USB 'diskettes'

Well, there's pocket CDs. Not sure if this is the right kind but it looks like it:

As CD-RW they are boutique parts and quite expensive:

At least they are smaller than floppies if that's what you are after.

One trick I've heard of spies using: load a trojan onto a bunch of usb flash sticks and leave them in parking lots at the CIA or whatever. People pick them up and plug them into their PCs...

There are the tiny, credit-card sized CDs and DVDs. I don't know if you can buy writable ones.

Yes, you can:

These are 40 cents each:

John

I'd hope that the CIA has better blocking mechanisms that that ;-)

At least auto-run should be turned off and U3 blocked from executing anything.

Just stay away from the ones that really look like a credit card. In fast CD drives they make one hell of a racket, the sound makes me cringe.

USB drives (small ones) can be cheaper than return postage. But not as cheap as DVDs. CDs are often more expensive than DVDs.

They work fine in most desktop computers, but they can't be used in the type of notebook drive that has just a slot (no tray).

It's a bit irritating to get a bunch of them loaded with catalogs at a trade show and not be able to use them right away. Sometimes they're used to hold drivers on physically small products (eg. Bluetooth USB) so the package size doesn't get bloated.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Thay did (sorta).

Floppy drive -> Small USB card reader Floppy disk -> small capacity microSD card

I get your point. (un)fortunately electronics moves forward every day so we see bigger and bigger flash chips on the market while the price remains constant. Good if you search for big capacity flash chips, but you also have no way to buy last years flash cards at much lower price because they aren't sold anymore. A partial solution could be to search for bulk sales of old media. 256 or

Not as cheap as you would like, but a few bucks apiece with your logo. I bet the printing costs more than the flash drive.

hamilton

Yes, occasionally they are even doled out as a freebie.

You could probably get them in, but not out again :-)

Many smaller laptops and the netbooks usually don't have a CD drive anymore. But most of this stuff is downloadable anyhow.

On a sunny day (Sun, 2 May 2010 15:40:26 -0500) it happened "Tim Williams" wrote in :

Because physical medium exchange has been replaced by downloads?

Better yet, give them a URL.

There are prices here:

hamilton

You are not even allowed into many of our labs with a mem stick, camera, or cell phone or other recording device of any kind.

Now, a USB drive with integrated bottle opener, that would be something :-)

I went to a recent power electronics show in Palm Spings recently, and came home with no less than four of them. Three of them were identlical, I think 2 gig, the fourth was a little, thin dohickey with

If you look at them, most of them are pre-loaded with either software or app notes, using about 30-50% of the capacity. You can just erase that if you want more space, but it is nicer than another CD to try and store!

Charlie

John

Useful online, but only until links move and die. What if you wanted to include videos or sources with a formal document? Links don't work. In the old days you could send a floppy, and books are still being printed with CDs. But when a CD isn't suitable (>650MB, or physical size, or...), what then?

Interesting related subject: large quantity products could be programmed in mask ROM instead of flash. Equivalent to CD-ROM. Example: send out a book, plus its electronic (searchable, interactive, etc.?) form.

Chip manufacturers should make self contained flash, controller and ESD-protected dies, and create a package which is literally a USB plug with a die glued to it. Dab of epoxy and it's done, no more processing than a TQFP. Lugs could be provided to anchor/ground the plug into a larger device of familiar size.

Come on, this isn't rocket science. Someone must've thought of this before*. Why should IC manufacturers let the assembly houses get all the money? They could charge peanuts for these, factory direct, and make a killing. Just imagine how many would sell on DealExtreme.

Tim

Aha! Finally a real engineer's tool.

That would be called bloat :-)

I think time has already passed this era. Too many people are on the go now, with devices that do not have USB capability, or anything other than a charger connection and some docking station thingie.

Nowadays people download whole movies. Not that I like that, I find it a massive waste of resources.

A true "multifunction" device :-)

I have to get one, just as a conversation piece :-) ...Jim Thompson

I've received them from vendors as replacements for their databooks. The 1GB drive from RedRocket (in the shape of a red rocket) was blank, even. ;-)

Since USB drives are now bootable, not having a built-in CD/DVD is often more than offset by the smaller size.