[POSTING ON 11/22]

On Thursday I started reinstalling the operating system on my PC workstation, where I do most of my photo processing. As I was digging up the install media (on a thumb drive), I found a Mac OS X “Mavericks” mini flash drive that I was supposed to loan to a friend. However, the drive is SO SMALL that I was worried it would get lost. So I spent more time than I perhaps should have learning to attach it to some kind of card.

The Details

In my previous prototype, I made a small card from some heavy index cards (Aaron Mahnke’s excellent Frictionless Cards), punched a hole in the corner, and then threaded some thread through the tiny loop four times. I was reminded how terrible I was at threading needles, but evolved a process:

• Cut 2 feet of fine black thread
• Fold over twice, to create 6 inches of four strands
• Use candle wax to wax and twist the threads to give them stiffness
• Point the “folded tip” of the 4-strands, and poke that through the lanyard hole.
• Poke the thread through the hole in the index card
• Tie a square knot around a fat pen or dowel (1/2-inch), so you end up with a nice loop.

The final version I stuffed into a coin envelope and dropped it off with my friend, who is looking forward to an operating system upgrade on his Mac. The “Dave Seah Business Card” version at the top of the post has a different flash drive of the same small form factor, and I tossed it back in the box where I keep all those things.

That’s today’s THING-A-DAY!