Portable Applications: Easy, Affordable and Portable

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What more can you want from a USB key? I had been talking about Portable Apps, esp. my Cruzer, to a friend recently, whose birthday is approaching. So rather than just hot air, I bought him a little present: a Verbatim 4GB USB key with nothing installed.

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It’s a Verbatim 4GB USB Memory Card. The USB key as two features that I particularly liked: a non-removable but rotatable cap (in grey), and a little green light (on the right). It’s much smaller than my Cruzer, but it’s not U3 compatible, so I had to load up the apps from PortableApps.

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I chose to install the Portable Suite: which included a long list of software.

  • ClamWin Portable (antivirus),
  • Mozilla Firefox – Portable Edition (web browser)
  • Gaim Portable (instant messaging)
  • OpenOffice.org Portable (office suite)
  • Sudoku Portable (puzzle game)
  • Mozilla Sunbird – Portable Edition (calendar/task manager)
  • Mozilla Thunderbird – Portable Edition (email client)

However the Suite has one big drawback, none of the applications are particularly recent. For instance, OpenOffice is only version 2.0 in the suite, but already 2.4 in the downloads area. I’d suggest if you are doing this, just download the latest apps yourself. You can see the other apps I loaded for my friend:

portable apps menu loaded

FileZilla and Kompozer for managing his HTML based websites. Gimp, MPlayer, VLC Media Player for Media and Images. Sumatra PDF, Juice, … and several others for his own interests. Though many apps are now portable, not all apps can be installed on this menu as it requires a particular file structure and format. So, if you want to add a non-PortableApp compatible USB app, you can just copy it to its own directory for the most part. This website lists more than 100 apps that you can use.

The menu options in the Portable Apps Start Menu are quite simple and very easy to understand. And the best bit, PortableApps can run from USB keys, directories on your computer, Network directories (if needed), CD-rom,… So you can copy the entire folder quickly and easily, without encountering some of the annoying install, re-install routines that affect Windows Apps. Seems that Microsoft has completely overlooked this opportunity.

My only regret is that at the moment, there isn’t a good blogging application for USB. For me that would be just ideal. Suggestions? …

Some Weekend Exercise: Don’t try this @ Home

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Somehow this weekend we ended up getting a lot of fresh air. On Saturday, we walked around the fringes of Zhuwei up mountain roads, along past farms, through a University campus, stopped for a nice meal, and took a subway train home! It’s kind of our monthly ritual these days…

Of course, our saunter in the woods was somewhat less demanding than this gentleman’s effors in the urban woods…

Anyway, let’s go… Those strolls … wow! They really tire you out!

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Let me take a rest now!

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You can guess the story on the front cover!

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A view of Taipei looking up the river early evening.

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Then on Sunday, we visited the North East Coastal Tourist Areas…

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This is very near a village called LaoMei in Sanchih/Jingshan area.

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As usual, Christine is setting the pace.

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I think she’s saying hurry up!

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And that’s it for Sunday!

These pictures were taken over a number of walks, and composited together as I stupidly forgot to take my camera! Though composited, they capture nicely the essence of our walks over the weekend!

Finding your publicity on InvestorBlogger!

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Ever since I launched InvestorBlogger in its first incarnation about three years ago, I have recognized how difficult it is to get traffic for new blogs. InvestorBlogger therefore offers a number of easy ways to get traffic that bloggers should know about.

So if you have a blog, and you’d like a little extra publicity, try these…

#1: Sign up for a BlogBuzz with your Blog.

#2: Comment on a post in this blog, leave your URL or Blog in the post, I’ll reply to your comment and follow your link to post a comment there within 72 hours (Comment4Comment!).

#3: Comment more than 10 times and get a do-follow link to your blog! That’s find 10 great posts and leave a meaningful comment there so that future readers follow your link!

#4: Use your entrecard points to ‘buy’ a slot on my EntreCard place. Currently it’s only 16 credits to get an ad! That’s cheap! And you’ll show up in two places if you drop your card anytime!

#5: Submit your link to my blogroll by placing a link on your blog or website! It’s easy and quick to do.

#6: Submit one of your relevant posts to my carnivals. If your article is selected, you get a free PR link and traffic to your article! I currently run two carnivals: MakingRealMoney and DotComCarnival. I’m always happy to consider new articles.

#7: You can contact me on FaceBook and on SocialSpark, too.

Oh, and I’m friendly, and I don’t bite!