How useful are thumbdrives? |
As part of the Search Champs swag, we received a 256MB thumb drive.
The 3 1/2″ floppy disk seems almost dead, following its longer dead cousin the 5 1/4″ floppy. Yeah, maybe these thumbdrives aren’t as inexpensive as floppies for handing around data, but they are smaller and more convenient than CDs. I do worry about losing the thumbdrive itself, and not pictured above is the necklace that attaches to it so that I’ll have to lose my head too during transport. I’ve seen other drives that attach to keychains (handy).
I don’t move much data around between devices with physical media being that all our drives are networked so I’m curious what are other good uses for thumbdrives now that I actually possess one? I already own a Pocket PC and though the storage space there is pretty limited, it seems to work for storing passwords in an encrypted database. I’ve seen some advanced fingerprint (biometric) thumbdrives which could be a more portable way to carry those passwords everywhere.
Surprised that this is my first thumbdrive? Guess I just haven’t seen the need to go out and acquire one, although whether or not something is useful doesn’t always sway my gadget purchases. I can see thumbdrives being pretty useful at conventions. Who else here owns one or more and what do you use them for primarily?
Update 1/28/2006 7:40pm PST: TorPark combines Firefox and ToR the onion router for anonymous browsing.
Updae 1/29/2006 7:33pm PST: PC World: 23 Things to Do With a Thumb Drive
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I’ve got a 1GB one, and it’s just fab. I use it for everything. I’ve also sectioned off my MP3 player so that it has 2GB of storage, in case I need something larger.
Comment by Jeremy Wright — January 27, 2006 @ 12:30 pm PST
We use thumbdrives at the NOC I work at for emergency boot (multiple OS), security/diagnosis tools, driver copies, etc. A number of portable apps can be used with thumbdrives: http://johnhaller.com/jh/useful_stuff/portable_apps_suite/
Comment by liz — January 27, 2006 @ 12:35 pm PST
Do you have it attached to your keychain, Jeremy? Necklace? How do you keep track of the thing?
Comment by TDavid — January 27, 2006 @ 12:36 pm PST
And BTW, I felt a little dorky walking around with this hanging around my neck.
Comment by TDavid — January 27, 2006 @ 12:37 pm PST
Keychain. It feels totally natural there, and means I can whip it out without hunting around in my bag for it (or having it around my neck).
Comment by Jeremy Wright — January 27, 2006 @ 12:38 pm PST
Liz, thanks for that link, it’s kickass!
Comment by Jeremy Wright — January 27, 2006 @ 12:41 pm PST
I think its a great invention, though I have not yet acquired one either! Ethernet is so much less work than Sneakernet, after all.
At the risk of sounding old (again), do you remember 8-1/2″ floppies? They held around 170KB, as I recall. Their real power lay in their use as lethal weapons when flung like Odd Job’s bowler.
Comment by Sterling Camden — January 27, 2006 @ 12:42 pm PST
Echoing Jeremy’s sentiments: Liz, excellent link! Thank you for sharing
Comment by TDavid — January 27, 2006 @ 12:51 pm PST
I have taken some time off to take some classes at the local college and jump drives are used fairly often. There are some software packages that I don’t have at home but I can move the data on the USB drive.
I just throw it in the book bag with the calculator and whatever else is needed for the day. The other common thing is to email the file to yourself or use the iPod for portable storage.
Comment by Paul Benjamin — January 27, 2006 @ 1:07 pm PST
I’ve wanted one, but just don’t see the point when I could just burn a DVD of stuff instead.
Comment by Matt Wardlaw — January 27, 2006 @ 2:58 pm PST
Matt: Because then you’re reliant on someone else having a DVD burner, if you need anything from them. A thumbdrive is the new floppy: put it in any computer, and nab what you want and walk away.
Comment by Jeremy Wright — January 27, 2006 @ 3:02 pm PST
This ZDNet article has an interesting pictorial history of drive storage technology: http://news.zdnet.com/2300-9584_22-6031405-1.html
Comment by Sterling Camden — January 27, 2006 @ 3:08 pm PST
I use it when visiting a client site. It’s the quickest and easiest way to get a file from my computer to a client’s computer. Connecting to a client’s network (when you only visit occasionally) is pretty difficult. When I want to print a doc I throw it on my thumbdrive, open Word on the desktop computer and print.
Comment by Will — January 27, 2006 @ 3:56 pm PST
Handy, Will. Next time I am forced on-site I will have to pick one up. Fortunately for me, my clients are generally happy with only my e-presence. I haven’t had to go on-site for work for over a year now.
Comment by Sterling Camden — January 27, 2006 @ 4:01 pm PST
Jeremy,
I hear ya - I don’t have enough of those situations…..so for me, a DVD works fine:-) I can definitely see the use, don’t get me wrong, just don’t have enough use for one, personally.
When it comes to sending stuff to others, often I will just use Yousendit, or for smaller attachments, Gmail.
Comment by Matt Wardlaw — January 27, 2006 @ 4:35 pm PST
I hadn’t heard of Yousendit before. Looks interesting. I’ve always used a private FTP site for large transfers, but this looks a bit easier. I see they offer secure transfers as well.
Comment by Sterling Camden — January 27, 2006 @ 4:44 pm PST
i just picked up a sandisk cruzer micro (512mb) and realized how much time i wasted waiting for files to upload to my gmail account. this thing is so small i had to attach the front part of the clip to the thing so i could quickly get my hands on it whenever it is in my pocket.
microsoft synctoys is something that i’ve started using on a daily basis. it will keep any number of folders on your thumbdrive and computer sync’d. the downside is that you have to initiate the sync yourself.
anyone know of a utility that will sync a thumbdrive with specified folders whenever it is plugged in? how come i haven’t found something yet?
oh…. and to answer your question, thumbdrives are very useful. just remember to unplug them from whatever public terminal you are using. portableapps.com is also a good site worth checking.
Comment by .derek — January 27, 2006 @ 9:30 pm PST