Urgent(ish): hot to clean up a filthy USB stick?

If it is only general dirt you could try isopropanol (IPA). Shouldn't damage the stick.

Hah/ My Oil Watchman monitor stopped working. I removed it from the tank and could hear water sloshing inside. I opened it up shook out the water and put it in the Aga bottom oven - around 80°C.- for a couple of hours.It didnt work until it had cooled down, but its been fine ever since

Water does not hurt electronics that are off. The key is drying it all afterwards

Clean water is ok, salty less good if not cleaned off quickly. IPA is good for that as well - you can flood it under chips etc, and it will drive out the water then evaporate quickly. (and even when wet is non conductive)

That usually works, but if it doesn't and you don't mind the stick being white instead of black, just rub talc or flour over it.

I'm surprised a government official will accept a USB stick. That's not normal of them.

Is the idea of bringing the USB stick, your idea ?

Or their idea ?

Only take a USB stick with you, if they suggested it as a mechanism.

when I have offered USB sticks in various meetings, *not once* would anyone accept one of my USB sticks. And they were clean too :-) "No no, you keep that. Get that thing away from me ! Nurse !"

That's what happens when you try to give an official, a USB stick. There is no plan for the custody of such a thing.

For stubborn cleaning problems, I like my tub of mechanics hand cleaner. It has some monoterpene limonene (a cleaner) which solvates fat soluble materials in water. You follow that with soap and water, to remove the residue of the hand cleaner.

In none of the steps, do you immerse the stick. The materials are all applied with clothes or paper towels. The materials are unlikely to damage anything, but you don't want to take chances.

While the newer USB sticks in my collection, the plastic shells can be removed, the older sticks are glued together. That's why I'm not telling you to take the stick apart. Because I don't know for sure it can be taken apart. The newer sticks, the two parts snap together.

Paul

If he's describing stickiness from rubber reversion, isopropyl will also deal with that although it needs a lot of rubbing.

It was mentioned in UK-DIY not long ago:

Do they, instead, insist you fax them the contents so that they can scan and OCR it to their punched-card systems?

Yes, that's basically the idea.

The more historically accurate the reproduction of bureaucracy, the more they like it. Stone tablets for the win.

"Now how many cubits is that?" <converts measurements to cubits>

Trying to remember what I had to do. There is a form we fill out here, where we report our property tax payment, to the next level of government. You would think it would be a relatively easy thing to do, for one level of government, to contact another level of government and verify a payment was made. But no, you'd be wrong. You have to visit a government office in person, and have a piece of paper hand crafted for you by artisans in a tall office building. Takes about half an hour.

The alternatives, include an unreliable protocol, where you submit your only copy of the paperwork... and nothing might come back. The trip to the government building is intended to ensure the paper trail is not lost by an artisan.

Paul