…When I say “COMPUTER” is was just an old shoebox covered by a piece of twig but it was a computer to us…..

jgary wrote:You kids today. My TRS-80 Model I was decked out with 48K of RAM. IIRC a floppy held 86K of data. I thought I'd never fill one up.

The TRS 80 color computer was an early Tablet type computer. High quality it was. Tandy was a major computer & electrinics maker until that clown CEO named Toy drove Tandy into the ground. It still isn't clear if Radio Shack will survive. Walmart has a CEO now who doesn't know anything about retail. See how long Walmart stays above Kmart.

John1000 wrote:...If this device is reliable, it's a nice way to backup your most critical data and throw it in a fireproof/waterproof safe for peace of mind...

waterproof USB stick doesn't go into a waterproof safe... come on...

justmenan wrote:Well if you feel old, my first computer had 2 X 5 1/4 Floppy Drives. I know most of you probably don't know what I'm talking about. It was the mid 70's. LOL

danwat1234 wrote:You mean the late 80s!

True floppies, which were 8" and 5.25", were used in the 70's and early 80's. Since the enclosure was simply a thin sheet of plastic, the discs flopped around, hence the name, "floppy." They held up to 360k. You are referring to 3.5" floppies, which didn't flop because of the hard plastic case. They held 720k and 1.4meg.

Here are soft 8", 5.25" and hard 3.5" disks

sdcaclint wrote:my first computer had a 120 MB hdd. I'm feeling really old now.

LOL me too...and it was double spaced and advertised as a 240.

halnwheels wrote:I had the forerunner of this which was the Sinclair ZX-80. It was white and only had 1K of memory for its 4 bit processor (integer numeric). But like another poster said, this was my first computer and I took it home on a Friday night and I'm not sure if I slept that weekend but by Monday morning I learned BASIC well enough to make moving block-graphics on the screen. NOW I ARE A IT PROFESSIONAL!!!

I have a 1974 Polymorphic 8808 in my closet. It was one of the first desktop PC's in the world. Has wood grain cabinet, brushed stainless keyboard with black keys and uses an old RF type monitor connector. I'm older than it. LOL

mdnorman wrote:Seriously people -- Will someone please tell me why I need a 64 GB USB drive so I can go ahead and buy one.

What the heck do you do with this thing?

I have more than 32GB of music. If I want to take all of it to work or on the road, I need 64GB

Could this drive function in an XBox 360 as a storage device for media?

rob3173 wrote:I still have my TI 99-4A!! Still works, and about once a year I dust it off to play Tunnels of Doom!

My first is an Atari 800, 1.8MHz processsor, 8K Ram, external floppy, external tape drive. One bright side, it boots extremely fast with no internal hard drive, lol! I crank it up about once a year to play some Eastern Front or Silent Service. I taught myself Basic programming on this old beast...this reminds me that I am not in my 20's anymore...

sdc100 wrote:Great price; not sure about quality though. I have smaller Centon USB memory thingies and they have been just fine. There's always a question about speed. With cheaper models, it's always iffy whether the memory will match the claimed speed and testing has shown that many do not. Reliability is also an issue.

Here are some tests you can use:

http://www.usb.org/developers/tools/

http://www.hdtune.com/

http://www.jungo.com/st/usb_testing.html?gclid=CPPcl9ef_pMCFRghnAodJFI0Xg

This Centron is not "one of those cheaper drives". See what the normal low street price is at Newegg and Amazon --well above $49. This Centron is a new product. I suspect this Woot deal is a Centron promotional. For Centron to draw attention to the 64gb sport by selling them at factory cost is a cheap way to get big advertising mojo. Have any idea how much one minute of prime time TV advertising costs? Hint. Many TV shows pay the co-stars over $300,000 an episode. The dozens of technical pros get Actors Guild DICTATED wages. Screen Actors Guild Union makes UAW look like a bad joke and they share control of the US government with the Democrats, whom they ALWAYS give free campaign services.

Perhaps they could be called "crispies"! My first verion of Windows 95 came on 14 (how do I remember this crap!?) of these disks.

sdc100 wrote:True floppies, which were 8" and 5.25", were used in the 70's and early 80's. Since the enclosure was simply a thin sheet of plastic, the discs flopped around, hence the name, "floppy." They held up to 360k. You are referring to 3.5" floppies, which didn't flop because of the hard plastic case. They held 720k and 1.4meg.

Here are soft 8", 5.25" and hard 3.5" disks

Can anyone tell me if this is beer or coffeee proof.

Can anyone tell me if this is beer or coffee proof.

mbasilepa wrote:Wait, it only works with Windows OR Mac??? What if I have both a Mac and a Windows machine? Do I have to get two???

Format it FAT32 on your Mac. then it will work with both Windows and OS X. the downside is it will only hold files up to 4GB in size.

Charlietrent wrote:Does anyone know if this supports Readyboost?

This would be quite a waste to use for readyboost - readyboost will only use 4gb


Q: What's the largest amount of flash that I can use for ReadyBoost?
A: You can use up to 4GB of flash for ReadyBoost (which turns out to be 8GB of cache w/ the compression)

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-performance/readyboost-all-explained/ea4e8f1d-04fa-4338-ab08-aad77eab8088

Numinak wrote:You kids today! I remember when my Vic20 had a huge cartridge for 16k memory expansion!

Yep. I had the C64 and the most unique computer ever, the Commodore C-128D, press of a button and it operated on Commodore Basic or CPM. Cool. CPM was IBMs choice for desktop computers but a punk kid con man and his partner talked them into MS-DOS which was owned by a clown who ran a small electronics factory that was near bankrupt. Gates conned IBM into thinking he owned DOS and into fronting him $50,000. The clown who owned CPM was business stupid. He was insulted when IBM wanted to pay him ONLY $25 a copy to license CPM. Gates did the math and realized he would be stinking rich in a year or two and would not need to do a thing as IBM would copy the OS and install it, etc. Rest is history that hasn't been written properly yet, as gates donates $150 million a year to BOTH Democrats and Republican National Parties (donations or pay off?) Gates also owns a large chunk of Apple. Bought it when Apple was near bankrupt in order to get rid of Apple suit for Gates stealing Apple tech.

Silicon and silicone, are meaningfully different things.

My bet is that this is covered in the latter.

sdc100 wrote:True floppies, which were 8" and 5.25", were used in the 70's and early 80's. Since the enclosure was simply a thin sheet of plastic, the discs flopped around, hence the name, "floppy." They held up to 360k. You are referring to 3.5" floppies, which didn't flop because of the hard plastic case. They held 720k and 1.4meg.

Here are soft 8", 5.25" and hard 3.5" disks

I still use computers at work that need floppy disk drives, as the software is only available on floppy. I hate those copy protected floppy disks

mrken30 wrote:Can anyone tell me if this is beer or coffee proof.

It better be if it's in my pocket. I bought one.

theoneill555 wrote:Anyone find any reviews on this? The only ones I found on were on Amazon Amazon Reviews

Its a new product. Use caution. These Internet retailers like Amazon and Newegg love to sell very slightly modified brand products that have a new item number so they can sell it at what proves to be inflated street prices as there are no reviews or buyer comments yet.

This Cenron could prove to be a solid product. Just be aware that your are taking a risk that it has a design flaw passed on from its slightly different predecessor. Also keep in mind that Amazon owns Woot.

The two buyer comments at Amazon are useless. Not enough detail, not enough time in use.

SevenStarSonata wrote:My first laptop, back in 2005, had a 60 GB hard drive. I'm not sure whether to marvel at technology or feel very, very old.

Either way, this is a kickass deal.

You young whippersnappers had it good. My first laptop had a 40 MB hard drive. (Not my first computer, mind you, but my first laptop)
ETA: I guess I'm just piling on the older than you quotes here. Too bad I'm not so old that my computer was made out of gears.

mrken30 wrote:I still use computers at work that need floppy disk drives, as the software is only available on floppy. I hate those copy protected floppy disks

The black floppies were around a lot longer than people realize. IBM developed them for their field engineers before home computers were invented. The IBM field floppies where much larger too. Back then mainframe computers used large reels of tape. The black IBM floppy was the first truly portable "memory" tech. They also carried floppy drives with them. The connected the drive, inserted the floppy they needed. Made their work much faster, as they did not have to program every utility or whatever they needed to analyze and repair Mainframe malfunctions.

My first computer was the Commodore Pet, the first computer found in schools. It used a cassette player for software and saving files and data.

bruisedquasar wrote:I grew up in Japan. All the store clerks used Abacus for checkout, even at JC Penny. In 1970s switched to calculators and cash registers. 1980s switched back to Abacus. Found it was faster, less troublesome, less training required. Every school kid is master of abacus by junior high. But...in Japan children do not have game machines or cable TV. They want to learn.

Wait ... Japanese children don't have game machines? How can that be since the Japanese basically started the video game revolution? Names like Atari, Konami and Sega are key to the industry. Are you saying that video games are a Japanese plot to dumb down American children??? Hmmmmm....

There really isn't much training required for an electronic calculator. You add, press Equal. Add tax percentage as appropriate. Adding tax on an abacus is not easy. Furthermore, if you have different tax rates, i.e. food vs clothing vs beer, etc, a cash register is much easier since the rates are programmed in. Today's hi-tech computerized cash registers are especially easy because all you need to do is touch an icon on the graphic touch screen.

My grandfather was a seasoned abacus user (trained in China), and I easily beat him in all calculations using a pocket calculator.

toddbeall wrote:Well, my first computer (1984) had two 360K floppy drives and no hard drive! A few years later I upgraded to one with a whopping 10 mb hard drive, and thought I was in heaven.

Interested in this woot, but worried about the reliability of Centon.

First computer at home... no floppy drives, used a datasette. 5K of ram, 3.5K available to use. 1MHz 8-bit CPU.

This was around 1980 or 81. Ah, good 'ol Vic-20. I have 4 of them now... with JiffyDOS!

Tho, my collection is huge now, many 64's, several 128's, two 128D's, two SX-64's, two Plus/4's, a c16... eh, I could go on with all the other peripherals (old and new) but it'd make a mess of this thread.

Jay

I wonder how waterproof other USB drives are. I left one in my pocket years ago and it went through the washer and dryer and still works fine today.

On that note you can fit a whole room of 3.5" floppies on this thing If anyone under the age or 20 even know what those are.

landmineyouth wrote:Could this drive function in an XBox 360 as a storage device for media?

The major gaming consoles do accept USB. You should know if your Xbox has a USB port. It will look exactly like the USB ports on all laptops made since 1995. The issue will be whether Xbox can handle a 64gb USB flash drive. I would be surprised if it cannot. The PS3 can.

If you do not know this stuff don't you think you should invest a little less time with games and a little more mastering your computer? Only a tiny, tiny number of gamers ever make any money from it and those people build their own gaming computers

I've washed other ones... They're fine. Just let them dry out before use. There's nothing there that'll really be hurt by water when they're not powered on.

Just corrosion afterwards from prolonged exposure.

skou wrote:About Centon. It is almost Fry's "generic" brand. While I haven't purchased this device, 'm NOT going to purchase ANYTHING labeled Centon, that I would value.

I have had NUMEROUS blank CDs die after only 1 or 2 uses. (Fry's had a KILLER sale, and I bought a BUNCH, a long time ago. At least, the jewel cases didn't die!)

steve

I'd be very angry if my BLANK cds died on me after 2 uses. By the way, what do you play blank CDs for? I mean are their secret messages on them or something?

Cobaltqube wrote:Yup feeling old here too.. I've used 8" floppies and cassette tapes and even dats and 40mb tapes the size of a small paperback book.. But my first computer blows ya all out of the water.. Would love to see something with this kind of computing power here on woot some night ;-) lol !

Anyone remember how to use a sliderule? Or remember the nerd being the one with the new TI-85(?) Graphing calculator? Or when a basic handheld calc was over $100?

SevenStarSonata wrote:My first laptop, back in 2005, had a 60 GB hard drive. I'm not sure whether to marvel at technology or feel very, very old.

Either way, this is a kickass deal.

That is nothing...my first computer had about 5 MEGS of hard drive space. We upgraded to 40 Megs and it was a BIG DEAL.

bruisedquasar wrote:The major gaming consoles do accept USB. You should know if your Xbox has a USB port. It will look exactly like the USB ports on all laptops made since 1995. The issue will be whether Xbox can handle a 64gb USB flash drive. I would be surprised if it cannot. The PS3 can.

If you do not know this stuff don't you think you should invest a little less time with games and a little more mastering your computer? Only a tiny, tiny number of gamers ever make any money from it and those people build their own gaming computers

WOW. Talk about a OMGOMGOMGPONIESOMG PWNIES reply. I'm aware of what a USB port looks like, thanks.. sheesh, not enough coffee for you today...

For answers to all your ReadyBoost questions, may I suggest you consult WikiBoost?...

CivlDX wrote:I thought all flash drives were water proof? I've sent a few through the washing machine a couple of times while in my pockets, and they worked fine without losing my data...

Don't count on it lasting. Chimicals in the water can take time but may eat away at the circuitry.I have worked on lap tops that took 6 mounths after a spill to kill a motherboard. So do not put important data on washed drives.

Charlietrent wrote:Does anyone know if this supports Readyboost?

@charlietrent.

"ReadyBoost cache cannot be greater than 4 GB on a FAT32 file system or greater than 32 GB on an NTFS file system"

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ff356869.aspx

No need for 64 GB if your intention is readyboost.

CivlDX wrote:I thought all flash drives were water proof? I've sent a few through the washing machine a couple of times while in my pockets, and they worked fine without losing my data...

That's how you defragment flash drives; I do it all the time.

SevenStarSonata wrote:My first laptop, back in 2005, had a 60 GB hard drive. I'm not sure whether to marvel at technology or feel very, very old.

Either way, this is a kickass deal.

My first PC had a 20MB hard drive (admittedly, it was 10 years old by the time I was using it much). If your first computer was in the GB in space, I wouldn't feel too old


(I'm pretty sure I logged about 300 hours of Jetpack on that baby)

Edit: Doh, sorry, shouldn't read more of the thread before posting what many others have.

animefanboy123 wrote:is this usb 2 or 3?

According to the product website:

http://www.centon.com/pn/usb/waterproof/dsw64gb-001

USB 2.0

cellistpilot wrote:Way way back, in 1983, I bought an expansion unit for my 8088 IBM PC. It had, I kid you not, two 10 megabite hard drives in it and it cost a fortune. I bet you don't feel old anymore.

Been there. My 8088 was an UPGRADE from my 8086! Needed 2 hands to flip that big ol' bright orange power switch on the side! And don't bother moving the beast either! Had a single 4MB hard drive in it I believe.

MMF hard drives, before IDE was even in the pipelines... If you do not know about MMF don't even try to 'think you are old'

My first computer had dual 8 inch floppy drives and a 20 MEG HD

bruisedquasar wrote:
My first computer was the Commodore Pet, the first computer found in schools. It used a cassette player for software and saving files and data.

Back in Holland (And I assume Europe in general) we had the MSX computer (as well as the Commedore). Also with tapes to load games and software. Sometimes the game worked, sometimes it did not. Clean the heads all the time, retention the tapes (fast forward, rewind). It ran GWBASIC, very simmilar to QBasic.