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In this issue
March 19, 2010
Rabbi Berel Wein: The Divine is in the details
JWisdom.com Stewards of sacrifice with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Why Obama is waging war on Israel
March 18, 2010
Cal Thomas: Israel's New Enemy: America?
JWisdom.com Love me not? with Rabbi David Aaron (5 minutes)
Jonathan Rosenblum: Washington Throws a Tantrum
March 17, 2010
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Orwell, Santayana, and Me
Jonathan Tobin: How Many Lives Is Biden's Pride Worth?
March 16, 2010
Steven Emerson: Combating Lawfare
JWisdom.com How to perform a miracle with Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair (4 minutes)
Anne Bayefsky: Behind Obama's Dangerous Overreaction on Israel
March 15, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Father's obligations toward minor children
JWisdom.com Moody, Grumpy, Irritable Children with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Judith Graham: Get the whole picture before a CT
March 12, 2010
Rabbi David Aaron: You CAN have Heaven on Earth
JWisdom.com Manufacturing mediums with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: The march of the Red-Green brigades
March 11, 2010
Glenn Garvin: Conspiracy theories, why people believe them and how they spread
JWisdom.com For Yourself, Not By Yourself with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer : Turn leftovers into tasty New England hash
Paul Richter: Biden promises 'viable Palestine' is in the offing
March 10, 2010
Paul Greenberg: Death Checks In
JWisdom.com How To Get A (Real) Life with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( EXTENDED EPISODE)
Paul Richter: Israel exerts soverign right to its capital as Biden looks on astounded
Richard A. Serrano: 'Jihad Jane' indictment alleges threat from within U.S.
March 9, 2010
Wesley Pruden: Joe's Israeli adventure
JWisdom.com Free To Be (Responsibly) You and Me! with Rabbi Naftali Brawer ( 8 MINUTES)
David G. Savage: Supreme Court to rule on free speech in case of soldier's funeral
March 8, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Make a fuss about those who cuss?
JWisdom.com Finding or Losing Yourself? Here's How! with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES)
Steven Emerson: America must learn from the UK about the future of Islamist subversion
March 5, 2010
Rabbi Berel Wein: Golden Calf still with us --- except it has multiplied
JWisdom.com The Limits of Eternity with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: Biden's lost cause
March 4, 2010
Alan M. Dershowitz: How About A Real Campaign Against Abuses?
JWisdom.com Using Things, Loving People with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff ( 7 MINUTES)
Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel's Everything's Relative
March 3, 2010
JWisdom.com Grasping The Name of Your Life Game with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( 8 MINUTES)
The Kosher Gourmet by Marialisa Calta : A cowboy's recipes for really good grub
March 2, 2010
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Someone's there
Diane Toroian Keaggy : Have we misunderstood Michelangelo?
March 1, 2010
JWisdom.com Whole in One with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES)
Michael Muskal: Hillary meets with Israeli official, discusses gefilte fish dispute
Feb. 26, 2010
Rabbi Francis Nataf: The Megilla of Spring
JWisdom.com A Biblical Secret for a More Powerful You with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: When rhetoric rules the roost
Feb. 25, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: When walking away from your mortgage is both economically sound and makes ethical sense
JWisdom.com The Second Most Important Question in Your Life with Rabbi Yehoshua Karsh ( 5 MINUTES)
Seema Mehta : U.S.-Israel relations raised in California's Senate race --- by conservatives
Feb. 24, 2010
Rabbi Avi Shafran: The gift of the ‘prayer bomber’
Steven Emerson: Why Religious Freedom Commission is under attack
Feb. 23, 2010
Dennis Prager: Government, Yes! The Divine and Parents, No!
JWisdom.com The Last Laugh of Enlightenment with Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair ( 5 MINUTES)
Anne Applebaum: Prepare for war with Iran --- in case Israel strikes
Feb. 22, 2010
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Is it not refreshing Tiger Woods' career has crashed and burned so dramatically?
JWisdom.com Esther and the third Truth with Rabbi David Aaron ( 9 MINUTES)
Kelly Brewington: Going smoke-free may raise diabetes risk
Feb. 19, 2010
Rabbi David Aaron: Is the Divine beyond us or within us?
JWisdom.com Olympic Faith with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: Israel and the West are perpetrators of a myth that endangers the Jewish State
Feb. 18, 2010
Cal Thomas: Who is Rashad Hussain?
JWisdom.com A Wedding Disaster to Remember with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein ( 3 MINUTES)
Feb. 17, 2010
JWisdom.com Think your life is messed up? with Rabbi David Aaron ( 11 MINUTES)
Greg Logan: 'Greatest Jewish sporting event of all time since David versus Goliath' may be postponed because of bar mitzvah
Feb. 16, 2010
Anya Martin : Boy's 'cerebral palsy' fixed with diet
JWisdom.com Feet On The Street Spirituality with Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 8 MINUTES)
Marty Peretz: Let Europe Mind Its Own Business. It Brings Nothing To The Table Save For Mischief
Feb. 15, 2010
Herb Geduld: Lincoln and the Jews
JWisdom.com Are Our Children Really Ours? with Rabbi Mordechai Becher ( 5 MINUTES)
Susan King: 'Wolf Man' reflected writer's wartime Jewish experience

Jewish World Review August 25, 2006 / 1 Elul, 5766

Life on a ‘smart drive’

By Mark Kellner

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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Here's an interesting proposition: get rid of your computer. Instead, carry your applications and a document or 2,000 on a thumb-sized "drive" which uses flash memory chips. Plug the drive in anywhere and, presto, you're computing. Get up and leave, and all your data, including the confidential stuff, stays with you.


That's not exactly the business proposition behind the "U3" flash devices being marketed as "smart drives," but it's not too far off. Instead, the idea is that you'll carry some key applications and files on the aforementioned smart drive, and be ready to work anywhere. In these days of heightened airport security, it's an idea whose time may well have come.


In the U.S. market, according to the U3 trade group (I wonder what Bono thinks of that name), vendors selling the drives include msystems , SanDisk, Best Buy's Geek Squad, Kingston Technology Company, Memorex, and Verbatim. The SanDisk folks were kind enough to send over a 2 Gbyte Cruzer Titanium U3 device, and it's really difficult NOT to like the little thing. For one, the $110 list price isn't too much to ask for that much storage. Then there's the U3 bit.


Here's how it works. There's a partition on the flash drive that stores small programs and lets you open then from a system tray pop-up menu in Windows. There are a number of applications you can download for the SanDisk U3 drive, some free and some for sale. I selected a Web browser called Maxthon and the Weather Bug utility to join the pre-installed Skype Internet telephony application, an antivirus program as well as software to synchronize data on the USB drive and a given computer. Two final programs on the drive offer a "tour" of the LaunchPad menu software and a password management program.


If I wanted, I could pack the OpenOffice productivity suite, or, presumably, parts of it, on the drive, as well as various games and other utility items. Of the list of programs at the SanDisk download site, I found none larger than 230 Mbytes, which, while about 1.15-percent of the drive's capacity, isn't so onerous as to make the Cruzer unusable. Indeed, with an office suite, a Web browser and an e-mail program, most of us would be "good to go," mobile computing-wise, and still have a vast amount of storage space - 1.25 Gbytes or more - in which to keep a variety of files.


Security doesn't seem to be an issue: Working in a PC format, it's possible to password- and file-protect data on the drive, which would come in rather handy, I'd suspect.


The operating speed of the programs on the flash drive matches those of programs I installed on a computer's hard drive. There were no speed bumps in using the software, or in saving files to the flash drive. In short, it worked just as well as an internal computer disc drive, but it's tiny and stores a lot of data.


These drive are really small: 1.875 by 0.75 inches, and easily fit on a keychain. Each features a retractable USB port. With capacities of up to 2GB, the maker claims it can hold the equivalent up to 1,400 floppy disks.


Mac users won't be able to take advantage of the U3 system, which is designed for PCs. But the capacity of the Cruzer Titanium and its relatively low "street" prices, which range from ridiculously low at Web sellers I don't recognize to $80 at NewEgg.com , a mail order firm I've used, up to the list price, make this what I would consider a good value.


What's next for these items? I'm not sure, but I'm glad they're around. Info on the SanDisk products can be found, oddly enough, at http://www.sandisk.com.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JWR contributor Mark Kellner has reported on technology for industry newspapers and magazines since 1983, and has been the computer columnist for The Washington Times since 1991.Comment by clicking here.

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© 2006, News World Communications, Inc. Reprinted with permission of The Washington Times. Visit the paper at http://www.washingtontimes.com

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