标签: cryptex

I am not sure why it is that I find the Steampunk look-and-feel so tasty, as it were. There are, of course, many different flavors, but I particularly favor the mix of dark polished wood and aged brass, as exemplified by my Bodacious Acoustic Diagnostic Astoundingly Superior Spectromatic (BADASS) Display, for example.   So, you can only imagine my delight when my chum Adam Winstanley pinged me with an email from England pointing me to the Cryptex USB Memory Stick .     This 16GB USB flash drive is presented in a Steampunk-esque container, which boasts a mechanical combination lock (rotating rings with letters or digits) of a type used hundreds of years ago to keep secrets -- you have to know the correct combination in order to gain entry to the mysteries within.     This little beauty, which one can also purchase from Amazon , was designed by the folks Smart Decisions International (SDI) . I just bounced over to their website to discover that they bill themselves as "international suppliers of premium promotional gifts." I can say for sure that I know a lot of people who would appreciate one of these Cryptex USB Memory Sticks. (As an aside, the Amazon page gives dimensions of 10 x 6.7 x 0.5 cm, but I think we're safe in assuming these refer to the box the memory stick is presented in and not the stick itself, otherwise that would be the biggest USB memory stick on the planet :-)   I then checked out their "About Us" and "Contacts" pages, where I discovered that they are a Latvian-based company with offices in Latvia, Hong Kong, and the UK. They look like a bunch of young, interesting and friendly people. Apart from anything else, I'm extremely impressed by the fact that they all seem to speak multiple languages, including English, Latvian, German, and Russian. Even their English Sales and Marketing manager -- Andrew Paliwoda -- speaks English, Spanish, and Mandarin, for goodness sake (I myself am a bit of a polyglot -- I speak both the Queen's English and American Argot).   Oooh! I just discovered that they also offer a 3000 mAh Steampunk Power Source , which comes equipped with a 2-in-1 cable (USB-A on one end; Micro-USB and an iPhone Lightning connector on the other) that can be used to first charge the power stick and then use the power stick to charge your equipment. I can well see myself sporting one of these little beauties on my travels.     One thing I really like is the packaging and presentation, as illustrated below. These are the touches that distinguish premium promotional gifts from things like the pathetic pens with company logos that people force on you wherever you go (the really sad thing is that they often stop working as soon as you've left the building -- the pens -- not the people in the building LOL).   How about you? Are you a Steampunk aficionado? Have you seen any Steampunk memory sticks or power sticks or analogous accoutrements that have captured your fancy? If so, please share them with the rest of us in the comments below.