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To: Dan3 who wrote (87932)	9/9/2002 9:43:51 AM
From: TGPTNDR	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

Dan, I was wondering what kind of thing Cringely was writing about when he said: I have on my main system every word I have written since 1992, which is around three million words. I also have every e-mail worth keeping, a couple databases, and many spreadsheets and Powerpoint presentations. Uncompressed, it adds up to less than 200 megabytes. Heck, that is small enough to fit on one of those USB flash drives that attaches to your key ring! As an opinion leader, then, it is my intention to carry with me all my data all the time. Let the house burn down, I'll still have a career. For knowledge workers, data storage means everything, but it doesn't have to mean carrying with you an 80 gig FireWire drive. So I see a very interesting niche developing for personal data storage devices, especially those that are password protected. Two products in this line I'll commend to you are Storcard and JMTek's USBdrive. Storcard, backed by the legendary Finis Connor, puts up to five gigabytes of encrypted data on a piece of plastic the size of a credit card. JMTek's USBdrive puts e-mail client software on the typical key fob flash drive so that you can plug your USBdrive into virtually any Windows computer and have your native e-mail application up and running in seconds, complete with all your stored mail. Twenty years ago, I imagined having a special van filled with computers so I could take my data everywhere. Ten years ago I realized this could all be done with a notebook computer. Today, thanks to both advances in data storage and the ubiquity of Windows PCs, my entire computing environment can fit in my wallet or on my keychain. Take that, UC Berkeley! Didn't investigate. thanks. See also: computers.cnet.com And this on the StorCard which is spinning magnetic technology. storcard.com -tgp

To: Dan3 who wrote (87932)	9/9/2002 11:30:53 AM
From: Petz	Respond to of 275872

re:<Have you seen these things (Diskonkey)> If USB pen drives (or similar, such as Diskonkey) could be selected as the boot device, there's enough capacity in them to install Windows 98, and in the future, Windows 2K or XP on them. Of course, it would have to be set up so that the "disk cache" and folders like Documents and Settings are stored on another disk. Then again, Microsoft probably has legacy "timing loops" to slow down your bootup anyway. Anyway, I hope motherboard manufacturers start putting sockets on the boards for built-in virtual hard drives. Petz

To: Dan3 who wrote (87932)	9/9/2002 4:24:22 PM
From: ptanner	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

Dan, re: USB flash diskonkey These are very interesting and it is nice to see they now reach 512MB for $500 list with the smallest 8MB (5xfloppy) being $30 list. While this could be close to a floppy replacement it has a ways to go for Zip/CD-RW range at least in the mainstream. It does provide a great complement to an ultra-light notebook (as you noted). The effect on the flash market is positive but I don't see it as huge. Just one of those new incremental uses which allows for continued unit growth while bit-densities continue their geometric ramp. I think the DRAM market has reached saturation as the density growth exceeds the bit growth (e.g. total market revenue will be relatively static) but flash may have a couple more process generations since it can still facilitate new end uses and more advanced end uses. For AMD, these flash drives are less beneficial since AMD's NAND presence seems to still be very limited. -PT