http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive A flash drive is a portable storage device used with computers, which has a USB interface; you plug it into a USB socket. They're sometimes called thumb drives, because they are about the size of a thumb. They come in a wide variety of storage capacities, up to 256Gb. You can store a lot of photos, articles, patterns, etc., in that! They can be very useful, since every modern computer has USB sockets. Not so useful if you've switched to iPods and the like, but if you're working with real desktop computers or laptops, they provide a very convenient method of transferring information from one machine to another. Computer technicians swear by them, as you can carry lots of diagnostic programs around, and you can boot computers using them, so you can install an OS on them and bring up a cranky computer that's refusing to start and work on it.
And apparently, as one gentle posted, some scanners will now output directly to flash drives, which in a museum/university setting would be oh so very useful for students/researchers; I know we would have loved that capability at the Oregon Historical Society when I worked there. Hope this helped, I may have geeked out too much. Jours, John Mead Tacoma, WA USA > - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
