Fremantle
I miss the days of ubiquitous portable data storage by R.L. Dane, 9 April 2025:
There was a problem with flash media, though: you generally had to plug it in in the back of your PC (or you'd be smart and get a USB-A extension cable), and they tended to be quite bulky, having large plastic or rubberized cases/bodies. PCs soon adapted with front-facing USB ports, but there was one thing I still missed: having an eject button (or software command)! The thumb drives hung out the front of your PC and could get damaged if you were walking by your PC without thinking and whacked it with your knee.
Still, they were very convenient, and I carried one with my keys for several years, but they never really became the floppy disk replacement. Close, but no cigar.
The funny thing is that we do have a standard removable storage format today! It has plenty of capacity, has a standard size, fits inside your computer (not hanging out the front), is cheap, and almost every computer has a port for it! It's the microSD card! I know, you'll try to curb your enthusiasm. What are we supposed to do with those tiny things, glue them to a fingernail? Buy the world's tiniest wallet to keep them in?
I don't know about every computer having an SD card port, although I wish they did. The last laptop I had that had one built in was my ThinkPad X220.
In general though I do like portable storage gizmos, although I don't trust them and don't really have any need for them any more. I trust my hard drive in a German shed more (i.e. my cloud object storage gizmo).
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