Smaller but bigger

I just purchased a new flashdisk (aka flash drive/USB disk) recently. And I'm quite amazed at how tiny it has gotten I just had to write something about it. What's even more amazing is that it may have shrunk in physical size but its capacity has greatly increased. Moreover, the price has gotten lower and lower.

I got my first flashdisk in 2003 as an Information Technology senior in college. It had a capacity of 32 mb, which compared to diskettes (around 1.44 mb) which were still commonly used at that time, was really sufficient. It cost about P1000.00 and was about 3 inches in length. Considering all the stuff an IT student does, that flashdisk proved to be quite useful - and durable too. I dropped it countless of times and even stepped on it. It was passed from classmate to classmate, got wet, and was used for long hours. Still, it was very reliable. It came to a point when the exterior broke and what was left was the inside stuff. Still, with a little bending and replugging, it worked fine.

My second flashdisk was more than a year later. This time it was 256mb made by Astone and was a bit smaller than my first one. It was pricey - around P2,500.00. But I figured that it was 8 times more (in terms of capacity) than my old one, hence, the price should be P8000 (duh!). It was a bad experience though. After a week it malfunctioned. I had it fixed but a few weeks later, it didn't work again. I ended up using my old and abused flashdisk. I dunno if it was a factory defect or something, but somehow, this was the reason why I didn't bother buying a new flashdisk for sometime.

As my old flashdisk finally "died", I had to buy a new flashdisk since I needed it for law school. This time it was 1gb and cost around P700. And it was tiny - around an inch in length.

New technology continues to amaze me. Gadgets become faster, smaller, more powerful and cheaper at the same time.

-----------

UPDATE

5/21/07 - Impressed with the 1-gig flashdisk, I bought another one for around P600. It was bigger but I liked it coz it did not have a cover, which was helpful coz I lost the cover of my previous flashdisk. This one worked by simply pulling a lever-like thingie on the side to hide the USB plug.

9/22/07 - I lost my third flashdisk, so I bought another one. It was 2-gig and cost only P500. Amazing.