Portable Apps update progress

After the attention that my Portable Applications collection got last weekend, I have decided to update that collection as well as my Essential Software Collection CD. The difference between the two is that the ESC CD is mostly software that you would want to install on a permanent basis. Of course, there is quite a bit of overlap, and I haven't decided how to manage it yet.

Actually, there are a lot of things I have decided on yet. I didn't really mean for this stuff to be ongoing projects. I just threw them together to meet my needs. Now I have to figure out how often I want to update them and how I select what becomes a part of the collections. The other problem is that they are huge files. It seems that using BitTorrent to distribute them works best. In addition to that, I'm going to try USENET. And if someone really wants a copy, I'll mail them the files on CD (for a small fee).

If all goes well, I should have some updated releases by the end of next week. Of course, I could already be done if I really wanted to. Instead, I have decided to take a more systematic approach. I have been building a database of what packages are in each collection. Then, to publish the set, I just click a button and it takes a snapshot of the current database and makes the collection complete. The system isn't perfect, but I'm still learning. I've been using XML and XSL to get the output like I want. So far it is working pretty good. Like I said, I hope to have a release finished by next weekend.

I've been Dugg

Over the weekend, my portable USB app collection made it to the frontpage at Digg.com. I'm happy to report that my webserver took the load with no problems. After getting about 10-20 visitors per day, last week I hit about 200 when someone posted the collection on USENET. Then, after the Digg.com posting, I received about 15,000 hits!

read more | digg story

Portable USB Apps Prove Popular

I guess someone downloaded my collection of USB apps and posted it on USENET. In the past 24 hours, I've had about 1,600 visits to my Portable USB Apps page. (Of course, it would have been nice if some of them would have clicked on my Google ads, but that's OK.) Anyway, I'm glad that people are finding the collection to be useful. Now I need to go back and tweak them some more. If you have any feedback on what I should include or change to my collection, just let me know.

While I'm at it, I'm also going to revamp my Essential Software Collection CD. The difference between that collection and the USB apps is that the ESC stuff is meant to be installed permanently. I tried to include all the software that a person would need if they bought a brand new PC. Again, if you have any suggestions, just let me know.

Windows-Tools on CD-ROM (or USB stick)

I found a link on Digg about Dirk Loss and his list of more than 600 free utilities that can be burned to a pocket CD-R or a usb stick. He has compiled a small list of instructions on how to create a bootable CD image to create a rescue disk complete with all these utils! This is really cool. I'm going to see if I can find some more useful stuff for my Portable USB collection at TheInfoBox.com. It also seems my collection is getting more popular. I try to keep the BitTorrent seed going all the time, but it would be nice if I could find other seeders or mirrors.

Dirk's Collection Original Digg story

IM Wars... Again

It seems the IM wars are heating up again. A couple years ago, it seemed every provider was fighting to gain access to the others network while keeping their own networked closed. Last week, Yahoo and MSN announced they would be opening up their networks to each other. Of course, they wanted everyone to be happy about it. For me, it is too late.

I have been using Trillian or GAIM for the past couple of years, and I'm not going back to their proprietary crap. Sure, I might be missing out on webcams, but who really uses that stuff? I just want to be able to send quick messages with whowever I want and not worry about which network I am using.

Of course, one new twist is the relatively new Google Talk. Although Google is proprietary, that are using the Jabber protocol. They have offered to hook up with any company that is willing. They also give instructions on how to connect to their network with non-Google clients. The Google Talk client is actually rather lacking. The only reason it gets my attention is the excellent VOIP chat. For now, not many people I know are willing to switch to Google Talk. I guess that Google Talk is just wait and see for the time being.

No matter what happens in the short term, I believe IM will become as interoperable as email. Right now, email systems are transparent to the users. The only thing that matters is the client that they see. Imagine that... Software vendors will have to compete based on their software. Once this happens, then I will be happy.

Google and Sun - Is that all?

Last week, an enormous buzz was generated when the press found out that Sun and Google were going to have a joint press conference. There was a lot of speculation before the announcement, and most people settled on the idea of a Google Office being announced. (Sun is behind the wonderfully successful OpenOffice.org.) What they actually announced was cross promotion of each others products. Google would promote Java and Sun would promote the Google toolbar.

What? Is that it? They did mention future collaboration on stuff, but nothing concrete. Needless to say, the press (and Google/Sun fans) were disappointed. It seemed like a letdown to almost everyone involved.

Afterwards, a lot of people asked does a Google Office even make sense. In my opinion, it does. Google's goal has been to make information more easily available to its customers. Google Search, Froogle, Maps, etc. all make it easier for you and me to get the information that we need. One problem that I run into personally is that I don't have the files I need when I need them. If Google had an office suite that could save to a Google server or even an online Office suite, I could access my data anywhwere.

Of course, the biggest problem would be how would Google make money from this. As we see in their other services, they like customizing ads to fit their customer. For example, in Gmail, you get an ad for hotels in Florida if you send an email about Disney World. They could do the same for your office documents and make money that way. But there is a problem with that idea. A lot of people raised privacy concerns over the GMail ads and would like do so about Google scanning your documents for the same purpose.

This is going to be a touchy subject. Of course, we don't know if Google is even interested in the idea. If they do release such a product, I would at least be interested in trying it out. It would be great to use the 2.5+ Gigs of storage in my Gmail account for storage of my documents. Not only would they be available anywhere, I'm betting Google does a better job of backing up than I do!

Login Scripts

This week I have been playing with login scripts a lot. Although it can take some effort to learn how to create a good login script, it is worth it. Login scripts make it easy to configure your users' workstations and push out new settings whenever you feel like it.

Here are some of the things I am implementing in the login scripts I have written:

1. Map drives based on group membership.
2. Map printers based on computer name.
3. Automatic Outlook profile creation.
4. Patch installation.
5. Registry changes.

There are some things that can be implemented with Group Policies that can also be in a login script. There are advantages to either method. In my last job, we had a huge Active Directory organization. Some of my control has was limited so it is a pain to get Group Policies implemented. I was able to use login scripts to accomplish much of the same thing.

Although I started programming the login scripts in regular old DOS batch files, I eventually switched to the more versatile VBScript. For examples of my login scripts, vist the main site at http://www.theinfobox.com.