical on/off switch for USB communication.

The premise is disassembling the wires of the USB cable and port and weaving that into the circuit of a locking switch on your PC.  I think this illustration shows it best:

What I particularly like about this USB hack, is the physical requirement to have the key in order to work the USB port.  This type of security [more fun then practical] for USB devices in general is much better than a Truecrypt type solution as that only protects the device, not the system.

So what you need includes:

Small USB thumb drive
USB extension cable or USB socket and plug with cable
Locking switch DPST
Plastic box

The rest is just elbow grease to get it working, for the specific details and tutorial, jump here.

Here at GetUSB.info we love the USB steampunk drive.  We’ve reported on at least a dozen of them over the past couple years and I’m sure we’ve missed three times that many.  Today we are tipping you off to a great tutorial on how to USB steampunk your own flash drive.

Instructables has a very detailed, 9 page tutorial on how to steampunk your own gear.  It gives you a list of material, a detailed process, good and creative guidelines along with plenty of pictures and resources.

It’s my goal to actually do this over the July 4th weekend [2010] and post my result.  Lets hope for the best!

To give you an idea of the scope of project considering the following list of materials and tools.  If it fits into your abilities, then give it a shot!

Corel Paint Pro + 2GB Flash Drive = $19

Adobe Photoshop is a great product, expensive, but great.  You can do amazing things and take any picture and make it look like a million bucks.  The trick, layers.

The deal about Photoshop is the average user only takes advantage of 10% of the features.  Meaning you are paying gobs of money for features you probably don’t use.

If this is the case, another great product to try is the Corel Paint Pro photo editing software.  Here you’ve got many of the elements an average use will try.  Such as red-eye, color balance, filter effects and helpful makeover tools to remove blemishes on skin or whiten teeth, etc.

To get you past the tipping point, Corel is offering a free 2GB USB flash drive with your order.  So this gives you a total price of $20 for Corel Paint Pro and 2GB flash drive.

Head over to Buy.com to grab this USB Dealz!

These days there isn’t much to flash drives, other than look and some advanced functions, so for this post I thought the video Mimobot put together for introducing their next 4 models would be the best way to entertain the readers…so enjoy:

Mimoco presents Core Series 2.5 from MIMOBOT & mimoZine on Vimeo.

Mimobot product page.

How To: Remove a Virus From a USB Stick

The easiest way to remove any virus from a USB stick is this: format it!  Be sure to use the Full Format function, not the quick format function.In the very unlikely event you get an error messages saying you cannot format the drive because it’s being used by another program, or for some reason you have data on there you don’t want to format off, then you can try the following.

Before I start however, let me explain the fundamental concept of what we are trying to do.

With most virus’ they make it very hard to delete the files so they can spread their infection.  To do this, they use several files and ping each other so they appear to be in constant use.  This is why you see the error “being used by another program cannot delete or format.”  So what we need to do, is stop that process.  In addition, programmers put in attributes to make it hard to delete as well.  For example they set the file attribute to Archive, or System File so we’ll need to remove those attributes too.

So lets start:  In Windows go to START > RUN.  In the field type cmd

This will open the DOS command prompt.  Here you should be at the C drive root.  If not type cd\ and click return.  You will then be at the C:\ root.

Next type the drive letter of your flash drive.  In my example that is drive letter F.  You can find the drive letter of your flash drive by going to START > MY COMPUTER > and look for the “Removable Disk“Next, type the drive letter, so for me, type f: and hit enter.

After you are in the drive letter of the flash drive, type dir/w/a

This will list all the files in your flash drive, regardless of it’s attributes of being hidden, System file or archive.

Now we should look for suspicious files such as anything listed as a .exe file or a .inf file.  Specifically anything with a autorun.inf should be deleted.  Some other popular ones are Ravmon.exe, svchost.exe, Heap41a and pagefile.pif.

If you see any of these, then lets remove all the file attributes and try and delet them.

To remove all attributes do the following:

In the DOS command prompt type attrib -r -a -s -h *.*  This command will remove all attributes for all files.

Now we can delete the files.  You do this by typing del filename [be sure to include the exentions too, for example type del autorun.inf and hit enter.

This should do the trick if you’d like to remove problem files without running the Full Format function.

SuperSpeed USB 3.0 is just hitting the market and while we spend our time trying to obtain the 3.0 hard drives and 3.0 flash drives, we might get stuck with trying to make the connection.

USBFever just launched a full line if USB 3.0 adapters to help you with the connection problems you might have.  Most notably would be you trying to extend the cable longer, or flipping from a Type A to a Type B connector.

USBFever includes the following solutions for USB 3.0 adapters and connectors:

USB 3.0 Adapter (A male to B Female)

USB 3.0 Adapter (B male to B Female)

USB 3.0 Adapter (Micro B male to A male)

USB 3.0 Adapter (A Female to Micro B male)

USB 3.0 Adapter (Micro B Male to B male)

All of these adapters support and are certified to opperate the full SuperSpeed USB 3.0 specification.

Source:  Thomas at USBFever!

During the month of July Instructables is running a USB contest for who can make the best mod while incorporating USB technology.  For this reason, we’ve been keeping a close eye on what you creative folks are up to.

Today we bring you the 100% natural, all wood, USB marble machine.

I will admit the name is more impressive then the look, but the cool factor outweighs the look.

The wood USB marble machine is an excellent DIY project and will open up your eyes to all sorts of different ways you can make an automated, electric motor powered marble machine.

Check out the video, it’s well worth it!

Learn how at Instructables.