Beta Inkless Pen : Write without ink

inklessImagine getting your hands on a pen or pencil that doesn’t rely on timber, ink or graphite and is therefore more eco-sensitive than any pencil you’ve ever used? Well, that’s exactly what the Beta Inkless Pen is. It has a lead tip and feels heavier than most pen or pencils that you might have used, so getting used to it is tricky. It’s design is the revival of an age old artist technique of writing in metal! The tiny metal tip is made of lead (so do not put it in your mouth) and will write notes forever. However, with an optional anodized aluminum or cherry wood exterior, this is not just a pen but one hack of a style statement. The pen leaves a grey imprint when scribbled on paper and needs no refill as – get this- it has no ink. Fancy writing with a streak of pure oozing metal anyone?

 

Use it and you will stop contributing to the grinding away of trees by sharpening away wood pencils.  The Beta Inkless Pen will be your favorite writing instrument.  Use it for a new experience.  It lays down a grey line that doesn’t smudge or erase. It never needs sharpening and doesn’t run out. The shaft of the pen is available in anodized aluminum which is cool to the touch. If you prefer a warm and an airy feel, select the cherry wood finish.

The pens can be used on most paper surfaces, at any temperature or in any weather condition and will never need to be sharpened.  In actuality, writing with lead is pretty unique, as is the Inkless Metal Pen, which sheds minute particles of lead as you write. How minute? The Inkless Metal Pen works so well that it will pretty much never need sharpening or a refill, and it’s “ink” is also solid, so you never need to worry about it exploding like a pulverized squid in your pants pocket. It doesn’t smudge either.

Features & specs:

  • Dimensions (standard – silver, black, or cherry): 6.25″ x 0.375″ diameter
  • Dimensions (keychain): 2.25″ x 0.375″ diameter
  • Special alloy metal tip
  • Anodized aluminum or cherry wood barrel
  • No dulling, no smudging, no leaking, no refills
  • Warning: Not intended for children (due to small amounts of lead in the tip)
  • Keychain version includes a metal gift tin and keyring

 There’s no way I’d switch to a Beta Pen as my main writing instrument (I’ll use Uni-Ball pens until my stockpile runs dry), but it’s a nice go-to pen to throw in a bag or even on a key-ring for unexpected note-taking, when you don’t want to worry about sharpening a pencil or running out of pen ink while on the go.

How to: Add custom icon on Removable Drive

Did You Notice, whenever you insert a game CD/DVD, an icon is used over the drive. By default windows will put a simple Disk image over it. Game developers and software designers generally use their company logo to show off some style.

You can also do this simply to your Removable Drive (Pen Drive, CD and DVD). Most of the people must have seen an “autorun.inf” file inside CD/DVDs. This file is responsible for automatically executing application or start setup when the disk is inserted. This file is also capable of adding custom icon to it. For this:

1) Open Microsoft Notepad or any other text editor.

2) Write the following code in it:

[autorun]
ICON=your_icon_name.ico

3) Now save it but not with a .txt file extension, name it as “autorun.inf”. Make sure you set extension right.

autorun

4) Simply copy this file and icon file to root of your Removable Drive.

Explore-drive

Remember! The “your_icon_name” MUST be replaced with the name of icon file. You can use icons embedded in a *.dll file by placing the dll file under the icon tag, and then index it.

Eg: icon=”shell32.dll, 5”

Bitmap (*.bmp) files are also supported for this action (but not recommended). There are some other tags that can be used other than icon in autorun.inf file, like: label, open, action. We will discuss rest in some other articles.

How to block access of USB

USB access is something that can affect your computer in a variety of ways. Whether you’re protecting your computer against viruses or malware, or you don’t want anybody to have the ability to copy files onto a USB memory stick, you will need to restrict the access to the USB ports on your system. Setting this up will give your computer the security it needs and keep your data safe.

  • Click “Start” and select “Run.”
  • Type “regedit” into the box and press “Enter.”
  • Look for “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor.”
usb-block
  • Select the “USBSTOR” entry.
  • Right-click on the “Start” file on the right and select “Modify.” Change the value to “4” to deny access to the USB ports.
  • To enable it , just turn back value  to “3”.

You can speedup the process by creating desktop shortcut of this procedure. Learn from here: Create shortcut to modify registry files

Note: You need administrator privileges for this.

How to Encrypt Your Pen Drive

Encrytion on Various Platforms

Encrytion on Windows

There are a variety of Windows-based tools for creating an encrypted volume on a USB stick, but our favorite is the free, open-source FreeOTFE. FreeOTFE uses on-the-fly encryption, which means that data is automatically encrypted and decrypted without you needing to do anything other than enter a password or possess the right keyfile.

To get started, download and install FreeOTFE. Then open the application and select your USB cick on the “New” icon. FreeOTFE will then walk you through the process of setting up your encrypted volume and help you choose an encryption algorithm or set other options.

Once FreeOTFE finishes, your USB stick will contain an encrypted volume where you can store sensative data to keep it safe from prying eyes.

True Crypt

An alternative system is TrueCrypt, although unlike FreeOTFE, this requires you to have administrator rights to even start it on any computer you wish to use your encrypted thumb drive on.

Encryption on Mac OS X

Mac OS X actually has a nice built-in encryption tool you can use right out of the box.

To get started, just plug in your USB stick and open up Disk Utility (you’ll find it in the Utilities folder inside your Applications folder).

In Disk Utility head to File >> New >> Blank Disk Image. Select your USB stick as the destination and choose one of the encryption options. You can also set the size of the volume, number of partitions and the format.

Once that’s done click create and enter a good password .

Alternativly, there is a Mac version of TrueCrypt which may be used.

Cross-Platform Encryption

For accessing data across MS Windows and Windows Mobile PDAs, the previously mentioned FreeOTFEserves as a solid open-source cross-platform option.

For use with Windows, Linux and Mac OS X machines, TrueCrypt can also be used.