Say what?

There are some things which programming professors can say to their students which might not go over as well in other disciplines. Last week's homework assignments weren't stellar. Well, more accurately, they were pretty pathetic, which is saying quite a bit considering that I went over the entire assignment in class and did everything but type the code for them. The parameters of the problem included adding up a series of numbers and arranging them in descending order. One fellow tried to develop his own custom design for data arrangement. Midway through the explanation of his algorithm, my mental editor copped a nap and I stated, "You really need to get your sort together."

In past, I have used a 4 GB USB flash driveto tote my data back and forth between work and home. Four gigs isn't all that much storage these days so this semester, I decided to invest in a 500GB external hard drive.This has worked out rather well but it does not fit in my pocket so when BzzAgent offered me the opportunity to join the Kingston Data Traveler Locker+BzzCampaign, I jumped on it.

This is a cool flash drive!

Have you ever lost the cap to your flash drive? They usually aren't tethered to the flash drive and even if they have a plastic loop for fastening to your keyring, how often do they break under normal usage? Kingston's DataTraveler Locker+ sports a swivel cover.

Have you ever had a flash drive just crash for no apparent reason? I sure have. Kingston's DataTraveler Locker+ comes with a five year guaranteed warranty and 24/7 customer support.

Have you ever lost a flash drive and worried that some nefarious someone now had access to some of your personal data? Happens to students at the college all the time. They forget their flash drives in class and someone else pockets them. Usually there isn't all that much personal information at risk, I suppose, but consider that these are college students who are writing research papers and how valuable a free term paper would be to a lazy classmate. Kingston's DataTraveler Locker+ has personal password protection: after ten unsuccessful attempts to access the data, it automatically reformats. Oh, yeah, it also features automatic hardware encryption.

I loved the reliability of my old Data Traveler but it is only 4GB. Kingston's newer, more advanced DataTraveler Locker+ comes in 8, 16, and 32GB sizes. A free 8GB model is winging its way to me courtesy of Kingston and BzzAgent. I'm really looking forward to giving this a good workout. Twice the storage, fits in my pocket, and is compatible with Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems.