At our June meeting everybody gathered around close to see a new gadget that I had connected to my laptop PC: A 128 MB USB "Go-Anywhere Storage Drive" from Targus. They had to gather pretty close: this gadget is smaller than most fluorescent marker pens. It's a flash memory device (like the memory sticks in some digital cameras), with a built-in USB interface. It acts just like a removable hard disk or a super-size floppy disk in Windows 98 or above. I've had it for just a short time, and I like it a lot.
Using the Go-Anywhere is pretty simple: you just pull off its cap and plug the body of the gadget right into a USB port. No cables, no batteries, no switches or controls of any sort (in fact, no moving parts at all: it should be much more rugged than a real hard drive, tape, or floppy drive).
If you have Windows ME or later, the operating system recognizes it and uses built-in Windows drivers. If you have Windows 98, the operating system requires you to install two drivers (provided with the Go-Anywhere on a CD). Windows 95 and earlier operating systems are not supported.
Once installed, the Go-Anywhere shows up as a removable drive in Windows: you can copy files to it and from it; you can run Scandisk on it; you can run programs from it; play music, video, or other multimedia files that are on it; and so on. When Windows accesses it, internal LEDs flash brightly, making it very obvious that the device is busy (so that you don't unplug it during a file access); when it is not being accessed, it pulses its LEDs slowly. Before unplugging it, you should click on a little "eject" icon in the Windows taskbar; that lets you "stop" the drive so that nothing tries to use it while you are unplugging it. Being a USB device, you can plug it back in at any time, without turning your PC off.
If you want to hide private material on the Go-Anywhere, you can use a special feature that comes with the gadget. It lets you set aside up to 90% of the space on the Go-Anywhere in a password-protected "Privacy Zone." This uses special software from KeySafe, which is included with the Go-Anywhere.
Here's how it works: First, you set up your own special password, which gets stored on the Go-Anywhere, not on the PC (that way, you can use the Go-Anywhere on lots of different PCs without leaving your password on each PC). Then you decide how much of the Go-Anywhere's file space you want to reserve for the privacy zone (for example, 25% private, leaving 75% for non-private files).
Now whenever you plug your Go-Anywhere into a PC, Windows Explorer shows it as a removable drive, with a size of 75% of nominal. But if you double-click the KeySafe icon on the Go-Anywhere, you can enter your password to show the private part of the drive instead of the unprotected part. Then the Go-Anywhere looks like a smaller drive (25% of nominal, in our example), and all your file access is to that private part of the drive. When you are done with your private files, you use the KeySafe icon again to switch from the private part of the drive to the unprotected part. It's one or the other: you never see both the private and the public parts at the same time.
The Go-Anywhere is a very fast and easy way to transfer large amounts of data without the hassle of setting up a network or serial port connection. It's easier than using floppies or burning CD-ROMs, and the Privacy Zone feature gives some additional security, too.
Linux in the Palm of Your Hand
Next month, we'll see another small wonder. Our June meeting will feature a demonstration of a PDA with a difference: the Zaurus PDA runs Linux instead of Windows CE or the Palm OS. It should be an interesting meeting. We'll also hold our annual elections next month; all current chapter members are eligible to vote.
PLEASE NOTE OUR SPECIAL MEETING TIME: Because the library where we meet may begin reduced summer hours due to budget cuts, we will meet 1/2 hour earlier than usual. Our meeting time and place will be:
* Wednesday, June 26 at 6:30 p.m. (NOT 7:00 p.m.!)
* The main meeting room of the Davis branch of the Yolo County Public Library
* East 14th Street in Davis
Harry Low won our coveted door prize; if you're a chapter member, perhaps you'll be the next winner: come on down!
—
Tim Feldman
