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How To: Make Favicon For Flash Drive

How To Make a Favicon for a Flash Drive

In the heat of getting a new site launched over the weekend, I needed an .ico Favicon for the website.  I came across this free on-line tool which made everything a snap.  No software download, no .exe to load…just down and dirty ico creator.  Today I thought it would be a great review [from original post] to go over How To Make a Favicon for a Flash Drive. It’s just several easy steps.  Lets begin.
  1. Using a program to create an image file, make a jpeg for what you want the ico to look like.  You can use something as simple as Microsoft Paint or something as fancy as Photoshop.  When you make the jpeg, make the overal shape square.  Try and keep the logo simple – simple will translate best into an ico file.
  2. Browse to Chamie and click the “Favicon from Pics” link.  Upload your file.  Chami will automatically generate your ico file.  Chami gives you some great options for the USB favicon file.  You can get a static image or an animated .gif file.
  3. Once you have the .ico file, save that image to the root of your USB flash drive.
  4. Next, open Notepad in Microsoft [or any plain text editor] and type the following:
[autorun] icon=favicon.ico
Save this to the root of your USB stick as “autorun.inf

USB favicon - How To Make

Once you’ve done all the above, Continue Reading

Remove Read Only USB – Remove CDROM USB Partitions

Remove CDROM USB Partitions

Remove Read Only USB – Remove CD-ROM USB Partitions

If you are like me, you’ve done a great bit of searching on the internet to remove Read Only USB partition or to remove CDROM USB partition, and unfortunately the information is very scarce and the information which is out there, isn’t very clear and direct.  The only utility we’ve found, is the one used to remove the U3 platform off a retail USB stick made by SanDisk, but chances are you are dealing with a different vendor or stick. In addition, the U3 platform was killed a long time ago by SanDisk because hackers kept using the auto-run function associated with CD-ROM discs to auto-run USB malware.

remove CDROM USB partition

We found a company that can do this, and they do it in bulk, USBCopier.com is a USB duplication service company that specializes in fixing your problem, like removing a Read Only USB partition.  I’m not sure how they do it, but their services worked for us.

As you know, a simple format or delete attempt to the USB device simply doesn’t work…you get the “This disk is write protected” message. The flash drive is configured this way at the chip level, so it’s not a formatting problem. The chip inside the USB flash drive, called the controller, has a configuration setting so the device will appear as a CD-ROM device. Since the vendor commands are not available to access the USB controller chip, you cannot re-configure the device to work like a normal flash drive.

I spoke with USBCopier.com about the issue, and they can remove a USB partition off all types of drives, like USB sticks with Chipsbank controllers, Alcor, SMI, USBest, Innostor and many others.  They also said the partition type doesn’t matter, it can be either the Read Only or CDROM and they can remove it.  USBCopier also mentioned if they can remove the USB partition, then chances are, they can also recreate it.

The company was a life saver to us and I wanted to pass along the information.  It was much cheaper to pay the service fee to remove the USB partition than it was to re-buy all the USB sticks and start from scratch.

Here is the link to their USB duplication service page.  Here is the link to their contact page.

If you are in a bit of trouble – I wish you luck – these guys could possibly help.

Continue Reading

USB Hack in Palm Pre Confirms a Sync With iTunes

Palm Pre owners might find a small window of opportunity to sync their device with iTunes for easy music browsing, listening and downloading.  In short, someone figured out how to have the Palm Pre appear as an iPod to iTunes by chancing the VendorID of the Palm.  Meaning – iTunes thinks its an iPod, but it really isn’t.

Palm Pre USB hack

I seriously doubt this was something done by Palm, but rather a hacker out there doing what hackers do. First you have Palm claiming it’s a USB compliant device for a different vendor, I don’t think that will fly.  Second, you have Palm tricking iTunes thinking it’s an iPod – Apple wont be too happy about that. Third, it shows Continue Reading

Sleeptalking USB Stick

Here is a tricked out USB stick that does the downloading work while your PC is in standby mode.  The sleeptalking USB stick is aptly named, Somniloquy [medical term for talking in your sleep] and provides a great service when you take a closer look.

sleeptalking usb

A team effort between University of California and Microsoft Research came up with the Somniloquy concept to reduce a computers carbin footprint into todays “going green” world.  Many users keep their PCs on for late night syncs, virus software updates, computer hard drive backups, or large data downloads.  The sleeptalking USB stick is designed to allow all of these things to happen while the computer remains in standby mode…meaning reduced power consumption for those critical updates or juice torrent downloads. The Somniloquy is a prototype device that packs an entire low-power PC and embedded operating system onto the USB thumb drive.  It needs only 1/10 the power of a typical PC or laptop. Somniloquy essentially takes over as the computer’s presence on the network while the actual PC is Continue Reading

How To: TV Spy Remote To Wreak Havoc

So lets clarify exactly what I’m talking about here…a TV spy remote is a device that allows you to control someone else’s TV without being around, thus wreak havoc in their life.  After all, what could be more upsetting then turning off the TV at your neighbors house during American Idol or watching Jack Bower kick a$$ in 24?  I don’t think there is a greater pleasure. Since you can’t buy a TV spy remote at buy.com or Amazon, or anywhere else, check out this TV Spy Remote tutorial I found at Instructables.

tv spy remote

The tools and materials you need could be found anywhere, as this hack was done at a college dorm room and you know those kids have not $$ or resources. Required materials include: Continue Reading

How To: Make USB Volume Name Longer Than 11 Characters

By default the Windows operating system assigns the Volume name of a USB stick as “Removable Disk.”  However, there are times when you need a different Volume name…and many times the USB Volume name needs to be longer than 11 characters. Using the standard Windows “Rename” function, limits you to only 11 characters.  You can’t always get what you want with just 11 characters…so how do you make the Volume name of USB stick longer than 11 characters? It’s easy, with the help of an inf file.  An INF file (or Setup Information file) is a plain text file used by Microsoft Windows for installation of software and/or drivers. Today we are going to use the .INF file to increase the length of our USB Volume name past 11 characters. For those of you who are familiar with .INF files here is the meat of the answer:
[autorun] Label=type whatever you want here
For those of you less familiar with .INF files they are extremely easy to make and use.  For the USB Volume name this is what you do: Continue Reading

USB Hack: Turn a USB Stick Into a Hard Drive or Local Disk

USB Hack:  Turn a USB Stick Into a Hard Drive or Local Disk

USB Tutorial: Turn a USB stick into a Hard Drive or Local Disk

This is a very valuable tutorial, especially if you are looking to partition a USB stick.  Another application for turning a removable drive into a local disk, is that now many software programs can be loaded directly to a USB drive.  The first program which comes to mind is iTunes.  I know you need My Documents and a Local Disk to install it, so after this tutorial, I’ll try installing iTunes and share the results.

The process of turning a USB stick into a hard drive is fairly easy.  However, there are limitations.  For example, this works best with Windows XP operating systems.  You also need to update the drivers for the device for any computer you are going to use.  Typically, this isn’t a big deal as you can easily do this for your work and home computers.  However, this isn’t a great solution if you are trying to create a partitions USB stick for distribution to many possible users [say trade show give-away].

Couple of items you’ll need:

  • USB_LocalDisk.zip files [download here]
  • Windows XP
  • USB stick

What we will do, is connected the USB stick, find the driver code, update the driver code and re-connect the device.  Simple.

Here are the details:

Continue Reading

Best USB Joke – USB Keystroker Will Drive Anyone Crazy

Who’s up for a little bit of fun.  Who’s up for driving your co-worker totally crazy.  We are.  Here is a great USB joke device that when connected to your PC will randomly lock your CAPS button, make keystrokes or jiggle your mouse around on the screen.

usb keystrocker

What is particularly nice about this useless USB gadget is the ability to select one, two or all three options and control the speed in which the phantom activities take place.  It’s also a complete and finished product…much better then our USB hack we mentioned for creating a Continue Reading

Avoid Sleep Mode With USB Shake Stick

avoid sleep mode usbThere are a large number of computer users out there which need to eliminate the function of their computer going into sleep mode.  I was talking to a friend of mine last night who had this exact problem. The problem was at the corporate level the IT guys started a function that once your computer went idle for 30 minutes the screen saver would pop up requiring a password login.  The reason behind such a decision was unclear, but it’s probably related to measuring productivity. Well, as any good employee would do, you  search Google for a work around.  Today we found one.  The USB shake stick, which doesn’t actually shake, but is a device that keeps your mouse moving in the screen so that sleep mode never turns on. You can avoid sleep mode through this USB stick by simply connecting it to your computer and setting up the preferences [shake speed of mouse icon]. Although the above example is a great way to circumvent a corporate policy, there are a couple legitimate reasons.  For example, Continue Reading

Floppy Drive Looks Old, Acts Young

The floppy diskette was an icon of portable storage.  For years, this was the de facto standard for moving information from one location to another.  Heck, an entire industry was made for duplicating floppy diskettes.  Today things are a bit different.  We still have the specialized duplicator equipment, but the media has changed.  Now, the de facto standard are USB flash drives. Well, this commercialized floppy has the look and feel of the old days, but all the flare and space of modern USB sticks.  Check out this USB floppy drive.

usb floppy drive

Granted, the size is a bit much for today’s UberGeek, but clearly a great conversation piece. If this has your wheels spinning then check out our USB tutorial on modifying a true floppy diskette into a USB drive. Source:  UberGizmo. Continue Reading

Wii Aids in USB Missile Launcher Accuracy

An Instructables member took an extra Wiimote and turned it into the eye-site gauge for the famous USB missile launcher.  Now you can have all the fun with the added pin-point accuracy for a deadly shot with your missile launcher.

usb missile launcher wii

With a spare remote, USB cable, USB missile launcher and some code they guys at Instructables provided, you too can have this USB hack.  The only concern you should have is the foam missiles really aren’t all that accurate, at least not the sample we tested.  But hey, forget about the logistics of it all, it’s the cool factor we’re chasing after. Source:  Engadget. Continue Reading

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