A little over three years ago, PayPal and eBay announced a way to further protect your accounts with their Security Key initiative.

The premise of the Security Key is simple. A single, hardware key is assigned to your account. Every sixty seconds or so, a new numeric key is generated using RSA’s Securid technology. Essentially, your key uses an algorithm to create a big-ass unique random number, which is truncated down to six digit number. PayPal and eBay have software that calculates the same number, which again is unique to your card. You then log in with your normal username and password, followed by your random six digit number.

I was among the first public folks to get a key, and have used it ever since.

That is, until I lost it in February.
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I liked my Cardo Scala Q2 bluetooth headsets but could never get the volume loud enough with external speakers. I also had a terrible time getting the auxiliary volume up to a reasonable level, because the 3.5mm jack in the dock wasn’t powered by the headset like the other channels were.

I started researching headphone amplifiers, and found that the products quickly fell into two camps: gimongous amplifiers powered by AC power / more batteries than a North Korean bathtub submarine or tiny portable amplifiers that offered less power but more portability. Adding to the decision making problem was the scarcity of information on the Internet, and/or that the best smaller amps cost almost as much as I paid for the Scalas in the first place.

My memory is fuzzy at this point, but I jumped on eBay trying to find a less-expensive source for one of the more popular amps on ADVrider.com when I stumbled up on the FiiO headphone amplifier. I am pretty sure I was reading about the previous generation that ran off of two AA batteries.

I put in an order from a (extremely reputable, I’m sure) seller in Hong Kong and waited for the awesome power to arrive.
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I love my HTC Touch (known as the VX6900 on the Verizon network). I use it for all sorts of stuff: check Gmail, send text messages, approve Gibberish comments, listen to Internet Radio awesomeness Pandora.com, use the built-in GPS and Google Maps, and sometimes I even call people on it. Even though the upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.1 improved battery efficiency, I still have to recharge the phone several times a day. I used to get really pissed off about it, especially coming from my fantastic Samsung u740. I could rock that Samsung for three to four days without recharging its extended battery. However, once I thought of the Touch as a small computer instead of a phone I started treating it like a laptop. I wouldn’t expect my Dell Latitude at work to go all day without a recharge, would I?

I used to carry around a mini-USB / USB cable in my work bag that let me charge my phone via my laptop. Every time I plugged it in, though, Windows XP kept trying to setup a relationship with my phone via ActiveSync. I got tired of clicking “cancel” a couple times a day and just tried to hold out as long as possible, hoping the phone would have enough juice to survive the work day. I needed another way to charge my phone, and damn it would be helpful if I had a spare battery, too ….

Then I found this cradle / dock on eBay that claimed to charge the phone and a second battery at the same time. At $22 shipped it was probably a piece of shit, but aren’t dodgy product reviews what Gibberish is all about?
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You can create a gamer profile on the Xbox 360. This profile allows you to keep track of your friends, game achievements, etc. Since I have two Xbox 360s in the house, I had to come up with an easy way to move my gaming profile from one console to the other. Microsoft sells memory cards in various sizes to do this, and to also save games. Since both of my 360s have hard drives, I could get away with the smallest card available, which is 64MB. I didn’t want to pay retail for it (about $30) so I went to eBay.

I bought a new 64MB unit from a longtime eBay seller. The listing stressed the unit was new several times in the ad. I wound up buying it for $14 shipped. I was slightly surprised when the memory unit arrived a few days later. It wasn’t in retail packaging, and had an inventory sticker on the plastic case. I immediately thought the unit was refurbished.
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I’ve been interested in PayPal’s Security Key system ever since it was announced January 15th of this year. The Key became available about a month ago, and I received mine in the mail last week.
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