Thumb in Owner's Eye

Thumb Drive

They are flash memory devices that are in a package as small as the thumb on a kid. I bought a sleek SanDisk one and marveled at how small it was. I kept it in my pocket with my change. I guess it is with some of that change in a couch somewhere. I haven't seen it in a very long time. Too small!

I have several of these and it is so easy to misplace the cap that goes over the USB connection! I am usually tense when I use one because I am trying no to lose the cap. Of course you can just buy a replacement one from the manufacturer -- NOT!

The 2 GB PQI thumb drive that has been on my keyring for 6 months lost its cap today. I wasn't going to stand for that, so I retraced my steps and found it on a sidewalk waiting for somebody to step on it and crack it. When I got home I noticed that it had separated from my keyring. Then I plugged it into my desktop PC and it hid from Windows Explorer. It worked in my laptop for what that's worth. I have an uneasy feeling about it. Time to replace it.

I bought a 1 GB SanDisk that has a slide switch that slides the USB connector out of the housing. I bought it because it has a U3 "operating system" that lets you run applications without installing them on the host PC. Problem: The U3 part stopped working and I can't find any replacement downloads on the SanDisk site. Just as well. The U3 software is normally not free. I've built a fair collection of freeware that runs on the thumb drive. I'll use it. The 1 GB SanDisk lets me stop worrying about losing the cap ... it's capless. Also it is black like the handles of my car keys, not some trendy hideous color. So I'll use it until it fails.

Thumb drives are a curiosity but not the sort of thing you would want to archive your prized documents on. Today I burned a CD of my thumb drive, waiting for this one to fail.