Tuesday, May 30, 2006

A great bunch of items by John Haller and Co. which could change the future of computer use!!

Hi everybody!

I am a guy who likes to tinker around with software without any formal knowledge of computer languages! I guess ther would be many like me.....who like to fiddle around with software...to load and uninstall....search for more and more! Its really exciting, Isn't it?
Well I guess the saddest moment would be when you are away from the internet ....makes you feel so isolated ...as if imprisoned. This happened to me when I had to move in to a new work area where my own laptop could not be used......public library, friends, without Wi-fi. So you had to hang around with the firewalled machines without any administrator's privilege. Mails had to be checked online!
I decided I would find a way out.....and in came the Portable apps! I must really thank John Haller and co. for this great bunch of items .....there are more and more coming.
Portable Apps are Portable applications or programmes which do not have to be installed in your PC ....instead they work from your USB drive....hence portable! So you carry everything in your flash drive and can work in any PC by just plugging in your drive.
The first app which I was thrilled to use was the Portable Thunderbird (PTB) or your very own email client which stays with you in the flash drive and retrives all your mail when connected to the net. Thus your mail stays with you! the only small hitch is if your PC is firewalled then you cant access your mail. I tried a lot of ways and means to bypass the same but was unsuccessful. Guess if any of you can help then plz suggest!!
The next one was the Portable Firefox...... this is really wonderful coz you have your own browser with you .....with your bookmarks and saved passwords!! No need to use the grumpy IE in the public PC. You can have your own settings wherever you go.....this has made my job really easy and it is getting better and better.
The Portable VLC player is a universal player which can play all media files be it music or video without the need to bother whether your host PC has the software to play your music or video.That means you can carry your music with you without the fear of having a player in the host PC as it is there with you!! The important interpretation is you can take your Ipod with portable apps and listen to songs from the Desktop even if Itunes are not there!!( though I haven't checked it personally!!)
Then you have the Portable GAIM the chat client with which you can have sneak chat from the library or workplace where the original chat client might not be there in the host PC!!
Well these are only a few .....there is a whole lot of them at www.portableapps.com and there is also the Portable apps suite which is touted as the computer without the computer!
You have a Word processor as well and there is a buzz that there might be a portable OS in the making!!!
Well that sounds as if the whole concept of computers might change over to portable thumb drives which we can carry in our pocket! What do you think??
I will keep updating as I go over the other apps......meanwhile you all can have a look and post your comments!!!