| Is it a toy or is it a tool? If you are involved in any way in “consumer electronics” the assumption is that at some level the techie device is a toy. While there is a certain amount of validity to that assumption, what were once viewed mostly as cutting edge techie toys are becoming mainstream tools for businesses and individuals.
A case in point is the “thumb drives” or Universal Serial Bus (USB) drives being sold on line and at office supply and wholesale stores. Also called “flash drives,” these small devices use memory chips to store information. Functionally they are treated the same as a small hard drive or a large floppy drive. Capacity has grown dramatically since first introduced and the price has plummeted. A one gigabyte device can be had for less than $100, and in some cases, much less. Two gigabyte drives are readily available, and larger capacity drives are right behind.
When these drives first arrived, the capacity was relatively small in the scheme of things, and cost was relatively high. As with many new technology items in the computer world, most people viewed flash drives as a novelty item. That is assuming they knew about the devices at all. Yet, as with many now familiar technologies, the novelty techie-toy has turned into a powerful tool for office professionals as well as the non-professional looking for a handy solution to data storage.
Recently I was advising the bookkeeper for a local non-profit organization. She was dealing with a mix of old and new computers and the problems that creates in data transfer between machines. While the office is on a peer-to-peer local area network (LAN) that has been in place for several years, the addition of new staff and new hardware confused a once simple process of transferring data between machines.
The specific problem was creating back-ups of the accounting software. What once was a simple matter of backing up to a single floppy disk, ballooned to five disks and a lot of time spent waiting for the process to complete. The problem only grew worse with time as the database grew with every entry. While at least one of the available (new) machines had a CD burner installed, getting the data burned to CD was just too complicated for our relatively unsophisticated bookkeeper. Riding to the rescue came Mr. Thumb Drive and our simple bookkeeper’s problem was solved (to her immense satisfaction).
One of the reasons this particular device did not show a faster adoption among users is simply the unavailability of USB ports on older machines. As older computers were retired, new computers came with USB ports included, so that eventually a large majority of in-service computers now have at least version 1.1, and all new machines come with version 2.0. As the technology matured, USB throughput speed increased dramatically.
Perhaps this story should be more about USB evolution, and in a sense it is. With similar characteristics as ethernet, but more powerful functionality, USB has become the “port of choice” for manufacturers. Virtually every external device is now available with USB connectivity. Perhaps most noticeably, this trend is apparent in new printers. What was initially a matter of curiosity (at best) for computer users, USB technology has become integral to personal computers.
The thumb drive is most useful for transferring files between computers when no high speed connection between the two exists. A word of caution is in order. This is precisely the scenario that first caused the problem relating to security. Anti-virus protection was first an issue with the casual swapping of programs and files on floppy discs. The advent of the Internet made anti-virus protection essential, and the exploding use of thumb drives is the exclamation point to the issue. It’s neat. It’s new. It’s fancy. Is it a toy or is it a tool? In the case of thumb drives, there is no longer any question. They are an important tool in your computer technology tool kit. If you don’t own one, you should put one on your wish list. | 
