Tech Eye: In memory of memory

It helps us to remember who we've already borrowed (or stolen) money from, for example, and who we can still bleed a little. It also helps us to learn valuable life lessons, like the importance of monthly sock changing or the fact that igloos should never, under any circumstances, be constructed with nougat.

Absence of memory, however, can be even better than its presence. Many's the time that Techeye has woken up in an odd place, surrounded by irate strangers asking the age-old questions: "Who are you?" "How did you get in here?" "Is that a mannekin in bed with you?" and "What have you done to the camels?" In situations like these, we've learned, amnesia is both a good means of avoiding jail time and a way to escape being skewered by pointy-stick-wielding camel herders.

Ah, but how much of memory remains in our minds even when forgotten? While Techeye of course supports the steady march of technology, we fear the day that mind-reading gadgets are invented - we know that's the day the old Grandma Techeye will come a'knockin' on our door, wanting to know what precisely what we did with her teeth back in 1983. The truth would kill her.

All of this rumination is the sort of thing that comes over us between the eighth and ninth pint of the morning, just around the time that Techeye gets to work. That's why this week, in a fit of maudlin exuberance, we've chosen to write about Out of Stock Design's Eraser USB Stick. This spruce little item is a "USB key with an irony in form (erase) and function (write data)," meaning you can use it to rub out your naughty doodles or to preserve up to one GB of electronic perversity. The Eraser USB Stick can be ordered over the internet and, at the cost of around zł.208, it might make a nice gift to distract Grandma ... especially if she's looking for her teeth.