I’ve recommended portable applications before (here and here) but in the past year, capabilities have improved even further.  Running full-blown versions of some of the most popular programs from a flash drive has gotten easier.  Moreover, the open-source alternatives to unavailable applications are improving as well.  Here is a breakdown of what I’d recommend.  Download them and install them to your flash drive once, then make copies for friends (to carry around as thoughtful gifts).  My thanks to Lifehacker for giving me this idea last year.

Google Chrome – My favorite browser can now go anywhere.  Keep your favorite bookmarks and settings with you wherever you go.

Firefox Portable – Not everyone is a fan of Google Chrome.  For those on your list who prefer the Mozilla flavored browser, try Firefox instead.  Equally portable  – add-ons can even be installed on the portable drive.

Skype Portable – If your recipient is a road warrior, they’ll already love this application for chat and free calls.  I used it extensively from many countries, calling my wife for free.

Pidgin Portable – For those who use AIM, Google Talk, Jabber or the variety of other chat programs out there, try Pidgin as the be all end all in chat apps.  Pidgin can connect to most services and integrates  your buddy list into one place.

VLC Portable – Videos come in a bazillion flavors these days.  VLC makes simple work out of many formats, avoiding the complications of windows media player codex downloads and such.

Songbird Portable – Songbird is an alternative to Itunes, for those who want to carry a small media library (or a large one).  As Itunes doesn’t come in a portable package yet, Songbird makes a great replacement – even including a music store.

Open Office Portable – If you want to edit a word doc while on the go, Open Office is a great solution.  Capable of opening word, excel, and powerpoint docs, and these days a realistic office replacement, Open Office is a tremendous tool.

SpyDLLRemover – Spyware is not something to trifle with… SpyDLLRemover provide spyware protection and repair, in a tiny package – a great tool for keeping your computer safe.

7-Zip Portable – 7 zip is like winzip on steroids.  This is one of the cases where the alternative is simply better.  Carry this compressed file swiss-army knife with you and never be stumped by a file again…

Keepass Portable – Your mind might be a brilliant machine, but entirely too many passwords make life either very complicated or very insecure (if you’re using just one password for everything).  Keepass portable provides a safe repository for each of your passwords, without compromising security.

WinDirStat Portable – Is your hard drive mysteriously full?  Can’t seem to find that 20GB file that is hogging all your space?  WinDirStat scans your computer and maps out the contents of your drives.  The visual results make quick work of cleaning house.

Notepad++ Portable – A text editor to destroy all others.  Writing code?  Simply need a way to edit text files on the go?  Notepad++ will get you there.  Improved find/replace, among many other features, will make you forsake notepad for ever.

Finally, you’re going to need some flash drives – I don’t normally try to generate revenue from Just an Asterisk, but in an effort to recoup my costs for running the site, I ask you to buy your USB drives from the following Amazon link.  When you do, they throw a few bucks my way.

If you’re simply not interested in buying flash drives, you can always make a small donation (of any amount) via PayPal secure checkout using the link below.

Thanks for reading and the happiest of holidays to you all!

~ab

What’s the point of having a blog if you can’t get on your soapbox once in a while and talk about your passions?  I’ve decided to add a segment called future post – the things that I’d love to see as upgrades to existing products or as a new trend/device of the future.

The device that has occupied my daydreams for the last two months is my Kindle2.  As I’ve already posted, it has become my travel companion and to have my personal library instantly accessible is a luxury that I’m not sure I could give up.  Here are six things that I’d like to see on the Kindle in future:

1. Comic books – The watchmen was a great book and a fantastic film (it’s not for children). There are a large number of graphic novels out there that deserve a better distribution model.  If someone could just come up with a standard for resizing images like they have for text, I’d appreciate it.
2. Sheet music with a metronome that turns the page – This one may be a bit fanciful, but the screen is perfect for music (perhaps a touch small) and I’d love to have my sheet music available on my Kindle.  An even better idea?  Add a metronome that turns the page for you at a set beats per minute (BPM).  If I’m jamming to Mozart (wow that makes me chuckle) at 120 BPM, I’d hate to have to stop to turn the page…
3. Book of the month clubs – They sell subscriptions to magazines and to newspapers, but I’d love to get a selection of really good books chosen and sent to my kindle each month.  The next step: an online kindle book club social network might be nice too…
4. Better integration of pictures in books.  This is related to 1 and 2, but I’d like to see better image and text combinations.  If there were one thing that I could change immediately about the Kindle, it would be to make graphics a. appear with text wrapping the image and b. without a single link to another page.  Although the pictures are pretty, some kindle editions require that you switch back and forth between pages with links.  This is convenient (you always have a link to the image being discussed) but it’s slower than a paper book, where you can glance between the image and the text as necessary to understand the passage.
5. Make the keyboard better so that I can type long notes on my reading.  Amazon learned so many lessons from other ebook manufactures, but why didn’t they learn anything from the cell phone industry?  Why is the keyboard annoyingly small with wasted space on the perimeter?  I love the idea that I can annotate sections, but I don’t think the kindle will break into the college text book market until they can make a better keyboard.
6. And finally, my favorite one – flip the pages by twisting the device right for forward and left for back.  The iphone does it and it’s cool.  It’s totally pointless, but very cool.

As I said, the Kindle is a superb little device.  However, nothing is perfect and this is my two cents…  Shout out any innovations that you’d like to see in the comments…

 

~ab

There has been a flurry of articles recently by new kindle owners, desperate to reinforce the permanence of paper and to cynically point out that the new Kindle still isn’t perfect. The Just an Asterisk perspective? Well the first thing I downloaded to read was Malcolm Gladwell’s new book “Outliers”, in which he describes an outlaw that was “just dumb enough to be fearless, just bright enough to be dangerous and a dead shot”. I think we can describe the Kindle with the same terms.

Dumb enough to be fearless
There are a few different ebook readers out there and the Kindle was by no means the first. That said, why did all of the previous devices fail? Were we (as in everyone) simply too happy with paper? I think the answer is (and I’m not the first to suggest this) that the ebook industry was confused. What were we getting from these readers? (More chargers? Eye strain?) What was enhanced by reading a digital version of a book? Rival products by Sony and others had tried hard, introduced too many frills (like being able to play MP3s and silly desktop software) without actually improving the reading experience. In this environment, for an ebook reader to succeed, it just had to be a little bit better than the previous attempts. Amazon needed to dive in, looking perhaps a bit dumb (Amazon does not sell any other hardware) and more than a little bit fearless. Perhaps this was a gamble, perhaps the company was going in a strange direction, but Amazon seemed “just dumb enough to be fearless” – and that was essential to the success of the device.

Bright enough to be dangerous
Once Amazon was in the game, you could easily argue that they were a touch brighter than their colleagues. Amazon had become the definitive noun for an online bookstore. It only made sense that their product be a portal to their proven online shopping experience. Moreover, offering free access (via “Whispernet” from Sprint’s network) resulted in a “wow” factor (I can surf the web for free??) and a heavy hit to my credit card the first week (you can buy a book and start reading within a minute – my wife is going to kill me). Was this earth-shattering technology? No. Was it “just bright enough to be dangerous”? Yes.

A crack shot
Amazon had enhanced the reading experience, but what about the standard ebook reader features? They are actually great! One can easily convert PDFs, consult words with the built in dictionary, add annotations and bookmarks and highlight passages for later use. Oh yes, I almost forgot – you even have great internal memory so that you can carry a ton of books around. These are similar features that we’ve seen in most ebook devices. The Kindle does them well, but without flair. It’s for reading books, after all, and as required it’s “a crack shot”.

So why the post? It’s hardly full of advice, tips and insight (as I presumptuously assume my other posts provide). The real reason is because the Kindle crowns the content as king. This is not a flashy device, it’s a functional one and that’s what we’re all about :).  This is not a toy but a useful device for everyone.  I hope you’ll investigate a bit further and here are some links to get you started:

• Buy one
• Read about one at CNET
• Gizmodo’s Kindle Review Matrix

~ab