There are many references in the forums to the context in which PortableApps (or just portable apps) on a portable drive might be used on host machines, the most usual being machines at work/home and those belonging to colleagues, friends (holidays?) and internet cafes. Is it just me, or do these suggestions reflect a world quite different from the one I inhabit? I don't work in a particularly secure or as far as I know a very paranoid environment, but I can't think of many "colleagues" who would welcome me into their space brandishing a USB stick ... that's easily short-circuited, but where I find real difficulty is on foreign territory: I haven't found an internet cafe with a USB port, or not one that's enabled anyway, and up until reading the posts, had assumed that this is pretty usual. Your anecdotal reports suggest that internet cafes routinely allow the connection of user hardware, with all the implied risks to both parties. Yes? (I got No! in Scotland, Belgium, England, Germany so far; and still counting.)
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It's not that internet cafes really allow user hardware, but that people here just plug 'em in and hope they don't get banned from the establishment. :lol:
I've never used an internet cafe, though, so I can't help you.
Vintage!
In Europe, most internet cafes seem to be chains. With locked-down PCs and full IT departments and things along those lines. I noticed the same thing in St Petersburg earlier this year.
In the US, most internet cafes are mom-n-pop shops... small businesses that serve coffee and have some computers available for use. These always have USB ports available to you. Most libraries here do, too... except for the larger ones in big cities (NY Public Library, for instance, you can plug in single-domain USB drives but not run anything).
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Most over here are US-style ones. I still remember when our local library was running DOS and Windows XP had just been released
----
Ryan McCue
Life is like a sewer. What you get out of it depends on what you put into it.
(Tom Lehrer)
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
I have heard of them, but in the parts of the US I usually spend my time, I have never seen one outside of an airport rent-a-cube.
They have coffee/tea???
Even the small town of 11,000 people I grew up in has one.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
After I read your reply, I thought maybe I had missed something, so I googled 'internet cafe Baltimore MD' out of curiosity. I found only two cafes in the whole state of Maryland. The one in Baltimore is more than ten miles away in a downtown area with expensive parking. I guess I'll continue to use local coffee shops with free wifi and bring my own machine!
BTW, John, thanks for all the great software!
Actually, the one in the town I grew up in is a coffee shop that also happens to have machines available for use. Same with the one down the street from me here in NYC. They'd both be listed as coffee shops in the yellow pages... but they also serve as net cafes.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I'm living/working in the third world mainly, and when moving around I frequently use internet-cafes. The security risk is actually more on my side in these places ... USB-sticks are generally allowed, but more than once I found my stick infested with worms who had replaced most of my portable progs with their own executable. This becomes dangerous when you start these progs with a launcher like PStart ... Heaven knows what else is running on such machines, I'm wary that my stick may get copied etc ... and try to prevent the worst by encryption.
I have the impression that the world is more and more becoming divided into broadband and smallband access (not to mention lack of access), and while WiFi-spots (Fon! or simply coffee-houses enhancing their service) are certainly a nice thing to have, I wonder if this, on the long run, would not end my use of progs on a stick. If I can access the internet easily wherever I am, I'd probably rather go for these fancy Web2.0 services where one can have progs, data, contacts etc stored remotely (netvibes, plaxo etc) instead of carrying my stick or notebook around.
But until this happens, I happily use portable progs, which are also a proof of good programming and as such a pleasure to use!
I take this opportunity to thank all the people involved in this site and active in the forums for their enthusiasm and all the help that I have already received here. Wish you all a very Happy New Year!
Chris
Always on the move - love all portable apps!
The problem with the web apps (like webmail, docs, etc) is that you access them with a password... and all it takes is someone running a keylogger on a public machine you use and they have the keys to your virtual kingdom. This is already happening with some net cafes in Mexico where people emtpy out people's hotmail inboxes and address books leaving a single message in their demanding payment for their return. The unfortunate thing about public terminals is that you have to, to a certain extent, trust them that they're being maintained.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I read my Hotmail on TB so all my contacts are local.
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Ryan McCue
Santa: Ho Ho Ho!
Kim: Yes, thank you Santa, I am.
(Kath and Kim)
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."