Another entry in my Computer Entry Series.
Flash memory is a type of memory that will store data even when there is no power for it. This is called Non Volatile memory. Why is this useful? Well it useful because you can store data, unplug the chip then move it or store it and at a later time plug it in and use it all again. 
It is used all over the place but most people know them for the USB Flash Drives that many carry. You also have seen it in your digital camera, or your cell phone. Flash memory has replaced the floppy drive years ago for portable storage.
Now you probably knew all the things I have told you, now let me share some other facts that may help you.
Speed Counts: First, flash memory has a wide range of speeds. For small amounts of data, speed is not very important, but when you use flash memory often and for larger data it really starts to irk you. A good speed for many drives is about 1 GB in 2 minutes. This is the speed that my USB flash drive does, but many others I have tried take up to 10 minutes. Due to how flash memory works it is MUCH faster to read the data from a flash drive than write to it. For many digital cameras you can have major problems if your memory is too slow.
OS on flash: Did you know that you can install an OS (Operating System) on your memory card or USB Flash Drive. Here is a great web page that lists many different OS choices that you can install on your drive and take your OS with you. Boot up any computer and have everything with you.
Ringtone heaven: Almost all nice cell phones have a place for a memory card. Once you have one you can download thousands of free ringtones from the web, save them on your card, and have all the free tones you like. Never buy another ring tone. You can even make your own from any MP3, simply by making it smaller, and mono.
MP3 Flash Drive: For a few extra dollars you can get a 1 or 2GB Flash drive that also doubles as a MP3 Player. It uses ones AAA battery, if you love music and want to carry a flash drive then consider one of these. A 2GB flash drive/mp3 player is only about $30.
SD is the standard: There are many different types of non USB flash memory out there but SD has by far won the standard contents. It has the most devices that work with it, and it is supported almost everywhere. It is also now the cheapest because of the economy of scale. I would not even consider buying a different type. SD stands for Secure Digital because when it first came out it was meant to be a way to distribute music securely so that it would only be copied by those with permission.
Buy microSD: Most digital cameras use SD memory, but most phones use Micro SD Cards. The cool thing is that if you buy a microSD card you get a free adaptor to make it a normal SD Card. Most companies make much more microSD than SD now, and they use the smaller, higher tech stuff for it, so they are often actually faster. Also you can buy a group of these and use them for many different things and take them with you because it is such a small form factor. I hardly use my USB flash drive any longer because my microSD is so small I can carry it easier and most computers finally have a memory card reader. I keep an adaptor in the case for my PDA in case they don’t have one where I am going.
Backup Heaven: Almost all of our customers have one major problem in common, they don’t back up nearly often enough. The average user has less than 1GB of data that they really need to backup, the average small business has less than 4GB of data they really need to keep. With the small size, its ease of use and portability, flash drives are one of the best ways to back up data. I have a 2GB micro SD card in my cell phone, about half of that is music and ringtones I downloaded, but the other half is a backup I use often. I also keep a microSD card taped to the back of my drivers license. It is easy to make a simple back up script in windows, you simply use the backup program in your OS and you select what you want to back up. You can save this script and link to it with an icon on your desktop. Simply insert your flash memory, hit the icon, hit go and 5 minutes later you are done.
Oh no, I washed it! I have heard this more times then you would think. People are always forgetting their USB flash drive in their pocket and running it in the washing machine. I have done this at least 3 times. Each time I have seen this, if you simply let it dry it will work, just be sure to let it dry for at least a day. If you plug it in when it is wet it may short circuit, and this may cause it to stop working forever, but waiting has always worked for me. (I have not tried it after getting wet from salt water, but I heard it will not work even after drying)
A Flash Future: Flash drives continue to become faster, and cheaper. Some laptops and basic desktop computers are already being shipped with solid state hard drives, basically a large flash drive with a hard drive interface. They read almost as fast as hard drives for random small files due to having no seek time. Small ones that are 8GB or so are in use now as a cheaper alternative, but soon you will see larger drives. In a few
Our favorite memory as of this writing is a 4GB microSD Card made by AData. It is very fast, and it is also microSD so you have the most uses. It is 4GB so it will save all of the data of most of my readers. At a price of only $25 it is a steal. Email me if you want one.
Bottom line, if you have not made Flash Memory part of your toolbox you are really missing out on a great tool.