Run pretty much your whole internet from a flash drive

This is My Portable Apps.coms freeware flash drive browser and programs post.

This is my version of a quick walk-through for setting up a flash drive that you can use for most everything from browsing the Internet more safely than from your installed browser on your computer.

Most of the setup is just a straight single download from http://portableapps.com/, a few are add-ons available through Firefox's add-ons.

I'm having a little trouble explaining these progs in simple terms as a group, so instead I'll just list my favorite ones and explain a little about them separately.

First of course is Firefox for browsing. I also have the full version installed on all of my computers and love it, but it has a few drawbacks. The biggest is the fact that it's a memory fiend. I have seen mine use up to 8 or 900 MB ram and even more some times and that's just with it opened and running in the background. I have an Intel 2.2 gigs dual core with 3 GB memory installed that can barely run with Firefox opened on it sometimes because after you used 85% of your computer just to open a page you barely have anything left to run the rest of the computer with and no, I can't just add more memory because Win XP will only see 3 gigs of ram and anything more added will be ignored.

That piece of crap Pentium is the reason I searched for and found this program in the first place.

With Firefox you will notice that some pages load a little slower, but the trade-off is well worth the extra time in page loads. Next I'll try to explain what I think are a few of the advantages to running Firefox off of a flash drive...

No more Internet browser history stored on your computer. This should also mean that bad scripts (Web trackers, spy-ware, browser attacking scripts) should not effect your computer but instead they would be confined to the settings on the flash drive. To take advantage of this fully I set up the flash drive fully and then made a new folder on my Hard drive called "Flash Drive Settings". I then copied all of the files from the drive and placed them into that folders as copies to be used later as a clean install. Now I can just delete everything on the flash drive whenever I want to and copy the files back in as new copies and it's all back to the original again in about 2 minutes.

Some things though like text files, favorites and browser extension settings you may not want to lose the information from, in those cases you can take a snapshot of your settings and just use that to update with and get back your work or settings from, more on that in a minute.

With Firefox I have a couple ad-dons that I'm not sure I could do without. These are ScrapBook Plus and Ant tool-bar.

Scrapbook Plus is a page capture prog and a bookmarks organizer, With it you can select a portion of a page by highlighting it and save it as an offline page or an image, I use that feature for registration codes for purchased programs and receipts for purchases like items bought on Amazon.
The way you would back up or save settings from ScrapBook is to click View in sidebar and from there select Import/Export settings and select Export all, later you just import that file again and every-thing's set back to the way you had it before. Here is the link for ScrapBook Plus "https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/scrapbook-plus/"

Ant down-loader is a video/audio down-loader that will snag just about any video out there with just a single click and it runs on very little resources. There are many others out there, but most hog up memory and slow you down to next to nothing when yer trying to do something else while you wait for your movie to download.

This is the download page for Ant down-loader http://antcom-video-downloader.en.softonic.com/, you can get it there or even easier, you can just type in ant.com into the plug-ins search in Firefox and grab it that way and that's how I get it usually.

After all of that we get to the programs.

There are tons of games and apps, I did grab Cribbage, but it's not that great. There are a lot of others too like Solitaire and some other java-script games. I don't bother with those much though.

Here are a few that I consider to be "Must Have" programs and a word or two about them

Notepad ++. It's what I'm typing this on right now... LOL
This program runs on next to nothing, but includes everything. It has spell check and many features that you may not realize you need until you try them. One thing it can do is replace a phrase across many pages and do them all in one shot. I use this feature for html editing. It's convenient when making multiple pages that are similar, but with different content, like videos and flash games. I just write out my html with file names like ???.jpg, ???.swf and [New Link].html and change them to fit the actual content intended, like ???.jpg becomes super_mario_thumb.jpg, ???.swf becomes super_mario.swf and the {New Link].html becomes nintendo_home.html to return the user back to the main index section of Mario games.

Another feature of it is you can test out your html in I.E., Firefox, Chrome or Safari to fine tune it or check for browser compatibility

Next is VLC Media Player. VLC is by far the most complete media player out there. It will do so much that I can't get into it all in this post, but a few features are that it will run swf files, almost any media content and it comes with all codecs you need. It will repair damaged or broken video files as long as you have enough of a file for it to read from. It cannot fix files with no content (0.00 MB), nothing can do that.
You can record straight off of it too. This comes in handy if you want to record a film. Just get the Internet web address of the file out of the page properties and copy it, then open it in VLC and click record. It'll record what you want of it in sections or as a whole and from there you can add subtitles or effects or whatever.


Next is Irfanview, that's one of the fastest image viewers. It also supports plug-ins from just about any program out there. FilterFactory offers some nice plug-ins for free and some of those crappy imaging editors have a few nice plugin filters that come with them that you can copy and put into a folder that Irfanview can use to apply effects to your images for free.

A couple more features are it will make web pages for you that offer thumb-nailed views of what you want to share and full screen sub-pages. Here is an example of one I made using gifs I commonly use in pages [My Gif Page]. You can also make screen-savers from your own images and flash files with music added to the background to share as YouTube like video's.

Next is 7Zip free. It will extract zip files along with some other compression file types and you can safe store your data in your own folders to reduce size and you can protect them using password encryption.

Other than that there are a bunch of "just for fun" apps. I kinda like CamStudioPortable for messing around with cam pictures and I'm sure there's more, but I stopped with those because I want to keep this running on an 8 gig drive and I can still import or export to my main programs for doing the rest of whatever else I might want to do.

LOL, here's my pic on Cam Studio...

All in all I think that it's great to have everything all contained on one flash drive that I can stick into my pocket and use safely on any other computer and not have to rely on remembering personal settings or passwords or links or whatever, makes sharing some of the more interesting stuff a lot easier too.

Farnam, Nebraska the way I see it...

I made this collage, actually just remade it for reason of interpretation.
It contains some symbolism , some easy to understand, some not so easy...

The name of this image is Entering Farnam Nebraska and noticing a few things. It is my own creation and I give it freely. This means you can have it for any reason you might want to use it for for free. Aspects of the symbolism I wouldn't ordinarily share. This exception has been made for reasons that you will never know, but I do have my reasons

I'll say just a little, the rest is mine...
The layers in the trees, they mean the depths of reality, the truest reality you will never see, but the layers you might.
The woman, her name is Princess Meme "Me-Me" or queen Meme or whatever. She earned that name by her actions... Holding all hands out and pleading "Me,me,me,me.... with all her desires.
Next is the devil puppet, He's the King, or at least he thinks he is. He's still only a puppet though.
Behind him is the cowboy. He yells "hee-har" and "Yippity-yi-ya", but he's just repeating from a script. He is also in other versions of this and others.

I should make this note right now.

NOTE: I have no respect for cowboys, Nazi soldiers or any other glorified murderer that chose to join up with a cause or agenda that intended on the destruction of a total race of man.
The very first Holocaust happened in America. Woman, children, babies, elderly, anyone and all of them slated to be killed by cowboys for the price of the value of their scalp? HUH?. The first death train ran on American tracks.

To honor a murderer, to celebrate the traditions, to parody yourself in costume to look like a murderer....
Where I come from if it looks like dog shit, tastes like dog shit, feels like dog shit and smells like dog shit then yer supposed to call it dog shit even if it aint really dog shit, but because someone decided to represent it that way.
Next is the sign, that was the first truth I heard out here and I heard it verified many times by many people with the phrase "we take care of our own". 

The next one I call 

"Village board meeting Farnam Nebraska"

This one I will not explain...

 This last one is me, as I feel myself to be here. I am the Spirit of Cow-Punk!!!
"Please be patent, it might load slow"

NOTE: click on any image to view it full size.

Back in February 1938 Hemp was the crop that could bring our nation forward, now???

The following is a copy of an article posted by the folks at Global Hemp on [this page].

I am posting this not to spread the word about the benifits of getting high toking a joint. My concerns are in health and industry. I want safer plastics made from hemp that will not kill out oceans and I want hemp oil that can cure cancer and most of all I want these lies about a stinkin natural weed to stop. The exploitation of the marijuana plant is not caused by kids selling joints at concerts. It's caused by a legal system that has no respect for the freedom to manage our own health issues or the resources that we have right here growing in friggin ditches all across America!

Below begins the article, please enjoy....

VOL. 69 February, 1938 NO. 2

---

Sailing the seven seas with sails and rope made of hemp.

American farmers are promised a new cash crop with an annual value of several hundred million dollars, all because a machine has been invented that solves a problem more than 6,000 years old.
It is hemp, a crop that will not compete with other American products. Instead, it will displace imports of raw material and manufactured products produced by underpaid coolie and peasant labor and it will provide thousands of jobs for American workers throughout the land.
The machine that makes this possible is designed for removing the fiber-bearing cortex from the rest of the stalk, making hemp fiber available for use without prohibitive amounts of human labor.
Hemp is the standard fiber of the world. It has great tensile strength and durability. It is used to produce more than 5,000 textile products, ranging from rope to fine laces, and the woody ‘hurds’ remaining after the fiber has been removed contain more than 77 percent cellulose, which can be used to produce more than 25,000 products, ranging from dynamite to Cellophane.
Machines now in service in Texas, Illinois, Minnesota, and other states are producing fiber at a manufacturing cost of half a cent per pound, and are finding a profitable market for the rest of the stalk. Machine operators are making a good profit in competition with coolie-produced foreign fiber, while paying farmers $15 a ton for hemp as it comes from the field.
From the farmer’s point of view, hemp is an easy crop to grow and will yield from three to six tons per acre on any land that will grow corn, wheat, or oats. It can be grown in any state of the Union. It has a short growing season, so that it can be planted after other crops are in. The long roots penetrate and break the soil to leave it in perfect condition for next year’s crop. The dense shock of leaves, eight to twelve feet above the ground, chokes out weeds. Two successive crops are enough to reclaim land that has been abandoned because of Canadian thistles or quack grass.

Hemp fiber being delivered from machine, ready for baling. Pile of pulverized hurds beside machine is 77 percent cellulose.

Under old methods, hemp was cut and allowed to lie in the fields for weeks until it ‘retted’ enough so that the fibers could be pulled off by hand. Retting is simply rotting as a result of dew, rain, and bacterial action. Machines were developed to separate the fibers mechanically after retting was complete, but the cost was high, the loss of fiber great, and the quality of fiber comparatively low.
With the new machine — known as a decorticator — hemp is cut with a slightly modified grain binder. It is delivered to the machine where an automatic chain conveyor feeds it to the breaking arms at a rate of two or three tons per hour. The hurds are broken into fine pieces that drop into the hopper, from where they are delivered by blower to a baler, or to a truck or freight car for loose shipment. The fiber comes from the other end of the machine, ready for baling.

Modern version of a linen duster made from hemp, one of the toughest fibers in the world.

From this point on, almost anything can happen. The raw fiber can be used to produce strong twine or rope, woven into burlap, used for carpet warp or linoleum backing, or it may be bleached and refined, with resinous by-products of high commercial value. It can, in fact, be used to replace foreign fibers which now flood our markets.
Thousands of tons of hemp hurds are used every year by one large powder company for the manufacture of dynamite and TNT. A large paper company, which has been paying more than a million dollars a year in duties on foreign-made cigarette papers, now is manufacturing these papers from American hemp grown in Minnesota. A new factory in Illinois is producing bond paper from hemp. The natural materials in hemp make is an economical source of pulp for any grade of paper manufactured, and the high percentage of alpha cellulose promises an unlimited supply of raw material for the thousands of cellulose products our chemists have developed.
It is generally believed that all linen is produced from flax. Actually, the majority comes from hemp — authorities estimate that more than half of our imported linen fabrics are manufactured from hemp fiber. Another misconception is that burlap is made from hemp. Actually, its source is usually jute, and practically all of the burlap we use is woven from laborers in India who receive only four cents a day. Binder twine is usually made from sisal, which comes from the Yucatan and East Africa.
All of these products, now imported, can be produced from home-grown hemp. Fish nets, bow strings, canvas, strong rope, overalls, damask tablecloths, fine linen garments, towels, bed linen, and thousands of other everyday items can be grown on American farms. Our imports of foriegn fabrics and fibers average about $200 million per year; in raw fibers alone we imported over $50 million in the first six months of 1937. All of this income can be made available for Americans.
The paper industry offers even greater possibilities. As an industry it amounts to over $1 billion a year, and of that, 80 percent is imported. But hemp will produce every grade of paper and government figures estimate that 10,000 acres devoted to hemp will produce as much paper as 40,000 acres of average pulp land.
One obstacle in the onward march of hemp is the reluctance of farmers to try new crops. The problem is complicated by the need for proper equipment a reasonable distance from the farm. The machine cannot be operated profitably unless there is enough acreage within driving range and farmers cannot find a profitable market unless there is machinery to handle the crop.

Harvesting luxurious fields of hemp in Texas with a grain binder.

Another obstacle is that the blossom of the female hemp plant contains marijuana, a narcotic, and it is impossible to grow hemp without producing the blossom. Federal regulations now being drawn up require registration of hemp growers, and tentative proposals for preventing narcotic production are rather stringent.
However, the connection of hemp as a crop and marijuana seems to be exaggerated. The drug is usually produced from wild hemp or locoweed, which can be found on vacant lots and along railroad tracks in every state. If federal regulations can be drawn to protect the public without preventing the legitimate culture of hemp, this vast new crop can add immeasurably to American agriculture and industry.

The English Language is a sham!

The English Language is a sham!

Really, the English language as used (or manipulated) in America is not exactly what you think it is.

It started out spelled just as it sounded. There were many dialects, accents and local expressions, but with the invention of the Gutenberg press (In 1450 Johannes Gutenberg made his first printing press) all of that came to be standardized and natural spelling somehow not good enough for educators or those who publish.

They didn't change anything about the way the word was spoken from one place to another, they just demanded that everyone adopt their ways and spelling.

From the first time I had heard about that process I found I was disappointed. I never liked conformity, I disliked it even more to see that it could dominate a whole nation. That a few could decide over the rest.

One passion I have always had is reading. I have always enjoyed books written in the 1400's through mid 1500's. The thing I honored most in those reads was the fact that you don't read the word. You read the voice that wrote the work.

That was the beginning of the cultural rip-off that people just wallow through. The second was media.

Starting around 1970 television and radio stations started joining together and later affiliated.

Still up until around 1974 there remained a great deal of local programming on both ends and people watched news anchors deliver their news in their own style of speaking.

Next came the network broadcasters and they slammed it all to the wall. They began to dictate "proper" sounding English. That was the beginning of "fake it or get out".

I remember ordering an ice cream in Florida back when they still had their beautiful accents The woman at the counter asked me "Waont sprainkles owenit?", I asked "What", she asked again "Waont sprainkles owenei't?" I asked what again and she pointed at the chocolate jimmies and yelled "sprainkles-sprainkles-sprainkles!". I smiled and said, "No jimmies please" and tried not to laugh because she would have taken it the wrong way. I wanted to smile though over just hearing her beautiful voice.

Okay, to cut that short. Right now, where we are it's nothing but cheap fad expressions. The Good l' Days when you went a few hundred of miles away people had their own expressions, opinions and to some extent culture. There were opinions then too. Opinions based on local social issues and local views on national issues.

Now there is nothing but recycled crap handed down from prime-time TV script writers and actresses and actors that we all know have exactly no morals or cares for anything except their own images and the sparkle of being idolized. I swear sometimes a lot of people only watch news to get an opinion that won't make them stand out and learn what the new catch phrases will work the best at social gatherings (mini-sparkles and fractional idolization).

Honestly, I don't and won't ever know how to write, not unless I could do it my way and that will never be accepted. Still I hate trends, I hate people that look for other people to steal from or share opinions with.

Actually I hate bullshit and if it aint coming outta yer mind it is pure bullshit by the time you spit it out.

Why did I write this post anyway?

Because I know of a site made by Michael Hart (RIP September 2, 2011). In 1971 he was asked to help put the internet together or help make it have some usfulness for the common person. He was given $100,000,000 (One-Hundred-Million-Dollars) worth of time to use the internet [More info], and he wanted to make his contribution worth something.

So he thought and thought and thought it over and he decided to make what was actually the very first computer virus.

He typed in the full Declaration of Independence and sent it out to every person he could on the internet at the time. He had reasoned that if he sent out 1000,000,000 copies of it then each would be worth at least $1 and in that he would have earned his money honestly.

Soon, as things picked up and the internet started becoming known to all walks of life he decided to move forward and from there he started Project Gutenberg.

I found that site more than 12 years ago while looking for books from 1400-mid 1500's and I still love browsing through it like a library. They now have over 38,000 FREE ebooks that range in everything to everything else. Some of my favorites are the old "The Boy Mechanic" by Popular Mechanics (get those in pdf, not txt files if you want to see the actual pages with illustrations), The 1887 version of  the White House Cookbook, The Dreamers Dictionary (10,000 Dreams Interpreted) by Gustavus Hindman Miller and the early non-fiction books that contain a few of the undiluted facts about our past.

Sorry I ragged on like that, but I doubt anyone will read this anyway.
Here's the link to a shit load of free and legal ebooks and pdf's...

http://www.gutenberg.org/

Obama posts an ad for working Americans, which ones???

This really Pisses me off... This Scum-Bag reduces our work week to 35 hours for full time employment status (to reduce the numbers on the unemployment statistics), then he reduces them again to 30 hours.
More than that he goes and makes it law that people with problems be forced into the work role through programs and the guy tries to make it sound good!

The results of that we all have seen. We deal every day with people not stable enough in their own lives to be taking control of issues that effect ours and often they screw up on purpose. We pay more to train them, provide transportation for them to go into jobs that they know they have no intention of keeping more than we would ever spend on helping them.

This IDIOT has damaged our job market much more than anyone will ever know! He has traded off every school boys job to crack-heads and welfare mothers that are not equipped to take the next step on into life and in doing so he has deprived many mothers that need a fair income from finding one along with students from finding any kind of income.

How did he manage to do that?

With freakin tax incentive programs.

Why would anyone ever hire a responsible person and pay them with wages fully from the companies accounts and asset's if instead the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) would cover portions of those wages, guarantee people that don't want to be there come anyway, drive them there or pay for other transportation costs and on top of all that offer the company tax breaks for participating in the scam?

Who loses?

The people that work to survive lose because now the jobs are being taken away from us by our government, work weeks are reduced for unemployment status (but not by company standards, because you still need to pull a 40 each week for most benefits offered in company packages) and wages have been reduced to the minimum amount needed to participate in the DHHS Work First programs!

Now he salutes WHO???

This picture is titled "oh_bummer.jpg" and parts of it were not stolen but instead givin back because I got tired of hearing that crap!

I AM ASHAMED OF AMERICA!