Do you have a flash drive on you right now?

There is one about six feet away. There are two films loaded on it, ready to take on holiday with the family.

My flash drive is in my coat pocket. It has my resume on it.

Stuck in my desktop’s port. I saved some UU Executive Session minutes on it a while ago.

No, but I’ve considered more than once if putting my medical information on one and carrying it around with me. I do have medical information and emergency contact information on my phone accessible without needing to know my password to unlock my phone.

Nope. I used to carry one around in my backpack “just in case” but I never really needed it.

We aren’t allowed to use one at work because they are a security risk. If the network detects one plugged into a computer you are logged in to, it is grounds for firing.

I used to carry one with a nice e-library that my sister had put together for me, but that was only because I was afraid I’d lose it if I put it in a “safe place”.

I put it away after awhile, and I haven’t seen it since. :-(

@zenvelo, interesting. Not that long ago (ok, maybe ten years or so), the Silicon Valley high-tech company that I worked for issued one to every employee. They came on a lanyard so we could conveniently wear them. Most of us (at least in my department) had no idea what to do with them. Mine just sat in my computer bag unused for years, and eventually I gave it to my husband. Now I wonder why they even gave them to us.

No I don’t carry it around these days. It’s been sitting in the drawer for quite some time. I really don’t remember when I used it last time!!!

@Jeruba Well, before the cloud, they were very handy for transporting docs from one computer to another. All our students needed to use them in the library to save their work because the hard drives were wiped each night. I’m sort of surprised that 10 years ago a tech firm’s employees had no use for them unless they were already connected remotely to work from home.

@zenvelo – USB slot is disabled by admins as an alternative. Even if you have it with ya won’t be able to do anything with it..)

Well I’m at my desk, and there are two USB hard drives on my desk, at least seven USB thumb drives in my desk, and more in my laptop bags.

And when I’m not at my desk and not carrying a laptop bag, I have a phone which also functions as a USB drive. Oh, there’s another one of those in my desk, too.

I have thumb drives in my laptop bags in order to back up files to them, or in case I want to move some files from one computer to another.

I keep one on my keyring. It has a list of all my passwords and a copy of my Firefox profile on it. And some shit about how to get at my bitcoin and withdraw my cash from various financial institutions. And my will and other happy thoughts.

These are in a disk image and password protected. My sister and my mom know the password.

And there are some plain text documents in there. Like a list of important phone numbers if I happened to be out of town and lost my phone.

@janbb, oh, yes, we were connected. Everyone had a company laptop that slid into a locked docking station at work and detached to take offsite. At meetings, everyone brought laptops and plugged in. “Gotta get back to you on that” was discouraged—instead, you were supposed to have or get the answer right now.

We were expected to take the laptop home with us (and everywhere else). We were encouraged to work at home some part of each week if our job duties allowed and manager approved, and we could take the laptops anywhere. I’ve worked in airports, in dentists’ chairs while numbing up, in tire stores waiting for my car, in vacation cabins. With the entire company data and communications system available through VPN 24 hours a day, we didn’t really need to carry files anywhere offline.

@Jeruba Got it. But still useful for the students in my school although possibly less so now.

We use to call thumb drives, “sneaker net” walk the info to another computer not on the Ethernet.

I have a ziploc with several on my desk, for installing and repairing MS Windows.

I carry one in my messenger bag with many GBs of music, instead of filling up my phone’s space. If I’m traveling I’ll stick it in a rental car’s stereo, or listen with headphones when I have downtime.

Also I use them when I need to take something to the library to print. Which is necessary less than once a month. Most things can be stored/delivered electronically.

I have one in the expansion slot in my phone. It has all my music, backup copies of pictures, contacts and other data.