What Is A Flash Drive

Often called “pen drives”, “flash drives”, “USB keys,” ‘thumb drives” and (erroneously) “memory sticks.”, USB flash drives are flash memory melded with a USB interface. As of this writing, manufacturers have crammed as much as 8 gigabytes on a single drive.

The guts of the drive generally consist of a printed circuit board bound in a plain plastic or metal case. However, manufacturers have crammed these boards into a wide variety of cases, making them look look like small toys—or, infamously—sushi. (no, really).

Continued...

Contact The Editor

To contact the editor, leave a comment below.

Welcome To The Flash Drive Blog

Computers and I go way, way back. I can remember punch cards, tapes, and floppy disks that carried only 360K. My first personal computer ran at a blaxing 4.77 mhz. I’ve taught computer classes at both the high school and college levels. I think I can’t count the number of computer gadgets that I’ve bought.

But I don’t think I’ve ever found anything as useful as the usb flash drive. I pack a whole semester’s worth of handouts, powerpoint files, tests, readings and supplementary materials one one tiny drive and still have room left over for my personal manuscripts, and zip files of a couple of useful utilities.

Amazing. I remember schlepping dozens of floppies around in my briefcase and always needing the one that I didn’t have with me. Or having it all on a couple of zip disks, and having to carry around the drive because most computers didn’t have one.

Even better: flash drives now come a fantastic (and sometimes bizarre) variety of styles, colors and disguises. So there’s one to fit every whimsey.

Over the last year or so, I’ve accumulated a bunch of links to different flash drives and information about flash drives. And I thought I’d share those links here in my new Flash Drive Blog.