John McGrath, an email acquaintence who posts on Dymaxion Blog and who is one of the good guys (and who really ought to be a Buffista) has had a disasterous data loss while working a project for his masters: [link]

I'm working on a large article as my final assignment for my Master's degree, which has to date involved at least 5 hours of interviews with some pretty interesting people.

Last night I was consolidating the files scattered across three different hard drives when the USB drive I was using decided to cack out on me. I have, it seems, lost all of the recordings of my interviews.

Gun in mouth ---> pull trigger.

Man, I fucking hate computers. Anyone know a good service that can recover data from a corrupted USB drive?

If anyone wants to help him out either by commenting on the post linked, or by posting here... Cause google shows lots of data recovery services out there, and I suspect someone on this board knows who the good ones are.

there's a good one in Canada that I know people have used and is successful.

it is not cheap.

I suspect at this point good beats cheap.

Le Nubian, the thought occurred to me, did you intend to post a link or a name or something in your post and just forget? Or did you just want to see whether it was OK to post something that pricey? Cause either way, a link or some way to find the service would be perfectly OK, and if it turns out to be more expensive than John is looking for, totally not your fault. I can't speak for John but I will appreciate it. And I suspect he will too.

sorry, I split and didn't mean to leave you hanging. I have heard good things about the first 2, I cannot unfortunately remember the name of the Canadian service, but I think #3 might be it.

All three can give estimates before charging...

[link]

[link]

[link]

Thanks so much!

Interviews probably can't be recreated, cause given his field these are probably people who won't redo the interview, and asking for new interviews cause the old ones were destroyed won't help his future career prospects in any case. He really really should have backed up.

But the a data recovery service, if it can recover this data will really save his ass. So thanks again.

Although this is useful mainly for British Buffistas, it is such a clever design I had to share it. If you appreciate the sheer beauty of really clever design you will like it. Maybe more towards the genius end of the spectrum than just clever. Or if you are British and use portable electronic devices. Tremendous space-saver on portable plugs.

Edited to include the actual link. [link]

dude, that is an awesome design. I like the folded 3 plugs in one at the end.

I need this.

Mimo Mini USB Monitor

Looking for that extra bit of screen real estate to get you through the busy workday? Referring to notes while writing an e-mail, checking info in a spreadsheet while entering data into a web page, keeping an eye on your to-do list while browsing YouTube... it's handy to have additional monitor space at the ready. Problem is an entire secondary monitor comes with its own needs like requiring a separate power cord or perhaps an additional video card.

The Mimo Mini USB Monitor changes this equation completely by offering a low-maintenance relationship between you and an extra display. A single USB connection from your computer gets you an instant high-resolution secondary display. This awesome display is perfect for your IM client, widgets, PC gaming tools, your email, a spreadsheet, your PhotoShop tools, or even video! Not only do these displays enhance productivity, they look great! The single USB connection, combined with a weight of only 1.3 pounds, means the Mimo monitor is ultra portable and cost-effective, as no expensive extra video cards are required.

Huh. I'm trying to decide if it's worth $129 to me....