Flash Drive Alternatives for Portable Applications

Flash drives are the most popular media for hosting portable applications because they are small, portable, and usable by most PCs. The negative part is you need to remember to bring it with you and not run it through the washing machine.

Shared server drives work great as central source for portable applications but do not provide easy access when outside of the network.

CDs are best used as a backup device for portable applications because many portable applications cannot be used directly from a CD because they require write access to their folder.

Online Storage is used for backups of portable application. They are accessible from any PC with Internet access but require you to download the file to execute them. Many free sites suffer from file size limits, slow connections, and trouble maintaining backups from multiple sources.

Replication of folders between PCs provides copies of the files on all your PCs. Some include online access to your files as well. Servers without the replication software can map to network PCs with the replicated data. On negative side, software is installed on each PC that you want an up to date copy of the files.

Summary

I have tried Flash Drives, CDs, Online storage online, and shared drives. Replication with online backup offers me the best of all worlds. Flash drive is still the best solution for PCs without internet access.

Software Suggestion

DropBox is a file replication provider with online backup access for use on Windows, Linux, Mac OS, and Mobile Devices. The online backup provides 30 days backup of all file changes. The free version has 2 GB storage with limit no limit on the number of PCs being replicated. Registration requires an e-mail address, which become your account id.

Installation is easy with no noticeable performance impact. You can put your DropBox folder on any drive including a Flash Drive. If you want to stop it or start it up manually, you can when you want 100% of your CPU and Internet connection dedicated to something else. Now when I update or add a new portable application to this dedicated folder it is automatically copied to my other PCs when I logon to them. Now

There are other alternatives to DropBox but it is the first one I decided to try and have been happy with it.

Anarchy Online

Anarchy Online is a free online multi player RPG game that takes place in the future on a distance planet. This futuristic world is a combination of old technology such as swords to futuristic flying vehicles. Game play revolves around improving your character by leveling, adding implants, gaining abilities, equipment, and nano (magic) skills.

NetBooks – The New Affordable Laptop

Recently, I started noticing the netbooks at a local Best Buy. They are small notebooks running on low power processors with small screens. What got my attention was how cheap they were starting at $300. You can argue you can get notebook for only for few hundred more but why spend the extra money. For the price of a an extended 3 year warranty on a $600 laptop you can buy a net book.  Think about it, some cell phones cost $300.

Maximum PC added to Google Books

Maximum PC is a monthly magazine for PC enthusiast.  It contains articles on building PC’s, installing and using various operating systems, tools to improve or fix your PC, news, reviews, and even has PC game reviews. Recently, all issues have been added to Googles Book Search.

Currently, I do not  subscribe to he magazine instead I visit my local library every quarter or so and I will check out a bunch issues for reading marathon. Besides saving a little money, this lets me look at the magazine with fresh eyes taking time to notice ads and editorials which on magazine subscriptions I have a habit of skimming over.

The February 209 issue has some interesting articles and ads. The article Give Windows a Clean Start addresses the need to reinstall Windows by using a new hard drive and  using the old one for a backup. I wished I thought of this a few years ago when I had to reinstall Windows. This article covers all the basis and references some free software to help in the rebuild.

The ads in this issue were also interesting.

• Roboform is suppose to be free application that is used to remember all your user ids and passwords.
• APC Battery backup that automatically power downs idle peripherals. Might be money well spent.
• PC Pitstop free performance and stability scans. I used to use this site to check my internet speed and fix my settings in my NIC card so it would perform as expected.

PC Games That Won’t Die

Extreme Tech’s article 5 Games that Won’t Die!, identifies five PC games (Diablo II, MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries, People’s General, StarCraft, & Fallout) that I never played. At the time of their release, I did think about buying some of them, but instead used my limited funds to buy other games.

People’s General is free, so I downloaded it with plans of playing sometime. Back when it was originally released, I was playing Panzer General II, which I purchased through an SSI 4 game combo pack. Panzer General II is another one of the games that will not die. A very active online community is developing enhancements and new campaigns.

This got me wanting to find other PC games. Using Stumbleupon, I started searching. After a couple of hits, I found a very interesting web page that lists free games for windows XP. This long list of free games is very well thought out. Many of them could be categorized as a PC Game That Won’t Die.

Looks like I will be busy downloading some more.

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King-War Free Multiplayer Online Strategy

I recently joined King-War, a free multiplayer online strategy game. It is a web based game with an optional client download. In this game you run a kingdom as the King and Queen on a fantasy land dominated by five races: Human, Undead, Elven, Beast and Monster. Kingdoms are improved  by upgrading technologies, building structures, and creating armies. To acquire more territories and resources you fight , by hunting, adventuring, and attacking your neighbors.

When starting the game it is best to perform fresh-player task which rewards you with extra with gold and other resources. Each task takes time to complete. While a task is completing, you can spend time investigating other parts of the game and reviewing the gaming forum for tips.

I am still new to the game but it seems to be a fun casual strategy game. My first act in starting the game was going hunting with all my troops which turned out to be disaster. So I now I am spending some time completing the fresh-start task and learning the game.  My characters name is JungleGeorge so if you sign up you welcome to mentioned it on your sign up web page.

Screen Recorders

Recently I started looking into creating screen video recording on my PC. The purpose is to create demos, tutorials, and show problems to software vendor. The tool needs to be free, record full or partial screens, add documentation, and support for audio.

Searching the internet turned many such tools that meet these requirement requirements. So far only, I have only used CamStudio. It is open source and recommended by others. As time permits I will look into trying the others. For now CamStudio has meet my needs of being able to record my screen.

Free Screen Recorders

CamStudio Open Source (SourceForge.net) updated April 6, 2005
Beta Version updated  September 04, 2007

AutoScreenRecorder 3 Free version records screen activities into video files. Free for both personnel and commercial use.  It has no expiration date and can be distributed free of charge. The home site provides step-by-step guides to help in using the tool.

Free Screen Recorder v2.9 from NBXSoft updated August 04, 2007 (review)

oRipa Screen Recorder 1.2.2 from EjoyStudio updated November 08, 2006 (review)

Freez Screen Video Capture v1.2 from Small Video Soft

Wink Tutorial and Presentation creation software

Jing a project set up by TechSmith Corporation. Save online or as a file type is swf  on your PC.
Note: The exclusive use of the file type swf may limit its use.

Screen Toaster Free Online Screen Recorder.  Options for recording full desktop, partial desktop, audio and webcam.

Screen-o-matic a free online to record your screen

Conclusion

If you have any suggestions of views on these screen recorders, please respond in this blogs comments.

Puppy Linux

Puppy Linux by Barry Kauler (wikipedia) is a small Linux distro that is designed to be started from a LiveCD and run entirely in memory. It’s low resource requirements makes it runnable on both old and new hardware.  Many applications are available for Puppy Linux making it very customizable. Fans of Puppy Linux have published their own LiveCD setups (Puplets). With its latest release 4, Puppy Linux is much easier to install on a hard drive. Puppy Linux has two official websites http://www.puppylinux.com/ and http://www.puppylinux.org/.

Installing

Barry Kauler’s .COM site provides instructions for running its OS from an CD, USB Drive, and hard drive.

Adding Applications (Packages)

• Click Desktop Icon Install. Run PETget Package Manager. Select from hundreds of applications to install.
• Many packages are announces in the forum Topic Additional Software (PUPs, n’ stuff)
• DokuPuppy (wiki) is an active site the provides links to many additional programs fro Puppy Linux.
• Puppy Linux CA is another download site with packages available for download.

Conclusion

Puppy Linux maybe a small OS but it is packed with power. Finding some packages and customizing this OS maybe be challenging. However that can be said for any Linux distro. Many users published their own derivatives also known as Puplets. So if the base install is to thin for your wants, take a look at this sites of available derivatives (forum, oldwiki).

Oblivion – POOP v2 Mod Collection

The Popehat Oblivion Omods Project

(POOP) is a collection over 80 mods and tools used to enhance the Oblivion PC game. The POOP team did not create them; instead, they got permission from their creators to include them in this collection. Many of the mods were repackaged as OMOD files to make installation much easier. The installation instructions are very thorough with only a few unclear points.

It is mentioned that this collection was created for high-end machines. Do not worry, if you do not have a high-end PC, the instructions include advice on picking settings and mods that are best for your PC specifications. Besides, if a mod is causing more performance issues than it is worth, just remove it. Many of these mods work very well on medium to low-end PC’s

I rate my PC medium when it comes for performance. After installing most of the MODS, my game FPS was between 15 to 25, which is ok, but I will be doing some tweaking to improve it. Some mods I did not include were the optional mods , changing leveling, AEVWD, and DarNified UI. I just did not like the blocky gold font I got with “DarNified UI”, so I used “MajorJims_UI” instead.

Advice: After you finish initial install of Oblivion with its patches, start it using its desktop Icon or its start menu line. This will create the OBLIVION.INI with much more usable values. I used OBMM start it the first time and it caused me some obvious performance issues. So I deleted the OBLIVION.INI file and recreated executing the Oblivion icon.

In case you are curious here are my PC specifications

Processor: Intel 2.8 GHZ with HyperThreading
Memory: 2.5 GB of RAM =  (2 * 1GB) + (2 * 256MB)
Video: BFG NVIDIA GeForce 6200 OC 256MB AGP
Audio Card: Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS (WDM)
Monitor: CRT 19 inch Viewsonic Professional Series

Since the announcement of POOP v2, I have been kind of a stalker. Here is a list of posts that discuss this fabulous collection.

• The Popehat Oblivion Omods Project – Blog dedicated to the POOP project
• Quarter To Three Forum
  • Getting ready to POOP again…[Oblivion Mods] (2008-08-16)
  • [Oblivion] I’d Like You To Play With My POOP (2008-06-10)- Torrent referenced does not exist anymore
• Bethesda Game Studios Forums
  • Popehat’s Oblivion Omod Project, Attention all modders. (2008-06-20)
• Popehat -
  • Building A Better Oblivion (2008-06-09)
  • Popehat Oblivion Omods Project (POOP): POOP dies on Monday (2008-05-09), Page#7 Bash Instructions
• Octopus Overlords
  • OBLIVION – Who’s playing? POOP v.2 is a good time to start! (2008-08-02) – includes some screen shots
• Gaming Trend
  • [Oblivion] I’d Like To Invite You To Play With POOP (2008-06-09)

Update 03/15/09

Bit Turrent File can be downloaded here