Open Thread: What’s on Your USB Key?
Most web workers are carting around at least one USB key – and no wonder. For the price of a couple of cups of coffee, you can store a whole pile of data in your pocket in a form that doesn’t get smushed or mangled the way floppy disks used to (if you’re one of us dinosaurs who still remembers floppies). But what do you use it for?
- In our Web Worker Emergency Survival Kit we suggested antivirus and scanning apps, security tools, credit card numbers, download URLs and registration keys.
- Various branded solutions like the MedicTag put medical records on a USB key, but there seems to be no reason why you couldn’t do that yourself if you wanted to.
- There are also many ways to make a bootable USB key so you can have your own operating environment at any computer with a USB port.
Or, of course, you could just cart files back and forth from one computer to another. But what do you use your USB key for? We’d love to hear about any innovative ideas you’ve come up with. Or have you moved on from USB storage entirely, storing files on your phone or in “the cloud”? Tell us about it!
I carry my resume on my USB key!!
How did you know I had a USB key?
Mostly I use it for carting files between computers. I’m almost always all over the place and I never know if I’ll need to move a video file between to computer and setting up some sort of ad-hoc network to transfer files is almost always a slow, painful, bitter, tear-filled process.
I think it’s important to point out though that if you are carrying sensitive information on your USB stick that you should encrypt the USB stick in case you lose it or it is stolen. I use TrueCrypt (free) and with all my programs & files inside the encrypted folder, I feel safe knowing that the folder is uncrackable if I have the misfortune to lose my USB stick.
TrueCrypt can be run portably without any problems.
As a university student, I use my SD card on a USB card reader for several purposes. (1) to carry files such as assignments.(2) to swap with my digital camera and my Treo 700p. (3) to carry various portable apps: Firefox Portable, with all my bookmarks, preferences, and extensions. Notepad2, a Notepad replacement with HTML/CSS/Javascript/PHP syntax highlighting. Thunderbird Portable with my extensions (Plaxo sync highly recommended). 7-Zip Portable. Pstart. Roboform Portable (I only wish it ran on Linux). Uni-Extract Portable. Those are my main uses but I also have an archive of Palm software, a backup of my Palm Treo, and various MP3s and .flv files.
I run a heavily customized Drupal install on a XAMPP server on one of my USB keys. It’s a way to organize my notes, code, reviews, articles, images, audio, whatever, and be able to access it all privately regardless of which computer I’m using. It’s also encrypted — and I don’t have to worry about a shared hosting account getting hacked (which happened to me twice before I tried going this route).
USB Keys are great. I keep a mix of data files and software programs on mine. Since I work on various computers, I keep anti-spyware programs on there like Spybot or Adaware. If I encounter an infected PC, it can sometimes be difficult to download and install the latest version from the Internet. However, I seldom have trouble installing one of these programs from my USB key and then downloading any updated definitions. I do recommend encrypting the USB key though. They’re little devices and can be easily lost in any number of creative ways.
On one stick I have a selection of my important documents/templates and so on, along with a series of portable programmes (disaster recovery/maintenance etc, firefox profile sync). And installation files for things I seem to need on every computer (including unison so I can back all of this up).
On the other, a full suite of portable GIS programmes, including a web server, for development and demonstration purposes. I’m doing a presentation on this in Canada at the end of September so it’s got to be fully developed by then…
I keep an install of Portable Apps on my USB key. It’s a great way to keep your apps with you wherever you go without having to install them.
http://www.portableapps.com
Torrents on my PC (cough, cough) get unzipped and moved to the USB stick, then I can head over to friends’ houses, plug and play via DVD player to big screen, and we’re having a fun evening without Blockbuster rentals. A great gift anytime is a stick loaded with family photo albums and audio and video. It beats burning and carting around DVDs.
[...] Gunderloy touched on it in an article [...]
[...] on your bunch of house or car keys, or even stored away neatly in your briefcase of backpack. Well Web Worker Daily has setup a discussion about what you use your USB Drive [...]