[Dtb-talk] The Physical Cartridges themselves?

[Flint Million]

The NLS shipping carts are "write protected" in software. This means
the device rejects any write requests to the flash media. Blank
cartridges which are purchased do not have this enabled and can be
read and written to freely, just like a standard USB flash drive.

It would stand to reason that the NLS library carts either accept
proprietary USB mass storage commands that enable and disable the
write protection, or they may have a physical switch inside the sealed
unit. Either way, even if you were to somehow manage to rewrite the
data on a library cart, as I understand it they are always erased and
reloaded upon return from a patron anyway.

Also note that the library carts generally are 1GB units while the
blank carts I've been seeing are 2GB!


F


On Fri, Jul 29, 2011 at 12:19 PM, James McCarthy <jmccart at lbph.lib.md.us> wrote:
> Paul,
> Others may be better situated than am I to address this point, but it is my
> understanding that there is software on NLS cartridges that does not permit
> patrons to add or delete files from them. This is absent on the blank
> cartridges allowing one to add or delete books as desired.
> Jim McCarthy
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dtb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:dtb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Paul Migliorelli (+1 303-552-6970)
> Sent: Friday, July 29, 2011 1:11 PM
> To: Discussion of Digital Talking Books
> Subject: [Dtb-talk] The Physical Cartridges themselves?
>
> Hi.  Just curious.  On blank cartridges, there is obviously the hole to
> plug in the cable for the computer.  When you get cartridges in the mail,
> are they physically write protected somehow?  What makes them so?  I
> didn't think library ones have a cable hole.  Just curious how it works.
>
>
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