Modern browsers have lots of convenient features, like the ability to remember your passwords, and the ability to easily go to sites that you commonly visit. For instance, all I have to do is start typing "bi" in my browser, and it brings up a list of previously visited sites that contain "bi" -- Big Closet being at the top of the list. It will also auto-enter my user name and password when I want to log in.
Visiting libraries was considerably less convenient. Also, I'm not always interested in having other people know which sites I commonly visit. I'm in no way ashamed of my browsing habits, but I prefer to not have to explain why I like the people and stories here.
A few months ago, I found a way to load all of my favorite free applications onto a thumb drive.
http://portableapps.com/ (The motto is "Pick a PC. Any PC.")
When I go to the library, or use my wife's laptop (the only computer here with cell phone wireless internet,) I plug the thumb drive in and run Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird from it. Everything that I do is recorded on the thumb drive instead of the hard drive. I can download my mail for later perusal, and save the stories and read them on my own computer. This is good for everyone because my wife has to be on this laptop for quite a few hours every day. She is getting her master's degree online.
No, I'm not worried that she knows that I visit this site. On the other hand, I don't want to rub it in her face. Also, it's more convenient for her if, when she starts typing into the browser, her favorite sites come up instead of mine.
The internet isn't the whole story, though. There are lots of programs available on the site. You can install the entire open office suite (every bit as good as MS Office,) Gimp (similar to photoshop,) some games, a paranoia-type disk cleaner (completely erases files,) a PDF reader, instant messaging, a text editer, several media players (some with the ability to play DVDs,) zip/tar, bible, space simulator, planetarium, defragmenting, financial planner, CD/DVD burner, and a bunch more.
And it's all free. (not to mention open source.)
I know that I'm starting to sound like a commercial, but I really like being to carry my digital life with me wherever I go -- and not leave little bits of data behind.
By the way, it's a good idea to back your thumb drive (or Ipod or whatever) up regularly. I have snapped off at least two thumb drives because I plugged them straight into a laptop, and the laptop slipped. Now, I use a short USB extension cable to keep that from happening.
Comments
One way of doing it...
But it is much easier to load a bootable image of Ubuntu or similar onto a pen drive and boot from it. It then has not only all your apps and stuff on it, it can be configured exactly how you like and is entirely independent of the host pc's hard drive/ windows policies etc. This is especially true if they have set a policy in windows that disables the USB ports for external storage devices or a policy preventing software not on the host machines hard drive from executing (I have encountered both of those). Just a thought...
[edit]Also, none of this prevents an independent logging firewall from recording every website visited completely independently of whatever software / OS used, as used in many corporate settings and while, if you are using your own OS or even your own machine, they can still log all network transactions, even if they cant identify the machine used.[/edit]
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
That which does not kill me only serves to delay the inevitable. My blog => http://jaym.angelblogs.co.uk/
That which does not kill me only serves to delay the inevitable. My blog => http://jaynemorose.wordpress.com/ <= note new address
I have thought of that.
I would use Linux Mint, of course. ;-)
The problem is that I haven't managed to get any of our modems (US Robotics USB and Alltel dongle) to work under Linux. I'll eventually add this laptop to the network and activate internet sharing. That would work.
Oops... getting a bit off the topic.
Booting the computer under your favorite Linux distro is a good idea, as long as you can get all the hardware to work with it. When the hard drive in my son's laptop took a dump, I booted Linux Mint from a CD and used the thumb drive as storage. I had even pulled the hard drive completely.
Flash distros
Obviously if it's a family computer, you can use a Flash distro without any problems. Read reviews and possibly try out a few before settling on one to use - Ubuntu (and clones) may be the most common and heavily promoted distros, but you don't have to follow the herd!
But if you're using a PC at work / in the library / elsewhere, then the portable apps solution is the only allowable method. And if you're using it across multiple sites, an extension like "FoxyProxy" is very useful, as different sites will set up different proxy servers (or none!), and not all will make their proxy automatically discoverable (so if they lock down their computers to the extent of hiding their proxy, restricting Internet Options and preventing you running Regedit, you might have to put up with Internet Exploder).
I personally use Portable Firefox (sorry, "Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition" as they like calling it - ugh!) at work running from a USB HDD that also contains a backup of useful stuff from my home computers (both the Mandriva 2009.1 desktop I'm writing this on and the dead Vista laptop [Mobo failure 2 months out of warranty] sitting in a cupboard).
A useful alternative to the Gimp for Windows users is Paint.net (getpaint.net) - as long as the computer's got a recent copy of the .NET framework installed (most corporate W2k/XP/Vista boxes have) it should run fine from a USB device.
--Ben
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
Something else to consider
Privacy. So you have your thumb drive and someone gets curious and looks at it and finds all your stuff. Not sure about anyone else but I like to keep it private so i use truecrypt and password protect the little thing. Just something to think about.
Also, whatever happened to ajax? I thought someone was going to create a portable desktop on some server where you could access it and surf from there and use the outside connection with no tracking available (unless they are using some software like Spectre, in which case I would create a red/blue filter and use a red or blue lens to filter it back).
Just some random thoughts
Diana
I use an online site to
I use an online site to store all my bookmarks.
The one I use the most is favurl.com, but there are others that work the same ----- mybookmarks.com, bookmarktracker.com , etc.
Am I kidding myself that my bookmarks are secure there. I know that the
people who run these sites must mine the data but to log on you need a password. My theory is that friends and family won't be able to see my bookmarks. It allows you to access your bookmarks from any PC .
If anyone has experience with this type of online storage, I would like to know just how safe it really is.