PortableApps

I'm hanging out in Kuala Lumpur. Unfortunately the internet service at the apartment isn't working and there's no weekend support so I've been hanging out at the local internet cafe.

A fun place, open 24x7, it even has a smoking room - not for me of course.

The computers run diskless XP which seems to load pretty fast over the local lan. Unfortunately while they seem to have cluttered up windows with all sorts of little "enhancements" they have chosen not to install FireFox and I needed it.

PortableApps is the answer if you visit internet cafes. You install on a USB flash drive, run the starter and a launcher app sits in the system tray displaying a menu like this:



I've also installed portable Putty so I can use ssh and I'm downloading PortablePython just for fun. It includes PyScripter which looks fantastic.

Earlier I ventured off to Kuala Lumpur city centre "klcc" as they call it here to check out the fantastic computer shopping centres. I've visited Imbi plaza in the past but there's a new one near by called Low Yat Plaza. I picked up a Cruzer 16GB flash stick for about AU$40 to run my portable environment.

Walking through the six floors of technology my impression is: heaps of netbooks all with the same useless vertical screen resolution of 600 pixels, tons of iPod knock offs, but some very nice phones from HTC that you don't see so much of in Australia.

I love the way there are shops here with big signs offering to unlock the very phones you can buy from the carrier stores right next door. This includes over the counter iPhone unlocking.

Update: internet back on

The internet is back on at the apartment after two days. A router needed rebooting...