Jessamyn West 2
Socially Portable
[<a href="http://showcase.litablog.org/index.php/Jessamyn_West">first page</a>, second page]
<img hspace="10" align="right" src="http://librarian.net/pics/pigusb.jpg" alt="usb drive with pigs" /><img vspace="250" hspace="10" align="left" src="http://librarian.net/pics/swamiusb.jpg" alt="usb drive with diodes" />
As for the social, let's just say that trying to keep your network groove on without all of your bookmarks, passwords, email and settings is a poor excuse for a 2.0 existence. Sure you can be all up in your 2.0 apps, but if you're still doing things locally (or <a href="http://icanhascheezburger.com/">lolcattily</a>) you could use a boost to get you more of the way there.
Application Examples
- If you bookmark with <a href="http://del.icio.us">del.icio.us</a> you might want to try <a href="http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable">Firefox Portable</a> (6MB, 25MB installed, also <a href="http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/osxportableapps/PortableFirefox_2.0_en-US-OSX_r4.0.dmg?download">Mac version</a>) and keep your browsing experience the same on all computers. Save bookmarks, themes and plugins all without leaving anything on the host computer.
- If you log in to seventeen social sofware sites and aren't a dork like me who uses the same password for everything, you might want to keep those passwords 1) with you; you never know when you might need to add someone to your Top Friends, Top Eight or add them to your network(s) 2) secure; you have enemies and spies and jealous lovers and impostors! <a href="http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/keepass_portable">KeePass</a> (1.1MB) is for you. Encryptalicious!
- Maybe you don't have enough friends to really benefit from the co-editing afforded by <a href="http://docs.google.com/">Google Docs</a> but you want to hammer out a new resume for <a href="http://linkdin.com">LinkedIn</a> or the perfect mash note for your buddy at <a href="http://okcupid.com">OKCupid</a> and you always misspell a certain subset of fiendish vocab words so you'd like your own dictionary, thanks. Enter <a href="http://portableapps.com/apps/office/abiword_portable">AbiWord</a> (6.3MB, also <a href="http://www.freesmug.org/portableapps/abiword/">Mac version</a>) for lightweight lexical output or the <a href="http://portableapps.com/apps/office/openoffice_portable">OpenOffice Suite</a> (65MB, also <a href="http://www.freesmug.org/portableapps/openoffice/">Mac version</a>) for when size doesn't matter so much
More Resources
<a href="http://portableapps.com/">Portable Apps (for PC)</a> - lightweight versions of your favorite open source apps
<a href="http://www.freesmug.org/portableapps/">Portable Apps for Mac</a> - better late than never
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_portable_software">Wikipedia list of portable software</a>
<a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/portable-software-usb/">Portable Apps list by category</a>
References
Thanks to <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/poochypants/sets/72157600167825936/">Dave Boyer</a> for most of the USB images. The first one is from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive">Wikipedia</a>.
