New stick

I sometimes use a data stick to back-up data held on Microsoft's OneDrive on my HP laptop. Growing up at a time when computers were not very reliable and a lot of effort was put into machinery for backing up and for any subsequent recovery that might be needed, I have never quite broken the habit.

Digressing, I associate back to the days when most large scale computer processing was about rolling through one or more input tapes and producing one or more output tapes. These tapes being rolls of magnetic tape stored, when they were not being used, in circular plastic cases about a foot in diameter and an inch thick. Miles of tape, I dare say. This rolling would take hours and it was quite common for the computer to break down during this time. So to avoid having to go back to the beginning each time this happened, the relevant contents of the memory of the computer were written to the output tape from time to time, which somehow meant that instead of going back to the beginning you could go back to the last memory dump and restart from there. Then when it was all finished and you got around to reading the output tape, the read instruction included a special twizzle to skip over these memory dumps.

On holiday, I have been using something called a SanDisk. No idea how old it was, but it was certainly playing up on my Windows 11 laptop. Sometimes it would work, but mostly it didn't, sometimes giving unpleasant sounding errors like 'failed cyclic data check'. Eventually, when visiting Shanklin, I decided that I needed a new one. But Shanklin failed to deliver. Poundland might have had them, but didn't. I didn't find a Smith's and there was never much chance of a Ryman's. But then, yesterday, happening to be in the big Tesco's south of Ryde, stocking up on Lincolnshire spring greens, I took a stroll down the stationery aisle to find a modest selection of data sticks from Integral, people I already had a number of sticks from. A tenner or so for 64Gb. Ridiculously big and cheap compared with what they used to be.

Back home, the thing works fine, without fuss or delay. Not even a delay while the laptop nipped out for the necessary drivers, at least not a delay that I noticed.

I then wondered whether it was made in China, Taiwan or somewhere like that, recovered the torn up packaging, but failed to read the small print by the light of my reading lamp. Got out the telephone which did very well as a magnifying glass - rather better than it had done with the three-dimensional flowers at references 2 and 3 - and the only address given was somewhere in north London. Nothing about made in China at all. Which led me to reference 1.

From which I learn that these devices are probably made in one of the small number of European locations listed. I dare say there is a chip inside that comes from the far east, but the finished device is assembled in Europe. We do still make stuff!

The only fly in the ointment comes with compatibility. I did not bother to check before purchase, but the package says Windows 8.1, 10 or 11, which is fine. While the product specification at reference 4 says 'Windows Vista, 7, 8.1 and 10'. I guess the important take-away here is that while the device itself might last more or less for ever, its compatibility with your laptop might not. With a by-product being that I now understand what the prominent message 'Cap stored on USB Flash Drive when in use' is all about. Nothing to do with putting the cap back on when you are not using it, my brain having assumed a misprint, rather about putting the cap on the other end when you are using it, presumably so that you do not lose it among the litter on your desk or lap. An odd thing to make such a big deal of.

SanDisk on the way to the crusher in the garage.

PS 1: just picked up on a rather grim story from Iran about a Swedish-Iranian doctor held for years on death row on what look like a trumped up charge of 'spreading corruption on Earth', brought for annoying the regime in some obscure way. Apart from the grim, I worry a little about the postscript about preparation of the piece having been helped along by AI. I dare say a human editor had a peek before pressing the green button, but it may have been no more than a peek. Brought to me by Medscape.

PS 2: and a little later, the story at reference 6, grim in a different way. Depressing that at least two major states, China and Russia, are busily planting trouble inside the computer systems which drive our civil infrastructure. Stuff like water works, power grids and hospitals. At least, that seems to be the presumption of the story's author. Whatever sort of world do we live in?

 References

Reference 1: https://www.integralmemory.com/.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/07/pyramid-orchids.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/07/self-heal.html.

Reference 4: https://res.cloudinary.com/integral/image/upload/SPEC/WEB/INFD64GBBLK.pdf.

Reference 5: https://www.westerndigital.com/. The home of SanDisk. I couldn't see anything about Windows compatibility in the relevant data sheet, just USB compatibility.

Reference 6: What Happened to ‘Digital Resilience’: With each cascade of digital disaster, new vulnerabilities emerge. The latest chaos wasn’t caused by an adversary, but it provided a road map of American vulnerabilities at a critical moment - David E. Sanger, New York Times - 2024.