Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock
Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock

A couple months ago a member of the National Guard 1/209 RTI out of Camp Ashland asked us if we could spare a couple dead hard drives for a training exercise they were planning.

Schrock had a couple hard drives that had been wiped clean and were slated for destruction, so we donated them instead. I honestly thought they would blow them up or something, but what they ended up using them for was a whole lot more fun than that!

A few days ago we received this video and a beautiful plaque thanking Schrock for the donation.

In the video you will see the 3rd Platoon on an exercise to retrieve the data storage devices from a downed UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) in a hostile environment.

You can see the soldiers move into a protective formation around the objective before recovering the data storage device.

It was a real treat to get a surprise like this, and we are all happy that we were able to help our soldiers in a small way.

Shockingly, they were able to recover all of the data from the drive. The recovery was primarily due to the fact that the computer that held the 360 GB monster was equipped with a DOS operating system.

It seems that suddenly people are realizing that cellphones have become small computers. There have been dozens of stories ranging form the Journal Star, the Omaha World Herald, and many Internet websites about the kinds of interesting (and important) data that can be recovered from a cell phone by anyone with the ability to download a program off the Internet.

Cell phones are becoming more and more sophisticated as they include web browsing packages, text messaging, ringer downloading programs, and the ability to make wireless online purchases. But when you upgrade your cell phone, what happens to all of the stored text messages, credit card information and contact information?