Cool ideas...
With 8GB flash drives available for under $20 and 32GB drives edging into the mainstream, nobody can blame you for shelving old USB sticks. But there are a surprising number of uses for those rickety, sub-gigabyte keychains.
There are nearly endless ways to bring a USB stick out of retirement, and they're not just gimmicks: virtually all USB sticks, 32MB USB 1.1 dinosaurs included, can be repurposed into anything from a lifesaving troubleshooting tool to an entire portable OS. Here are your best options:
Turn it into a physical "key" for your computer
For security freaks or the extraordinarily literal-minded, Vista has built-in software to convert your USB key into an actual key, such that your PC won't boot without having it inserted. It might not be ideal if your key may be old enough that it is likely to fail on you, if you have a propensity to lose tiny things, or if your laptop only has one or two USB ports to begin with, but it definitely offers a special kind of peace of mind. For Macs, Rohos essentially does the same thing, but at $30, it's not particularly recession-friendly.
Install a portable OS
This is actually simpler and less esoteric than it sounds—installing a wide array of Linux systems is pretty easy nowadays, and will more importantly net you a fully functional desktop that you can take with you wherever you go. Lifehacker recently assembled a useful comparison of popular USB-able Linux distributions, in which they recommend the fantastic UNetbootin or creating the bootable keys in the first place. It's worth noting that two of these distros will work on keys at less than 128MB capacity (DSL is just 50MB, total) and all carry a legitimately useful range of apps.
Use portable apps to create a pocketable user profile
Most free software now comes in a portable variety, meaning that at least under Windows, programs that normally extend their tentacles into your user profile and registry can be installed completely—user data included—onto a USB stick. All you do is insert the stick and find the desired .exe, and you're good to go.
More here: http://gizmodo.com/5101651/dealzmodo-hack-make-your-old-usb-stick-into-a-digital-multitool
With 8GB flash drives available for under $20 and 32GB drives edging into the mainstream, nobody can blame you for shelving old USB sticks. But there are a surprising number of uses for those rickety, sub-gigabyte keychains.
There are nearly endless ways to bring a USB stick out of retirement, and they're not just gimmicks: virtually all USB sticks, 32MB USB 1.1 dinosaurs included, can be repurposed into anything from a lifesaving troubleshooting tool to an entire portable OS. Here are your best options:
Turn it into a physical "key" for your computer
For security freaks or the extraordinarily literal-minded, Vista has built-in software to convert your USB key into an actual key, such that your PC won't boot without having it inserted. It might not be ideal if your key may be old enough that it is likely to fail on you, if you have a propensity to lose tiny things, or if your laptop only has one or two USB ports to begin with, but it definitely offers a special kind of peace of mind. For Macs, Rohos essentially does the same thing, but at $30, it's not particularly recession-friendly.
Install a portable OS
This is actually simpler and less esoteric than it sounds—installing a wide array of Linux systems is pretty easy nowadays, and will more importantly net you a fully functional desktop that you can take with you wherever you go. Lifehacker recently assembled a useful comparison of popular USB-able Linux distributions, in which they recommend the fantastic UNetbootin or creating the bootable keys in the first place. It's worth noting that two of these distros will work on keys at less than 128MB capacity (DSL is just 50MB, total) and all carry a legitimately useful range of apps.
Use portable apps to create a pocketable user profile
Most free software now comes in a portable variety, meaning that at least under Windows, programs that normally extend their tentacles into your user profile and registry can be installed completely—user data included—onto a USB stick. All you do is insert the stick and find the desired .exe, and you're good to go.
More here: http://gizmodo.com/5101651/dealzmodo-hack-make-your-old-usb-stick-into-a-digital-multitool
