You’ve heard a lot about USB 3.0 spec. You’ve heard how fast it is. How great it is. How when it arrives that everybody will want to have it (and trust me, people will.)

Well, wonder no more. Buffalo will be shipping the first USB 3.0 hard drive this month. And yes it has a controller card available to purchase with it since nobody has USB 3.0 natively in their PCs at the moment.

Should you get USB 3.0 now? No, because the availability is still very low and you’ll pay way too much for it.

The deal with USB 3.0 spec is is "SuperSpeed" bus, giving a fourth transfer mode of 4.8Gbit/s. Whether that will actually happen in real-world use is left to be seen, but chances are it won’t be as fast as that. However it will still kick the crap out of USB 2.0, no question. It will be worth the upgrade once there is wide availability for it.

When will there be wide availability of USB 3.0?

You will probably see the first available USB 3.0 products you can buy in 1st and 2nd quarter 2010, but I’d hazard a guess as to say you won’t see true wide availability until 3rd or 4th quarter.

Will the add-on card upgrade be worth it?

Once there is wide availability of consumer products that have this spec, yes. It will be particularly useful for backup drive use. Current USB 2.0 spec drives do the job just fine, but you know that transfers can take quite a while once you get into the three-digit megabyte range.

I feel sorry for anybody that has to transfer anything in the GB range. If for example you had a Western Digital MyPassport 750GB version (which does exist,) and had to transfer, say, 50GB of data over USB 2.0, you’re going to wait a good long time for that transfer to complete. Sure, it will finish, but better make a cup of coffee or three while you’re waiting.

What will the price point be?

Too early to tell. Reports conflict with each other as to how much the products will be here in the US.

It’s probably safe to say the controller card won’t cost much. The major cost will be in the actual products that have USB 3.0 ports on them.

What will USB 3.0 be able to do for you?

If you currently have another PC at home acting as a file server and nothing more, a USB 3.0 enabled backup HDD can replace that outright. The entire reason for a file server is to take advantage of the speed of your LAN. It is the fastest way to send and receive files.

Even though USB 3.0 won’t be as fast as the NICs on your network, they are fast enough where a file server simply won’t be needed. Instead you can simply attach a hard drive via USB cable and get nice fast transfers that are solid and reliable. Over time this will prove to be very cost effective (especially if what you get is USB self-powered.)

Normally I don’t get all ga-ga for new technologies these days, but I can honestly say that yes, I really want to get USB 3.0 ports in my PC. I mean, heck, it’s even fast enough for primary hard drive use (under Linux, anyway.) Can you imagine using a PC with no IDE or SATA connected drives whatsoever? You can with USB 3.0 easily. True, it’s not as fast, but chances are you really wouldn’t notice it.

It’s amazing what a big speed boost can do for USB, isn’t it?

Flash memory on a USB stick is easy enough to understand concerning the way it works. The memory is a type of EEPROM and non-volatile, which is the reason it doesn’t require a battery or external power source to retain the information stored on it.

But if you ever asked the question, "Is there a difference between brands?", the answer is yes and no.

Concerning data reliability, all USB sticks are roughly the same. It is very rare that one would absolutely fail on you unless put it through several hundred thousand erase cycles. Some can even go up to a million.

Concerning construction, yes there are differences. Some sticks have a poor casing, causing them to fall apart prematurely. It doesn’t happen often but it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

Concerning data transfer rate, this is where the biggest differences lie. Some sticks are legitimately slow.

Sandisk (which everybody has owned at one point or another, I have 3 of them,) routinely has the slowest transfer speeds. Reliable, yes, but slow.

Patriot on the other hand routinely has the highest transfer rate. In particular, the Patriot Xporter series. You will pay more for these, but you will also get faster transfers, both for average and burst rate. The customer ratings speak for themselves on Patriot flash memory products.

(And if you happen to have $300+ that you want to spend, Patriot has a Magnum stick that boasts super-high speeds and has 128GB of storage. Yes, 128GB. That’s not a typo.)

Do transfer rates matter?

This all depends on how you use your USB stick.

If using the stick for:

• Bootable biz-card sized Linux
• Routinely transferring files over 25MB in size
• Routinely transferring large amounts of data

..then you will legitimately need a fast-transfer USB stick.

If using the stick for:

• Photos
• Documents
• MP3s
• Smaller files

..then a faster stick won’t really matter unless you’re transferring many small files equaling a large amount of data.

What’s your favorite (or least favorite) brand of Flash memory?

Sandisk, A-Data, Corsair, Advent, Lexar, etc.? Which do you use? Does it live up to expectation or "act weird" periodically?

On the PCMech Live show I am asked at least once each broadcast what I use for a headset and why it sounds so good.

The answer is simple: It’s a USB-based headset with microphone. Specifically, the Logitech ClearChat Comfort USB (wired, not wireless). The cost for one of these at the time of this writing is between $25 to $35 depending on where you shop.

Why does a USB microphone sound so much better compared to plugging one into the MIC port of a sound card?

It’s the difference between analog and digital.

The MIC input even on brand new sound cards is a very old technology. It’s an analog signal going into a digital environment. When using it, be it for recording or chatting with Skype, Ventrilo, TeamSpeak or otherwise, white noise (i.e. hiss) happens and "muds" the sound.

USB on the other hand is digital-to-digital and much "cleaner" sounding overall.

The Logitech headset I use is not fancy; it’s as basic as you can get. All it has is the headset/mic itself and volume/mute controls on the wire. Nothing else.

When you plug one in, there are no special drivers needed (not for the Logitech anyway), and no audio settings you have to tweak other than input volume.

There is one thing to consider however. A USB microphone is treated a completely separate device from your sound card, because it is. So you cannot use your sound card volume controls to adjust a USB-based microphone’s input volume. But don’t worry because a new setting will be available in the Windows sound manager to adjust the input setting.

In addition, programs you use that access the microphone will also show it as a selectable device, so setup is easy.

Final tip: Make sure to plug in your USB headset before using the program that needs to use it. For Windows XP in particular this must be done. If you plug in the headset after the program is launched, the USB mic won’t be available as an option until you restart said program.

When most people think of apps that run from the USB stick alone, they think of PortableApps. However there is another choice, and it’s called LiberKey.

I will admit up front that this doesn’t look as good as PortableApps does, however I will say it runs faster and is easier to get to the apps you want quicker.

The first notable difference is that there are categories for apps, which PA doesn’t have (or if there is, I didn’t find that feature).

Secondly you can create both categories and groups. A quick right-click anywhere in LiberKey shows these options:

I even appreciate the fact you can add separator lines, too.

Like PA, there are different installations you can download. I chose to go with the largest, that being "Ultimate". It is jam-packed with apps. Lots of them. It will take time to go thru them all to see what you get.

In addition there are plenty more besides that. I honestly had no clue you could stuff this many apps on a USB stick – even for video editing.

As said above, LiberKey doesn’t exactly look good but wow does it perform well.

LiberKey doesn’t have to be installed to a stick. You could easily push it to CD or DVD instead and run it that way alternatively.

What is a keylogger? It’s something that records keystrokes and is normally used without the consent of the user.

You’ve probably heard that keyloggers are a bad thing. It is when used for illegal purposes, such as having a keylogger app installed without your knowledge via spyware. But it’s not a bad thing when you are the one who installed it to keep track of what people are doing when using your computer. For example, if you’re a parent who thinks your child is doing not-so-good things on the internet, you’ll be able to find out what’s been going on with a keylogger.

If you decide to use one, you can opt to use hardware or software.

Hardware

Above is a hardware keylogger from ThinkGeek. It connects directly to the keyboard connector, can be hidden easily and holds up to 128k of data. While that may not sound like much, bear in mind it’s all text so it is actually quite a bit. Additional features include password protection and keyword searching.

The only real drawback is that it is, as you can see, a PS/2 connector and not USB. However that can be easily remedied with an adapter should you use USB.

Cost is $59.99

There are other hardware-based keyloggers out there on the internet, just do a search for them and they’ll show up.

Software

You need not look any further than SourceForge to find freely available keylogging applications for Windows and Linux.

Best Free Keylogger, a.k.a. BFK, is one of the better ones.

Bear in mind you do have to set up appropriate permissions for this app, and if you use existing spyware/malware security software it may identify this app as "dangerous". Obviously it isn’t, so if you see the warning(s), give the app the appropriate security "pass".

Which is better, hardware or software?

Hardware is the better of the two because it’s not an app you can simply disable as it requires no software. The only way to disable the hardware is to literally unplug it.

Will either slow down my computer?

No. Either will run in the background seamlessly.

Short answer: No. Not on the consumer side, anyway. Consumer products for the USB 3.0 specification will appear in 2010 which is not all that far away.

How to recognize USB 3.0 when it’s available?

Look for the "SuperSpeed" and "SS" logos, like these:

What new features will be in USB 3.0?

SuperSpeed as shown above. It gives a raw throughput of 500 megabytes, however the realistic transfer rate will be somewhere around 400. But that still kicks the crap out of USB 2.0, transfer speed-wise.

3.0 spec does support power management features for idle/speed/suspend and so on.

Power delivery from 3.0 has increased 50% compared to USB 2.0. Unit load will be 150mA. This means you’ll be seeing more USB gadgets that weren’t available before because there wasn’t enough power coming from 2.0 to run it.

Will USB 3.0 be backwards compatible with 2.0?

Yes – but with one exception. Standard USB 3.0 ports can use 2.0 or 3.0. But what’s labeled as "Standard-B" can only use 3.0-spec Standard-B plugs.

What does it look like?

Standard-B:

Mini-B (has a very noticeable notch):

When will it be here?

As said above, 2010. And we’re talking first quarter 2010 between January and March.

Will there be a card I can buy and install in my PC when it’s available?

PC hardware for USB 3.0 should be available at the same time USB 3.0 consumer devices are introduced to market.

The cards should be cheap. How much they will be I have no idea, but my guess would be below $35. In order for us as consumers to embrace 3.0 spec, the cards we need to use 3.0 must be at a low price point.

Personally, I’m really looking forward to USB 3.0. My only real complaint about 2.0 is the slow transfer speed, and 3.0 will take care of that in short order.

Lastly, for those that ask, "Will my operating system support it?", USB 3.0 should be supported with absolutely no problems at all on Windows, Mac or Linux.

USB sticks are hitting rock bottom prices these days. A 16GB stick is now under $30. And 8GB sizes are easily available for under $15.

However this is nowhere near as cost effective as burning DVDs. In fact it’s not even close.

The 16GB stick is $30. Put into cost per gigabyte, each gig costs $1.88.

A 100-pack spindle of Maxell (a mid-grade brand) 16x DVD-Rs at Wal-Mart costs about $25 for +R or -R, tax included. That’s 470GB worth of storage, and translates to about 5¢ per GB.

Big difference.

DVD’s biggest advantage is cost; it’s the cheapest way to store data. I don’t know of any other media that’s as cost effective.

However the single largest drawback of optical media is its life span. Premium optical media is supposed to last 10 years, but few of us (including myself) don’t buy premium grade. We buy whatever is on the shelf that’s immediately available. The life of the disc gets knocked down quite a bit with mid-grade brands. At best you might get 5 years out of it. Some are lucky and get more, but most of us don’t.

My suggestion to anyone who backs up routinely (which you all should do): For the time being, go optical because there’s nothing cheaper. Buy yourself a 100-pack, crank up your DVD burner and burn away. When Flash drives drop below 25 cents per GB (meaning a 16GB stick would cost under $5), move your data over.

Given the way Flash media price is dropping like a brick, the 25-cent-per-GB mark should occur well before the life span of your optical media is up.

When one thinks of a hard drive, style doesn’t usually come to mind. That’s because most people don’t care about that sort of thing. However when the style is actually functional, that’s a different story and is desirable.

Enter the My Passport portable hard drive from Western Digital. This is a 500GB portable drive that connects via USB 2.0. It also comes in 400, 320 and 250GB sizes as well. And it comes in 9 different colors – but you don’t care about that.

What you do care about is what it looks like and what makes it truly portable.

Here’s a few images of it:

This is certainly better than a larger USB hard drive caddy especially considering it does the same job and is self-powered via the USB. No external power supply needed. That’s a huge plus.

For those using Windows you also get 128-bit encryption.

The price? It’s $149 thru Western Digital or if you shop around you can get one for as low as $109. When I checked the price I honestly thought it was going to cost a whole lot more, but thankfully it stays well within a reasonable price range.

The biggest drawback is that USB 2.0 can be a bit slow. Do not expect it to have blazing fast performance. As long as you remember that, this is very usable tech.

Were you to try to get the same amount of storage with USB sticks you would easily spend over $200. And with a 3.5-inch setup you have to deal with a power supply.

This is probably one of the cheapest, easiest and most useful backup solutions yet. And for those with media center computers this would also serve quite well.

Would you buy one?

Is this tech something that sounds good to you, or would you rather stay with the older 3.5-inch setups? Let us know in the comments.

Yes, this is a retro article, but with a modern twist.

The Commodore 64 is to date the best-selling computer of all time and hasn’t been topped. An all too common item to be seen next to the C64 was the 1541 floppy disk drive. This actually was in fact more than just a disk drive. It was a computer because it did contain a microprocessor (this one, in fact).

Everybody knows what USB is. Everything connects to it. Keyboards, mice, printers, digital cameras, network devices (wired or wireless), lights, humping dogs, you name it..

However the one thing that has never existed is a 5¼-inch USB floppy drive. Oh sure, you can get the 3½-inch USB version easily, but no 5¼ is to be found; it doesn’t exist.

Being that there are mountains of old C64 software out there that people are looking to archive, a USB solution was needed for the old 1541 5¼-inch drive. And wouldn’t you know it, someone built one.

The xum1541 is an actual home-brew solution for the Commodore 1541 that will allow it to interface to a PC via USB.

Here it is in action:

This, dear friends, is true computer hacking. If it doesn’t exist, build it. Hopefully this will be made into a for-sale product later on as I’m sure there are many C64 owners who would love to be able to back up their piles and piles of disks with a simple adapter like the xum.

Hey, if they could make an Apple II Ethernet Module, anything is possible, right?

Something interesting to think about is how long data will last, because as everyone knows, nothing is forever.

Here’s a rundown on how long you can expect the media you use to last.

"Media" defined: Data storage on something physical that you own, be it hard disk, optical, flash or tape. I don’t list floppy diskettes because nobody uses those anymore.

Assumptions:

• You are using the media a minimum once per week and when not in use is disconnected and/or unpowered from the electronic mechanism it uses to write data to and stored (ex: you take the DVD out of the drive, put it in a case and store it).
• You are physically storing your media in a dry place at room temperature (72° F / 22° C).

Hard Disk

A production-use hard disk usually has a life span of 3 to 5 years. Some last longer, but trust me there is a reason why most hard drive manufacturers usually do not have hardware warranties that go beyond 5 years.

A hard disk used for backup purposes lasts longer because it isn’t used as often. You can assume the HDD will last at least 7 years. But bear in mind that is an assumption.

As a short-term backup solution, hard disks are a good choice. As a long-term solution, not so much given their relatively short life span.

For more information, this really old (but still relevant) post from our own PCMech forums will give you tons of useful info concerning the life span of a hard disk drive.

Optical

Optical media that you use is CD, DVD, the now-defunct HD DVD and Blu-ray.

Assuming you have a decent CD/DVD burner drive, the life span of optical media almost exclusively depends on how well the disc was made.

Premium-grade media can easily last 10 years. And no, you won’t find it at Wal-Mart. The best possible writable CD/DVD media you can buy is manufactured by Taiyo Yuden. A Google search will reveal where to get some if so inclined. It is lauded as the best of the best. That’s because it is. And yes, you’ll pay good money for it too.

For the rest of us, there’s name brand and generic optical media. You can expect name brand (Memorex, Verbatim, etc.) to last about 5 years. Some of you out there will get 7 to 10 but I personally wouldn’t put that much faith into this type of media.

Concerning generic, the plastic may separate from the aluminum in less than a year. Not a good choice.

With optical media, yes, you get what you pay for concerning life span. No question.

Tip: It is better to store optical discs in jewel cases instead of books. Natural problems (like pages of discs sticking to each other from sitting there too long) can happen with those fold-out books.

Flash

It has been speculated that flash based media, such as a USB stick, will last 8 to 10 years easily. This is because there are no moving parts, the heat it generates is minimal and the way it connects and disconnects to a computer is nearly impossible to get wrong (and therefore almost impossible to break).

What most people will encounter with a USB stick in the future is expiring the amount of times data can be written to it or erased before age-related failure. Most USB sticks will allow one million write and/or erase cycles before it cannot be used any longer.

If a USB stick is used as backup media where it is only used once a week, it is highly unlikely you will ever tap that limit.

But the limit age-wise for data retention is stated to be 10 years and no longer at present.

Tip: You might want to use a label-maker and mark the stick with a date 9 years from now (this gives you enough buffer of time from date of manufacture). Who knows? You might still have it then. And you’ll know the stick will soon fail when the date marked is reached.

If you’re thinking, "How can I be sure USB will even be around in nine years?" It will be. Even if it is replaced by another technology, you will still be able to access the data on it somehow.

Think of it this way: Right now nobody uses floppy diskettes any longer, yet you can still buy a floppy diskette drive and disks easily. At worst, USB flash drives will end up like that. Woefully obsolete, but still accessible.

Tape

This is probably going to surprise a few of you, but premium grade tape backup can last 50 years. Sound ridiculous? It’s not. This method of backup is usually only used by large enterprise and government IT centers.

Tape is one of those things that is about as old-school as you can get when it comes to data storage. True, the technology has advanced, the cartridges are built better and the media can store much more and is more reliable, but the method of the way it works is still essentially unchanged.

Tape media is still readily available, but for those looking for the "big guns", what you would want is certified 30-year tape media. The one notch after that is the premium 50-year. Yes, it’s overkill for most people (and wickedly expensive), but if you want something that lasts longer than anything else, tape is basically your only option.

For those who think tape backup is dead as a doorknob, I beg to differ. Maybe it’s dead as a consumer option, but in enterprise it’s still widely used. Maybe you’re not enterprise, but you can use it. In fact, tape is still the best bang for the buck long-term storage media there is.

If you think tape may be right for you, here are a few things you should be aware of:

First, tape decks do require cleaning. The way to clean is with a tape head cleaner cartridge. The heads will need to be cleaned periodically to ensure proper data writes.

Second, transfer speeds are defined differently but you can assume they’re going to be on the slower side. No, they are not molasses-slow as tape drives were years ago because we’ve got USB connectivity now, but it is true they’re not lightning quick, nor have they ever been.

Third, tape is very particular to format. There’s DLT, SDLT, 1/2-inch, LTO, 4mm, 8mm and so on. When shopping around for a deck, pay strict attention to format and how easy (or not easy) it is to acquire media for it.

Will there ever be a long-term backup solution better than tape?

The only media I know of that could potentially outlast tape is the internet itself. But obviously the internet is not physical media. In fact it’s not even physical. The storage of the internet is termed as putting data "in the cloud". However there are more than a few out there that would rather have media stored safely in a closet or attic rather than on some distant server run by someone else.

Chances are you’re more comfortable with the "un-clouded" way.

What’s the most convenient solution right now?

Tape may be the longest lasting, but USB sticks are the most convenient.

You can most likely fit every digital photo you’ve ever taken on a 4GB stick. And that’s under $15 to acquire.

You can most likely fit every email you have on a 2GB stick. And those are under $10.

As long as you remember to swap the sticks out once every 8 to 10 years, you’re in good shape.

That is unless you leave one in your pants pocket and run it thru a wash cycle while doing the laundry.

What do you use for backup media?

Do you use CD/DVDs? USB sticks? Tape? The internet itself? A combination?

Let us know by writing a comment.

Years ago when I first started examining if you could in fact run an entire OS off a single USB stick (meaning not external hard drive), you could with “biz card” sized Linux distributions such as Damn Small Linux and Puppy Linux. These distros are still available today and still actively developed. The reason people chose these over full-sized distros is because USB stick were expensive back then.

Today however a 4GB still can be had for well under $20. In fact you can even pick them up in Wal-Mart for around $16. Times have changed for the better.

So now the question is, can you install run a full Linux distro off a USB stick?

Yes. There are a few drawbacks and I’ll address those later. First, the method.

Requirements:

1. One 4GB or greater USB stick. Using Ubuntu as an example, that distro requires just over 2GB for a standard install, so a 2GB stick is not enough. And if you try to install to a 2GB it won’t allow it. So you need a minimum of 4GB.
2. A PC or laptop that can boot from USB. More or less all PCs (even Dells) from 2005 to present can do this. You should be able to set your first boot device as USB in your BIOS.
3. A Linux distro on a bootable CD. You’ll need this to install the distro to the stick.

The way it’s done:

1. Go into the BIOS and set your first boot device as USB, then save.
2. Shut down the PC and unplug it.
3. Open the case.
4. Physically disconnect the hard drive from the motherboard. I do this on purpose so Linux absolutely will not “see” the drive. Even if you disable the drive in the BIOS, Linux will still “see” it on install, so unplug it. Better safe than sorry.
5. Plug in the USB stick to the PC.
6. Boot the computer from the Linux CD.
7. Install Linux. The installer program will see the USB stick as the only “drive” in the system. You can go ahead and have it partition the whole thing since you unplugged your other hard drive.
8. Once finished, reboot. You should have your full distro of Linux complete on the USB stick.
9. Shut down the PC and reconnect the hard drive then close up the case. When you want to boot back into another OS such as Windows, shut down, unplug the USB stick and boot normally.

And that’s basically it.

Pros

You essentially have a dual-boot system without the need for any primary hard drive partitioning whatsoever since Linux is completely on the stick.

If your primary hard drive fails, you have a full OS at the ready on the stick that can be booted to at any time.

Cons

The Linux you installed on the stick is specifically for the computer you installed it on. It’s not “portable” like the biz card distros are.

USB 2.0 is obviously slower than a hard drive. While it’s true Linux is speedy, you are choking it by using a significantly slower file transfer method for OS functions.

USB sticks do not have a life span as long as hard drives do. If one were to use this method for daily use, it’s a good bet you’ll only get 3 years out of it. And yes this is a guess. Maybe it will last longer. Maybe not.

Quick questions and answers

What happens if I plug in the USB stick while Windows is running?

Nothing really. You’ll get a window that pops up showing the boot files or a message stating Windows can’t read the stick because it’s in a format (e.g. ext3) Windows doesn’t understand.

Will the Linux I run off the stick truly act as if it were run from a hard drive?

Yes.

Is Linux more prone to crashing by being installed on a USB stick?

Possibly. It depends how many apps and processes you have running while the OS is in use. All you have to remember is not to run too many apps at once and you should be fine.

Will Linux run very slow off USB?

Only on initial launch of an app. For example, when you launch the Firefox browser, Linux off a USB stick will “think” about it for a few moments, then run. But once running you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between it running off USB versus a traditional hard drive.

Is there anything I should watch out for when running Linux this way?

The only thing you have to watch for is running out of space. It’s very easy to get app-happy in Linux and install a bunch of stuff without thinking about it. Keep an eye on the space you have left and you won’t have a problem. Or better yet, try to use internet-based apps only like Google Docs, Gmail, Hotmail and so on.

Can I transfer stuff I download to the hard drive while in Linux on USB?

Yes. You can mount the hard drive while in the OS and push all your downloaded files to it if you wish. Just bear in mind this is one-way style of transfer. You can push from Linux to Windows, but not from Windows to Linux. It’s basically the same as if you were running a dual-boot with Windows on NTFS and Linux on ext3. And you should use the ext3 journalized file system for Linux which is the default choice on install.

So now you have another way of using Linux on the cheap. Just grab a 4GB stick and give it a go.

When formatting a USB stick in Windows (something many of us do from time to time), in XP you usually only have two file system options, FAT or FAT32. "FAT", by the way, means "File Allocation Table".

If you were wondering which to pick, the answer is FAT32 because it overcomes certain limitations of FAT.

However if you have a USB stick that’s over 4GB in size, you may want to consider formatting with NTFS instead.

The reason? FAT32 can only recognize a maximum individual file size of 4GB (or to be exactly specific, 4GiB minus 1 byte). If a single file is any larger than that, FAT32 won’t "understand" it and you’ll get an error on attempt to copy that big file over.

For those wondering "What file could possibly be that large?" Video and ISO disc images (such as some big-big Linux distros) can easily go over 4GB in size – and yes, some people will push these files to USB sticks if they have the space. Why not, right?

In XP (but not Windows 2000), the problem that presents itself is that if you have a USB stick that holds over 4GB of data, how do you format it using NTFS instead of FAT32?

One way to do it is via the Device Manager.

1. Go to Control Panel.
2. Double-Click System icon.
3. From the window that appears, click the Hardware tab.
4. Click the Device Manager button.

Under "Disk Drives", if the USB stick is plugged into your computer, it will show up under there, like this:

What we need to do here is change the policy to "Performance" instead of "Quick Removal".

The way we do this is by right-clicking the USB drive listing, selecting Properties and then from the window that appears select the Policies tab.

It looks like this:

Click Optimize for performance and click OK.

Go to format your USB stick (you will have  to format it), and…

Success! Now we have the NTFS option!

DRAWBACK:

Yes there is a drawback to this and a rather large one.

When you have your USB stick set up in this mode, you absolutely must use the "Safely Remove Hardware" method before disconnecting the stick from the computer and you absolutely CANNOT forget to do this. If you do, the data is sure to get corrupted in short order.

If you can deal with that "Safely remove" stuff, go ahead with an NTFS file system on a USB stick larger than 4GB so you can write bigger-than-4GB files to it.

And remember, there’s no need to do this unless you specifically intend to push 4GB+ files on a USB stick.

Unless you use your dial-up modem for faxing or internet you probably don’t have much use for it. However there are some good software titles to make it useful again.

PhoneTray is a product (and yes there’s a free version on that site) that will show Caller ID and also has the ability to "zap" telemarketer calls as well.

Telemarketing blocker more or less does the same job as PhoneTray does.

Using Windows Vista? Not to worry, there’s Vista Caller-ID software – and it’s free.

For those of you out there that don’t have a dial-up modem but are interested in using it per the methods above, there are USB 2.0 compliant hardware modems you can purchase like this one (and you’ll be amazed at how small they are).

Sign of the times: I go into Walgreen’s the other day to pick up a bag of cashews (they’re quite tasty), and in the photo center I spot 4GB USB sticks for $16. Yes, I know you can pick up these things for cheaper elsewhere, but the fact a business primarily known as a pharmacy carries these things is what got my attention.

The brand Walgreen’s carried was obviously generic and not something you’d recognize. This got me wondering whether there is a true difference quality and reliability-wise concerning the flash memory inside a USB stick from one brand to the next.

Curious, I searched the internet to see if anyone has done any testing of flash memory reliability on a brand level.

One such place is CNET and they have a whole section on it. It includes just about every type of flash memory you can imagine with editors reviews, video and so on. The brand you have right now might be listed there, so you can see how it fared out.

The 2 top-rated brands for USB sticks are Sandisk and Lexar.

For everything else, the two top complaints are usually the same concerning USB sticks, that being "slow write speed" and design complaints (i.e. the plastic cap falls off easily, flimsy covering, etc.)

It would appear that yes, there are notable differences from one brand to the next. While a design flaw may be something most people could live with, slow write speeds would drive anyone bonkers (especially considering USB 2.0 transfer speeds are already slow to begin with).

The advice of the moment I give is this:

If you see some generic brand of USB stick, it’s a crapshoot whether or not the design will be solid or flimsy, and whether or not the data transfer will be speedy or not. It might be a few extra bucks for a Sandisk cruzer, but at least you’ll know what you buy will work optimally as it should.

(And by the way, yes the previous link will show you some 16GB versions of Sandisk cruzers. Pretty neat you can put 16GB in your pocket, eh?)

In the laptop world, everybody is going smaller into "netbook" territory. Linux, of course, was more than ready for it because it already had super-small-footprint distributions ready to rock.

Some distributions are available for purchase direct-on-stick such as the Linutop shown right. Linutop is also specifically designed for the Intel Atom-based Asus EeePC. The OS is Ubuntu 8.04 based so it should run quite snappy.

Linutop doesn’t just make sticks but also what is now called a "computing appliance" (i.e. a small brick-like computer box).

Read more about the Linutop and see what their Ubuntu-on-stick has in store here.

And for those wondering (or haven’t read my other Linux-on-stick articles), no you don’t have to buy any brand-specific thing to put a full distro of Linux on a USB stick obviously – but it’s nice that there are others wiling to "do the dirty work", so to speak.