a few years ago, my good friend dave luxton had this great idea to store all your data and desktop config on a ring that you actually wear. that way you could sit down at any box and have your info and environment. then, this week at flash in the can, kevin lynch and i corrupted a file needed for his keynote. we needed to transfer a back-up from another machine in a hurry. so kevin pulls out a swanky m-systems diskonkey, and transfers the file. dave, we're almost there!
Posted by moock at April 15, 2003 10:08 AMI think I'll finally get married when such a ring exists. Can I get that in gold (inside _and out)?
Posted by: Jared at May 6, 2003 02:00 AMSun used to make a Java ring, on which you could do precisely what your friend Dave Luxton said. My friend has one.
On a related note, all destops at Sun Microsytems are diskless clients, and one simply has a Smart Card, which stores user information. Preferences are either stored on the card or, more ideally for redundancy, in some sort of directory server (so the card serves more as an Authentication token).
To me, that is the correct direction. ONe could lose a card (or ring) that stores your preferences. Far better would be some sort of security FOB and the real implementation of "e-identity." One's Passport, Screenname, My.Yahoo.com or "Liberty Alliance" name could store not only your shopping preferences, but your preferences for any type of OS, your "bookmarks," and even your applications and accounts. With the ring and your password, you could access these from any standards-compliant system, including phones, interactive handheld devices and, of course, any PC.
Posted by: scotty the body at April 22, 2003 04:31 AMI just checked out the diskonkey site. Found out 2 very cool things...
1. With the right bios, you can actually boot off of one of these things... say b-bye to your floppy drive.
http://www.diskonkey.com/sup_faq.asp?section=23#id97
2. First time I saw one of these keychain usb drives was... "ok, so I'm guessing 5, maybe 7 minutes tops before I would drop it, break it, get it wet, or something nasty would happen"... I'm sure that could still happen, but it looks as though they're tougher than I would have thought.
Check out the testimonial half-way down this page...
http://www.diskonkey.com/keychain.asp
I'm gonna have to get me one-a these.