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USB Thumb Drives as ... Fashion Statement?
The Fun Guy writes "The New York Times has discovered USB thumb drives: "In some cases, flash drives have suddenly become so commonplace that, as with cellphones, their owners are adding fashion touches [DNA must be on file to read] to lend them a personal identity." Apparently, the most important thing about thumb drives is not that they are cheap, fast, durable, easy to use or hold a lot of data, but that wearing one around your neck identifies you as one of the techno-congniscenti, especially if you personalize it with stickers."
I'm talking about disk capacity of course.
Awesome!
Anyone know where I can find some really small VTEC stickers?
-erick
http://www.busyweather.com/
C|Net is carrying the same NYT story here.
Right is wrong when left is right.
Depending on where you live it could be like hanging a clove of garlic around your neck or a piece of rare meat.
Even though I'm a geek if I saw a blinged out geektoy I'd still point and laugh. Since when did we want to be mainstream?
Yes, once I'm done with school and college geek becomes chic. Its like some bad dream. The stuff I used to get beatup for now gets you the hot cheerleader. This is some really evil irony.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
I don't remember people thinking I was too cool when I was walking around with a floppy around my neck. I guess the secret is the stickers.
Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
Why not wear a 4Meg thumb drive as a RETRO fashion statement? Perhaps there will even be a market for a 4K drive in the future. Of course, to be properly retro, the 4K drive might have to be as big as your arm....
One for each crowd I hang out with:
1) Thumbdrive with an Apple logo
2) Thumbdrive with a Type R logo
You are voting for Mike Tyson instead?
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Set up a VNC server and put a client on a USB thumb drive, configured to display full screen. Then just plug your USB drive into your friends computer, double click and watch their faces as they see their windows machine instantly converted to a linux one...
No, it makes you look like a dick. The same way that you look when you walk around with your mobile-phone cord permanently wedged in your ear, whether you are on the phone or not.
Personally, I hate having anything hanging around my neck. My office just issued new ID swipe tags which they supplied with a rediculously short neck cord. (I find it really uncomfortable to have a plastic card banging against my nipples all day. Its really distracting.)
Those little retracting belt thingies are the best, even though they tend to die in the hands of a bored 3 year old.
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
Somehow this reminds me of elementary school, when all the girls you knew had these real popular pink stickers with horses and unicorns and stars and hearts all over them, and they would put them all over EVERYTHING they owned. Maybe some of these people are regressing.
I've got underpants made out of punchcards, with vaccuum tubes as buttons!
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
What is it?
I use flash drive, like the NY Times article. The Fun Guy likes thumb drive. However, I think that is a trademark. Same for jump drive. A lot of people where I work call them a memory stick--that's very confusing and a Sony trademark. USB drive can refer to hard drives also. Hmmm.......
Let's settle this (or maybe not). What do you think they should be called?
I wear a ST-506 on a 3/4", chrome-plated chain around my neck! **BLING* *BLING**!!!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I'm not cool enough to have a thumb drive. I think I might have a broken USB dongle somewhere though. Would that make me cool? Or would I be better off wearing a parallel port dongle around my neck instead?
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
Blogsafe version (get yer blogsafe NYT links at http://nytimes.blogspace.com/genlink -- why Slashdot doesn't know about this yet I don't know)
i am a soviet space shuttle
Which manufacturers?
:-) If I could post a picture of mine, I would. It looks like it's been through a war, and it works flawlessly. Oh, and did I mention they're the cheapest ones out there?
I like the Sandisk cruzer mini. It's small, has a lanyard, and 3 multicolor caps. The only problem I've had with it is when I pulled it out while data was being written to it and I had to reformat it. If the light is blinking, don't pull it out!
Sony Microvaults are complete crap, and Sony finally stopped making them. Lexar Jump drives are rumored to be poorly made, but I have no personal knowledge. Simpletech Bonzais work well, but they have a really ugly shape and size. Our users don't seem to care for them, even though they are reliable.
As the drives are getting more popular, they're becoming cheaper. Hopefully the manufacturers don't sacrifice quality to compensate.
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
I have a "blueberry" cellphone that can browse the web on my belt. On the other side, I've got a RIM pager. Also on the belt is a Nite-Ize pouch with a Leatherman Wave and a mini-Maglite. On my wrist is a watch that not only tells time, it's got a compass an altimeter built in. My class ring says "Georgia Institute of Technology." I've got a SecurID token, a military surplus can opener, and the platter separator from an ST-225 hard disk on my keyring-- which itself was vendor swag from HP. ...and you're trying to tell me I need a USB flash widget so people can tell I'm a geek?
I, of course, did not use my iPod out of the house until 50 Cent was brave enough to wear his in a video.
1GB is the biggest I've seen and the best deal on that is at newegg. $84 is hard to beat for a 1GB stick.
Remarkable how much these have dropped in price, it wasn't very long ago that 1GB flash was up around 200-300 bucks! I remember thinking I got a deal when I bought a 64MB for $20 a year and a half ago.
R(k)
does a mispelling of "cognoscente" mean that you're also a member of the techno-illiterati?:)
So far my best idea has been to encrypt all the files with AES or something similar and keep the encryption tool as the only non-encrypted file. This way I can access all my files anywhere but at the same time I won't worry if it's lost since the data is protected.
After hunting around TrueCrypt seems like the best option.
So, does anyone have any suggestions or experiences to share?
Thanks
i dont know (or care) about stilish thumb drives, but one advice >>
dont get near those crap iomega usb thumb drives. Our ti manager thought they looked cool, and bought about a dozen of them. 3 months later, all of them were broken and were replaced by cheaper and better ones made by kingston.
Brand: JOGR ;)
Capacity: 1 GB
Interface: USB 2.0
Price: $105 shipped
I love this thing!
Wearing one around your neck identifies you as one of the techno-congniscenti.
Riiight. This fad is for those who think they're 'in the know' because they picked up some skillz by watched their admin right click my computer and click properties. The crowd that is just dangerous enough to delete their registry. And now they're cool because they keep their super leet document around their necks saying "Look at me, I'm important, I've got 'my documents' around my neck!". Nothing annoys me more than these people. Its like that ITT Tech commercial with the 40 year old PT Cruiser driving soccer mom got a degree as an "IT Professional" by "inventing a database" in Access and is expecting to make $80,000 a year!
Someone please meta-moderate the Slashdot RSS feed so I only see intelligent stories.
Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the
Ha! I mock your attempt at trying to look like one of the techno-cognoscenti by wearing a thumb drive around your neck. I wear an EMC Symmetrix around my neck so I can store several terabytes of data. Admittedly this has made certain things (eating, going to the bathroom, leaving the data center) difficult but when my friends come over they're all impressed at how 133t I am!
cheap labor conservatives - they want to keep you hungry enough to be thankful for minimum wage.
"If the light is blinking, don't pull it out! :-)"
yes, the will be fixed with the Cherry 2005 model.
It's funny, but only if you know bad sci-fi
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
"Hey, where did you get that flash-memory chip on a USB plug?"
"Oh, over at Newegg.com. They have a great flash-memory chip on a USB plug selection. I got this flash-memory chip on a USB plug because it has 512 MB or memory and was only $40. Pretty sweet, huh?"
Thanks, but no thanks. I think I'll stick with "flash drive".