A little over a year ago, I discovered how convenient it is to have a USB thumbdrive to keep with you when you're traveling, and may not have access you your laptop, or you don't have a laptop and are using someone else's PC. How sweet it is that you can take many of your favorites with you. Plus there are a ton of lightweight utilities out there designed to run from a USB stick.
I have an Excalibur 4G (shown in the photo) and I love it.
PC Magazine has posted a great list of things you can do to build the perfect USB Thumbdrive. Here's a summary:
- Securing Your Information
Various applications allow you to create a secure area on the USB key where you can safely store data in encrypted formats. The secure storage area gets a drive letter of its own in Windows Explorer and can be accessed only by entering a password.
- Run Linux
QemuPDL combines a compact version of Linux called Pendrive Linux and the open-source QEMU virtual-machine emulator software to create a virtual Linux PC that runs in a window on virtually any current Windows system.
- Create A Windows Software Platform
The open-source PortableApps Suite is a free 89MB download that installs Firefox, the Thunderbird e-mail client, the Gaim instant messenger, the Sunbird calendar app, and the OpenOffice.org office suite—basically all you need to get work done on the road.
- Synchronize Data
MigoSync Premium is a powerful synchronization tool that lets you carry documents, e-mail settings, contacts, and browser settings on a USB key.
- Mobile Apps on the iPod
All the applications in this project work perfectly from a portable USB key that you can just throw in your pocket, but why not use the hard drive you probably already take with you—your iPod? At its most basic level the iPod is simply an external hard drive.
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