From Storage, a New Fashion (U.S.B. flash drives)

NY Times ^ | September 23, 2004 | MICHEL MARRIOTT

[Paladin2]

I generally try to stay 2-4 years behind the "cutting/bleeding" edge. Even I bought a new USB flash device (64MB) over a year ago. It's amazing that there are now 4GB! Compact Flash cards - way out of my price range at the moment, but eventually I'll latch onto one.

I bought an old SCSI external drive box (likely sold originally for Apple computers) and a used SCSI hard drive. Along with a USB 2.0 to SCSI Adaptec device, I have a (fairly) portable 18GB USB storage solution for ~$100.

Hardware technology advancements are sooo cool.

[boris]

I won't use them. Unreliable. My boss put a big piece of an important proposal on one on his home PC and brought to work--only to discover that the material was not there.

With CDs so cheap, I cannot understand the need/attraction for these things.

[JenB]

Heh... I have noticed a weird geek superiority contest based on whose USB flash drive is smallest, sleekest, coolest, whatever. Mine's functional, nothing special - but it's been through the wash twice and still connects. A great piece of tech!

[JenB]

They slip into your pocket; you can read and write them unlimited amounts of time; they connect to any computer with a USB port; they take a LOT of damage and keep ticking. CD? One scratch and you've lost the data.

Never store your only copy of data on them, of course; that's not what they're for! But if I have several folders worth of code to get from home to school, the flash drive is a perfect tool.

[Chewbacca]

They are great for stealing data from your office too.
A nice little corporate data theft tool.
Not all computers at the office have a CD burner.

[eleni121]

I can tell you one tech advance I would like to see... hi speed internet linkage via satellite for a reasonable cost. At one rural location where I do some of my work, I have no access to hi speed linkage just dialup. So I cannot get it...just dialup.

I wonder if that's really true?