Oh! Gizmo

Article courtesy of John Beck, from The Processor.

If you didn’t get invited to any good Halloween parties (or are just a complete misanthrope), then you might well be planning to spend Saturday night hunkered down behind the sofa with the lights off, hoping that sugar-crazed trick-or-treaters don’t suss you out and start making outrageous demands for confectionary and money in exchange for not smashing your windows or causing you actual bodily harm.

In case you do get rumbled, you may wish to follow Glenn Derene of Popular Mechanics’ lead and create some hi-tech surveillance pumpkins to capture the little darlings on tape while they ransack your house and/or break your legs.

Derene made himself two different video system sporting jack-o-lanterns - one with a cheapo infrared camera and receiver set and another with an Aavek Vue wireless camera system, which can be monitored remotely via a password protected website. Check out step by step instructions here. Take that you pesky kids!

[ PopularMechanics ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Sometimes passwords feel like more of a pain than a plus, so I like this 2.5-inch SATA HD enclosure that uses an RFID tag to protect your data. Unlocking your precious files is as easy as waving one of the 2 included RFID tags over the enclosure, and you just repeat the motion to lock everything back up again. It’s compatible with 2.5-inch SATA hard drives up to 160GB in size, but I can’t help but wonder if the dirt cheap $16 price tag from Chinavasion is an indication of how well this thing really works.

[ RFID Security 2.5 Inch SATA HDD Enclosure ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Given how easy it is to open your standard beige PC tower case (assuming it’s not locked) I’m pretty sure you don’t want to use this locking drawer that installs into a couple of unused drive bays to protect anything particularly valuable or important.

But if you’re tired of people mooching your blank DVDs, or stealing paperclips, I guess it could serve as a convenient lockbox. Each drawer comes with a couple of horizontal and vertical dividers for compartmentizing it as needed, as well as a CD post that should hold about 24 discs. Just $9.95 from Kleargear.com.

[ PC Drawer and Locking Safe ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Windows IceBox might seem like a strange name for a flash drive, but this USB stick isn’t for storing files, it’s actually used for freezing your hard drive. Well to be more specific, when connected to a computer it can be used to protect a designated partition from harmful or unwanted changes. The PC will function as normal, and will happily allow you to download viruses, malware, or delete important files, but when you shut it down with the IceBox still connected, your system will be restored to its previous healthy state. Anyone who’s ever had to fix a PC after a young’n has used it will appreciate the idea.

But you can also specify certain folders as being ‘open’ which allows you to make changes to them that will be preserved when the system is shut down, even though the partition is frozen. Like a documents folder, or your browser bookmarks where you might not want to lose new additions. Just $18.99 from USBFever.com.

[ USB Windows IceBox ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I guess all their cameras can’t have cool names like the ‘Digital Rebel’ so this new vandal resistant mini-dome camera from Canon has been dubbed the completely unmemorable VB-C500VD. But if you’ve been trying to protect your property against hooligans or vandals you’ll want to take note. The camera features an 82° wide horizontal field-of-view with 2.4X optical zoom as well as a fast F1.1 lens giving it great low-light performance. A progressive scan CCD ensures crisp images even with fast moving objects, and Canon’s proprietary ‘DIGIC NET’ processing engine allows the camera to capture full color video even in brightness levels as low as 0.2 lux. A pretty important feature when police might only be able to ID a suspect based on the color of their clothing.

And of course there’s that vandal resistant housing which features a movable based and dome cover to absorb high-impact blows, and tamper resistant screws which can’t be removed with standard screwdrivers. The VB-C500VD will have an MSRP of $999 and will be available in mid-October, just in time to protect your home against toilet paper and smashed pumpkins.

[ Canon VB-C500VD ] VIA [ Fareastgizmos ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I’ll admit it, every once in a while I’ll go to town on a piece of mail bearing a bit too much personal info with a black Sharpie. Some might think I’m being a bit too paranoid, but what they don’t realize is that I’m really doing it for the Sharpie fumes. Which is why I can’t understand why someone would want to use this ID Guard Stamp instead. Sure it makes obscuring confidential or personal data a breeze by literally stamping over the info with a pattern of random characters, but it does it without those permanent marker fumes we all got addicted to back in grade school. Where’s the fun in that?

But those of you who’ve managed to admit they have a problem and left the Sharpie lifestyle behind can get the ID Guard Stamp in a 2.75×1-inch version for $19.99 or a smaller 1.5×0.5-inch version for $9.99.

[ ID Guard Stamp ] VIA [ bookofjoe ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Everyone knows they should be backing up their PC or laptop on a regular basis, but it usually requires a devastating loss of data before most users get serious about it. However, even if you have a giant RAID sitting on your desk, backing up your files on an hourly basis with ridiculous levels of redundancy, is your data still safe? Viruses and failed hardware are only a couple of problems a backup drive can protect against, but what about more serious situations like a flood, fire or other natural disasters? Should the worst case scenario occur, the data sitting on a backup drive next to your computer is just as much at risk as the data sitting on the computer itself.

Unless of course your data happens to be backed up on a drive that’s built like a tank. And that’s where the ioSafe Solo disaster proof external hard drive enters the picture. If you’re looking for a drive you can throw in your laptop bag the ioSafe Solo isn’t for you, but if you want a relatively affordable backup solution for your home or business that can withstand most of what mother nature can throw at it, you’ll want to check out my review of the Solo after the jump.

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By Andrew Liszewski

I guess I lucked out at university since I didn’t have to share a dorm room with anyone, but if you get to school in September and happen to find yourself hilariously mismatched with a sketchy roommate, you can at least ensure your expensive new laptop (or other slim gear) will be safe. The DormVault, available from ThinkGeek for $79.99, is a rugged steel laptop case that’s designed to go nowhere. Instead, you’re supposed to use it to lock up your laptop, up to 17-inches in size, and thanks to an included set of bolts and mounting brackets it can be permanently attached to a large piece of furniture (like a bed) that isn’t going to get pinched while you’re at class. At the least it looks more secure than those useless braided steel security cables.

[ DormVault Laptop Safe ] VIA [ Coolest Gadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I’m not a fan of storing my credit card info with any of the online stores I frequent, though I can see the convenience of doing so. At this point I’ve just got my card number and other details memorized (expiration date etc.) but the QwicKey seems like a decent alternative for those who don’t trust their memory. It’s a USB card swiper that can be used to autofill credit card forms with just a swipe of your card. Convenient! But it also comes with custom software and it’s own security card that can be used to store and protect everything from login and password info to personal data for automatically filling out other types of contact forms and even bookmarked sites.

The card reader itself sells for just $49.95 but that includes a 1-year subscription to the company’s online service which gives you secure access to all of your data no matter what computer you’re using. After that the yearly fee is $29.95 plus another $29.95 for any additional users/profiles you want to add. And you were worried about some hacker robbing you.

[ QwicKey ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]