(Photo: Ambuj Saxena)
I like to think of myself as a technology enthusiast. I follow the latest tech trends posted on sites like wired, I buy the latest video cards to run games I’ll never actually get around to playing, and I research the newest Android builds so that I’m well versed in cell phones that I’ll never actually buy. That’s why I find it so humorous that I’ve never owned and made use of a magical little device called a usb flash drive.
I recently decided that instead of using Dropbox to store and sync my files – a messy business in and of itself – that I would instead start hauling them around on a usb thumb drive. This allows me to keep important business documents away from the prying eyes of the various covert agencies trying to acquire them, and well, it’s just a lot more convenient than having to install Dropbox on every computer I want to use to use my files.
So at this point you’re probably asking yourself “why am I reading Chad’s article on thumb drives, a technology that has existed for almost a decade; a technology that only a moron wouldn’t have tried out by now?”. The answer to that is simple; insanity. Since you’ve gotten this far, though, I’ll get to the meat of the post. There are many application launchers designed specifically for usb flash drives, but do you know which one is the best? None of them. I’ve tried everything from the PortableApps launcher, to LiberKey, and all of them look and function like the works of a crazed fisher price aficionado. If you find a launcher that is sleek, fast loading, and simple, please let me know.
So if the application launchers are trash, what’s left? Well, lucky for us, legions of programmers are willing to spend their valuable free time creating software that is not only free, but awesome, and that will launch as a stand-alone application with no installation required at all. Remember how I said that the PortableApps launcher is trash? It turns out that despite that fact, the actual applications themselves work perfectly. They load quickly, work correctly, and are available for download as single items, instead of having to grab a massive package containing hundreds of application you’ll never use.
In a time when our personal privacy is being eroded by corporate lobbying and corrupt politicians, I like the idea of being able to keep personal documents on my person in an encrypted state. Any USB thumb drive with TrueCrypt portable allows for the user to create an encrypted containers which can easily be stored on a thumb drive. In addition, being able to launch applications (such as a browser pre-configured to send all data through the Tor network) are invaluable for anyone who values personal privacy and the convenience that comes with being able to reach their important files and documents without having to install and make use of an application such as Dropbox.
