I have an 8gig mini-thumb drive in my wallet. It has been there for several years now. Originally it was a test to see if it could survive. No problems encountered (yet).

So I gradually filled it with all kinds of stuff. I travel a lot so I included scans of my medical records, licenses and all that sort of thing. All encrypted with TrueCrypt. I also have portable applications for my browser, e-mail client and many other programs. I update it frequently. It is an image of a SDHC chip I keep in my main computer, but which gets moved from machine to machine as needed (I have 4 working computers).

I also have the manuals for all my ham radio equipment, the entire service manual for my Dodge Diesel 3500 4x4, A gigantic library of military and other reference material. A very good medical library (Grays anatomy, Where there is no doctor, Ships Capt. Medical manual and much much more), all available from the nearest computer.

Over the years I have found it invaluable. I was traveling when I became sick and was able to print out my base line laboratory results to be compared with those being done. I have used the scans of credit cards to notify customer service when I had a problem. The list goes on and on....

the upshot is that it works for me.....and very well. True, no Doc is gonna let me use his computer, but there always seems to be a friend or someplace that I can find to retrieve the needed data. Even during Katrina when I responded to New Orleans with the Red Cross, I was able to find a satisfactory computer to get my e-mail client to run.

Next I think I will add a mini linux operating system so I have better control. Truecrypt runs nicely under linux by the way. I will have to do something about the portable applications (see http://portableapps.com/ for details about portable applications).

True, it is of little use during a medical emergency. But it sure has been handy for a lot of other incidents. I don't leave home without it.

Nomad