Beware of Fake Flash Drives

What exactly are "fake flash drives"?

"Fake flash" refers to low capacity flash drives and memory cards that have been modified so that they appear to have more capacity than the drive really has.

They report more capacity to Windows, Macs, Linux and Android OS's than they have. Usually a lot more.

Besides being ripped off financially, your data is at danger because once the drive is at it's true maximum, any data put on afterwards gets damaged because the computer just writes over the data already on the flash drive.

To insure that the next drive you buy is legit, keep the price in mind. Check other stores/websites, and see if the price is close. Any more than 30% off, and it's time to reconsider.

If you think you have already purchased a "fake flash" drive, a great tool for testing your flash drive is h2testw.

You can get h2testw here: http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/H2testw-Download-149366.html

You can also get a Linux alternative to h2testw, called F3, here: http://oss.digirati.com.br/f3/

Chromium to loose flash support as of April

Flash content will stop working in Chromium on Linux in April.

But before you panic, there will be options. First of all, Chrome will still work with Flash, just not Chromium.

There will also be the other options, like Firefox.

The reason for the loss of Flash support for Chromium is the "Netscape Plugin API" or  NPAPI for short is used by Adobe's Flash for Linux based browsers.

NPAPI will no longer be supported thanks to a decision by Google.

Google touted security flaws among other reasons for ditching NPAPI.

Chrome doesn't use NPAPI, but instead uses "Pepper Plugin API", or  PPAPI, which will allow Chrome for Linux to continue function where Chromium will fail.

So to recap, as long as you use Chrome or Firefox after April, you will still have Flash support.

For more detailed information on all of this, check out http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/01/chromium-npapi-flash-dropped-april-2014