I have one on a lanyard around my neck whenever I'm awake. On this I've screenprinted a Red Cross and contain in it a .txt file with medical information about me that would be needed in an emergency such as medicine allergies, that I have steel rods in my spine so no MRI, blood type, and a list of emergency contacts as well as who I am.

I also have 2 others, 1 with Linux for machines that boot from USB and 1 with portable apps for if they don't

CyberCowboy

I carry 2 drives - one with personal stuff backed up and the other with stuff for my local camera club (that I've been doing presentations for the last few months). I can carry the docs and apps I need and plug them into my friend's laptop for the presentation - so I don't have to lug in my desktop (ACK). I've also taken portraits for friends and taken the final pictures to them on thumb drives. Absolutely love these little drives. (Always have a spare too - had one die a few months back.)

avlor

I carry one with all my school stuff for the current semester. On days when I have a lab, I really have no need to be carrying a laptop everywhere.

mlhoward516

I carry it everyday, and since the host your own wiki article I now carry my personal wiki in my pocket.

BStrunk

I use mine "every now and then" - enough to be surprised when I encounter folks who don't own one at all. I shudder to recall the days when unreliable floppy disks sufficed.

cheesebubble

I have a macbook and carry it with me between my apartment and campus. it's portable enough to take with me to class and to the library and stuff.
I do have a good size thumb drive, but I don't use it as often as I thought I would

zikman

I have a laptop, but I still take my flash drive with me in case I need to transfer a file, and don't want to go through the trouble of setting up a little wireless network. I haven't gotten around to setting up my flash drive to boot up my mac, so I dont use it for Linux.

NathanK

Autoruns Launchy in portable mode; with bat files indexed for each of my applications I'm currently carrying.

In addition the standard Firefox, foobar, Foxit, Thunderbird, and VLC Player, I've also got NiftyWindows, to bring a bit of my home experience on the go.

Since I do DS development occasionally, I've loaded on devkitPro with build files modified to redirect to the flashdrive for compiling. With this I've also got 3 or 4 DS emulators indexed for quick-launching with Launchy.

Killbox is a must for working on computers where you're locked out of the task manager. Nothing is worse than sitting helplessly as Firefox bottlenecks on USB and leaves you sitting there doing nothing, with the mission-critical task manager sitting just beyond reach to kill the process.

ShowMyPC is a superb choice for simple, on-the-go remote VNC viewing. Just make sure you've written down your server client's password!

Of course I've also got a game or two to pass the time if need be. Most non-commercial and older games will run portable-y without any wizardry. My personal flashdrive favorites are SB64 in the Mupen emulator, Typing of the Dead, and the Touhou shmup series.

Urza

I don't, it's just too easy to lose, and yes, I've lost them.

I carry one around just for the useful apps I need, but nothing personal or private.

qrius

Why yes, I do "user" my thumb drive.

jjeaton

@avlor: I also carry 2 drives, though one's basically a backup. An old 128 USB 1.1 drive (that seconds as a pocket knife), so it stays on my keychain and carries anything I consider vital and possibly something I'd forget to put on my actual drive.

My main one, which I currently don't have anymore, was an 8gig drive that stored just about everything I could need. Videos, music, docs, everything. It broke from an overheated USB-extender, and I've used spare ones whenever I needed to ever since.

@jeffk: This is much more practical. I use a special program (can't remember the name, but found it here) that uploads all my docs to my gmail account, so I know that as long as I leave my computer on for sufficient time, it'll upload and be easily accessible everywhere.

I also carry my laptop around most everywhere, but sometimes it isn't worth using when there's an open workstation primed and ready, especially if battery life is a concern (or printing).

Jamez

"Do You User a Thumb Drive for On-the-Go Work?"
shouldn't it be use?

syko21

If I can count on a borrowed PC and internet connection, I carry nothing. I put documents in my Gmail account, as attachments to draft messages.

If I can't borrow a PC, I take my laptop.

If internet is unavailable, I can't send anybody my work, so I relax and enjoy the respite.

jeffk

I mostly use my flash drive for printing on my school's computers (my Mac doesn't speak "Industrial Network Printer" particularly well), though the last time I did, when I got the drive home to one of my PC's, it had a nice little trojan horse (thankfully caught by NOD32) just from plugging it in. Gotta love Windows.

David Bendit

MojoPac FTW. use your flash drive to take over and use someone else's computer.

skilled1

I encrypted mine with true crypt (file container and traveler method). I have a portable wiki on it (tiddlywiki), password safe, and portable apps. It also contains some files for work.

My second one, runs damn small linux and can run it inside of windows.

rattis

I run all my IM and web browsing apps from the portable drive - even when using the work PC. I don't want to install applications the company doesn't sanction so I use a loophole to get around that. Plus, the added bonus is that as I move from client site to client site, I can keep my settings. I rarely use the drive for personal documents, though, and use other methods to access my non-work data. The little work-related data I keep on the drive gets copied to the network drive once a week so if I lose the drive, all I have to worry about is what size USB disk I'll get next.

C.G.

My must have apps and my documents ...

Nxqd3051990

I live off of my thumb drive (Kingston Data Traveler Elite Privacy Edition). But I synchronize it twice a day (home/work). Have the full compliment of portable apps and a few others that I didn't know were portable but, in fact, are. Portable Firefox + Proxify = no web surfing tracks. Nice.

Another big benefit is portable RoboForm. I must have over 200 logins stored on it. It has excellent security so I don't worry about losing it.

Beestie

I use mine, but not all that much. For me, it lacks a few things. Namely, a Screen and a keyboard.

Most of the time I'm away from home, I'm going to conferences or meetings. It's not like they have banks of computers for me to use.

My SmartPhone has cut down on the laptop carrying far, FAR more than my thumbdrive.

GeoffCJ

VNC/FTP FTW!
I have a small thumb drive but I don't use it often...
I usually SSH thefiles into my iPod Touch before leaving home and then whenever I come into a Wi-Fi zone my iPoT hosts an apache server so I can go onto the net on ANY computer and retrieve my data wirelessly. Works great for docs and small photos (not so much for Movies and other large files).

Only time I used a thumb drive in recent memory was to tryout my autorun and batch scripted thumb drive to grab *lost* passwords and other informaton of the machine.

Charli Wag

I use my iPod for this more than my thumb drive.

kiwiboyus

I don't actually own a flash drive. I email my Papers (have them backed up on 3 different email accounts.) anything else i need to transport (larger files) i juts pop onto my iPod in disk mode.

Ryanraven

Sorry to change the topic from thumb drives, but for apps that have both a portable (standalone .exe) and "installable" version, is there any advantage of actually installing it on your desktop computer when you could just run the standalone?

I first encountered this when deciding whether to install uTorrent or to use the standalone version, but have run into the dilemma several times since then. I usually go with the standalone, but don't really know if there's a difference.

SpriteMV

My USB storage is on my watch. I carry it everywhere.

I have (the installs and installed versions of) nxserver, nxnode, nxclient and my private/server keys installed into a very cut down Linux installation, and when you can turn your PC on with Wake-On-Lan (from full-off or suspended), run NX and get your own desktop up running faster than any VNC session and know that 2048 bit public key encryption is securing everything you send (even in Starbucks), why would you need all your apps with you?
If you know there is no hardware keylogger attached to the machine you're as safe as your own chair at home.

Basically if there is internet, I'm at home.

Beats the crap out of using two Firefox profiles (one with cookies and forms, one with private data cleared), or Konqueror for untrusted connections. This way no matter what I look up on the net, anyone capturing packets will only get the ciphertext, not the cleartext of where I went and what I was looking up, and the machine I am using only has to show graphics, not render complex pages or load up a fully tricked out Firefox.
I can tell NX to ssh into my desktop and just run Firefox, no need to load up the whole desktop.

It goes like this:
>I use a web browser (any) to connect to my router through HTTPS (user and PW are strong), then use the interface to WOL my PC.
>Wait (short time if suspended, a while if boot sequence).
>Click NX.
NX uses ssh to link to my desktop as user 'nx'.
NX logs me into the machine with my user password (automatically).
My own settings for my desktop are loaded, and everything sent to the screen is transmitted securely over the internet to the computer I'm working on and appears in a window.
My desktop appears.
>I work.
>I tell my computer to turn off.

Yes, my desktop is Linux, but I could load up VMware whilst NXing remotely and have XP or Vista on my screen. Once you get into NX you will wonder how you ever managed without it!

PReDiToR

@jeffk: I'm with you.

I haven't had any need at all for my thumb drive in months. I don't compose anything new on lab computers and I almost always have my laptop if I plan on doing more than checking emails away from home or just printing stuff out.

Excalibur

Having witnessed the heartbreak of someone being fired, and having to abandon an entire collection of MP3s, photos, and software (That all should not have been on a Work Computer in the first place) I've carried a USB drive with all my stuff on it ever since.

I even run portable Trillian off of it so I don't leave log files that can be later passed around the entire office (scandalous!), or have someone impersonate me and get access into my related yahoo email accounts (Funny until it's you).

MercuryPDX

I use my thumb drive (a 2.0 GB Sandisk Cruzer micro) whenever I don't take my laptop with me. On it I have the portable versions of Firefox and Pidegon (I also used Tbird portable when I was home over break and then resync'd the mail files with my desktop Tbird install). I also keep some school documents that I'm working on and Clam AV and a few other utilities when I need to fix someones computer. I need to find a better drive that will hold up well on a set of keys (I lose them if they aren't attached to something important).

Otherwise, if I have access to a computer, I'll use Remote Desktop Connection to get onto my machine in my dorm room that's always on and do my work remotely. So I'm covered for almost every case that I'd need a computer/thumb drive.

kazoni

i usually carry my 160 GB portable hdd, its quite slim the western digital ones - has everything i need for any kind of day :)

yogeewan

I find using portable apps much simpler than trying to work around the account restrictions on the work PCs. (Not to mention I never would've gotten hooked on sudoku puzzles if not for PortableApps suites)

Freezer

I just use online apps:

* Zoho Project (tasks)
* Box.net (document storage)
* Zoho office suite (make quick changes to docs)
* Webmail (my own or gmail)
* PassPack (passwords & logins)

That last one is a bit of a no-brainer for me, since I founded PassPack -- but then again, there's a *reason* why I founded it... I hate carrying stuff :)

Cheers - Tara

Tara-PassPack

I travel a lot, and am currently in Tibet. A laptop is far too cumbersome for me, but I carry a 2GB Corsair Flash Padlock with many Portable Apps installed (you have to love Portable Tor when in places like this) as well as PDF scans of my passport, and various other documents. I wear it around my neck on the lanyard constantly.

digital_man

@SpriteMV: If an app has a standalone version and an installer, usually the only difference is that the installer puts the app in "Program Files" and creates shortcuts in the start menu or desktop for you (hopefully asking you first). Some install shell extensions (right-click context menu items), but you can often install those from a "settings" dialog in the app as well.

In short, there's not much difference.

The best portable application database is at [www.portablefreeware.com] - over 1000 apps and counting.

joelena

Our IT department is whack. I don't know what they're afraid of, but they will not load Firefox onto our school computers, or any useful program for that matter. So I carry portable apps around with me and use it everyday, mostly FF and Audacity. I never lose my thumb drive because it is my key chain. I don't carry files around. That doesn't seem productive. I use Google Docs and a wiki instead for my docs and files.

dr.coop

for MY personal things, my WORK things, i use my laptop!

but i have a pendrive (1g verry small) on my keychain, just to swap files with my friends. nothing really important on my pendrive.. just some musics, photos... if some on toke some pics, just trow my pendrive and fill with the pics. If some one say "this is a good music", trow the mp3 on my pendrive.

no work or personal things in my pendrive

neyfrota

I use thumb drives and equivalent technology to copy files between machines but that's about it. I am usually in environments where there are no computers I could use anyway so I have to carry my laptop with me.

lemur

Just about everything I use is portable now. I may copy my PortableApps folder to a hard drive for speed if I'm in one location for a while but I can then synchronize with my thumb drive (usually just a manual copy) and carry everything home with me. For example, I my work domain maps everyone's profile to a network share on our SAN. I copy my portable apps directory to that share and instantly, they are available wherever I log in in the office.

The real benefit comes when I have to rebuild my main PC at home. Backing up applications is a simple copy (if they're on the system partition at all and all my data is mirrored to other drives.

I still have to install a few non-portable applications but all of the critical stuff is ready to use as soon as Windows is rebuilt.

Fras

I always have a few thumb drives on me, like folks always used to have floppies back in the day. For awhile, I ran portable apps. I tried out portable OSes. My favorite setup was to carry around the websites I was working on, running xampp on the drive.

Now I keep everything in source/revision control and push/pull between all of the systems I work with. For me, it's a lot easier and provides distributed backups. Thumb drives are nothing, to me, but modern floppies.

I would argue that, if you lose your thumb drive and it's a devastating event ... you're doing something wrong!

A square inch of plastic is not something to rely on.

remi

I have a thumbdrive on my keyring, but these days I only use it for transferring files between machines or similar dogwork.
My 'real' portable workhorse is a 60GB external notebook HDD that has my PortableApps launcher, all my regularly used apps that can be portabalized (and some less frequently used tools that are handy to have around), non-work documents and whatever music I last shuffled onto it from my media server.

FlintZA

I would go mad if I didn't have my Thumb/Pendrive at college. I run Firefox, WinRAR, Audacity, etc. and keep a regular backup on it.

Admittedly most of my work is on Google Docs so when I do forget it it's no problem.

Mrrix32

Stuff doesn't run off the thumbdrive fast enough for my liking, and I have a tablet PC so I bring that around instead =)

But when I have lab or other stuff that doesn't necessitate a laptop, I bring my 2GB SD Plus around - has all of my current documents and stuff I'm working on, works great in a digital camera as well.

kureshii

iPod for music, portable apps and sometimes file transfers (although I primarily ftp them to my home server).

DogHead

My Smartphone is my favourite gadget at the moment, I no longer need to print out files on the fly if I want to mobilise them, I just bluetooth them to my phone and I can take movies to the TV, recipe's to the kitchen and directions to the car. (It's a N95.)

xenobyte72

I mostly use my thumb-drive for carrying files around, most of the time I don't need it. The only time I have access to a computer is when I am at home or at work, and then I can access Yahoo! Briefcase to work on my fiction projects or to transfer my ideas from notepad to *.doc. I haven't made my mind up yet as to the need for a virtual machine, moka5 is too slow for me. Mojopac is usable but I don't know how our IT department feel about it. When I loaded it on a Polish friends laptop, it loaded in Polish, which suggests it isn't entirely independant of the local hard-drive. If I could set a thumb-drive so it is always bootable, regardless of the machine, I would use it for games and music on a purpose built linux OS.

xenobyte72

What about us right brain/left brain types who XP it at work and Mac it at home? Can I run portable apps on each machine using the same thumb drive?

DIY-Coach

I don't put anything important on my thumb drive, which is a gig and is on my keychain. It's one of those ridiculously small ones, so it's not obtrusive at all -- it's smaller than my bottle opener.

dmac

I carry a flash drive but have recently replaced it with a MicroSD card and reader.
My work forbids placing any company documents on any personal hardware so my flash drive is just for my own personal stuff.
I carry a backup of several of my most important documents as well as openoffice portable, firefox portable, etc.
Firefox portabe is useful for if I need to access my bank accounts while at the office because my office laptop only has IE and I don't want to risk accessing anything important with IE.

enine

Do you USER a thumb drive? I use one, but this sounds kinky.

I have a number of thumb drives, but the most used currently is an 8Gb from microcenter they have at their checkouts.

I have an internet tablet (actually two, the n800 and n810), which can take thumb drives (unpublicized USB on the go host mode), or act as a standard USB drive. Besides running ARM Linux natively.

Surprisingly, my Verizon 8350 can act as a thumb drive if I activate the USB drive option in the menu. The ACM modem goes away, and I get a USB mass storage device pointing at my microSD. I'll have to see if it can boot pendrive linux.

I have a separate EVDO modem which has a micro SD slot too.

tz

I use to use a thumbdrive but ever since I got a Macbook I don't feel the need to. It's small and light enough to fit in my backpack. The interface is so nice that I really can't use anything else now.

Kent84

I keep most of my stuff in the cloud anyway, any my computers accessible over the net so a thumb drive's kinda redundant for me. That said, I tend to use my iPod moving big files or taking things with me when I'm going to be on a computer but not online.

trstn

I do carry a thumb drive, but that's only for military use and for when I don't have an internet connection. The company I work for in Evansville has a product called "Office Anywhere" which allows you to access all of your MS Office, business applications, and company and personal documents. It really is one of the coolest things I've used. (And, no, this isn't a shameless plug. This really *is* something that I have to bring up in response to carrying and using a flash drive everywhere.)

TheStephenRay

I have 2 flash drives on my key chain and they go with me everywhere. I have a mix of work files, and personal "fun" files. I also carry my laptop everywhere, so I don't really do the computing from the drive. However, I recently went to Costa Rica where I had to travel light, and it would have been handy there (but then again, I WAS on vacation).

dirtybacon

Much like the Geek Squad I carry my thumbdrive to steal porn from my friends.

AdmiralApathy

I travel a lot for work, and the laptop I must use prevents me from installing. So I use a 4gig Imation Drive with several portable apps I need to get the job done. You do what you must....

Commercial
- Take Command - Windows commandline on steroids - easily made portable. I use it as my desktop and it absolutely rocks, once you learn what it can do. I use it to automate other applications on the thumb drive using btm batch files.
- Editpadpro - linked to portable interpreters Python, Ruby (Instant Rails) and Perl, with a portable web-server to help knock-out small, functional webapps.
- Powergrep & Regexbuddy - I need to pull-together data reports from large text archives. This software has saved me hundreds of hours of slavish work. A minor miracle, my secret weapon (and yes, worth the price).

Free
- PStart - a fabulous little launcher - even use it as default on my home PC.
- Pendrive linux DSL - nice to have, will do until andLinux is made portable (If possible?)

- Portable Opera and Firefox, kitted with lots of great extensions, for default environments (Mail, feeds, etc)

- Portable Filezilla - so I can access my Home FTP server (music, etc)

- CCleaner - do I need to explain?
- Screamer Radio - Love this thing!

Plus lots of useful little standalone utilities and tools I have gleaned over the years.

I don't carry sensitive or critical documents/passwords on the thumb drive - these stay in the laptop. Although for personal documents I like Zoho a lot, as well a Google Reader, Gmail....

deSelby

In my current contract, I split my time between the office and home. The company does not provide me with a laptop, so it is crucial that I have my files with me in both locations. In steps my Seagate FreeAgent Go 120 Gb drive. This came preloaded with Seagate's branded version of Ceedo. My suggestion (if you have one of these) is to download the latest version of Ceedo and install that over the Seagate branded one (Seagate does not keep up with Ceedo on the later versions).

Ceedo is not free ($29.95, but it was included free on my drive), nor is its companion plug-in Argo ($19.95); however, for my situation, the price is worth it. Ceedo+Argo enable me to install non-portable apps on my external drive so that little is off limits. It has help to virtualize my work environment.

In addition to my FreeAgent Go drive, I also have a 4gb Cruzer that sits on my keychain that has my Outlook PST and every useful portable app I could find installed on it.

nmabry

Temping my way through school, I constantly find myself working at "someone else's" computer, often for just a few hours at a time. Without a thumb drive and portable apps, I'd consistently be forced to relearn new setups. As it is, I can stick to what's optimized for me and focus my attention on more important things.

zyzzyva

I use the storage card of my smartphone like a thumbdrive.

onesix18

Live by the stick, die by the stick!

My entire life (except media/pics on the MP3) fits on a 8GB Patriot XT. There are very few programs that can't be made portable, and virtualization is starting to change that.

FFox, KeePass, EssentialPIM, Launchy, Convey are launched with PStart (great launcher!) on autoplay. I carry ~100 programs, suites from: antivirus, PC repair, office, design, GIS, finance, DVD-CD, media players/catalogs, sandbox/virtualization... if I needed it, I [90%] found a way to make it portable

Syncs to C:\ when I plug it in at home, runs PStart when done from the C:\ drive. Apps start much faster on the C:\ [3x 15k SCSI RAID 0], but once they running you really can't tell the difference from the stick, if they are properly configured.

I'm not sure I understand the encryption obsession. What's so important? KeePass locks and protects all my passwords under 1 master. The only other 2 programs that have slightly sensitive information are under password encyption as well... As for everything else? Meh... It would be weird having someone look around in my world, but they probably wouldn't get much more than some awesome software suites, environments and FFox bookmarks they wouldn't like and/or understand.

Portable Applications have increased my productivity tremendously. Any computer I plug into becomes mine! :) Also, the benefits of keeping a clean OS without all the BS that would come with 100+ installed programs is priceless.

l337_7r4d3r

I checked 'other' on the second box. I carry bunches of 'Just Work' portableapps for fixing up and stuff. Like regseeker-just one example.

photoben

Mainly just for running BackTrack. Rox!

Gener4l_Ts0

I carry a small pouch full of 6 2gb microSDs, a microSD to miniSD adaptor, a microSD to SD adaptor, and a microSD to USB adaptor. The pouch is smaller than my wallet and I now have interchangeable memory with my phone, pocketPC, mp3 player, DS, and of course the computer.
I autorun DOMercury thumbdrive package, and I have portable versions of Firefox, Filezilla, Notepad++, and of course, pocket Wikipedia.

I still carry my laptop case, however it is now filled with papers instead of a laptop

Dom

I use my thumb drive to carry documents between my mac at home and my windows pc at work. I would use it more, but every time I do use it, it seems that windows changes the file structure. Maybe this isn't a big deal or any deal at all. Perhaps someone more technical could explain this.

zeke_mn

All my documents usually end up in google land, any media or larger files I put on my MP3 player, which I usually have with me. I used portable firefox and portable AIM for a while, but again Google has eliminated the need for this. All hail Google.

rsd212

I have a 4GB cruzer i run portable apps off of. It works great for me. Oh, this reminds me, I need to back it up!

Wired Dude Dave

I have one fo those microflash drives from kingston that I carry on my keys. I use it to keep track of my files for school, and I have a number of portable apps that I run using a portable version of Launchy and a autrorun.bat file. (Yes, I use Laucnhy to run programs off my flash drive using relative pathes.)

iSleipnir

I never use USB drive. There's online storage website everywhere. Or send big files via senduit.com, mailbigfile.com, youbackitup.com, jagbox.com, gigasize.com, file.io, and tons of those sites.

endorphin

I've got an autoit script that autoruns and mounts my Truecrypt partition. The script then copies to my desktop a shortcut to another autoit script that will unmount the Truecrypt partition and "eject" the drive. It also copies a shortcut to a "Documents" folder on the thumbdrive to my desktop.

I use SyncbackSE on my work computer and home computer to sync the folders I want synced whenever the drive is inserted.

It works really well for me.

TheAbominableDavid

My Thumb Drive is also an SD Card reader, so it is very useful for uploading photos and video from my camera.

My primary mobile tool is a portable Hard Drive (WD Passport) that is about the size of a small paperback novel. I purchased it 2 years ago, and it holds 60GB. There are now 120GB portable Hard Drives available in the same size range. I also have a larger portable HD (MyBook) that holds 320GB, but it requires power, which is always not available at public terminals.

Thunder_Pig

I've become a real portable apps convert since my job meant I was spending time at various machines. I changed from Outlook to T'bird Portable, and also use Firefox Portable and (among others) Skype, Filezilla, Foobar2000, Audacity, Keepass and more. As backup I also use SyncToy to sync both Thunderbird and Firefox to with my home PC. Works a treat for me - and the curious side-effect of only having a 4Gb USB stick is that I've become super good on organising my email and deleting any rubbish etc. Rule of Three FTW!

portobello_man

I recently bought a 2GB thumbdrive and use it to get programs that administrative privelages are needed in order to use. I am still a little nervouse to put a lot of sensitive info on it, even though I have set up the TRUECRYPT encryption for the entire drive. I keep it in my wallet to see if that will help me from losing it. WE SHALL SEE!

The only bummer, which I havent found the answer to yet, is most of the work stations I use it on are windows 2000, and I cant get it to automatically load up like in xp. I know there is no autorun feature in windows 2000, but I am sure there is some way to get it to automatically ask me for the password to the encrypted part of my Thumbdrive. Any ideas?

DrIke

I use my as something of a quick back up for important files. The advantage is that I have these files on me at all times should ever I need them.

Mostly, though, I use my USB drive for the quick transfer of large files: PowerPoint presentations, albums, movies, etc. My friends and I are always sharing data :)

mandy_croyance

I don't carry a thumb drive. Except when I'm carrying around my MP3 player which *can* function as a USB thumb drive (but I don't use it that way).

My documents and work are available anywhere a computer is connected to the Internet. Full RAID-5 and backup at work is better than carrying stuff around on a steal-able lose-able thumb drive. Full backup at home plus SSH means I don't have to worry about synchronizing another USB dongle.

When I'm in transit, I read. Or sleep. Give your eyes a break!

Posco Grubb

Its the only thing on my keychain that isn't a key. I use it to carry documents from computer to computer, and to get new albums from my friends when I'm visiting.

brad_frost

Bought a HP Media Smart server a few months back. Now my files are available from anywhere at anytime.

This is the best damn piece of computer equipment I have ever bought! No more thumb drives or "sneakernet" anymore, at least not for me.

mesonto

I use my 4GB Cruiser Titanium daily. I run almost everything I use from it on a daily basis (I love portableapps.com). If I could find a portable version of fwbuilder for Windows I would have absolutely everything I use on a daily basis on my USB drive.

I recently discovered a "portable" version of OpenVPN (you still need administrative rights to install a TAP32 adapter, but it prompts you to remove it when you close the program) which makes life even easier, as I use it for remote access to the office.

I can't imagine life without it. I've got a backup of it at home and at work, and a spare USB drive at the office in case of loss or (more likely) accidental destruction of my cruiser (and yes I know it's coated with titanium, but I can break ANYTHING given enough opportunity).

I would definitely recommend truecrypt for anything that you wouldn't want anyone that finds it seeing though, as loss is always a possibility.

jglessner

Its my keychain.
And now i put eee on my keys.

Turis

"Do You User a Thumb Drive for On-the-Go Work"

One thing I user it for is for grammar fixitation.

Portable Apps.

Downside, work installed a viral encryption program. It encrypts any drive that connects to a work folder. PointSec media encryption. Upside, budget is tight and pointsec might be getting the cut, because it's expensive. Will be happy when that happens, as will the tech savvy portion of my 16,000 coworkers.

PotKettleBlack

So what usb stick works best for portable apps and linux? My sony 1gb doesn't keep up (which is why I got it) and I'd like to carry my firefox with me.

:(

brockangelo

I don't use one for work but I do keep one in the car. My stereo has a front mounted USB port so I don't have to keep CDs in the car anymore.

Hands

As people have said, using a SmartPhone with a USB-MassStorage driver is pretty much the best solution, but when your SmartPhone has VNC on it, and PuTTY, you can use it for just about anything. Set up a proxy to your home router through SSH and you're surfing free and have access to all your home files from anywhere with 2048 (or better) encryption).
SmartPhones can handle very bid SD/MicroSD/MiniSD cards.

PReDiToR

I used to live by my PortableApps until my portable FireFox quit working for some reason (probably a FireFox update, because I hadn't added any new add-ons since I set it up). This was after I left a job where I couldn't carry my own laptop with me, however, so now I just rely on my notebook and have done with it.

Thain

I can't remember what life was like before my U3 drive.

I run pretty much everything from it including...
- The basics like Firefox, Thunderbird, PIM Portable, OpenOffice etc.
- Some understated apps like Skype, MobileWebServer, Gimp, Pen Drive Linux, and Foxitreader

And then there's the fun ones not generally intended for flash drives but work great on them. Apps like UltraVNC, DevC++, BitTorrent, Wireshark, CCleaner, Joost, among others.

daveeturner