Things have been getting better for a while now. For smaller gadgets, micro-USB is now the standard charging connector. Cables are becoming ( Read more... )

Something I seldom see mentioned, but I use a lot, is Linux systems installed directly onto USB sticks (pendrives).

No, you can't install from these, but they are very useful for system recovery & maintenance.

There are 2 ways to do it.

[1] Use a diskless PC, or disconnect your hard disk.

This is fiddly.

SUSE has some info on how to do this:

( Read more... )

Not only do I have recent, decent-performance, still-perfectly-usable PC hardware that can't boot off USB, or can but can't remember the setting* so that it has to be done every time you need it, but I also note that the BIOS in the current shipping versions of both VirtualBox and VMware cannot boot from USB devices.

It is not a rare or uncommon ( Read more... )