this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2026
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Science Memes

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[–] ptz@dubvee.org 130 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Find a USB stick in the parking lot? Don't plug it into your PC and probably destroy it with fire.

Find a USB stick while digging in the park? Plug that baby in, jam to some Back to Black, and watch some vintage porn.

[–] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 59 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Some VMs are created only to be burned.

[–] SpikesOtherDog@ani.social 25 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I chuckled. You could also plug it into a system win only a Linux live dvd, no storage, no speakers.

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 15 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Safer from malware, but not safe from usb “pranks.” I doubt anyone is leaving a port killer out, but getting your port gunked up, or partly disassembled via locks is a thing.

Disposability is worth considering as well

[–] orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 3 weeks ago

So are hubs and extensions.

[–] spicehoarder@lemmy.zip 7 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

No speakers? How will you and your archeologist friends hear the porn?

[–] SpikesOtherDog@ani.social 4 points 3 weeks ago

Return the speakers once you determine safety.

[–] possumparty@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 weeks ago
[–] cravl@slrpnk.net 13 points 3 weeks ago

Some used PCs with no disks are bought only to be booted into a live Linux distro and then some time later resold in the same condition.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 3 weeks ago

A female to A male adapter with a replaceable fuse? Sounds like a hundred-dollar idea!

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

There's always a bigge USB killer

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

But what if I have a USB Kill Shield Kill Shied Kill Shield

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 2 points 3 weeks ago
[–] Gust@piefed.social 9 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

What are you talking about? I've stux every parking lot USB drive I've ever found into my pc and I've net to have a problem

[–] marduk@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 3 weeks ago

It burns when I pee, just from reading this

[–] Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 weeks ago

I see what you done there… well played.

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[–] FilthyShrooms@lemmy.world 41 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

One day, an archeologist will find that one thumb drive I lost in 2016 and could never find again

[–] kameecoding@lemmy.world 23 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

At least you are not the guy who threw away his bitcoin wallet, are you?

James Howells, a Welsh IT engineer, mistakenly threw away a hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoin (worth over £500 million/$900M+ as of 2025) in 2013

[–] BanMe@lemmy.world 23 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Dude's gone full tilt psychotic as a result and is selling shares to excavate the landfill it's in (he'll never find it intact and usable, but his life is forever ruined by his refusal to give up)

[–] kameecoding@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Yep, kinda sad, his life being consumed by that one mistake and not getting therapy and moving on.

[–] k0e3@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 weeks ago

Seriously, when he probably could have used that energy to grift like all the other shitcoin rug pulls.

[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 9 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

So true. It's so insidious because there's that vague hope that there's a tiny chance he finds it and never goes back to work, or whatever.

It's right there, balanced just at the end of his fingertips over the gaping maw of madness, like Indie in the Last Crusade reaching for the Holy Grail.

He needs that kindly father figure to tell him

"Lett et gohh, shon..."

I had binders full of Pokemon cards as a kid. Just collected em. They just disappeared after a few moves. It bothers me intensely to this day, what I could sell them for and what that could solve, or even just knowing what the heck happened. I wish I never bothered with them...

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 31 points 3 weeks ago (9 children)

You found a random usb stick and plugged it in?

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 31 points 3 weeks ago

Listen, not all of us are proud of everything we plug our holes with.

[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 7 points 3 weeks ago

One of the classic blunders!

... Unless they're using an airgapped device or carefully sandboxed VM (even still lol) to satisfy that curiosity.

Ugh I admit I'd be curious lol.

[–] bstix@feddit.dk 7 points 3 weeks ago

I'll have you know that I put my entire OS installation on a broken USB stick that I found on a parking lot.

The plastic case keeps falling off, but it works fine.

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[–] riskable@programming.dev 31 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Some day, a lucky archeologist will unearth the one true archive from an innocent-looking tarball.

[–] Rooster326@programming.dev 10 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

(X) Doubt.

They won't know what to do with a tarball anymore than I do

[–] jackr@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 weeks ago

as long as a paper manual exists...

(tar -xzvf btw, the dash before xzvf is optional)

[–] imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 3 weeks ago

Funny coincidence.

[–] morto@piefed.social 18 points 3 weeks ago

Indeed, archaeology is created all the time. I just did an archaeological work a couple of days ago, when I decided to tidy my room

[–] aeiou@piefed.social 16 points 3 weeks ago

I love mystery flash drives

I once found one near a high school loaded with hilariously terrible naruto x pokemon romantic fanfics

and one that had like $150 in dogecoin

[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 14 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

time to buy a few hundred usb sticks, fill them with zip bombs, and bury them in random place.

FUCK YOU future archeologists

[–] Samsy@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 weeks ago

Their triple quantum computers implemented in their brain wants to say fuck you, too.

[–] gustofwind@lemmy.world 13 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I think that’s just finding a usb stick from around a decade ago

[–] zout@fedia.io 9 points 3 weeks ago

You could get lucky and find gold AKA bitcoin.

[–] Beacon@fedia.io 12 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

At what point does it stop being archaeology and starts becoming computer science?

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 21 points 3 weeks ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_archaeology

The computational archaeologists run archaeo.social for Mastodon/Matrix. :) They are a rad group.

[–] ptz@dubvee.org 4 points 3 weeks ago

When some rich, Walt Disney-type buys an island and fills it with supercomputers in order to clone a park full of Amys Winehouse?

[–] AgentOrangesicle@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

I lost a thumbdrive full of adult furry content in Auckland. Gotta wonder how that story turned out.

[–] SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

SHIT! Somebody finally found it! Man, I hope I didn't have anything on there with my personal info!

[–] kevinsbacon@lemmy.today 3 points 3 weeks ago

Mmmm forbidden chocolate bar.

[–] QuinnyCoded@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago

when I was in highschool after a bad storm an iPod charger was sticking out of some dirt half buried. Wonder how long ago it was dropped, how different schools were back then

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