12 ms·

A couple of years ago, some USB sticks with a similar "flaw" made it onto the European market. The capacity difference wasn't quite as drastic as this example,

A couple of years ago, some USB sticks with a similar "flaw" made it onto the European market. The capacity difference wasn't quite as drastic as this example, which almost makes matters worse: you have to fill it with e.g. 1GB of data and read it back before you notice anything. My friend said they're still trying to figure out how did the Chinese do that. Because the drive reports "correct" file sizes and disk-capacity. And the "overwriting" doe not touch the other files present on the drive. I suspect they treat the first N megabytes correctly to preserve file system data structures. For anything above that (the remaining "capacity"), they just let it loop by cutting off the top bits of the offset.

beilabs 16y ago
In 2005 a friend brought me a USB thumbdrive he had just bought for a few hundred RMB. It had apparently 10GB on it. He couldn't figure out why his files were not opening after saving them to the drive. The entire space on the drive was about 100MB but as with this article reported 10GB. As always, China is great at faking stuff....I loved the line from Kung fu panda, I've only seen paintings of that painting....
- dcx 16y ago
  I bought one of these in Shanghai last year! Sadly I only realised it was acting strange when I got back from vacation (It had a perfect plastic casing, labels, little paper manual; we even tested it in store!). From my googling at the time, what they did was something like take a standard 128mb stick and flash it with some interesting firmware - there's even a utility out there which can help you figure out how big your flash drive _really_ is. For the price of the drive I thought it was a good business lesson. It implies the existence of an entire supply chain - crooked engineers/programmers, distributers, retailers, and maybe even government, manufacturers, building managers, etc. All to satisfy the market's "need" for the product to appear to work for longer than someone's visit lasts. An interesting/scary demonstration of total free-market capitalism.
  - roel_v 16y ago
    "Look there's a guy selling heroin over there! An interesting/scary demonstration of total free-market capitalism!" /rollseyes
    - billybob 16y ago
      I think maybe the point of the parent comment, or at least the point that I see, is that there is benefit to the consumer in having things like trademarks be enforced. Copyright and patents are intended to benefit the public by incentivizing creators to make more stuff. Whether that works is debatable. But trademark is intended (or at least has the effect) of helping consumers identify a product's maker. If I buy an Acme Rocket Sled, it's because I've heard that Acme makes good ones. It sucks for me if I can never tell a real Acme from a fake one; I can't purchase with any confidence. And while maybe the blogosphere could help me find out where to get real Acmes, it really seems more efficient if we just outlaw making knockoffs and penalize those who do. If it's not Acme, I want it to have a different label.
      - mhb 16y ago
        It sure seems like the point was to take a gratuitous swipe at free market capitalism. And if it wasn't the lack of clarity regarding the actual target of the gratuitous swipe deserves at least a modicum of disapprobation.
        SoftwareMaven 16y ago
        That is only true if you are if the mindset that there can be nothing wrong with unfettered, free-market capitalism. While it is certainly better than many other economic philosophies, it would be a mistake to pretend it is perfect.
        mhb 16y ago
        It is also true if you prefer a reasoned argument to a gratuitous swipe.
- endgame 16y ago
  I was at the climbing gym yesterday and saw a notice that Petzl had found Chinese knockoffs of their gear being sold that failed at loads well below their stated safety limits. Shonky hard drives are one thing, but dodgy climbing gear is another.
  - JonnieCache 16y ago
    Christ, thats terrible. I'll make sure to tell my climbing friends.
  - noodle 16y ago
    this exists for sport fencing equipment, as well and resulted in some manufacturers from china being banned in europe.
    - icegreentea 16y ago
      This exists for -everything- Even razor blades. http://reviews.ebay.com/FAKE-GILLETTE-MACH3-amp-FUSION-RAZOR-BLADES_W0QQugidZ10000000006497974 http://reviews.ebay.com/FAKE-GILLETTE-MACH3-amp-FUSION-RAZOR...
      - eli 16y ago
        I ended up with some of those once. What's annoying is that if they spent half as long making a sharp blade as they did making the packaging look real, I wouldn't even care that it's a fake.
      - noodle 16y ago
        difference here was that they weren't fake or counterfit. they staged and bribed their way into getting their stuff certified, despite the production line being way under quality.
  - yan 16y ago
    Yup, when I caught that story on the climbing blogs, it really terrified me. Petzl has since released this chart for helping identify the knock-offs: http://www.petzl.com/files/fckfiles/file/PetzlAmerica/Counterfeits/PETZL_PRODUCT_AUTHENTIFICATION-US.pdf http://www.petzl.com/files/fckfiles/file/PetzlAmerica/Counte...
- HerraBRE 16y ago
  About a year ago I bought what I thought was a 32GB USB drive - turns out it was only 1GB with dodgy firmware. This was in Bolivia. I managed to get it exchanged (in itself a story: http://bre.klaki.net/dagbok/faerslur/1263420810.shtml http://bre.klaki.net/dagbok/faerslur/1263420810.shtml), and got the feeling that the merchant herself didn't even know she was selling counterfeit stuff.
  - hendi_ 16y ago
    Again no receipt, this time because the person selling it was avoiding tax... You should always insist on getting a receipt, so the shop owner has to pay taxes. Withholding taxes hurts the country's economy and only plays in the hands of corrupt regimes.
    - HerraBRE 16y ago
      Theoretically, sure. In practice, things in that part of the world are very, very poorly regulated and people are just trying to get by as well as they can. If I was going to fight every single social problem I saw on that trip, I wouldn't have gotten very far.
    - VladRussian 16y ago
      >Withholding taxes hurts the country's economy and only plays in the hands of corrupt regimes. And paying taxes into the pockets of corrupt regimes?
      - eru 16y ago
        Interestingly, regimes who can rely on revenue other than taxes (say, oil) are often even more corrupt.
        VladRussian 16y ago
        Yes, what you pointing out to is the situation when the beast can't be starved by decreasing of the tax revenue alone. Having abundant source of cheap money, like oil, the beast just grows monstrously bigger and fatter.
- nsfmc 16y ago
  "I've only seen paintings of that painting...." off topic, but there's an artist[1] that exploits this to really good effect, really makes you think about what place 'the original' has in art especially for pieces that are entrenched in the public consciousness (i.e. mona lisa, warhol, etc) But that sort of meta thing only works with art i think, not so much thumb drives! :) [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Sturtevant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Sturtevant

beilabs 16y ago

In 2005 a friend brought me a USB thumbdrive he had just bought for a few hundred RMB. It had apparently 10GB on it. He couldn't figure out why his files were not opening after saving them to the drive. The entire space on the drive was about 100MB but as with this article reported 10GB. As always, China is great at faking stuff....I loved the line from Kung fu panda, I've only seen paintings of that painting....

dcx 16y ago
I bought one of these in Shanghai last year! Sadly I only realised it was acting strange when I got back from vacation (It had a perfect plastic casing, labels, little paper manual; we even tested it in store!). From my googling at the time, what they did was something like take a standard 128mb stick and flash it with some interesting firmware - there's even a utility out there which can help you figure out how big your flash drive _really_ is. For the price of the drive I thought it was a good business lesson. It implies the existence of an entire supply chain - crooked engineers/programmers, distributers, retailers, and maybe even government, manufacturers, building managers, etc. All to satisfy the market's "need" for the product to appear to work for longer than someone's visit lasts. An interesting/scary demonstration of total free-market capitalism.
- roel_v 16y ago
  "Look there's a guy selling heroin over there! An interesting/scary demonstration of total free-market capitalism!" /rollseyes
  - billybob 16y ago
    I think maybe the point of the parent comment, or at least the point that I see, is that there is benefit to the consumer in having things like trademarks be enforced. Copyright and patents are intended to benefit the public by incentivizing creators to make more stuff. Whether that works is debatable. But trademark is intended (or at least has the effect) of helping consumers identify a product's maker. If I buy an Acme Rocket Sled, it's because I've heard that Acme makes good ones. It sucks for me if I can never tell a real Acme from a fake one; I can't purchase with any confidence. And while maybe the blogosphere could help me find out where to get real Acmes, it really seems more efficient if we just outlaw making knockoffs and penalize those who do. If it's not Acme, I want it to have a different label.
    - mhb 16y ago
      It sure seems like the point was to take a gratuitous swipe at free market capitalism. And if it wasn't the lack of clarity regarding the actual target of the gratuitous swipe deserves at least a modicum of disapprobation.
      - SoftwareMaven 16y ago
        That is only true if you are if the mindset that there can be nothing wrong with unfettered, free-market capitalism. While it is certainly better than many other economic philosophies, it would be a mistake to pretend it is perfect.
        mhb 16y ago
        It is also true if you prefer a reasoned argument to a gratuitous swipe.
endgame 16y ago
I was at the climbing gym yesterday and saw a notice that Petzl had found Chinese knockoffs of their gear being sold that failed at loads well below their stated safety limits. Shonky hard drives are one thing, but dodgy climbing gear is another.
- JonnieCache 16y ago
  Christ, thats terrible. I'll make sure to tell my climbing friends.
- noodle 16y ago
  this exists for sport fencing equipment, as well and resulted in some manufacturers from china being banned in europe.
  - icegreentea 16y ago
    This exists for -everything- Even razor blades. http://reviews.ebay.com/FAKE-GILLETTE-MACH3-amp-FUSION-RAZOR-BLADES_W0QQugidZ10000000006497974 http://reviews.ebay.com/FAKE-GILLETTE-MACH3-amp-FUSION-RAZOR...
    - eli 16y ago
      I ended up with some of those once. What's annoying is that if they spent half as long making a sharp blade as they did making the packaging look real, I wouldn't even care that it's a fake.
    - noodle 16y ago
      difference here was that they weren't fake or counterfit. they staged and bribed their way into getting their stuff certified, despite the production line being way under quality.
- yan 16y ago
  Yup, when I caught that story on the climbing blogs, it really terrified me. Petzl has since released this chart for helping identify the knock-offs: http://www.petzl.com/files/fckfiles/file/PetzlAmerica/Counterfeits/PETZL_PRODUCT_AUTHENTIFICATION-US.pdf http://www.petzl.com/files/fckfiles/file/PetzlAmerica/Counte...
HerraBRE 16y ago
About a year ago I bought what I thought was a 32GB USB drive - turns out it was only 1GB with dodgy firmware. This was in Bolivia. I managed to get it exchanged (in itself a story: http://bre.klaki.net/dagbok/faerslur/1263420810.shtml http://bre.klaki.net/dagbok/faerslur/1263420810.shtml), and got the feeling that the merchant herself didn't even know she was selling counterfeit stuff.
- hendi_ 16y ago
  Again no receipt, this time because the person selling it was avoiding tax... You should always insist on getting a receipt, so the shop owner has to pay taxes. Withholding taxes hurts the country's economy and only plays in the hands of corrupt regimes.
  - HerraBRE 16y ago
    Theoretically, sure. In practice, things in that part of the world are very, very poorly regulated and people are just trying to get by as well as they can. If I was going to fight every single social problem I saw on that trip, I wouldn't have gotten very far.
  - VladRussian 16y ago
    >Withholding taxes hurts the country's economy and only plays in the hands of corrupt regimes. And paying taxes into the pockets of corrupt regimes?
    - eru 16y ago
      Interestingly, regimes who can rely on revenue other than taxes (say, oil) are often even more corrupt.
      - VladRussian 16y ago
        Yes, what you pointing out to is the situation when the beast can't be starved by decreasing of the tax revenue alone. Having abundant source of cheap money, like oil, the beast just grows monstrously bigger and fatter.
nsfmc 16y ago
"I've only seen paintings of that painting...." off topic, but there's an artist[1] that exploits this to really good effect, really makes you think about what place 'the original' has in art especially for pieces that are entrenched in the public consciousness (i.e. mona lisa, warhol, etc) But that sort of meta thing only works with art i think, not so much thumb drives! :) [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Sturtevant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Sturtevant