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Sunday, August 31, 2008

25 Must-Have Thumb Drive Apps for Geeks

With traveling and use of many different computers, many geeks (and geek girls) often find a need to have a uniform set of tools handy wherever we may be. I've put together a list of 25 invaluable portable apps that can be installed on an Ipod or Thumb Drive. These are really cool!

  1. TrueCrypt – encrypt your thumb drive to protect your information
  2. ToDoList – A tak management tool that allows you to repeatedly sub-divide your tasks into more manageable pieces whilst still presenting a clean and intuitive user experience. (Windows Only)
  3. Portable Firefox – Leaves no personal information behind on the machine - you can take along your browser/extensions/bookmarks anywhere
  4. Pidgin Portable – All-in-one instant messaging (supports AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, G-Chat, etc)
  5. WS FTP32 – ftp client
  6. FileZilla – yet another ftp client
  7. Notepad2 – a fast light-weight advanced text editor with syntax highlighting
  8. Notepad++ - this is one of my favorite text editors – now made portable
  9. Color Cop – this is one of my favorite freeware apps – includes an eyedropper you can drag over any window to grab the color value. It then offers a palette of 42 complimentary colors to the one you've picked.
  10. Ifranview – a light little graphics viewer/editor that packs a big punch. You can use it to work with screen captures, create slideshows and more
  11. GIMP – the popular open source image editor packaged as a portable app – very robust
  12. 7-Zip Portable – handles zip, gzip, tar, rar etc
  13. Allway Sync – syncs files between your thumb drive and PC
  14. Unknown Devices – helps you find out what the unknown devices in the device manager are
  15. TestDisk – data recovery software that can recover lost partitions or make drives bootable again
  16. UTorrent – my preferred bit torrent client – I love having this with me wherever I go
  17. Roeder's .NET Reflector – recently purchased by Red Gate, this still-free app can be used to explore .NET assemblies, understand relationships between classes and methods, find where types are instantiated and exposed or check that code has been correctly obfuscated before release. There are also over 30 add-ins available.
  18. Process Explorer – formerly Filemon and Regmon, this is an invaluable sleuthing tool
  19. TightVNC – based on the popular VNC remote control software, this version can live on a thumb drive
  20. WinMerge – compares differences between files and merges changes. It has the same features as the desktop version
  21. Text2Html – a text to HTML converter – converts text files into HTML format
  22. Portable Apps Suite – this is the mac-daddy of them all – it includes Firefox, Thunderbird(email), Sunbird(calendar),ClamWin (antivirus), Pidgin(see above), Sumatra PDF Readable, KeePass Password Safe, OpenOffice, CoolPlayer (audio Player) and even a couple of games
  23. Restoration – Recover accidentally deleted files – even after they were deleted from the recycle bin
  24. Infra Recorder Portable – cd and dvd burning
  25. RockXP – allows you to recover windows passwords or keys, change keys, display system password, and more – sneaky!

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Some open source softwares [windows os] - must have

Web Browsing

firefox

Mozilla Firefox

The premier free, open-source browser. Tabs, pop-up blocking, themes, and extensions. Considered by many to be the world's best browser.
Download Page

Video Player / Video Podcasting

miro

Miro

Beautiful interface. Plays any video type (much more than windows media player). Subscribe to video RSS, download, and watch all in one. Torrent support. Search and download from YouTube and others.
Download Page

IM - Instant Messaging

gaim

Pidgin

Connect to multiple IM accounts simultaneously in a single app, including: AOL IM, MSN, and Jabber.
Download Page

E-mail

thunderbird

Mozilla Thunderbird

Powerful spam filtering, solid interface, and all the features you need.
Download Page

RSS

rssowl

RSSOwl

Solid cross-platform RSS client.
Download Page

Peer-to-Peer Filesharing

cabos

Cabos

A simple, easy to use filesharing program. Gnutella network.
Download Page
gnucleus

Gnucleus

A very good Gnutella search and download filesharing program.
Download Page
azureus

Azureus

A powerful, but complicated BitTorrent client. So many features you'll lose your mind.
Download Page

Video Playback

VLC

VLC

Plays more video files than most players: Quicktime, AVI, DIVX, OGG, and more. Pretty good interface.
Download Page
MPlayer

MPlayer

Similar to VLC-- plays loads of video formats.
Download Page
media player classic

Media Player Classic

Compact, but powerful media player. Plays anything under the sun. No install necessary.
Download Page

DVD Ripping / Video Conversion

media coder

Media Coder

Great tool for ripping CDs, DVDs, etc and converting between tons of video formats.
Download Page

Word Processing / Office Suites

open office

OpenOffice.org

Big, full featured suite of tools for word processing and spreadsheets. Compatible with and a free replacement for Microsoft Word documents. Also supports OpenDocument Format.
Download Page
abiword

AbiWord

A word processor. Leaner and quicker than OpenOffice. Compatible with Microsoft Word documents and OpenDocument Format.
Download Page

Podcasting

juice

Juice

Solid podcasting client.
Download Page

DVD Ripping

handbrake

Handbrake

DVD to MPEG-4 ripper/converter.
Download Page

Sound Recording

audacity

Audacity

Simple sound recording tool.
Download Page

Graphics / Photo Editing

gimp

GIMP

Photo editing application that rivals Photoshop in features.
Download Page
paint.net

Paint.NET

Graphics editor with a very nice interface.
Download Page
inkscape

Inkscape

Vector graphics application.
Download Page

FTP / SFTP

filezilla

Filezilla

Excellent FTP program.
Download Page

IRC

xchat2

X-Chat 2

IRC client.
Download Page

Archiving

PeaZip

PeaZip

Fantastic archiving utility to extract and pack archives of an extensive amount of formats. PeaZip also features password protecting archives, keyfile support, system integration, a lovely interface, and much more.
Download Page 
 

Note Taking

freemind

Freemind

An innovative application for note taking and outlining. Takes time to get used to, but some people swear by it.
Download Page

Jarnal

Open Source note taking application written in Java
Download Page
keynote

Keynote

Open Source note taking application, very good. I use this myself extensively
Download Page

Personal Finance

Turbo Cash

TurboCASH

Simple, easy to use application for managing personal finances.
Download Page

Quasar

Easy to use Accounting package
Download Page

Chat Clients

AMSN

aMSN

MSN Messenger client written in TCL/TK aMSN Messenger
XChat

X-Chat

IRC Client X-Chat

More Web Browsing

KMeleon

K-Meleon

Fast, nice web browser.
Download Page
Amaya

Amaya Browser for Windows

W3C developed web browser and editor for multiple platforms
Download Page

Screensaver

electric sheep

Electric Sheep

Immersive, trippy screensaver.
Download Page

More Filesharing

Frostwire

GNUTella client based on the Limewire codebase.
Download Page
Also see: Poisoned - Azureus

3D Graphics and Modeling

blender

Blender

Powerful 3D Modeling software.
Download Page
Also see: Kerkythea (illumination engine) - Persistence of Vision Raytracer - Quesa

Stars and Outer Space

celestia icon

Celestia

Open-source 3D planetarium software. Akin to traveling through space (outer space).
Download Page
stellarium icon

Stellarium

"Renders realistic skys in realtime." See what you would see if your city wasn't so light-polluted. Used in real planetariums.
Download Page
Also see: macORSA - Orbit Reconstruction, Simulation, and Analysis

Games

Marathon: Aleph One icon

Marathon: Aleph One

Engine for Bungie's free FPS series Marathon. Play online, solo play with rich original story, many total conversions and thousands of maps.
Download Page
zombies icon

Zombies

3D zombie strategy game.
Download Page
armagetron

Armagetron Advanced

3D Tron game.
Download Page
BZflage logo

BZFlag

First-person tank game.
Download Page
Battle for Wesnoth logo

Battle for Wesnoth

Fantasy / Strategy Game
Download Page
Also see: Snes9X (SNES emulator), Frozen Bubble

Free File Hosting

CC Publisher

CC Publisher

Host Creative Commons video or audio files for free on archive.org with this easy uploader.
Download Page

Security Tools

NMap

Easy to use port scanner for Windows
Download Page
Wireshark

Wireshark

Network Protocol Analyzer, formerly called Ethereal
Download Page

TrueCrypt

Creates encrypted virtual hard drives for extra security
Download Page
ClamWin

ClamWin

Open Source Anti-Virus. Very good at detecting viruses. Can be plugged into hMailServer for e-mail protection LIMITATION: Real Time scanning not implemented yet
Download Page
Eraser

Eraser

Delete files securely off your hard drive utilizing DoD standards
Download Page

MP3 and Audio Tools

MP3 Gain

MP3 Gain

Easy to use MP3 manipulation tool for Windows. adjusts sound levels on MP3's so they are all the same
Download Page
MP3 Book Helper

MP3 Book Helper

This program provides rapid Mp3 (ID3v1, ID3v2) and Ogg/Speex/Flac Vorbis tags editing and file renaming functions. Mass Tag editing is done using special variables and Regular Expressions.
Download Page
musikCube

musikCube

Open Source MP3 Player, ripper and organizer written using the .NET Framework
Download Page

Utilities

Cobian Backup

Backup software.
Download Page
7-Zip

7-Zip

File archiver.
Download Page

Developer tools

XEmacs

XEmacs

The classic, super customizable editor, for Windows.
Download Page
KompoZer

KompoZer

Easy to use, open source WYSIWYG html editor
Download Page
SharpDevelop

SharpDevelop

Open Source IDE for the .NET Framework. Utilizes the multiple programming languages and Windows forms
Download Page
Notepad ++

Notepad ++

Open Source programmers notepad for Windows
Download Page

SciTE

Source code Editor for Windows and X
Download Page

Web Developer Server Suite

Very good WAMP Stack (Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP) Very thouroughly tested on Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 Server (preliminary testing on Longhorn Server underway). Highly Recommended.
Download Page

Mapping Tools

World Wind

Nasa World Wind

Mapping tool similar to Google Earth for Windows. Must have the .NET Framework installed.
Download Page 
 

Other

Graph (graph plotting software)

Startup Manager (pick what you want to launch on startup)

freeotfe "on-the-fly" transparent disk encryption program for PCs and PDAs. 
 
source: http://www.opensourcewindows.org

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