Memory Sticks

I read the title and assumed it was about the chips you put on your motherboard.

I say flash drive, or USB drive.
 
ehcks said:
I read the title and assumed it was about the chips you put on your motherboard.

I say flash drive, or USB drive.
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Considering the increasing use of internal solid state or "flash memory" drives (SSD as opposed to HHD) as well as the ubiquity of external USB connected hard disk drives, I guess the most explicit generic term would be "USB flash drive".

If clarification is required there is always going to be a need to resort to more detailed explanations. Until it arises I'll go with "flash drive".
 
I've also heard them called "ThumbNAIL Drive". After confusion with all the different names these drives are referred to, I've been unofficially pushing "Flash Drive" so that we (everyone I work with) are all on the same page.
 
I started calling it the "Newfangled Floppy Disk" around work years ago, but that's been shortened to 'floppy'.

It's as applicable as it was to the 3.5" disks, and they all serve the same purpose.
 
I almost exclusively use the term 'flash drive' so I can distinguish it from a USB external hard drive which I'll either call a 'USB drive' or an 'external drive.' I think 'thumb drive' sounds dippy.

I use the term 'dongle' to describe those security token units that plug into a computer for authentication purposes. I will also call them 'security tokens.'
 
Wow, so many names for such small thingies!

Darat said:
Be quite ironic for Sony if "memory stick" becomes the accepted name!
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Indeed! (I didn't know Sony had a product called that till reading the replies here.)

Ethan Thane Athen said:
I've actually heard them called 'dongles' which is completely wrong.

Yup, agree with most of the posts above: memory stick, pen drive, usb drive, flash drive and even usb stick.

In practice though I usually hear them referred to as 'thingies' or, if that draws a blank, refined to 'usb thingie' and then finally 'usb memory thingie'.:D
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:big: I am SO not using "dongle", but I'll surely be calling them "thingies".

Fredrik said:
In Sweden, we say "USB memory" (USB-minne). I never realized "minnepinne" was an option. I think I'm going to have to start using it. :)
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:D Heehee! I like that plan.


Mister Earl said:
Around here, we just say "Geek stick".
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Nice!
 
Ian Osborne said:
What's it got to do with your thumb?
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Duh...
 
Orphia Nay said:
I thought they were called memory sticks, at least, but it seems every time someone hands one over at work, they're called something different...

Flash drive?

Thumb drive?

And other things that didn't register on my radar.

What's the coolest geek term for these doovelackies?
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I would normally think of a "Memory Stick" as a memory card (i.e. Sony's Memory Stick) not a USB flash drive.
 
Ethan Thane Athen said:
I've actually heard them called 'dongles' which is completely wrong.

<snip>
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Orphia Nay said:
<snip>

:big: I am SO not using "dongle", but I'll surely be calling them "thingies".

<snip>
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"Dongle" has very negative connotations for me. I recall the term first being used to describe gizmos for copy protection schemes back in the early eighties, usually involving some sort of serial port pass-through device. I remember at least one machine that had several of them daisy chained down the back side of the desk it was on.

Even when they worked as intended they were a real PITA, and they didn't work as intended all too often.

If I use the term "dongle" in regular conversation it will nearly always be preceded by a "#@%&*" of some sort. :)
 
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