Another fake flash story

I recently purchased a 64GB mini SD card to slot in to my laptop and/or tablet, keeping media separate from my home directory pretty full of kernel sources.

This Samsung card looked fast enough, and at 25€ include shipping, seemed good enough value.

Hmm, no mention of the SD card size?

The packaging looked rather bare, and with no mention of the card's size. I opened up the packaging, and looked over the card.

Made in Taiwan?

What made it weirder is that it says "made in Taiwan", rather than "Made in Korea" or "Made in China/PRC". Samsung apparently makes some cards in Taiwan, I've learnt, but I didn't know that before getting suspicious.

After modifying gnome-multiwriter's fake flash checker, I tested the card, and sure enough, it's an 8GB card, with its firmware modified to show up as 67GB (67GB!). The device (identified through the serial number) is apparently well-known in swindler realms.

Buyer beware, do not buy from "carte sd" on Amazon.fr, and always check for fake flash memory using F3 or h2testw, until udisks gets support for this.

Amazon were prompt in reimbursing me, but the Comité national anti-contrefaçon and Samsung were completely uninterested in pursuing this further.

In short:

• Test the storage hardware you receive
• Don't buy hardware from Damien Racaud from Chaumont, the person behind the "carte sd" seller account

Momentous moment

Tonight, 3 months after ordering it, I finished watching the complete West Wing. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in politics, especially when put into context with the Clinton, Bush and upcoming Obama administrations, as well as the Gore, Kerry and McCain presidential races. Now maybe I should watch some episodes of the New Statesman again, to flush that too-political feeling.

More suckage

Lovefilm ties up with Amazon DVD

Sigh. I actually chose to use Amazon rather than Lovefilm because it was integrated with the rest of the Amazon shopping, including wishlists, and IMDB (look up a film on IMDB, click on the Amazon link, add to rental list).

Lovefilm is also more expensive (I pay £9.99 a month for 3 DVDs at a time, 6 per month), which would now be £9.99/month for 1 DVD at a time, with unlimited rentals, or £7.99 for 2 DVDs at a time, and 4/month. No word about Blu-ray discs counting as DVDs either (as is currently the case with Amazon).

I also wonder about Amazon cannibalising themselves, as Lovefilm also sells DVDs and offers some for download.Bah!

Evil!

Now, that wasn't funny. I asked for nice souls to send me stuff via my Amazon wishlist. Braindead and American Beauty DVDs, great. But this:



is sick. A copy of This is Anfield. Liverpool's Kop songs. I'd have preferred a ManU CD. The jury's still out on the fate of the CD, and the constables on the identity of the culprit(s). Call your local police station if you have any evidence on the perp, or your Daily Mail correspondent for possible punishments. Or leave a comment either way.

Update: The perpetrator has been identified. Comments included:
«Of course...if you send me a tom jones CD... I will retaliate» (the accused)
and:
«Frankly after sending mr jones, you are lucky you only got dvds and cds, and not shit-in-a-box» (his defence attorney).

I found a new home for the CD. Will be on its way when Royal Mail stop striking.