Shirking Responsibility

A new version of UPX was released recently after a long beta stage and I’ve set about repacking all my USB apps with it. It’s a bit of a pain since you can’t just repack the old executables, but since I have most of them on my laptop in an unpacked state, it’s not so bad.

After the first few repacks I’m noticing only about a 1 or 2 KB decrease in size as compared to the previous version, but I may as well finish.

Jodie got me one of these and it prompted me to find some new tiny apps for it:

• AdapterWatch - Another nice utility from NirSoft. It shows all sorts of info regarding your network interfaces. Useful for diagnosing problems while on strange systems.
• Autoruns - And another nice utility from Sysinternals. Like other utils that list all of the programs that start automatically when Windows does, but this one lists more stuff than you probably ever knew about. Really very useful.
• DM2 - This came from another product I liked called DialogMate. It’s amazingly useful and adds all sorts of little features to Windows without having to be “installed.” Check out the features overview. It also supports plugins.
• WinDirStat - Open source tool for creating a graphical treemap of your harddrive. Useful for finding what directories might be taking up too much space and so on.
• µTorrent - This is the client that fulfills all my BitTorrent needs. It’s small and powerful and even finds homes for stray puppies. Read this entry in the FAQ to learn how to force it to keep its settings in the app directory instead of the registry.

I really like this drive better than my old one. Not only is it smaller, it also has sharp instruments attached to it. Sharp things always makes stuff better.

Two new tiny portable apps for my USB drive. You might find one of them useful, at least.

• CurrPorts - There are many such apps and methods to view the currently open ports in Windows, including c:\netstat -a, but this is my favourite. It’s very feature-filled and is only 36.5K in size.
• TYPSoft FTP Server - Haven’t actually had a use for this while out yet, but I imagine that being able to temporarily set up an FTP server on someone’s system might be useful. Either that or I’m just really reaching now to find stuff to put on my drive.

So ever since I got a laptop for Christmas I’ve been using my USB drive less and less, but I guess I may as well post a couple of other tiny apps that I’ve added to my collection lately.

• NetMeter - This is a really nice freeware bandwidth meter. The default tracking layout is a bit ugly, but once you set it up how you like, it’s perfect.
• Process Explorer - This has replaced PrcView on my drive as my process explorer of choice. Sysinternals makes some good stuff.

Ahhh, so much software downloaded since last I posted here. I must catch up.

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.

I recently got one of those little USB drives for school and have been searching for the best tiny apps to keep on it. Like any new gadget, it’s lots of fun. First you need to find something that’s small to begin with and that doesn’t require lots of writing to the registry to function. Then there’s the act of getting rid of all the support files that aren’t necessary. Things like translation files, readme files, help files and so on. Then I run the appropriate files through UPX.

So far I have chosen the following apps:

• Color Cop - A color sampling tool.
• dsDEL - A “secure” file deleter. It may not stop the FBI, but at least it’ll stop most people at the labs. The guys who made dsDEL has a ton of other cool tiny apps.
• EyeDropper - Another color sampling tool. I can never decide which I like better.
• FileZilla - My FTP client of choice. Supports SSH, has a clean interface and is open source.
• Media Player Classic - While I actually prefer ZoomPlayer while at home, MPC is more suited for a USB drive.
• Popcorn - My favorite light email client. Freeware mode allows only one POP3 account to be defined, though.
• PrcView - Tiny little process viewer for when the Windows Task Manager is restricted.
• PSPad - Amazingly good freeware text editor with built in FTP and tons of other cool features. Luckily, it writes all options and settings to ini files.
• PuTTY - The well-known telnet/SSH client. Perfect for when I need to log into my shell.

That’s all I have for now. I was able to whittle the size of all the apps down to a combined 5.07 megs. Not bad, I think. Theres a few other apps I am fiddling with to see how small I can get them. I’ll post them with links later if I am satisfied with their size.

Sadly, though, the main class I purchased the drive for is my art class (Photoshop work mainly and those .psd files can get BIG), and so the lab we’re using consists mainly of Macs. I’ve never used a Mac for more than a few minutes, especially OSX, and I have no idea what cool tiny software I could carry around.

Any help?

I’ve been having so much fun fiddling with my new system and trying to overclock it that I’ve neglected pretty much all of my other hobbies. I think I’m going to take a book and go to a nice quiet spot somewhere and read today.

At least I did get out and see a movie last night. Yes, I went and saw Finding Nemo. Those Pixar people never fail to entertain. Oh, how I wish they were in no way affiliated with Disney.

The nice FedEx person delivered my shipment from newegg.com today and now I am sailing blissfully along in geek heaven.

Now, while I’ve installed new hard drives and cards and such into my computer in the past, I’ve never actually assembled a whole new system from scratch. Right now I am trying to figure out exactly how to mount the motherboard onto my case. I’ve got a little bag filled to the brim with an assortment of screws, bolts, standoffs and other such things, but absolutely no instructions.

Woo!