Maybe I am mistaken, but there are more and more data storage devices arround today that keep thier memory without
power being supplied then there has been. Just think, my palm pilot doesnt have a hard drive (it remembers stuff even if you take out all the batteries), neather does my digital camera and I can take the memory card right out without it loosing its info, and USB thumb drive is the same deal.
I think all of these I have mentioned depend on some type of "Flash" memory, not RAM. Again, somone can correct me, but a Flash drive can be quite similar to a harddrive. I think I read somewhere that new laptops are starting to have the option to boot from a USB Thumb drive or USB harddrive, just like you would be able to boot from a floppy or CD drive after a crash.
Anyway, all this stuff is really quite interesting and part of the reason I might be heading off to college next year to get a degree in electrical or computer engineering!
(I have been scaning the forums here for any word on colleges that also have good tech departments)