I am not in shape!

I hate netflix!!!!  I don't really but I just got a movie in tonight called, Super Size Me.  This was a documentary about fast food and its health issues.  A guy embarks on a experiment on himself to eat 3 meals a day of nothing but McDonalds menu and get no exercise and limit his walking to 5000 steps a day.  I want go into it a whole lot but needless to say I decided to take a look at what I eat on a daily basis now using Google Docs and spreadsheets.  today, Tuesday alone I had 5 cokes, only two .5 liters of bottled water.  2 cups of coffee and the food was bad too.  I decided my intake of cokes was way to high, if I replace cokes with water I would be much better off.  I am allowing one cup of coffee, my goal no fast food except once a week but smaller portions when I do go, kiddie coke, single cheeseburger, no fries, and a kiddie parfait.  I am going to work really hard this next semester and hopefully it will stick because I really want to loose some weight and get back to a healthy BMI again.

Damn you McDonalds!

Stress Relief

OK, so the past week of school as been hell. Basically it was the week before finals, all assignments were due and projects had to be turned in. I finished everything, my group term project, my lab report, my group term paper, and several other assignments I would rather forget about. I turned in everything but my lab project. All of my data stored on my 6 GB thumb drive. The night I go to print off my lab report 60 pages of A work, my thumb drive quits. Needless to say I lost everything, I tried every trick that I know to extract data off such as using dd, ddrescue, and ddrhelp on the drive in Linux, nothing. I then crack open the drive to reveal a Compact Flash connector with a micro drive (i.e moving parts). I plugged the drive directly into a Compact Flash reader to see if it would work, nothing. This confirmed for me that all was lost.

I talked to my professor, I worked out an arrangement that I thought and he thought was fair. After the stress of this week I am not ready for finals.

Oh but on a happier note I got a job for after I graduate!!

Movies and choices

Over the next last few weeks I have watched a number of movies that made me think about my life and what has been going down.  The movies that made me think about my life were 'Click' and 'Stranger than Fiction'.  I stongly suggest watching both of them in my opinion are good movies and are worth watching.  They made me think compared to what the characters were going through and how I can realate it to my own life.  It was a pretty amazing look.  I shed a tear or two.

--
Heath Brown

NetFlix...I love you

Alright, I have joined millions of people and started on an incredible journey of right now 122 movies. I had no idea there were so many movies that I had never seen before. My first three movies American History X, Prison Break Season 1: disc 2 and disc3. First off I am amazed at how cool it is and easy it is to get all the movies I want at an interval that is at my control. No more late fees and no more having to take a movie back to the local video store. I don't have to wait for movies I want to see at the video store all I have to do is put it on the list. Heck if something isn't on DVD yet I just put it on the list and and wait. I freaking love NetFlix. Nuff said.

Running

Running has been part of my life for some time.  IN high school I was a XC (cross country) runner for 2 years, but the love of running was instilled much earlier.  After about 2 years of not running in a focused manner I have come back with a vengence.  I have set goals and have tried to reach those goals.  IN high school I could run a 18:15-18:30 5k pretty good, sub 18:00 was hard to come by but I did do it once.  Now getting back to running I was not expecting instanst sub 18:00 on a 5k but I was expecting to at least get sub 24:00 (8:00 min. a mile).  I have been running now back at school for around 3 weeks consistently running 2 to 4 miles a day.  My first attempt back on the 5k running in the ALS run at Murray State University with a time of 22:03 very respectable my first mile was 7:20, second mile consistent with a 14:40, and of course 22:03 for the last mile.  This was a pretty consistent time on all three miles.  Part of running is consistent times on miles.  I was very happy with the time of the race for a first race back it was pretty good for me especially after being out of running for about 2 years.

The next race for me was Homecoming run 5k, this race was much stronger for me.  20:19 with a place finish of 6th overall and 2nd in age group.  Hell, placement doesn't matter but to be up there felt pretty good.  The reason I was so happy was because I hit my goal of under 22:03.  Like last time I had consistent mileage times which is proven that helps you hit the goals.  In my next race whenever that will be I hope to continue improving to under 20:19.   If I can I want to find a longer distance run possibly a 7k.  I hope to find another 5k in the area to get under the 20:19.

Any suggestions for a 7k or 5k run in the area of Murray or western KY?

I am on a roll

Ok, school is going way to fast and I need a slow down.  All my classes are converging on a serious projects and that is killing me.  To many 8-10 page papers due at the end of the semester to many lab reports due at a certain time.  To many group projects due at the end as well.  This is my only semester I have felt overwhelmed within the first couple of months of school.  I am sure I can make it through but classes have ot slow down dramatically for this to be close to healthy.

NOw I must study for my three test while working on my 3-5 page paper  due on Wed. and then on Wed begin research on my speech for next week.  Geez, Fall Break can't come soon enough.

--
Heath Brown

School has begun

School is in the air and once again I am walking the walkways of Murray State University.  Being a senior feels good and knowing that I will finally graduate in May makes this year look promising.  I am taking some great courses and one not so good course called COM 161, maybe you know it Public Speaking.  A much needed evil, however, not what I wanted to be taking my Senior year.  All my other classes are within my major and are very exciting.  The professors are very good this time, finally a higher level of thinking instead of a lower class of professor.  the courses that I am taking now allow me to do quite a bit of investigation and exploring of the labs. 

I have met several people insterested in the CCNA and will be studying for it this time and hopefully will have it taken by Dec.  Hopefully, classes and softball will go well.

One thing though about this year is all the guys I worked with who were old school, are gone.  I walked in on the first day and was depressed from not seeing all the old faces.  The younger guys are great don't get me wrong but there is nothing like sitting down and having some of the discussions about life, computers, and technology that we had back in the day.  The hay day of the place I work is over and that is a sad fact.  No longer can I learn from the people around me, I must venture out into new worlds.  Hell, that was pretty deep.

Moving, Working, Moving

Alright today at work, which by the way has been busy as hell.  Number one we just moved into a new building with a brand new infrastructure, that means from the ground up all new equipment.  A total gig backplane.  Now we have a DS3 connection which runs at 45 Mbps which is flipping fast.  we have around about 15M for data, 10 M Vpn, and the rest for voice and other resources.

We have a brand new phone system which is VoIP and TDM phones.  The biggest introduction however has been the two Pix firewalls.  Although I am not a Cisco guru or anything nor have I ever worked on a Cisco Pix firewall before but I did get a pretty good look at the config files that were used and it seems pretty easy as far as commands.

I couldn't believe the time it took to put all the equipment in the server room.  patching things down, racking servers, plugging switches in and making sure they were in the right VLANs, Looking at the DMZ, hooking up Fiber Cons on the switch, router, and firewall interfaces.  It was a interns dream to be apart of one of the companines biggest moves.

And although it went smoothely there were still some problems that arose as far as routes in the firewall and router that weren't quite right.  VPN tunnels not being set up.  Weird things like a VoIP phone being plugged into two wall jacks causing a loop whne patched in and causing the phone system to crash.  

All in all it was one hell of a weekend.  I finally go to spend a whole 24 hour shift moving and configuring it was cool to be needed by the other tech guys for questions.  It was a great feeling being the only guy that had worked with linux and being able to work (while being monitored very closley) on the IDS.

I had one hell of a weekend at work and this week we will be getting back to normal.

Update

I have been trying to update my blog on more of a regular basis but alas it is hard to do when you are always doing something.  So today on a nice Saturday afternoon and after I have done my duty of cleaning out my truck, weed eating the grass, and swam for a small portion of the day its time to sit back and enjoy the blogging.

As I sit here and enjoy a Rolling Rock, it occurs to me that most of my IT friends at this point are over in KC or thinking about KC.  Either that or they have jobs in pretty nice places.  I think about this because I am still an Intern with one more year of school left and everyone i have talked to about Network Administration or System Administration or Security positions have said it takes a while.  Well, I want to be a Network Administrator or Security Administrator whenever I get done with school.  Here is my brief roadmap to make this happen. 

1. Take Security+ test (since this is a Comptia test it will stay with me and it is basically just knowledge from a book not real world experience necessary.
2. Take CCNA while in college and use the lab as my study arena.
3. Begin taking microsoft certifications because most places like to have MCSA and MCSE in the house
4. After taking Sec+, work on other certifications like Lin+, Net+ just to have them.

So there is what I need to achieve in order to get to what i want to be and oh yeah i have to be able to give detailed answers on every technology they ask about without blinking an eye.  I hope to be a Badass at networks and security.  Until then I am a Badass in training. 

Elizabethtown sadness

Wake up in the morning around 11:30 because I had worked the night before moving 70 people into a new building when you hear a blood curdiling scream from next door.  This is how Saturday rolled me out of bed my neighbor screaming.  I am pretty close to the neighbor and their family when my cousin finally told me what was going on I knew that the rest of the week was going to be rough for them.

The news that made the neighbor scream was her step son had killed himself.  What a way to start your Saturday.  All this weekend its been nothing but trying to to just see what they need and kinda stay out of the way and let the family come in and begin to mend and talk about the life that was lost.

Yeah its a little deep but its what went down this weekend.  Its hard to know what to do for a family in that situation.  I have alot of empathy for them.

One Phone Call

Today I have discovered that one phone call can change the entire weekend and possibly your entire life.  As we were having dinner (my neighbors, my cousin, nad her husband) and enjoying some beer and interesting conversation a phone call came in on my cousin's husband's cell phone.  You know a phone call is not a good one when he says, "How bad is it?", Where are they taking her?, do you need anything?.  Those are not the question of a positive phone call.  When the phone went down we discovered that his grandmother had blood on the brain and that they were going to operate tomorrow.  Of course he loaded up in the truck and went home.  It is amazing one phone call.  I fail to mention that loading up the truck meant the kids and luggage and making several phone calls to family members and making arrangements for the kids with the other grandparents.  Needless to say its a hard pill to swallow.

The neighbors this morning at around 3 AM got a disturbing call from a boys mother who was in a four wheeler accident.  The kid was only 15 or 16 years old and he wrecked and in intensive care.  This one phone call canceled all plans and made the daughter who was the boys friend devastated.  Even worse was when another phone call came to say they were pulling the plug because he was brain dead.  The girl devastated went to the memorial ceremony tonight and will probably never be the same.  i fail to mention the tears but also the girl lost another friend a few years ago and that is a pretty tough pill to swollow when your 16.

Last Septmember I got on of those type of calls.  My grandpa was in the hospital for blood on the brain and it was a stroke I remember dropping everything and rushing to his side.  Scared to death it would be the last time.  I hate those phone calls when you know its serious.  Have you ever had a phone call you knew just wasn't going to be good?

Life comes fast.  Realization of the night.

Blurry Weekends

So I am officially 21 thats right 21, and lets just say that the first weekend was a littler blurry.  I went to my first liquor store and bought a 12 pack of Amberbock (great beer), Killian's irish Red, and makers Mark.  Later on some guys from work came over to the house and we played some poker.  Here is where begins to get a bit blurry.  By the time they all came over and we got started playing i had alreayd had 3 beers this was 7:00 pm then around 8:00 i had 5 my head was a little dizzy.  As i moved on i decided to try Makers Mark this was a bad choice.  Needless to say I don't remember a whole lot after I had the whiskey I went back to beer another two I think.  I think I said some stuff and did some wiered crap but the typical thing when your are drunk.  One problem i had to be at work at 11:00 and then I had to stay till around about 3:00 in the morning.  i got sick that night and was puking all night and then that next moring.  It was a struggle to get up but i did and that was a mistake as well. 

moral of story don't get platered when your a weak drunk.

Downer

Ok, so I am in Elizabethtown now and working at my summer job again.  I love the people, i love the atmosphere, but there is one issues that will never escape me.  Its called limited permissions and here is my case.  I have been at the company for 3 summers now and have proven myself every year.  Yet, it seems that every year I return I have fewere and fewer persmissions to work with.  I do realize i am part time, I am just an intern, and everytime I return there are new bosses with new policies and new ways of doing things.  I get that, I don't get not giving someone enough permission enough rights to do his or her job. 

Think about this today someone sent a work order to see who had a particular file open on the server because they needed to some work on it and it was locked.  This is a very simple task of connecting to the file and print server's compmgmt.msc console and going to System Tools>Shared folders> Open Files, this is a very easy task.  There is one problem though you have to have pretty substantial rights to access this, however,  I know you can give a group rights to certain objects and not allow access to others.  This would be nice.  Instead of putting in red tap everywhere and making work orders wait in the Database for several days until the guy with the rights comes in and you can talk to him.  Its stupid why create this black hole, I am not asking for the rights to grant permissions to add Security Groups in AD or change the Global policy.  I just want enough rights to do my job, to handle tickets, hell to learn.  I think is a saying about putting a goldfish in a small tank, it says he won't grow he might even shrink, if you put the goldfish into a large tank he'll grow to be really big.  I think this is kinda what is going on, I mean think about it I am in a small permission set and it feels like my brain just turns itself off cause I know I can not do anything about certain tickets so I don't even  attempt to troubleshoot (half the time I don't have the rights to troubleshoot properly). 

I just think that before glorified Senior Admins, Top Mangement, decide to restrict Junior admins, technicians, they should think about how much time they are wasting by throwing in so much red tape.  I know it is a requirement but think it through, be smarter.  Eventurally workers will like the fact that you care.

Davinci Code Attacked

Alright, I am a Christian, I like to read and I like to read Dan Brown books.  To some people apparently this is a sin.  I was watching a show tonight that was just one of those that jumped out while I was doing a flip through on the channels and I saw some theologians talking about the DaVincie code being a total disgrace, blah, blah, blah.  They were basically saying the the Davinci Code portrays Jesus and Christianity into a shame and all these other allocations.  Another point they brought up was the fact that it makes Leonardo Davinic look bad.

Ok, so I am a Christian, I also understand the fact that a book is a book.  Dan Brown is a author, and he has the write to write about anything he wants ( I think that is the first amendment, this is also how I can write about the stuff that he writes about) I am also aware that the reason that people can worship whatever they want and do what ever they want is based on the same thing.  And yes they can say the stuff they are saying about hte DaVinci Code; however, seriously though wtf mate, get off of the book its fiction for the love of pete.  I mean come on.  So what if he makes up all kids of crap and puts into the most kick ass plot ever.  DaVinci Code is what made me start reading again.  Why not read something that captivates the mind??  The DaVinci Code didn't make me start not believing in God or the way I was taught about Jesus or from what I have read about in the Bible.  It didn't make me doubt the Church either.  Its a book, and I for one am going to see the movie which I think will kick butt, just like I saw Passion of the Christ.  I didn't really hear any complaints oh wait the Jewish community did about that too.  But hey you can say what you want I just wanted to rant about the fact that the DaVinci Code is a fiction book full of speculation, any reader can determine this, I mean come on.

I hope that if people thought DaVinci Code was bad that they will really be pissed off about Angels and Demons, which I thought the book was even better than the DaVinci Code.  I really hope that this gets made into a movie as well.

Stress

Yes, school is ending which I love.  Don't get me wrong I love college, I like the people and the free atomosphere, but there is something called FINALS in college.  I am not going to lie these are some though tests, but then there is one thing every college student hates with a passions the FINAL PROJECT.  If you ever have a professor talk about a final project just leave the class, don't bother sticking around.  If you leave you have a chance of living a longer life in the end.  If you don't leave you will be like me in a constant state of stress about the project and what must be done.  The pain of the Final Project is just the amount of work to be put into it.  One of my professors gave us our project 1 week before class was over.  The project is due next week.  WTF, how the hell can you do that to people.  Either don't give the final or something, to me its ridiculous.  I hate final projects.  I can't wait to get the work over with.

School is almost over!!

So here is what is happening right now.  I am about to pull all my hair out of my head and then take duct tape and rip all the hairs from my gouch and my crack out.  Yeah that is how bad school is going.  Maybe it is not exactly that bad but I am so ready to get out for the summer, I need a break!!! I really can't wait for the summer because I am going back to Etown once again this time really is my last ride up there though.  After this summer I will graduate from MurrayState and be in the REAL WORLD.  A scary thought for me but one that is very much embraced.  As far as everything else goes I have been on a podcast listening tangent over the last couple of weeks listening to Linux, Tech, and other computer related jargon all over the internet which is pretty cool.  Hopefully, I will update before school lets out.

Much needed catch up!

I haven't written in a while so I figured I would catch the interenets up to speed with what has been going down.  Since the last time I wrote anything I was going to Spring Breake with a bunch of people, it was really fun I had a great time.  My classes have been going pretty good but this last push to the end is really getting old its like you hit a certain poiont where you just dont want to go anymore and I think that is where I am at.  I am not saying that I am quitting, just you get tired of the same crap being spewed at you day in and day out.  I have been really disapppoi9nted in the level of difficulty in my classes this semester not enough to make it a challeng make me want to do better.  I know you should try your best but if I am not challenged then I won't try.  For the most part the smesmbester is going very well and Summer looks to be awesome.  Its back to Elizabethtown for me to do some work hopefully move some computers into a new building.

Spring Break Begins

Spring Break has officially began for me, currently sitting in Nashville, Tn or at least Fanklin which outside of Nashville.  Tonight to begin spring break or the first phase of our trip we went to a palce called 12th and Porter and listened to some bands play there were 3 that we listened to and two kicked butt.  The best one by far was The Remedy, they are like inbetween Kelly Clarkson and Jimmy eat world as far as music.  12th and Porter is definatley a place ot revisit in Nashville.  Its pretty quaint with a bar and a resturant with another room for the "concert".  The bands aren't big but they definatley rock the house most definatley check it out if you go Nashville.

Phase 2 of Spring break starts tomorrow or Monday morning at 1 AM the trip to Ft. Walton, Florida.  This will be the best part the drive which will be pretty eventful (if today's trip through the ghetto is any prelude to the drive of monday).

The week looks promising and I am very excited about this trip.

--
Heath Brown

I haven't written in a while

So I haven't been doing a very good job of keeping up with my blog, so sue me its been a pretty rough semester and I have been really busy with work and school.  I am only taking like 15 hours yet because I didn't get TSM 450 on the web it screwed me up.  instead of being done with class at like 2:30 everday I am going to class till 5:00 and its killing me.  I swear if I get screwed on my senior year I will be pissed.  Anyway midterms are posted and I have 3 A's and 2 Bs which is not to shabby.  The first few tests of in my classes were pretty rough and thinking that I did pretty terrrible I did ok.  I got a 85 on my TSM 352 exam, 77 on my TSM 450 exam, 96 on my CIS 307 exam,  around a  90 on my MKT 360 exam, and  a 96 on my TSM 443 exam.

All in all grades wise my grades are ok but eventually that will change just because it always changes towards the end of the semester.

--
Heath Brown

VIM on windows = Happiness

I have officially crossed over to be a pure dork now (not that I wasn't before).  I have been messing around quite a bit with Linux in lab for my TSM 352 class.  I have been using VIM extensibly in this class so tonight i found a version for windows a standalone exe that when placed in the sys32 folder will make a command line editor just like in Linux.  Personally I love it, I know most of my friends will call me stupid but I find myself getting better and better on the Windows and linux command line.  You might say why??? I say why not if you can fly around in the command line of windows and linux why would you want to really move to the GUI.  To tell the truth I am using the Command line to get the skillz for the Linux machines the more you practice the better you are.  With VIM by my side its going to be pretty cool working in windows from command line.

--
Heath Brown

Life goes well

Alright so I am actually doing pretty good in my classes this time.  Officially I am barely ahead of the game which is actually good.  Staying on top of my homework and turning all the busy work so that I don't have to worry about that plus the big dog assignments.  I am really enjoying my classes for the most part.  So fat TSM is disappointing me once again.  Every semester I get excited and then there is a let down to me learning or accomplishing anything in the class.  Oh well.  My roommate from Korea leaves in about 2 or 3 weeks which is cool but I will hate to see him go.  As bad as this sounds he is probably my best roomate I have ever had except for Lee freshman and part of sophomore year of college.  I don't we get along and he is fun to talk to most of the time.  We watch boogoos of music.  Funny thing is I thought I wouldn't have anything in common or there would be a language barrier of course this is typical American BS trying to say that we are better.  Although that is not the case turns out he speaks perfect English, I am more interested in his country, we actually know what each other is thinking most of the time.  Sometimes I have to explian the slang terms that I use but for the most part we get along.

Girlfriend status is I still have one.  We have had to work through some tough patches this semester nothing like life altering just some rough patches that every relationship in the world goes through.  Plans for Spring Break are to go to Fort Walton, FL with some pretty cool people that I know from White.  This should be a pretty good trip we are staying in a pretty kick ace hotel that overlooks the beach.  This trip I am not sure when its going down however should be really cool.  I love staying on the beach, I really am not that big on doing a whole bunch of stuff I like just being lazy like I am all the time.  That is why on the weekends I sleep till like 11:00 and don't move until like 4:00.  its pretty crazy.

Well that is a pretty good little update a glimpse into my lazy weekends.

--
Heath Brown

Update on the Blog

Alright so a quick update before I go to sleep this year and this semester I really plan on hitting the blog race pretty hard.  A few things I want to accomplish with the blog is to get the Tech and personal portions coming n more often.  I really like the technical part and the fact that I can look at and review programs and even though people don't read the blog its cool cause it makes become a little better on writing things. Another goal is to redesign my site which has been off the web for a while heck technicallly it was never on the web.  But that is ok I am definatley going to get it back up.  The master plan is to have two different blogs on my site and few other interesting tid bits.  I am currently working on the database portion of the site which will run the site.  I am also technically going to working on a posting interface for the database and posts for the blogs.  The blogs will be pretty cool just to have  and  to work them on a database level will be pretty neat.  Hopefully all my plans go well and I can get this up and going before next semester.

Well I am going to go to bed and then home tomorrow so I  will post some other time.

--
Heath Brown

Portable Applications -- UPDATE!!!

Ok for the past like month I have been going nuts on the Portable Applications and this is an update to what I know have accumalated over the past month.  Here is the list:

7-zip (compression tool)
Defygo (encryption/password vault)
EasyPHP (apache/php/mysql on a THUMBDRIVE)
FoxitReader (pdf reader/editor)
Mplayer (kickace standalone mediaplayer)
Portable Abiword (word processor)
Portable Filezilla (ftp client)
Portable Firefox 1.5 (web browser) -- I have placed extension on to my Portable Firefox 1.5 and  now firefox officially kicks major but the new extensions are crazy nuts like the IE view tab, FoxyTunes, WebDeveloper, FasterFox, Gspace, and more.
Protable GAIM (IM client)
Portable NVU (html editor)
PsPad (text editor)
Router emulator (router simulation)
VCD (virtual Cd rom utitlity)
Xplorer (different type of file viewer)
Portable OpenOffice (office suite)
Uniform Server
SWI
Portable Opera

This is all on a 512 MB drive with around 117 MB left to spare which isn't bad for how many programs I am packing.

Probably some of my favorites would have to be Defygo, 7-zip, EasyPHP, UniForm Server, Portable GAIM, Portable Firefox, PsPad, VCd, Xplorer, Portable OpenOffice.  Theses apps are just like the real thing.

7-zip

As stated above 7-zip is a compression utitlty that has some pretty cool features for the archives that you make.  It is a different compression format 7z but it does beat the standard .zip in compressoin ratios.  The options are pretty nice you can choose how much to compress the archive, set whether you want to only allow updates and new files, or anything of the sort.  It has easy navigation and doesn't take up to much space.

Defygo

This is an application devolped by some friends that will be coming out soon after they work out the bugs and get it going with all the features and looks they want.  The website is e-liberty.org you should definatley check it out.  Anyway Defygo is a password manager and file encryptiong tool that is portable runs off a Thumb drive.  It works well and the encryption works great with AES and Triple DES you can encrypt files so no one can get in.  Another cool option to Defygo is the working with the forum portion of the website in order to use Public and Private key style encryption.

Easy PHP

Like it says its PHP, better yet its alos Apache and MySQL on a Thumbdrive that can be run from any Windows computer without being installed on the computer.  Straight off the Thubdrive.  PHPEasy runs all services from the Thumbdrive.  NOw you can work on your projects on any server anywhere.  Awesome program.

FoxitReader

This is a standalone pdf reader and allows you to edit the pdf file either by copying and typing extra text onto the pdf file directly.  Lightweight and very easy to use.  A great deal lighter than Adobe Reader.  The best part no installs its just a standalone executible.

Mplayer

Standalone exectible that plays all realplayer files.  It also plays other types and most mp3 and music and video files.  Cool application.

Portable Firefox 1.5

Probably one of the best applications I have ever used.  It works very well.  Probably the best thing for Portable Firefox 1.5 is the addons.  I can't say enough about the addons right now as I type this I am running Foxytunes, Fasterfox, IE tab, IE view, Web Developer tools, Gspace, Download them all.  Foxy tunes allows you to control your default player from Firefox.  Fasterfox is a configuration addon that makes Firefox perform and gather pages faster.  IE tab allows you to view pages running the IE engine inside of Firefox as a new tab.  IE view allows you to set the options that a site may be loaded every time in a IE tab inside of firefox.  The web dev tools is a toolbar that checks all scripts on the page can tell you what forms go where.  The Get and Post variables on the page.  You can edit the CSS of the page and see the changes.  Gspace which links with GMAIL and allows you to upload files under 10 MB to GMAIL to use like a extra drive. Download them all is really neat it allows you to make faster downloads from sites by opening up more bandwidth and calling files faster and allowing faster downloads.

Portable GAIM

The messenger client on a thumb stick carrying several different messengers on a thumbdrive.  All of them works perfectly and smoothley.

PsPad

A really cool portable text editor with multiple syntax highlighting capabilities.

Portable OpenOffice.org

An entire office suite with almost the same amount of features of Microsoft Office.  Some of the features are even better like diretly exporting to a pdf instead of handing it to another application.  Open Office has several different mini programs much like Microsoft Office.  Writer = Word, Calc = Excel, Impress = PowerPoint, Base = Access, Draw = MS Paint, Math = no equivalent.  Open Office is one of the best office suites plus its free if you want to spend the money for $70 dollars you can buy StarOffice which is Open Offices cousin except is directly supported and maintained by SUN.

Xplorer

A exploer.exe replacement type app this allows you to instantly go to where you want on the system with a command prompt with one click.  It gives you better file size and tons of information about the files and where they are.

UniServer

Is a WAMP on the go.  It fits on a Thumbdrive and can make any Windows machine an instant WAMP.  meaning you can code and test anywhere there is a Windows machine and a USB port.  Simple files allow for quick startup and shutdown.

SWI

This is an information gathering exe.  Fits on a thumbdrive and is a standalone executible.  The cool thing about this exe though is that can extract the keys used for products like Microsoft products and it tells all kinds of information about your machine.  Just like system information except it gives better detail with more complete findings.

Portable Opera

This is Opera on a thumbdrive.  makes life easier because any windows machine with a USB drive can have Opera running on it.  great for testing WEb applications across multiple browsers.
--
Heath Brown

Portable Applications -- UPDATE!!!

Ok for the past like month I have been going nuts on the Portable Applications and this is an update to what I know have accumalated over the past month. Here is the list:

7-zip (compression tool)
Defygo (encryption/password vault)
EasyPHP (apache/php/mysql on a THUMBDRIVE)
FoxitReader (pdf reader/editor)
Mplayer (kickace standalone mediaplayer)
Portable Abiword (word processor)
Portable Filezilla (ftp client)
Portable Firefox 1.5 (web browser) -- I have placed extensions on to my Portable Firefox 1.5 and now firefox officially kicks major but the new extensions are crazy nuts like the IE view tab, IE View, FoxyTunes, WebDeveloper, FasterFox, Gspace, and more.
Protable GAIM (IM client)
Portable NVU (html editor)
PsPad (text editor)
Router emulator (router simulation)
VCD (virtual Cd rom utitlity)
Xplorer (different type of file viewer)
Portable OpenOffice (office suite)
Uniform Server
SWI
Portable Opera

This is all on a 512 MB drive with around 117 MB left to spare which isn't bad for how many programs I am packing.

Probably some of my favorites would have to be Defygo, 7-zip, EasyPHP, UniForm Server, Portable GAIM, Portable Firefox, PsPad, VCd, Xplorer, Portable OpenOffice. Theses apps are just like the real thing.

7-zip

As stated above 7-zip is a compression utitlty that has some pretty cool features for the archives that you make. It is a different compression format 7z but it does beat the standard .zip in compressoin ratios. The options are pretty nice you can choose how much to compress the archive, set whether you want to only allow updates and new files, or anything of the sort. It has easy navigation and doesn't take up to much space.

Defygo

This is an application devolped by some friends that will be coming out soon after they work out the bugs and get it going with all the features and looks they want. The website is e-liberty.org you should definatley check it out. Anyway Defygo is a password manager and file encryptiong tool that is portable runs off a Thumb drive. It works well and the encryption works great with AES and Triple DES you can encrypt files so no one can get in. Another cool option to Defygo is the working with the forum portion of the website in order to use Public and Private key style encryption.

Easy PHP

Like it says its PHP, better yet its alos Apache and MySQL on a Thumbdrive that can be run from any Windows computer without being installed on the computer. Straight off the Thubdrive. PHPEasy runs all services from the Thumbdrive. NOw you can work on your projects on any server anywhere. Awesome program.

FoxitReader

This is a standalone pdf reader and allows you to edit the pdf file either by copying and typing extra text onto the pdf file directly. Lightweight and very easy to use. A great deal lighter than Adobe Reader. The best part no installs its just a standalone executible.

Mplayer

Standalone exectible that plays all realplayer files. It also plays other types and most mp3 and music and video files. Cool application.

Portable Firefox 1.5

Probably one of the best applications I have ever used. It works very well. Probably the best thing for Portable Firefox 1.5 is the addons. I can't say enough about the addons right now as I type this I am running Foxytunes, Fasterfox, IE tab, IE view, Web Developer tools, Gspace, Download them all. Foxy tunes allows you to control your default player from Firefox. Fasterfox is a configuration addon that makes Firefox perform and gather pages faster. IE tab allows you to view pages running the IE engine inside of Firefox as a new tab. IE view allows you to set the options that a site may be loaded every time in a IE tab inside of firefox. The web dev tools is a toolbar that checks all scripts on the page can tell you what forms go where. The Get and Post variables on the page. You can edit the CSS of the page and see the changes. Gspace which links with GMAIL and allows you to upload files under 10 MB to GMAIL to use like a extra drive. Download them all is really neat it allows you to make faster downloads from sites by opening up more bandwidth and calling files faster and allowing faster downloads.

Portable GAIM

The messenger client on a thumb stick carrying several different messengers on a thumbdrive. All of them works perfectly and smoothley.

PsPad

A really cool portable text editor with multiple syntax highlighting capabilities.

Portable OpenOffice.org

An entire office suite with almost the same amount of features of Microsoft Office. Some of the features are even better like diretly exporting to a pdf instead of handing it to another application. Open Office has several different mini programs much like Microsoft Office. Writer = Word, Calc = Excel, Impress = PowerPoint, Base = Access, Draw = MS Paint, Math = no equivalent. Open Office is one of the best office suites plus its free if you want to spend the money for $70 dollars you can buy StarOffice which is Open Offices cousin except is directly supported and maintained by SUN.

Xplorer

A exploer.exe replacement type app this allows you to instantly go to where you want on the system with a command prompt with one click. It gives you better file size and tons of information about the files and where they are.

UniServer

Is a WAMP on the go. It fits on a Thumbdrive and can make any Windows machine an instant WAMP. meaning you can code and test anywhere there is a Windows machine and a USB port. Simple files allow for quick startup and shutdown.

SWI

This is an information gathering exe. Fits on a thumbdrive and is a standalone executible. The cool thing about this exe though is that can extract the keys used for products like Microsoft products and it tells all kinds of information about your machine. Just like system information except it gives better detail with more complete findings.

Portable Opera
This is Opera on a thumbdrive. makes life easier because any windows machine with a USB drive can have Opera running on it. great for testing WEb applications across multiple browsers.
--
Heath Brown
--
Heath Brown