Extremely useful things on the net

[Ben]

The most useful thing I've found on the internet this week is Portable Apps (http://portableapps.com/) - it lets you run Firefox and Thunderbird from a usb pen drive, keeping all your prefences, history, extensions etc as you move from computer to computer - extremely useful as recently I have been going from Madrid to the in-laws in the Sierra to the UK rather a lot and don't have my own laptop - but there is a pc in each of these places, I plug in the pen drive and off I go - wonderful!

So, what's the most useful thing you have discovered recently on the internet (website or otherwise)?

[Marbella]

I recently found this (https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=wise&passive=true&nui=1&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fspreadsheets.google.com%2Fcc c%3Fnew) by those clever folks at Google. Not very exciting I know but really useful.

[Alan]

Ben, you can install Linux on a pen-drive and whenever you turn on a computer, it will be YOUR computer. http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/ is an example, but there are many others.

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/dsl-1rc1c.jpg

[Brian]

The most useful thing I've found on the internet this week is Portable Apps (http://portableapps.com/) - it lets you run Firefox and Thunderbird from a usb pen drive, keeping all your prefences, history, extensions etc as you move from computer to computer - extremely useful as recently I have been going from Madrid to the in-laws in the Sierra to the UK rather a lot and don't have my own laptop - but there is a pc in each of these places, I plug in the pen drive and off I go - wonderful!

So, what's the most useful thing you have discovered recently on the internet (website or otherwise)?

Yeah, Portable Apps are awesome. I use them a lot, becuase I am at loads of computers each week, and I don't want to leave my personal information on a client's browser cache if I need to access my e-mail or whatever.

I've been wanting to play with their new Apache/MySQL/PHPmyadmin on a USB drive, or their "Mac-on-a-stick" app that runs MAC's OS7 on a thumb drive.

[guapo]

started playing about with the VMware Player (http://www.vmware.com/products/player/) this week. A free download that alllows you to run virtual machines on a PC/Mac. Once you have the player installled you can download Virtual appliances (http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/directory/).

So for example, if you want to play around with Ubuntu, but don't want the hassle of installing it, messing around with dual-booting, etc., download the pre-built Ubuntu appliance and run it as a separate virtual machine on your existing machine. Very cool.

[Alan]

This is very good actually - it runs at near-native speeds. And you can do it in reverse too - Windows on top of Ubuntu.

[Ben]

just what I was after, a bit of super geekyness! Still haven't tried Linux, but the virtualisation stuff looks like an easy way to start. Any more killer internet/app discoveries out there?

[Alan]

I like Google Trends (http://www.google.com/trends ). It lets you see how many searches are being done on a particular word/phrase and compare it against others. In the pic below, orange is Windows XP, Red is OS X and blue is Ubuntu :)

http://www.google.com/trends/viz?q=ubuntu,+os+X,+windows+xp&date=all&geo=all&graph=weekly_img&sa=N

[guapo]

well if you like geeky stuff how about something to encrypt those USB pen drives in case you ever lose one?

Check out TrueCrypt (http://www.truecrypt.org/). It is open source and can be used to encrypt any drive including a USB key. When you encrypt a USB key you leave sufficient space to store the program executable unencrypted. That way you can access the encrypted stuff without having to install anything on the host computer.

For the seriously paranoid you can even create a hidden encrypted drive within the encrypted drive.

[gary]

The most useful thing I've found on the internet this week is Portable Apps (http://portableapps.com/) - it lets you run Firefox and Thunderbird from a usb pen drive, keeping all your prefences, history, extensions etc as you move from computer to computer - extremely useful as recently I have been going from Madrid to the in-laws in the Sierra to the UK rather a lot and don't have my own laptop - but there is a pc in each of these places, I plug in the pen drive and off I go - wonderful!

So, what's the most useful thing you have discovered recently on the internet (website or otherwise)?
My stuff is really banal - now that the kids are oler and one is gone and wifey is busy with her beauty therapy business and Im rarely home for long we have a virtual shopping list on http://www.writeboard.com then whoever gets time to go to do the shopping can log in via mobile phone and has the list there....

also http://www.writely.com - online word processing,very useful if you can only catch half an our now and then at a variety of different machines...

Both are great for collaboration - writeboard keeps previous versions and marks different contributors in different colours

Google Bought Wrtitely and now have spreadsheets online - only powerpoint to go then?

[Alan]

I have to say, I don't completely trust having my documents stored on Google's servers like that.

[gary]

I have to say, I don't completely trust having my documents stored on Google's servers like that.

fair point - you can download your creations as word or open office to a flash drive at any time

[Ben]

I like Writely a lot too, very nice. Another cool thing is netvibes (http://www.netvibes.com/) as a personalised homepage - really customisable and available wherever you are!

[gary]

I like Writely a lot too, very nice. Another cool thing is netvibes (http://www.netvibes.com/) as a personalised homepage - really customisable and available wherever you are!

protopage is excellent too as a personal portal

http://www.protopage.com/gtcconsultancy