A handheld diabetes manager having a blood glucose measurement engine comprises a housing having a blood glucose measuring engine and a printed circuit board disposed in the housing. The removable receptacle has a valve at the bottom for easy emptying and cleaning. A pulse andor periodic waveform are defined and applied to ensure that the thyristor is not released from its conducting state. If the actual storage media usage level is greater than said storage medium usage threshold, then the method enables use of information storage device data compression. An axial actuator acts on the rear side of the side plate by means of a joint provided to adjust an angular offset between the normal level relative to the effective direction of the force applied by the axial actuator to the side plate and the normal level relative to the axes of rotation of the casting rolls.