... And Carry a Big Stick

Yesterday I copied over my iTunes Library as well as some key conference CD notes. Big Mistake; I'm up to 2GB and haven't started yet. :-)

Both James Bach and Jon Kohl Recommended Portable Apps, a complete, 'lite' software suite designed for a USB key. The programs are both small and can run by double-clicking - without installing, without needing write access to C:\, without having to be an administrator.

Portable Apps includes Mozilla FireFox, Putty (a telnet and SSH client), WinSCP3 (A Secure file copy utility), and Open Office. I'm not 100% happy with these options - just about every system allready has a web browser (even if it's a bad one), and Microsoft Office is just about ubiquitous. So saying "Look, I bought a USB key so I can use (1) May Favorite Apps in case (2) Equivalent Apps aren't available" doesn't sound so great when (1) The Differences Ain't Much and (2) Equivalenta Apps are pretty much everywhere.

I'll keep looking. For the time being I am considering taking those conference materials off the keyfob. In the mean time, it's nice to have a home for my passwords, writings/presentations, and a backup of my website. My next move is probably to move to an encrypted password manager, and surprise, there is one available for portable apps. (Can anyone recommend a good, free, windows automation tool besides Tasker?) I may also download the encryption/backup software that comes with portable apps.

As for the stapler, egg, and salt shaker - more tomorrow ...

UPDATE: The 'standard install' of portable apps seems to have a lot of applications I am not really interested in, like games and open office. Also, I'm not quite sure how to un-install the things that are installed. I'll keep playing around; more reviews to come.