Damn Small Linux

[Michael O'Dell]

andre kesteloot wrote:
> Damn Small Linux  (DSL) comes with its own server
> Only 50 Megs
> And available already installed in a USB Thumb drive

sorta apropos....

My wife Judy just got the latest handbook from the organization
which codifies the rules for various equestrian sports.
in printed form, it's a very full 4" binder of letter-size paper
with some fold-outs that are larger.

this time, it came delivered as a USB flash drive!
the PDFs of the printed version are all there,
and if you wish, you can go to Kinkos and have them
smear ink on a tree for you. or you can plug it into
your notebook and look at it with a PDF viewer.
you can then print what few pages you actually need.

at first i was trying to understand the economics of this
but she did say she spent an additional $25 or $30 for
the digital version. in previous years, the digital version
came on a CD for about the same price, but this year,
the USB flash drive. it's even in a custom package
with custom silk-screening with the organization's name
and description of the contents.

what i haven't checked for is whether it's been set to be
immutably read-only.

this means that an ecosystem has sprung up where the USB
flash drive has "crossed the chasm" into being a content
delivery medium, not "just a big, fast floppy".  the next
thin to look for will be the duplicators and the ink-jet
printers that can produce them automagically from a feeder
hopper and a master plugged into a cloning socket.

interesting indeed......

	-mo