can you format a SD card, or a CF card to anything other than FAT32? is it possible to have the /home partition on a CF card or a keydrive with ext3 filesystem? and would the system crash if you removed the card?

do the current card readers support USB mass storage & can be booted from? the only card reader i have is a SM reader that requires windows drivers

whats with the CF cards that have "USB support" does that mean i can buy a USB connector, shove a few wires into the CF card and i got myself a USB mass storage device?