I tried to go to our secure SD storage vault, but the stairs were gone and the lights were out so I had to use a flashlight.

Mind you that was the easy part, finding out where the storage vault was, was the tricky part, no one had actually gone out of their way to call attention to the location..

Mines the one with 'Don't Panic' on the back, written in large, ever so friendly letters

Shouldn't the good and the great of the civil service be using write-only memory? Wouldn't matter then if they lost it.....

Small portable storage is always getting lost. I've mislaid countless USB sticks, and even the occasional 3.5 hard drive. However unlike HM Gov, all my important stuff is encrypted, and backed up.

I would recommend going the opposite direction with storage for civil servants being akin to the hotel keys with the huge tags.

Something like an SD card attached to a house brick with a Kensington laptop lanyard should be about right.

Mines the one with the SD sized holes in the bottom of the pockets.

The notion of using WORM for "Black Box" recorders is quite laughable: the whole point of such recorders is that they are "endless loop" things, so that you'll *always* have the last XXX minutes of flight information. Using a WORM, you _will_ end up with a situation where the blasted thing is full, and then the aircraft would have to stop flying until the card was replaced... this may be problematic if the aircraft was in flight at the moment that the WORM fills!

What these WILL be good for is data distribution: you can put a bunch of files on the card and _know_ that if you can read them, _then_ the data is the data that the creator wanted you to have, not some hacked-up version. That has value...

They've never heard of the BOfH's greatest contribution to media-storage: WORN technology?

Write Once, Read Never.

then it will be used for computer forensics.

You need someway to say the data recorded has not been altered, and this goes some of the way there to that position.

Most tech cases if defended by a tech savvy lawyer, and the person has not already capitulated, can bring in sufficient doubt as to the validity of computer records.

Sure, the logging system could have been altered, but a permanent unalterable record of activity prior or during a watch could be invaluable in court.

Actually civil servants use WOLOT memory. Write once, leave on train.

Ever thought of going into advertising?

Hey they are trying to rip off my new invention, i call it the CDR once written it can magically never be written over again.

But whats to stop someone from copying the data onto a new card, and just changing the 'bits' (no pun intended) they want?

I think the theoretical difference is that unlike CD-R, you've got more than a whelk's chance in a supernova of reading it after five years.

Funny.... It took Sandisk purchasing Matrix Semi to roll this out finally.

I seem to recal suggesting this was the best way to use the technology about oh say...7 friggin years ago.

Hey if execs at Matrix were not so hell bent on using the tech for video games and books maybe the company would still be around...lol

It's a 3 dimensional storage medium using the standard 1 layer silicon in multiple layers. Its impervious to EMP, and temps over 600 Degrees.

If its the same process and they have improved it it should also be far cheaper than standard size memory chips.

I'd expect the 1 gig size out really soon.

Actually it's WORE memory. Write Once, Read Everywhere. Uniquely for memory technology, this type supports POST.

I can see games software developers standing in line for this. Especially since each of these cards can be a combined SDIO/SD card, the SDIO part containing a decryption chip for the most of the data. Think CD/DVD copyprotection on games is bad? Think again. This will make CD/DVD copyprotection (and the problems they cause with the software on your 'puter) problemfree.

*sigh*

//Svein

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