Archive for June, 2004

A new search for tiny apps.

Thursday, June 24th, 2004

So classes are over (including a summer art class I decided to take) and once again I can waste time on things like searching for tiny little apps to stuff in my USB drive.

Since my last post on the topic, I’ve added a couple of things to my collection.

  • CDisplay - Reading comics off a CD is a great way to waste some time when you’re stuck elsewhere with only a bare computer to play with. You can always just burn the program to the CD also, but I prefer sticking it on my USB drive.
  • dsCRC, dsMD5, dsSHA - Okay, so most people wouldn’t really use these for anything, but it’s nice to have some kind of file verification software for when you’re on someone else’s possibly unsafe computer.
  • Miranda - While I prefer Trillian Pro for my chatting needs at home, Miranda is definitely the right choice for portable chatting. With plugins to protect your account passwords and message logs, it’s also somewhat safer from the average person who might run off with your drive.
  • MyIE2 - Alas, sometimes you are forced to use IE for certain things. When you’re on someone else’s system, though, it’s probably best to use something like this and disable plug-in support. Most people have their IE so cluttered with add-on toolbars and crap it’s ridiculous. Sadly, with the latest version they seem to have stopped offering the zipped version for download. You can still repackage and shrink it, but it’s so much nicer when you don’t have to use an installer.

And speaking of browsers, I’ve heard recently over at the MozillaZine Forums that with version 0.9, it’s now much easier to get Firefox to work on a portable drive. I haven’t had a chance to try it, but I definitely will soon. Expect a report.