When I was in London for my holiday late last year, I spent a lot of time actually on the internet. No, I’m not sad, I mainly did it because meeting up with Guy, Celeste and Han meant - to arrange times - I found it easy if I used the net at the hostel to speak to them online, rather than ring them all up.
However, one thing I couldn’t stand was the software used by the hostel. It was some open source instant messenger program (that wasn’t Gaim) that was just clunky, unresponsive and just horrible to use. I had recently switched to Gaim from Windows Live Messenger, and the software the hostel was using tried my patience in the worst way.
I then read somewhere about digital condoms. Digital Condoms are USB sticks containing your programs and settings. The reason for their name is more of a privacy issue. You plug it in to a public place, do your business, and then withdraw without leaving anything of yours behind. This single handedly makes it the greatest technical definition ever.
Anyway, I had a spare 2GB USB Flash Drive so I thought I’d try it out. A quick head over to Portableapps.com for the software, and I was ready to go. After a fairly length installation process (which doesn’t techinically install any programs, that comes when you first run them), you are greeted with a screen that becomes like your 2nd start bar.
Now, running a few of the programs, it must be said that it does work rather well, and is compact, easy to use, and starts automatically should you wish. Two problems with it, the sudoku game is evil in it’s ability to distract, and that the software on offer is slightly less upto date than current desktop versions, which is a pain if you’re a Sunbird user, as the “Provider” Add on (essential as the synchronisation with Google Calendar is abysmal).
But other than that, it is quite a useful thing to have. Of course, working on a PC here - it’s not much fun (I spent my days just tidying it all up and making sure everything is kosher), the real test is how I use it abroad. Which is why I’m taking it for a test in Portugal. Don’t worry, I’m not going to spend the first 3 days away from this fair isle hooked up in some Portugese internet cafe, but I’m sure I’ll have a spare 30 minutes to try it out.
Yes - try it out. There is another reason why I created my digital condom, but - unless your name is Rick, Han or Ami - you don’t need to know, just yet. That is another story for another time.
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Rhys Wynne, the author of this blog, is a 20 something web designer from Colwyn Bay.
Portable Firefox is awesome, saves me from the filth of IE when I use uni computers. I actually just have it stored in my home directory on their network, and it works fine. Make sure to disable auto update though, otherwise it gets unhappy.
I don’t really mind using shit programs when I’m abroad (I got used to them on uni computers), what I find frustrating is that every country seems to put @ in a different location on the keyboard (shift + 2?!? That’s just weird!)
you’re going away for 3 days - use moobo or whatever that web2.0 thing is! and get a gmail account you fr00d LOL
Yeah the whole differently placed ‘@’ had me stumped for a while when I had to use a internet cafe in Spain.
I have to say that digital condom sounds pretty useful. I wouldn’t miss too many of my programs though because firstly gmail has a chat function inside of its email page so no downloading needed and secondly I always find a way to install firefox..single handedly saving people all over from the crap that is IE. Or I like to think so anyway.
Digital condoms? Things have changed since my single days! Mind you that was a while back.
Mike.