When I decided to launch Independent Lady Magazine, I had to create numerous new e-mail addresses.  I also had to deal with multiple computers (not all of which are on the internet), and my Outlook was already a giant mess!  What to do?

WHAT IS A PORTABLE APPLICATION:

Basically, a program (often free), that you can run off an external harddrive without requiring installation. You can carry it with you on a key chain! You can have your web browser (and bookmarks!), your e-mail program (which for those who didn’t know can download all your hotmail/gmail/yahoo mail/etc… so you can browse it at your leisure even when you’re not on the internet.), your music player, your graphics editor, your Instant Messenger, FTP programs, PDF reader, and much more with you at all times!

The advantages are numerous!  First of all, there’s the obvious: Mobility!

If you are using a portable web browser, then you always have all your bookmarks with you!  You also have all your cookies with you, and all your cached passwords with you!  For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s when you log onto a website, and it remembers your password.  Ever try to log on to your blog from a friend’s computer, and forget your password?  Well… carrying your own browser with you solves that because that password goes with you!

If you bring your (portable) chat program with you, then you always have all your buddy lists with you, and you don’t need to go through the trouble of installing chat programs at friends houses… or you can chat where you can’t install programs at all (library, work, school, etc..)- just because you are now running the program off your keychain. I like to use Trillian (www.trillian.cc) - which is available in Portable format - because it lets me use AIM, Yahoo Messenger, MSN messenger, IRC, ICQ, and has plugins to use newer chats like Jabber.  It has many plugins that let you add functionality (gmail notification, yahoo mail notification, stock alerts, birthday alerts, and much more) - and it’s all free.  One thing I find handy is that it logs all my chats, so when someone says “I never said that!” you can paste it right back to them with a time/date stamp.  I’ve gone through and found e-mails and phone numbers many times as well by going through old chat-logs.

You can check your e-mails and read them at home.  You can write e-mails without internet, and then just mail it when you get on the internet.

Then of course, there is privacy! If you are reading a PDF file titled “20 lotions you can use to spice up your love life.pdf”, there’s a possibility that you do not want your co-workers, friends, or even fellow residents at your home to see that title in the “Documents” section of windows (or whatever they call it on a Mac).  Using a portable PDF reader takes care of that.  Your portable OpenOffice will open any MS Office document, and will not leave any traces in your office’s recent documents.  Oh yeah, it too is free!  Why pay $300 for MS Office when OpenOffice will do it all for free?

I’ve often had to log onto a server to grab a file that I stored earlier, but could not remember the login or filename.  Having my FTP software with me would certainly have helped.  Having the passwords and server names for all my FTP locations would have helped more.  With a portable FTP application, you can have it all with you at all times!

I started this article by describing a (very real) problem that I was having with the Independent Lady Magazine e-mails.  The solution was to use Portable Thunderbird.  Thunderbird  is Mozilla’s free e-mail program.  It is great for dealing with multiple e-mail accounts, and this version (portable) means that I can carry it with me on a USB key chain!  That’s right, no installation necessary.  That’s what a portable application is.  It’s the future!

An additional benefit of portable applications is that your computer will run faster if you use them!  How can that be? Every program (since Windows 95 introduced the registry) upon installation leaves a giant mess of dependencies in your computer.  There’s the program files, then there are links to the windows components that the program uses, then there’s all the registry entries.  Your computer has to process all of this stuff whenever you turn it on, and run it.  Even if you get rid of a program using the uninstall feature, it still leaves behind some junk in the registry.  This is why your computer runs faster when you 1st get it, or upon a clean format / reinstall of the operating system.  By using Portable Applications, you can have a clean registry, and faster computer!

Don’t have a USB Drive?  They’re pretty darn cheap now! On a Google search this morning for 8gb USB, I found this one http://www.directron.com/usb208gm.html for $29 (I think it’s a sale, most other places seem to have it at $40 cheapest)!  8 gigs of glorious storage for only $29 (plus shipping).  That’s twice what my Ipod Nano holds (an Ipod with Drive-Mode enabled can be used as an external harddrive as well).  You can carry your documents, your music, your pictures, and now of course, your applications.

Here are a few examples of programs you already use, and their portable equivalents

Your old program	Portable program
Acrobat Reader	Foxit Reader
FileZilla (FTP client)	FileZilla Portable
FileZilla Server	FileZilla Sever Portable
Nero / Roxio CD Burner	Deep Burner Portable
AIM / Yahoo / MSN / Google Messengers	Trillian Portable or GAIM
Winamp / Itunes  / Windows Media Player	VLC Media Player
Internet Explorer / Firefox	Portable Firefox
Photoshop	Portable Gimp
Outlook Express	Portable Thunderbird

There are many portable programs that I can’t list, and the list is always growing.  One really nice maker of these programs is PortableApps.com (they’re the one who made Portable Thunderbird).  They are legit, and have a list of many programs. That’s a good place to get started.  There’s always doing a Google search for “portable applications”. I found another list (though, this seems mostly for Windows programs) here: http://www.quate.net/newsnet/read.php?30.

A few last tips!

1. Having all those documents (your e-mail, spreadsheets, contracts, instant messages, chats, photos, bookmarks, ftp logins, etc) can be convenient.  There is the risk though of having “a friend” try to get access to your keychain while you’re not looking… or you may be concerned about losing it, and the information falling into the wrong hands.  For that, I recommend encrypting your USB drive.  There are many solutions. Here’s a free one that works well, TrueCrypt.   Feel free to research other solutions as well if you like, my word is certainly not the final say on how to do everything.
2. Having the information with you is valuable, but who hasn’t lost their keys before?  Harddrives can crash, computers can be stolen, and shit happens! You should make a ritual of backing up your USB drive (applications and all) onto your personal computer.  There are many ways to encrypt the backup so no one can get into that.
3. You don’t have to encrypt your drive or backup files.  If you do, however, make sure to use a pssword that won’t be easy to guess (don’t use your birthday or pet’s name), but make sure it’s not one you will forget!  Leave yourself a written reminder somewhere.

I hope you find this information useful, and start using portable applications today!

If there are any portable applications you like, feel free to share them with others by leaving a comment

Now I’m adding a forum, I’ve made the Log-in be AJAX (so you don’t need to go to a separate page), added social bookmarking, a functional contact form, an article submission form, and much more! Then of course, there’s writing content!    Check out my new article on the top 20 ways to get fired from your job!

If your company is getting bought out, and you get a bonus for staying, and then the hardest decision is “How do I get fired, so I can take a 1 year (or 2) paid vacation?” I thought I’d write a quick list of the top 20 things you can do to get fired.
20)Show up to work in your underwear. If confronted, say “I thought it was casual Friday!”
19)Use the TPS reports to gut fish (Thank you “Office Space” one of this editor’s favorite movies)
18)Take the Boss’s parking space (every day).
17)Show up late, leave early.
16)Don’t bathe (This one takes a little more commitment than the rest), don’t shower, don’t use perfume/cologne/deodorant.
15)Bring a video game console and play it at your desk. Invite other employees to join you. Start an office betting team. If you want to make it really interesting, make the game “Dance Dance Revolution”
14)Practice voodoo rituals at your desk (i.e. slaughter a goat, shout out strange incantations, come in with face-paint, and beads glued to your face). You can always claim religious discrimination and sue for additional funds after that one.
13)Show up for work drunk. Have a flask with you at all times, use it after looking both ways to make sure it’s safe (doesn’t matter if it is or not). If you’re worried about a DUI, remember: you don’t need to start drinking until you’ve parked your car. You can stop drinking 2-3 hours before it’s time to go. Keep the flask in the trunk, so you don’t violate any open-container laws.
12)Smoke weed in the office (this one may get other employees in trouble too, so be careful).
11)Sell company secrets to the competition… out loud, during business hours, from the company phone.
10)Start leaving confection sugar (the white powdery stuff) in all your outgoing mail from the company. Send lots of mail.
9)Since you’re preparing for a long vacation anyways, get rid of your apartment, and start sleeping at the office. Caution: this may get you another promotion.
8)Bring pets or kids to the office with you. Claim you couldn’t find a sitter. If you’re really cruel, give them laxatives. Don’t have pets or kids? Borrow them.
7)A survey by the ePolicy Institute, the American Management Association and U.S. News & World Report found that 35 percent of companies have disciplined or terminated employees for visiting restricted or unauthorized Web sites. What better place than work to surf for porn, order pharmacy supplies, or gamble?
6)Call 1-900 numbers from work. Use the boss’s phone if possible.
5)Job hunt from work. Forget your resume on the copier/fax. Take phone interviews at your desk.
4)Throw after-hours raves at the office. Charge admission.
3)Take on really important project. Do not take meal breaks, have food delivered to your desk. Do not take bathroom breaks…go at your desk. Bring nose plugs, just in case. You can offer nose-plugs to other employees, “but this project is really important, so I can’t leave my desk!”
2)Be other excessively hostile or excessively friendly towards others. Everybody loves physical contact!
1)Sleep with the boss’s significant other- post pictures on the company website.

This is one independent lady all right. She travels the world on exotic photoshoots, parties with TommyLee, fights in a very cut-throat industry, and makes it home to take care of her little one. This is Natalie Nicole, and she kicks ass… and has a bunch of tattoos / piercings

Blah blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah blah blah

Blah blah blah blah blah

Blah blah blah blah blah

Blah blah blah blah blah

Blah blah blah blah blah

Blah blah blah blah blah

.

Our featured Singer, Angela Rossi - MeetAngelaRossi.com had put up an ad on craigslist.org looking for contributors. She stated that this would not be paid, and yet, we’ve got a flood of people wanting to write for us, wanting to help us with search engines, and just letting us know that they already love our site. How cool is that? After just 1 day! That’s the beauty about creativity. Those who love it, truly love it. I know I’ve certainly donated my time (like so) to create images, websites, catalogs, or other things for causes I liked. If nothing else, it was an excuse to practice my craft.

If you have something to offer the world, let us know! We can feature your art, your writing, your music, your programming, your investment tips, your crappy day, your awesome day, your recipe for jello fluff, or your recipe for cucumber+battery acid hair dye. Whatever you want to write about, real or not, this is a safe haven to be yourself.

Please! Keep coming! We love this! Stories, personal experiences, reviews, ideas, and just the biographies on some of these people… these are all interesting and exciting! We like interesting people.

I guess it’s true after all…. that thing they say:

If you build it, they will come!

Ori “The Editor”

p.s. I’ll write my little bio so you know who I am… but right now I’m more concerned about getting the site up.