Bulk flash drives



  • Not really coding related, but I need to buy a couple hundred 8GB flash drives. Any suggestions for vendors? They don't need to be customized or anything, but I would prefer a brand name.



  • Newegg?

    I wouldn't worry too much about vendor, virtually all flash memory is made by one of three companies anyway. Most of mine have been Patriot Memory, no problems with them.

    Hmm, looking around, it seems USB 3.0 128GB drives are now affordable...might be time to upgrade. I have a 128GB one that's only USB 2.0 and it's slow as balls.



  • The only thing about that is price, the suits won't let me pay retail. I need at least a hundred, probably more like 150, and if I told my boss I was gonna spend $1500 on flash drives he'd probably fire me on the spot. Does newegg off bulk discounts?



  • You can get a Newegg Business account, all you need is your company's EIN and then you're eligible for business pricing which often includes bulk discounts. It also has relaxed item limits, I've seen items on Newegg where you're limited to 5, but on Business it's like 500 instead.



  • That's fucking smart. We actually have a newegg business account that I forgot about.



  • @mott555 said:

    You can get a Newegg Business account, all you need is your company's EIN and then you're eligible for business pricing which often includes bulk discounts. It also has relaxed item limits, I've seen items on Newegg where you're limited to 5, but on Business it's like 500 instead.

    Grr. The bulk discounts on Newegg Business aren't even that good. The cheapest ones still come in at $7.47 a piece and they only have 5 in stock. I did find a vendor that will do customised drive at $5.77 a piece if you order 250. Not great but the execs loved the idea of having our logo on the drive so that softened the blow a little bit.



  • @mikeTheLiar said:

    I did find a vendor that will do customised drive at $5.77 a piece if you order 250. Not great but the execs loved the idea of having our logo on the drive so that softened the blow a little bit.

    OK I gota ask, why is a dev in charge of getting something that sounds like a marketing giveaway?



  • @locallunatic said:

    @mikeTheLiar said:

    I did find a vendor that will do customised drive at $5.77 a piece if you order 250. Not great but the execs loved the idea of having our logo on the drive so that softened the blow a little bit.

    OK I gota ask, why is a dev in charge of getting something that sounds like a marketing giveaway?

    Because I am in charge of everything even remotely technical here. I've referenced this fact before, but I am the only technologically competent person here. Not the only dev. The only person. I am a 1) Developer, 2) IT, 3) Sysadmin, 4) Network admin, 5) DBA, 6) Maintenance, 7) Purchasing, 8) Troubleshooting, 9) Help desk and a bunch other things that I'm probably forgetting (oh, the VoIP system is mine, too. And the security system). I actually had to put together a list of my job responsibilities this week because my yearly review is coming up. It was over two pages long. Shredder's jammed? Guess who gets to break out the needle-nose pliers and pull all the paper out. Espresso machine acting up? Me again. If it bleeps, blinks, or has a button, I'm in charge of it.

    The absolute worst (of the worst) (one of the few times I've actually snapped at some) was the time someone came up to me to tell me the cable was acting up. I gave him a blank stare for about five seconds and just snarled at him "Am I the fucking cable guy now, too?" and turned back to my computer. I think I actually hurt his feelings a lot because he got a really hang-dog look on his face and kinda muttered something like "Sorry, I didn't know that wasn't you" and slunk off.



  • Who's your normal computer vendor? HP, Dell, Lenovo, CDW, whatever, they'll be happy to sell you flash drives. Call up your rep and ask.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Who's your normal computer vendor? HP, Dell, Lenovo, CDW, whatever, they'll be happy to sell you flash drives. Call up your rep and ask.

    So I was going to make a joke about MilwaukeePC selling usb flash drives for a hundred dollars each or something, but they one-upped my joke



  • @mikeTheLiar said:

    @locallunatic said:

    @mikeTheLiar said:

    I did find a vendor that will do customised drive at $5.77 a piece if you order 250. Not great but the execs loved the idea of having our logo on the drive so that softened the blow a little bit.

    OK I gota ask, why is a dev in charge of getting something that sounds like a marketing giveaway?

    Because I am in charge of everything even remotely technical here. I've referenced this fact before, but I am the only technologically competent person here. Not the only dev. The only person. I am a 1) Developer, 2) IT, 3) Sysadmin, 4) Network admin, 5) DBA, 6) Maintenance, 7) Purchasing, 8) Troubleshooting, 9) Help desk and a bunch other things that I'm probably forgetting (oh, the VoIP system is mine, too. And the security system). I actually had to put together a list of my job responsibilities this week because my yearly review is coming up. It was over two pages long. Shredder's jammed? Guess who gets to break out the needle-nose pliers and pull all the paper out. Espresso machine acting up? Me again. If it bleeps, blinks, or has a button, I'm in charge of it.

    That sounds terrible.  I mean I guess I could see the advantages of working some place where you can go "if I quit the business closes down", but I dunno if what you could extort out of your bosses would be worth it.



  • @locallunatic said:

    @mikeTheLiar said:

    @locallunatic said:

    @mikeTheLiar said:

    I did find a vendor that will do customised drive at $5.77 a piece if you order 250. Not great but the execs loved the idea of having our logo on the drive so that softened the blow a little bit.

    OK I gota ask, why is a dev in charge of getting something that sounds like a marketing giveaway?

    Because I am in charge of everything even remotely technical here. I've referenced this fact before, but I am the only technologically competent person here. Not the only dev. The only person. I am a 1) Developer, 2) IT, 3) Sysadmin, 4) Network admin, 5) DBA, 6) Maintenance, 7) Purchasing, 8) Troubleshooting, 9) Help desk and a bunch other things that I'm probably forgetting (oh, the VoIP system is mine, too. And the security system). I actually had to put together a list of my job responsibilities this week because my yearly review is coming up. It was over two pages long. Shredder's jammed? Guess who gets to break out the needle-nose pliers and pull all the paper out. Espresso machine acting up? Me again. If it bleeps, blinks, or has a button, I'm in charge of it.

    That sounds terrible.  I mean I guess I could see the advantages of working some place where you can go "if I quit the business closes down", but I dunno if what you could extort out of your bosses would be worth it.

    It is pretty terrible. Had I known what I was getting into I never would have taken the job. Partially it's my own fault for not asking enough questions before I accepted the position, but the startup I had been working for had run out of money to pay me ("If there's a steady paycheck in it, I'll believe anything you say"). Then there's the not insignificant fact that the recruiter misrepresented the position, and never during any of the interviews was I ever asked about anything other than programming/web development. The other stuff was slowly added over a series of months.

    There used to be another guy who was a combo of IT/sales (small companies are TRWTF, amirite?). He quit at the beginning of the summer...and they hired a new salesperson. They flat out told me they weren't going to be hiring any IT staff.

    In retrospect, the other guy had planned this all along. He had worked here for 14+ years, and was only hanging around long enough to get me somewhat trained and familiar with the system before he fucked off for greener pastures (side note: this guy wrote some of the most convoluted and fucked-up code I've ever seen. But you've seen my Side Bar posts).

    I tried to explain to the higher-ups just how fucked up this is, that I'm not qualified to be in charge of the vast majority of this shit. What the fuck do I know about setting up Active Directory? To their credit, they listened to me - sort of. Like most small companies they are incredibly, insanely cheap. Fixing this situation required them to pony up some money, and they just won't spend that much money all at once. But once I'm gone they'll have no choice.

    I'm trying to get the hell out of here myself, but I'm just too busy to be able to really focus on the job hunt. I'm kinda actively-passively looking for a new job.




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