Subj : Flash-RAM
To   : All
From : Tegularius
Date : Sat Oct 15 2005 19:14:00

John C. Dvorak writes, "flash memory has a limited life,estimated to be about
one million read/write cycles with today's chips... most flash is designed
with wear-leveling as part of its architecture." (PC Magazine Nov. 8, 2005,
p.93)

Even if that is a lot of use, I gulped when reading that, because I've been
using the hell outta my 256 meg Lexar 2.0, not only to transfer files between 
computers but as a scratch area for files I don't want to keep.  Typical
examples are unzipped packages normally stored as .ZIP files. 

Prior to Windows ME ("Mistaken Edition") and XP, I've always used a RAM disk 
and
really miss it on the latest Win versions (and on Linux).  Never again will I
install a new hard drive without partitioning it into at least two drive
letters, so one of them is free for such purposes.  Navigating among numerous
subdirectories of a single drive letter gets more cumbersome with every
passing year.  

Looking at old DOS shareware, I have just recently discovered a whole
category of utilities that facilitate changing the current directory at the
command line.  Thanks to how I used to "run my computer good" I never felt a
need for these and was oblivious to them in that era. But nowadays the need
has never been greater and perhaps they're worth a belated look-- if only for
ideas so I can write my own that handles long names. 

If anyone has RAMdisk software that works with XP, I'd sure like to hear
about it.

---
 þ Synchronet þ Bauding House

.