Whenever I go to tech press events I always come home with a handful of flash drives. It’s easy for companies to put a full press kit and hi-res images on a USB stick with their name on it and is greener than printing everything out. Some companies hand out small drives — 256MB, 512MB and so on — but most use drives that fit at least a gigabyte, usually two. I even have a 4GB drive from Zune around here somewhere.
At first, this is awesome. You think: yay, now I don’t have to buy a USB drive! Then after a few events or a big one like CES, you look around and think: I will never have to buy a USB drive again in my life. Maybe even into my next life. It’s a sea of memory, all segregated into 1 and 2GB chunks.
Today I’m transferring all of the press material I need to my work computer and wiping the drives. I’ll keep a few of the larger ones, but I don’t need 27. I really don’t. If you happen to see me in the next few days, don’t be surprised if, instead of a Jelly Baby, I offer you a flash drive. The latter is inedible but will be more useful.