THE TRAVELING TERABYTE PROJECT

LATEST NEWS

2012-03-25 New Full-Size TTB Drive Deployed

Back in February we were contacted by an NG Specialist asking about a full-size TTB drive that he wanted to use in order to spread some good content to the men and women whom he encounters. After a short while of coordinating things, James had a new hard drive shipped my way -- we've switched to Seagate externals and i like them a lot more -- and i gave it the full OD Green treatment, outfitted a new Pelican micro case, and out it went!

See more in the new entry on the photos page.

- deviant

 

2011-06-08 - Regards from FOB Kalsu

It's always so great to see photos and other feedback from the field... and we thank the Sgt. Lindsay and the rest of the soliders at FOB Kalsu very much for dropping us a line and showing us the smiles that the TTB Project can bring to those who serve!

Have a look at the latest entry on the photos page to see more!

- deviant

 

2011-06-03 - The Flash Drives are still moving along

It's been a few months now, and the Traveling Terabyte Flash Drives are seriously covering ground. We've personally given out over half of them in airports and USO locations during times of travel. I also have shipped them to APO and FPO addresses all over. Just today i dispatched packages to FOB Tarin Kowt, a Corporal in the 1/5 Bravo Co, the Marines at COS Endeavor, and a few fellows we know state-side who are deploying in the near future.

Let's hope that we get some terrific photos and stories from the folk in the field.

- deviant

 

2011-05-06 - Extending the TTB's reach near Iskandariya, Iraq

Back in March a Sergeant at COS Kalsu contacted me. His unit had heard about the Traveling Terabyte Project from hackaday.com. The folk there have a little morale operation of their own running... with a 1.5 TB NAS. However, they were a bit lacking in content. So we shipped a hard drive out to them along with a half dozen TTB Flash Drives.

Sgt Tyler has volunteered to coordinate things out his way by pushing more content out to servicemembers in forward areas, by using the flash drives to shuttle files forward, rotating them back at times to refresh them with new material, etc.

We're looking forward to some photos and accounts from the fella out that way.

- deviant

 

2011-03-30 - TTB Flash Drives in Action

A couple nice photos are up in the gallery, showing that these new TTB Flash Drives are indeed out and circulating now. If i see you in uniform in an airport, you're likely going to get one of these from me! If you want to have one sent to a friend or loved one in the service, just email me with their APO or FPO address!

 

2011-03-17 - Flash Drives Are Assembled

It took a lot of touch time (and my dexterity wasn't outstandingly great at the end of this March 17th) but all of the new Flash Drives are assembled and ready for content. I"m working on getting a good mix of Movies, Music, etc for this first 32GB package.

If i see you in uniform in an airport over the next four days, i may just have a gift for you!

- deviant

 

2011-03-15 - Flash Drives Have Arrived

The rest of the items for the newest TTB Project push have arrived! We have the flash drives, we have the lanyards, we have everything now. It's going to be pretty great, i think.

I'm going to work on getting these assembled and ready for content before i head to Georgia and Florida this weekend. Get your recipients ready, everyone, because i want to start sending these out in the mail very soon.

- deviant

2011-03-04 - Dog Tags Have Arrived

The first items for the new phase of the TTB Project are here. The Dog Tags we ordered from GoTags got here in record time. Both the ones for the Flash Drive lanyards as well as the Thank You lanyards are now complete...

... click above to see a larger image. I'm really pleased with the results. I look forward to the rest of the gear from iPromo in the coming week or two.

- deviant

 

2011-03-03 - Proofs of the Flash Drives & Lanyards

Here are the final proofs from iPromo that i approved when the flash drives and lanyards went into production...

... thank you to everyone who helped out with this latest push. We were able to cover all the costs -- thanks in large part to Pat Galea who personally kicked in $500 -- and I can't wait to see these items in person.

- deviant

 

2011-03-02 - One Last Call for Support

I'm so pleased at how everything is working with this latest phase of the Traveling Terabyte Project. The flash drives are now in production, the lanyards are being machine-sewn, and a batch of dog tags is being produced to be affixed to each gift. If you're curious, the tags will be as follows...

... when i was preparing these tags, i decided to whip up one extra small batch in a different style. Done in brass as opposed to steel, i have made tokens of thanks that will be for the Project's supporters...

As we enter our final phase of trying to cover the costs of all these recent items, i'll be rewarding donors with this small token of our gratitude. I've also ordered extra lanyards (in the style seen below) which will come attached to the above tag.

So that's where we stand now... the Flash Drive Initiative had overall costs of about $2,600 and we've covered $2,000 of that from simply one person. I'm ok trying to cover all that remains, but naturally any help is appreciated. For now i've been simply taking donations via PayPal at deviant@deviating.net. Since the tags cost about a dollar, and the lanyards are a little over three, and a stamp kicks it up a little bit more... let's say that the thank-you gifts add maybe $5 to the Project's overhead.

Thus, any donation of $20 or more can merit a thank-you tag... does that sound fair? Any donation of $50 or more not only gets a thank-you tag, but also gets to be on the "immediate shipment" list of flash drives that go out into the field as soon as they arrive. You specify the destination (and even the kind of content that your friend or loved one in uniform likes) and we'll see to it that it ships to their APO or FPO address as soon as these new units become available.

Just looking for ways to keep everyone happy and keep the project alive. Naturally, i'm always open to input and ideas. Thank you all for taking the time to let me know your thoughts.

- deviant

 

2011-03-01 - New Drives are In Production!

After continuing to work with the Michael and the folks at iPromo, the TTB Project has finally settled on a new style and look for the flash drive portion initiative. This is a mock-up of how the new units will look when they are finished...

... naturally, i wanted to keep colors that were consistent with the service-uniform feel of the rest of the Project's assets, but i was really blown away with the fact that they would offer us full Pantone matching on all elements. I opted to do the drives in a green that closely resembles the ACU-style coloring of our previous hard drives. The lanyards feature text in the same shade of beige, but are more of a MARPAT look, in order to rope in other branches of service in the look and feel of the new flash drives.

The amazing gift of $2,000 from Jason (see earlier posts) covered a lot of this initial production, and for now I'm floating the rest... but if anyone else out there is feeling generous now would surely be a good time to help contribute to the Project if you wanted to help me cover the rest of the costs.

More than important funds, however, is simple word-of-mouth. I have basically zero marketing skill and am not a whiz at public relations... so the project simply continues to exist as long as people spread the word. Tell others who are state-side, and tell those in the field. Most of all, please contact me with destination addresses where i can send content to friends and loved ones whom you'd like to support in deployed areas.

- deviant

 

2011-02-11 - Additional wow.

One more small update before i hit the road (lots to do before i head to HackCon in a couple days... have to be down in Maryland this evening for a dinner with Johnny Long to discuss what TOOOL can do for Hackers for Charity in Uganda and then i'll be at Unallocated Space for their first major Lockpicking Day.)

Before i hit the highway, however, i had to thank the folks at iPromo for working with us so well on this latest Flash Drive idea. I've been going back and forth with Michael Engle, one of their sales reps, and they have been wonderful.

Right from the start, Michael expressed support for the TTB Project and worked with us to waive setup fees, get the quote in a place that's in-line with what we're hoping to spend, etc. I can't say how happy i am about all of this. As soon as I'm back from Norway we'll see the ball rolling even more in this vein.

- deviant

 

2011-02-11 - Wow. Just... wow.

Last night i was tinkering in PayPal, preparing some mailing labels and shipping out a few lockpick kits to people who had written to me asking to learn more. i watched my balance in that account drop by $5 increments as each Flat Rate USPS label came out of the nearby Zebra printer. Just as i was about to log out, something astounding caught my eye.

The balance had suddenly shot up to $2,000 more than it was moments ago.

After i picked my jaw up off the floor with my hand, i started scrolling in the history to see what on earth could have happened. Did i suddenly get an order for two dozen sets of practice locks? Was someone seeking hundreds of lockpicks for some sort of crazy event?

Nope... it was a donation from one man dedicated to supporting the Traveling Terabyte Project.

I met Jason Blackwell at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas last year. He wasn't in our training session, but rather he came into the room at the end of the day as we were wrapping up. He and i chatted for a bit, and he thanked me so much for what the Project tries to do for servicemembers around the world.

We've kept in touch since then, but just recently he learned that he was due to ship off to Afghanistan. That changed things for him. He's making preparations to downsize his footprint here at home, secure and store some belongings, and in the process he realized he won't be spending nearly as much on local state-side costs. He chose to simply pass a lot of that financial savings on to the Traveling Terabyte Project.

I am stunned and amazed. He didn't do this for praise or mention here, but I'm dropping this note in about him, just to say thank you and to wish him well on his time overseas. Do good and come home safe, Jason. The Traveling Terabyte Project thanks you.

- deviant

 

2011-02-09 - The latest idea with the Traveling Terabyte

A lot has happened since the last post to this page. Not only are nations around the world capturing the news cycle with reports of major regime change, etc. but the TTB Project has a whole new direction in which we are going to experimentally head.

As those who read the previous post know, i have been growing concerned about the increasingly-difficult matter of managing not just content but also tech materials that get sent out into the field, etc. After a number of helpful discussions with both active duty folk as well as former military and/or their friends and family, i learned that Blu-Ray is not a suitable plan for the direction of the TTB Project at this time. There isn't enough penetration of compatible drives in the field, and the discs are too easily lost, mishandled, or otherwise just misunderstood.

Flash drives are going to be the next experimental idea we try out.

I personally thought it would be awesome to have "bullet" flash drives like the ones seen here...

... but there is the problem that those are a little too pricey, not to mention they could (at least in theory) lead to some sort of confusion in the field. I do not seriously expect any servicemember to accidentally grab a TTB Drive in the heat of a firefight and attempt to chamber it into his or her weapon, but still... no need to introduce realisitic-looking faux-ordinance into a combat area, i suppose.

So instead of those flash drives, we're going to likely go with these...

... which ironically are also called "bullet" style by their vendor. They screw shut and have a water-proofing rubber gasket seal. Aside from an IronKey product, they seem to be pretty robust and in line with what the TTB has come to develop as the hallmark of our field equipment.

We're going to see how well we can do on pricing and attempt to color-match them (as in my mocked up image above) to the existing art scheme of the Project. It looks like we can get them in 32GB capacity, for about $43 each. That's not the price of a Blu-Ray disc, for sure... but it's cheap enough that i can produce them in bulk (with some help from the Project's other backers) and not really worry about them after they've been sent into the field.

For the first run of these drives, I'm estimating we'll have about $2500 in costs. A little over $2000 of that will be producing the drives themselves, and the rest will go to sourcing things like lanyards and dog tags (all of which will be attached to the flash drives as way of making them less likely to be lost and more easily recognized, etc.)

Expect more news here soon!

- deviant

 

Older News Archived Here