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1GB USB Drive on a Keychain
sparcv9 writes "JMTek looks to be about ready to release a line of keychain-sized
USB drives, ranging in capacity from 16MB to 1GB. The
1GB models are a bit pricey at almost
$900US, but the 16, 32 and 64MB models are all under $100. These
devices require no external power supply, claim a data retention of 10 years, and are 'driverless' -- which means that the drives will work under Linux, according to JMTek (see the 'Operating Systems' row in the specs table.)"
Think of the opportunities for corporate espionage with these type of things. Is there a way to disable USB mass-storage devices in XP or 2000?
I've got one of the IBM keychain dealies. It's only 8mb, but it's actually quite handy for data transfers. My parents have a slow modem (as opposed to a fast one? anyway) at their house and no CD burner. Sometimes I have to get some work done there and the 8mb of the IBM fits all of my Excel sheets just fine.
While 8mb has been fine for the 6 months I've had the thing, of course these new releases will force me to upgrade.
On thing though, its a serious Pain In The Ass to try and plug one of these things in blind. I've got a USB hub at home, but they really aren't all that common yet.
Pete
The sole purpose of the Internet is to get porn and bomb making plans into the hands of children.
Various companies make them (flash USB key drives), they are a VERY nice solution for sneakerneting, however the reliability sometimes SUCKS (typical consumer grade, not tested before shipping).
We ordered 2 of em from a different company, one worked fine and dandy, the other had a bad connection somewhere internally and would crash the USB bus and only mount about 1/8 of the time. They were $80 each for 64 MB versions (a good price, mind you), but next time, we will only buy locally, so that returns can be much easier.
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USB defines a generic storage device. A wide range of products, from actual harddrives to pseudo-drives can be used without any *additional* device drivers. This is why Win98 needs an update -- it didn't come with the generic storage device drivers.
Sounds like a good, cynical business model--very fragile yet expensive products target-marketed to savvy techies with high disposable incomes.
"What is the sound of one belly slapping?"
In recent Linux releases, there is a USB_STORAGE driver that can be included in the kernel; I would presume that's what they're referring to, at least vis-a-vis Linux support.
It's entirely likely that three years ago, W98 didn't include drivers for disk storage devices, thus meaning that if you want to use the device with W98, you need such a "generic driver."
Similarly, Windows NT 4 is getting pretty old; it likely didn't include support for USB storage devices either.
In a sense, this may be regarded kind of like having SCSI support. You do need a SCSI driver to access SCSI devices, but once you've got that, there's no special driver for Seagate drives as compared to Quantum or IBM...
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
Grab yourself a Sandisk SDDR-31 CF reader, cut it apart. Buy a USB plug from digikey, cut off most of the cable and solder the new plug very close to the rest of the the part you ripped out. Buy yourself an IBM 340MB ($155) or a 1G ($310) microdrive. Plug it into the pins on the connector you ripped out of the CF reader.
Make yourself a cheap mold out of a little plastic container with a hole cut in the side for the USB plug to stick out of, put your electronics in it and fill it with that 2 part polymer stuff. Instant pocket 1G drive, for under $350.
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How many PDAs do you know with 1 GIG of storage?
Seriously! And who the hell compares the functionality of a batteryless keychain hard drive with no moving parts to a freaking PDA! The only way to get a gig on a PDA is to find one that takes CompactFlash and use the IBM 1GB CompactFlash microdrive... complete with moving parts!
Intelligent Life on Earth
Well, I can tell you what is bad for...Security. Especially with win2000/XP automatic detection of USB devices it could be used as a effective delivery device for worm/virus packages to machines without or with protected email and Internet access. With the 1gig size you could certainly steal a lot of data very easily. So what if you the most secure firewall and email protection. Are you screening your maintenance people, your temp workers? With a little social engineering this device could be very dangerous, easy to conceal, even through metal detectors with the phrase "Oh, my keys set it off". Sorry if I'm little excited about it, I'm just a Spy Novel fan and have a really good caffeine buzz too.
Dell has been selling 8-32Mb versions for more than a year, but they require a driver install
"Get them before they get....