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HOLD IT! Last minute gifts for one's nerd minions

Late? Not according to my corporate NTP server, sonny

What, you don't call it a coaster toaster?

Inateck Coaster Toaster

New term: coaster toaster

Next up is the Inateck Autoclone Coaster Toaster. While it's officially the Dual Bay USB 3.0 HDD Docking Station with UASP & Offline Clone Function, that's a stupid name, so we're sticking with Autoclone Coaster Toaster.

If you look at the image, you'll get the toaster reference: you slot in two 2.5" or 3.5" hard drives vertically to the device and get access to them through USB. The "coaster" part comes from the fact then when traditional magnetic drives are dead beyond the ability to RMA, I have a tendency to open them up and salvage the neodymium magnets from the inside. Along the way I pull out the platters and put little rubber feet on the bottom, making a coaster for the $deity-blessed energy juice.

I single out the Inateck coaster toaster from the pack for three reasons. The first is that it's USB 3; believe it or not it's noticeably faster than my USB 2 Thermaltake coaster toasters. The second is that it has a neat little button on it that allows you to clone all the data from one drive to another. (Provided drive B is of equal size or larger than drive A).

I remember that 10 years ago these sorts of autocloning widgets were about $600. They were also flaky and unreliable. The Inateck ones seem to work reliably and can be found on Amazon for $40 USD. Frugal and possessed of a business case, what more could you want in a mandatory holiday item?

Micron P420m

Life changingly fast

While we're waxing poetic about nerdly tangibles, the Micron M600 series SSDs are sure to make nerds smile. Or at least grimace a little bit less fiercely. Everyone loves SSDs, but there's a nerdly twist to these ones: they have bonkers tech in them that lets the controller treat individual cells as either SLC or MLC flash.

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