Competition: Win a Kingston Datatraveler II+Migo 512MB USB2.0 Flash Drive

[Jameson]

To kick things off in the new forum, we're giving away one:

Kingston Datatraveler II+Migo 512MB USB2.0 flash drive!

This drive has some great features, like the ability to sychronise your pop3 e-mail accounts between any computer. It's also a great performance all rounder, as noted in the recent USB Pocket Flash Drive Roundup where it earned a runners up award.



To have a chance of winning this great little drive, you simply have to register on these very forums and post in this thread stating why you need this drive over everyone else, but that's not all. There are actually two variables that will decide the winner:

1) Post in this thread stating your hilarious reason for needing this drive. Give any reason you want, doesn't have to be the truth.

2) Be active in the forums after posting in this thread, you don't have to go crazy, just one or two posts will do.

As long as you complete these two tasks successfully you will be entered into the draw and have a chance of winning!

The closing date for this competition is Midnight 25th December (GMT), so perhaps you'll get one extra present this year

Competition is open to US, UK and EU residents.

Good luck!

To register click here

[Deamhan]

Actually I was just today wishing I had a usb drive.

I had my assignment for school on both my laptop, and my web server at home.

I could never get my laptop to work with printers at school so I just logged on in the engineering lab to get it off my web server. no response. So I Remote desktop to another computer at my house, and the web server is gone off the network. Doh!...

Ok, so it is still on my laptop. I try to figure out a way to get it from laptop to machine in lab. No 3.25 drive on laptop. Have no blank CD's. School machine has no 1394 and no SD or CF reader. No problem, i break out my crossover cable... nope, no go. The school computer is a limited xp account with an strict & annoying unchangeable firewall.

So I gave up and just unplugged the printer and plugged it straight into my machine!

[K2ray]

My computers on its last legs where storing space is concerned, and I thought to myself, well computers need some love at this importan time of the year.............................................. ........ NOT!

[fuflo]

i used to like to play with all kinds of sticks when i was little.. building something, poking cats etc.. now i'm too embarrased to do that, but hopefully if i won i could play with this one without any embarrasment at all since it will come in package.. how's that for a reason?

[johndoe]

i'm gonna install MS DOS 3.3, Windows 3.11 and Windows 95 multiboot on the flash drive and play with it using my VMWare operating system running on Windows XP Pro SP2 :cool:

[Jameson]

ooooooh l33t :cool:

Don't forget to post a few bits and bobs around the forums to fully qualify people!

[volvo]

Just I need it.

[johndoe]

though looking back now, i wonder if you can actually do that - install a ton of OSes on a flash drive - i think i'll have to go with DOS 6.22 instead of DOS 3.3 though

DOS 3.3 was a bit too l33t, even for me :cool:

[tercero]

I recently had a friend who dropped off his computer. It was running Windows 2000, and he wanted me to copy his email and his address to a CD, so he could move from his company, and still have his old emails and addresses (sic). Problem was. I couldn't get the damn things off. I tried with my Firewire drive. And it killed my drive. Everytime I'd get the information copied, I tried bringing it over to another computer to burn the information onto a cd. The drive had been....scrambled...almost like it was reformated. Finally, to top it all off, I dropped my firewire drive on the floor from a distance of about 1 meter. Effectively destroying not only the hard drive inside the firewire enclosure. And the data...but the actual firewire control board at the same time.
So. Instead of copying the information like my friend wanted. I killed off his emails and address's because he had to return the system next day, and I also destroyed my $150 firewire drive.

All because I didn't own a portable usb drive.

:cool:

[johndoe]

Sir, this is the FBI. You're story doesn't quite pan out. Would you mind answering a few questions or submitting to a lie detector test ?

Sir, it would be advisable to have your lawyer present since this is, after all, the investigation of a poor, innocent hard drive's murder

[nggry]

Got myselve 2 sticks 64 & 128, when i got my hands on this one i could do things like i wouldn't could do and get more stuff on its way then before.:rolleyes:

Wowzers, almost a whole unix on a stick what could be nizer :cool:

See ya guys, keep up comming!!!

[tercero]

I follow hackaday and make magazine. Not religously, but enough to keep me interested. I wonder if I could bodge together a computer system that relies solely on a usb external memory for all hdd access. Totally dispose of the hdd and have everything R/W on the external usb?

:confused:

[Jameson]

I don't see why not tercero, just make the drive 1st in boot priority and it should work, it all depends on whether the os will want to install on it and then how its seen in the os, but sounds like a neat idea, though obviously the flash drive will be much slower. Anyone tried it before?

[tercero]

I don't see why not tercero, just make the drive 1st in boot priority and it should work, it all depends on whether the os will want to install on it and then how its seen in the os, but sounds like a neat idea, though obviously the flash drive will be much slower. Anyone tried it before?

Probably Linux, with a customized boot kernel. I've had success getting linux to load on a number of items (xbox, ps2).

There's even a decent set of instructions

http://www.simonf.com/usb/

Where he loads linux off of a usb. I just want to take it further, and r/w the entire os off of the usb, and get rid of the hdd. The access will be slower, but it's an interesting experiment.

[Mike]

This USB2.0 Flash Drive would be absolutely essential to my current University project which has recently gone a little pear shaped. The features of this drive which would be most useful are:

1. Speed
2. Reliability
3. Storage size
4. Convenience

In the hectic life of a uni student, with endless workshops and lectures, and precious little time to navigate the campus and arrive at the specified venues, mere seconds could separate the men from the boys.

My current project had me simulating the branches of evolution on self-modifying A.I. algorithms expressed in techno-organic molecules if they were to be stranded on an island in cyberspace. Having to work on different computers, some method would be needed to transfer the large project files (typically around 43M between them, ideally as quickly as possible. A USB2.0 Flash drive would have the speed and the convenience (just plug and play!) to maximise effeiciency. For this reason alone, the Kingston Datatraveler would be a Godsend to me.

However, recently an... incident... occured during my project which I believe justifies the reason why I should have it. For it would not only benefit me, but also the entire human race.
This incident caused my project to terminate unexpectedly. Actually, IT CAUSED IT TO GO DOWN A DARK PATH. One day, in the simulation, the 12,534th iteration of the verbosax_218 algorithm discovered a unique algebraic sequence during it's evolution. This caused it to undergo a mathematical metamorphosis resulting in the AI to become self-aware.

Within the space of a few minutes, the AI had infiltrated most of the programs on the computer, and gained access to the internet, downloading millions of webpages and megabytes about the language and cultures of our world. As I sat open mouthed staring at the screen, it dawned on me that this newly self-aware intelligence was not merely satisfying its curiosity, but PLANNING NOTHING LESS THAN WORLD DOMINATION. I had to think quickly to shut this thing down. I quickly developed a counter-algorithm to destroy the mutant AI. But it was not enough. My effeorts could only halt the growth of the AI and slow it's progress, but not destroy it. In 108 minutes it evolved to a new form and became immune to the counter-algorithm.

So now the situation is this. I have a computer at home which is offline to prevent infiltration by the AI. It's frantically running 24 hours a day developing new algorithms in a bid to defeat this threat to humanity. It's an ongoing escalating effort, because the AI always manages to evolve every 108 minutes, requiring a new counter-algorithm to be developed. Zips, Floppys and CDs cannot be delivered to the INFECTED GROUND ZERO HOST of the AI, either because of the lack of speed (speed is of the essence), lack of storage (the current counter-algorithm is over 250MBs), or risk of infiltration (the AI has now evolved to manipulate electrical pulses, stretegically melting off bits of silicon and magnetic particles to create an army of nano-organic robots).

With the Kingston Datatraveler however, things would be different. Not only would it's speed and size be very effective against THE BIGGEST THREAT TO MANKIND IN OUR DIMENSION, but flash technology, combined with the unique shape of the USB socket, provides an effective barrier to nano-organic technology, similar to the effects of a latex condom, rendering infection impossible. Every 108 minutes brings the world closer to doom, without this very important Flash Drive! PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT INVENTION IN THE HISTORY OF OUR RACE!

[fuflo]

now that's a story

but anyway.. the reason's not important here..
it's a matter of luck