Convenience & weight. I don’t want to carry even a 2.5” HDD-based device with me when travelling, if I can avoid it. The Zalman device needs more power than many USB ports will happily provide. And an external CD-ROM drive means (usually) dual cables, an bringing a bunch of blank CDs with me, and the time it takes to burn them, and… etc. For my purposes, the 16Gb stick is *more* than worth the $185 it’ll cost to get it to Canada. -Adam Thompson <mailto:athompso@athompso.net> athompso@athompso.net (204) 291-7950 - direct (204) 489-6515 - fax From: roundtable-bounces@muug.mb.ca [mailto:roundtable-bounces@muug.mb.ca] On Behalf Of Kevin McGregor Sent: Friday, July 29, 2011 12:07 To: athompso@athompso.net; Continuation of Round Table discussion Subject: Re: [RndTbl] isostick - the optical drive in a usb stick Nice idea, but... $125 for a 8 GB device? On Fri, Jul 29, 2011 at 11:22 AM, Adam Thompson <athompso@athompso.net> wrote: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/elegantinvention/isostick-the-optical-dr... The concept is definitely viable, since Sandisk did something very similar in their Cruzer line of products, except you can’t update the contents of the fake CD-ROM drive yourself on a Cruzer. I’m buying one! -Adam Thompson athompso@athompso.net (204) 291-7950 <tel:%28204%29%20291-7950> - direct (204) 489-6515 <tel:%28204%29%20489-6515> - fax _______________________________________________ Roundtable mailing list Roundtable@muug.mb.ca http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable