I found the camera cable!
Posted June 3rd, 2008 by Howard Tayler
It never fails. Jump into the shower? The phone rings. Lie down for a nap? The phone rings. Up to your shoulders delivering a breach elephant calf? The phone rings. Post a blog entry with no pictures? Find the stupid camera cable.
Pictured here to the right are the prototypes for the new Schlock Mercenary Magnetic Miniature Warning Signs. They’re 1/4″ acrylic with a magnetic backing, and they’re around 1.75″ square. Obviously you’ll all be wanting the “biohazard” sign for your refrigerator, but what about putting that “microwave laser” sign on your microwave? Or that “flammable” sign on your pot of chili?
We’ll get these put up in the store in the next day or two. We’re still working on pricing (read: haggling) with our supplier. It looks like the full set of eight will set you back $20 +s&h, while individual magnets will be somewhere between $3.50 and $5.00 +s&h.
If you’re coming to InConjunction a month from now, I’ll have these with me. I’ll also have them at Comic-Con in San Diego in six weeks.
Explore posts in the same categories: Merchandise
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:45 pm
is there a chance that they will come with a sticky adhesive on the back instead of magnets? cause those would be pretty pimp to put on a computer.
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:49 pm
I agree! I want that “naked singularities” one for my computer. (Although… if the magnet is something I could just pry off, I could always just get some double-sided tape and se that. Are the magnets pry-off-able?)
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:02 pm
I believe that it is possible to put tape on a magnet, if you are so inclined.
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:06 pm
right, but magnets on a computer monitor are another matter.
I’m getting paid Friday. Looks like you are too, Howard.
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Or on the case; I don’t want other magnets anywhere near my hard drive.
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:34 pm
In which case, the first magnet for the next set should be “localized magnetic fields.” ;)
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Ooooooo! Me wantses!
I second (or is it third, or fourth, or something by now?) the request for an “adhesive-backed” version of these, by the way.
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Good, now I can satisfy my buying urges with something useful!
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:01 pm
I’ll look into the possibility of a sticky-back option. Seems there’s demand for that.
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:18 pm
I’ve seen small sticky-backed meatl plates you can use to mount magnetic units on non-magnetic surfaces. I’ll see if I can find a source. Since the plates are steel, they should shield the computer from the magnets. How soon can I order a few sets?
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:23 pm
No, seriously — let me look into having a few done with sticky-backs instead of magnets. They run these by the sheet, and doing a sheet with no magnetic backing is not going to be a problem.
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Cool.
Most of the PC cases are steel anyway :)
Mind, not on the front panel…
June 4th, 2008 at 1:42 am
For the benefit of those with poor visual acuity:
(Note: punctuation may be inaccurate.)
WARNING!
HABIT-FORMING WEBCOMIC
Schlock Mercenary
DEEP ARCHIVES:
PRODUCTIVITY WILL
SUFFER
NAKED
SINGULARITIES
BLACK HOLES,
DISTORTED
SPACE-TIME,
COSMIC
STRING
FLAMMABLE
NO OPEN FLAME, COVERED
FLAME, FLAME WARS,
FLATULENCE OR
SMOULDERING
PASSION
MICROWAVE
LASERS
THAT BEAM YOU CAN’T
SEE IS COOKING
YOU
BIOHAZARD
INFECTIOUS WASTE,
LEFTOVERS,
MYSTERY
MEAT
CORROSIVE
AGENTS
DO NOT POUR ON
HANDS
HIGH VOLTAGE
DO NOT LICK WIRES
(THIS MEANS YOU)
And finally, my favourite:
RADIOACTIVE
EMISSIONS
STRAY NEUTRONS
LOOKING FOR
A HOME
Heartwarming, isn’t it?
WARNING: If you experience noticeable internal heating from neutron radiation, update your will and consult a priest immediately.
June 4th, 2008 at 6:00 am
Um, Howard? Is it safe to have all those together like that?
June 4th, 2008 at 8:12 am
One word: “Velcro.”
Oh, and one more: “Sold!”
D.
June 4th, 2008 at 9:55 am
Oh, me wants. In fact, I’ll get one set of each (sticky magnets, sticky molecules). Be sure to let us know here in the Blógünder whether you’ll have both types in San Diego.
And I’m thrilled to hear that at Comic-Con I’ll finally get to meet Your Extreme Eminence. (The reverse might not be true, but I can live with that.)
–GS
June 4th, 2008 at 10:15 am
YES! I knew that suggesting magnets would make it happen (not that I can take any real credit; Howard’s the one who get’s it done! [two points for semi-inadvertent poetry, another for nested parenthetical phrases!]). That said, non-magnets are very versatile. They can become anything depending on what you glue them to. Bumper stickers (or hood ornaments), pins (the kind you wear), keychains, etc, FTW.
June 4th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Having them as stickers and magnets would be perfect, Howard- awesome new item. Can’t wait to lay my hands on both. :-D
(Thinking in terms of the magnets for the employee break area here at work- and another set of both for myself…)
June 4th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Me wants! Also, both sets… magnetic for the Biohazard Fridge, and adhesive for the High Voltage PC with a Naked Singularity.
June 4th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Howard -
Reminds me a lot of Anders Sandberg’s awesome warning signs for tomorrow: http://www.sentientdevelopments.com/2006/10/anders-sandbergs-warning-signs-for.html
That being said, SOLD!
June 4th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Linxan:
Or Howard’s friend who works at a kitsch factory gets it done ;)
He did pay for it, though.
0:)
June 4th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
JohnB: You did notice that http://www.aleph.se/andart/archives/2006/10/warning_signs_for_tomorrow.html referenced a couple of Schlock strips, right? http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20000903.html
Howard, I’ll be getting the whole set (probably 2 or 3) but I still want my crystal block Schlock art objects.
June 4th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Oooh, lookit the pretty formatting. :-)
June 4th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Sold! i will likly want 2 sets, 1 mag and 1 sticky :)
when we gonna see some other ones? i need something about AI’s or cybernetics (or both).
June 4th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
A few little magnets like these won’t bother a computer. Covering an entire side of your mini-tower will cause glitches. ;)
Back before the turn of the century… I got to the shop and the boss said there was a computer in the back for me to look at to see what was wrong with it, random crashes and weirdness.
It only took one glance at it to make me burst out laughing. One entire side of the case (the motherboard side) was covered with magnetic business cards. After taking them all off, the PC worked just fine.
Contrary to popular belief, there’s no danger to a computer using a magnetic tip screwdriver, as long as it’s turned off. ‘Course you shouldn’t be poking around inside when it’s turned on… The danger from dropping a screw behind the motherboard, forgetting it then turning the computer on is much worse.
Hard drive platters are far enough away from the outside of their housings that the small field of a screwdriver can’t touch them, and even if it could it likely wouldn’t damage the data due to the very high coercivity of the media. To be sure of damaging a floppy disk you’d have to open the shutter and directly touch the disk, though even that might not do it. I’ve used really strong speaker magnets, moving them back and forth, to erase disks.
Ever see that Mythbusters episode where they tried to damage the data on a credit card? It takes a minimum of a 700 gauss field *in motion* to wipe out a mag stripe on a credit card. They’d tried stationary fields up to a few thousand gauss without being able to erase the cards.
June 4th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Just wanted to say kudos for listening to the requests and getting these out. I’m sure I’ll own them at some point, though it may be a few paychecks away.
June 4th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Love the signs. Now I have something to spend my birtday money on.
One thing bothers me though. Shouldn’t the “Microwave LASER” sign read “MASER”?
June 4th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
bizzybody: I can say, from personal experience, that dropping a rare earth magnet on top of a running laptop, above the drive bay, can cause immediate and total drive failure.
The steel case of the average desktop would probably provide more protection, and there would certainly be more clearance. But it can happen. :)
Salvaged HD magnets are SOOO much fun, though…
June 5th, 2008 at 5:31 am
I need those. I’m sure I can find a place for each and every one in my classroom next year; they’re making me double up with a regular-ed teacher, and those are just what the room will need to add my touch.
June 5th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
SWEEEEEEEET!!!!!!!
Count me in for a full set of magnets
June 5th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Is there any way to arrange for local pickup? I live in Provo, I’m a cheap student, and I don’t want to pay for shipping if I can avoid it. ;)
June 5th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
@Ryos: We can probably work something out. Email the store and ask there. Sandra can help.
June 6th, 2008 at 8:40 am
OMG! OMG! I can`t wait - put them in the store, already! My Credit Card is burning a hole in my pocket!
They MUST be MINE! ^^
June 6th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
grythumn, yeah that’d do it. Considerably stronger than the average magnetic screwdriver. ;)
I know a fellow online who’s a bit paranoid. He leaves the side off his PC case and keeps a pair of powerful magnets on the opposite side of the desk ready to toss in on top of the drives.
June 6th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Whole-disk encryption is ever so much less of a hassle. Especially with all the features TrueCrypt offers, why end up embarrassed that you’ve only managed to make the drive unable to boot? Worse yet, just succeeded in shorting out the MoBo?
D.
June 6th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
The problem with crypto in that situation is that rubber-hose decryption always works.
ALWAYS.
If you’ve encrypted your stuff, you have to hope that your data is less valuable to the JBTs (Jack-Booted Thugs) than their principles are. If it’s an illegal raid, you’ll be screaming the password in 20 minutes.
If I ever reach the point that the data on my hard drive(s) is worth more to other people than my own life is, I’ve made this story far, far too interesting. Also, I’ll be installing a bomb in my PC.
June 6th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Check out TrueCrypt’s http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=plausible-deniability” A handful of rare-earth magnets and all the good intentions in the world won’t help for squat when it comes to hiding data.
20 years ago, I had a friend who worked for Miniscribe in Longmont. With his cleanroom, there was nothing short of physical destruction that could keep him from recovering data. He was able to pull data off a drive that had been degaussed and had holes drilled through the case and platters. In his words, the only way to keep him from recovering your data was to “cut the drive into quarters with a chop-saw and throw the pieces into different watersheds.”
If you’re counting on anything short of thermite or a chop-saw to protect your secrets, you’re dreaming.
Unless, and only unless you can give up the keys to the vault and there’s no evidence that you have another vault wrapped up inside, a vigorously administered “Pepsi Challenge” will result in you giving up the gist of whatever you’ve tried to hide. Your only shot is to hand over the keys to the city and pray that nobody notices there’s another city hidden in the background noise.
D.
June 6th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
Ah, bother.
One of these days I’ll be able to type a link without hosing it. Truecrypt and http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=plausible-deniability
June 6th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=plausible-deniability
June 6th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=plausible-deniability
Bother. Cut and paste it, I give up.
Sorry, Howard.
June 7th, 2008 at 5:12 am
If I were a jack-booted thug carrying out an illegal raid, I’d take the fact you were using TrueCrypt as evidence that you had a second vault. Which would really suck for you if you didn’t have one.
Besides, thermite’s more spectacular anyway.
June 7th, 2008 at 6:11 am
Howard; you didn’t get this from me, and if it ever goes off in your computer case, I disavow all knowledge that you ever existed.
However, I will come out and sift through the rubble of your neighborhood to help look for survivors, (and any stray merch that may have cleared the blast radius).
;>
June 7th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Perfect, Howard. I’ll be picking up a full set for the door to my garage/workshop.
Guess I’m still on my own for making a “Beware of Killbot” sign though.
June 8th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Just for everyone’s info, there’s no way these magnets will do any harm whatsoever to a computer. The magnetic material used for this sort of thing have alternating north/south pole bands every 1/8 inch or so; at a distance of more than about 1/4 inch they cancel out, and they’re not strong enough to bother anything anyway. You could open the case up and clap these all over the actual hard drive and nothing would happen.
On the outside of the case, you could use high power rare-earth magnets and you’d still be OK.
Don’t put them right on a floppy disk (remember those?) but apart from that, you’re OK. They have no effect on flash memory (thumb drives) either.
I wish one of the dealers at Duckon this coming weekend had them; they could probably sell dozens of full sets. I’d take at least one.
June 8th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I would like a set when I can afford them.
As to those of you with delusions of paranoia. I keep all the truly incriminating stuff in hard copies that burn.
Ona
June 9th, 2008 at 12:16 am
AmbassadorOna: If it’s written on ordinary paper, that still leaves time for a lightning raid with fire-extinguishers. True paranoids write their incriminating documents on nitrocellulose.
June 9th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
@ Sam
True paranoids don’t write anything down.
D.
(Ya’ dag-nabbith poseur! When the JBGTs bust down your door as you’re scrubbing off the chemtrail residue in the shower, it’s awful tough to light off the evidence you’ve spent the last two decades collecting!!! )
June 10th, 2008 at 2:00 am
Oh, and I suppose you can remember a one-time pad? True paranoids don’t trust any lesser cipher. And they don’t allow their incriminating documents to be out of arms reach, even in the shower.
It only takes one spark to dispose of nitrocellulose.
June 10th, 2008 at 3:16 am
Well, I guess true paranoids bathe in acetone so it’s all good. . .
Heh!
D.
June 10th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
So, when will these fine articles of high art be available for purchase?
June 10th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
I keep checking the store for the opportunity to buy magnets. If there’s a single bright spot in my life, it’s that Red Gold is finally starting to sell their products over the interwebpipethingy.
Sadly, I may have to postpone my magnet purchase until July due to the expense involved in delivering a case of Red Gold Ketchup.
C’mon, Howard. . . work with me here? I can only afford to feed one addiction at a time!
D.
June 19th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Hey Howard,
I was looking to pick up a set of the magnets, but couldn’t find them in your store-front - did they make it into production?
Chris.