[dba-Tech] Portable Apps

[Jim Lawrence]

Ahhh, enlightenment. I wish I had read older messages first instead of skimming from top to bottom.

If my cell phone had not gone through a full wash and rinse cycle I most likely would be still using my old phone. So when I went looking for a replacement phone, I found the cheapest phone was a Samsung 5C neo. Nothing down, $15 dollars a month for 24 months, for the phone, after that, the cost is removed and with a minimum plan $40 per month. Given that a smartphone connects to wifi and all open hotpots, data costs are always zero or next to it. In the unlikely event that there is no wifi coverage the plan has a 2GB buffer.

The new phone is really one of the fastest computers I have in the house. It feature list is impressive. Full phone of course, full video phone (Skype/Jitsi), online real-time video location and mapping, play downloaded podcasts on the latest tech, movies (supports Netflix), music, news (CBC, BBC, CNN, RT etc etc), YouTube of course, edit collaborative documents and spreadsheets, full camera with a 10x digital zoom, a full video camera, can access and monitor my computers from anywhere in the world, full internet access of course (even access my nextCloud instance), memo-editors, I can even control all my video/movies/photographs/music/TV streams via a phone app...and that is just the start of things that this little hand-held can do. There are even video, sound recording editors and if you like gaming... I may throw in another 64GB micro-chip data storage at some time in the future.

I put this into context that it use to cost me $250+ a month for just a pager service, the number of batteries I went through...I use to buy them by the box and the only computers cost one $10K for one megabyte of memory and a main-frame that this hand-held could far out perform, cost in the millions and a GB of RAM, even for universities was a future dream.  

Sorry for going off topic but this is the right location for doing so. 

If you boot up a "Live" version of a Linux distro on a USB stick, you can just run a full non-destructive OS on any computer and any application you want to run, is at your finger tips. I have never tried to pre-add applications to a boot USB but I understand it can be easily done. Quote:

"In "Startup Disk Creator", there is an option called "Persistence". If you select that and create the bootable USB drive, all your software, settings, and documents will remain permanent, like an installed Ubuntu system."

According to the following article you can create an enhanced boot up "live" USB:
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/14912/create-a-persistent-bootable-ubuntu-usb-flash-drive/
http://bit.ly/2r9KGpW

...and then you have virtually any program you want.  

Jim 

----- Original Message -----
From: "Arthur Fuller" <fuller.artful at gmail.com>
To: "Discussion of Hardware and Software issues" <dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com>
Sent: Friday, May 26, 2017 5:50:08 PM
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Portable Apps

Jim,

Almost no muscle. I opted for a stupid phone. All I use it for is (gasp)
phone calls.

Don't be confused by the term "apps". That's just what the software is
called. It's basically designed to install Windows desktop applications on
a USB in such a way that said applications become portable (i.e. no
dependencies on anything in c:\windows\Program Files, c:\windows\Program
Files (x86) etc.

The portable app(lications) shipped with the product are numerous, and the
package is immensely useful. But I want to create two portable apps that
are currently not part of the product (which, incidentally, is free).

Arthur



On Fri, May 26, 2017 at 11:38 AM, Jim Lawrence <accessd at shaw.ca> wrote:

> Hi Arthur:
>
> In theory, anything is possible especially in applications. Of course it
> depends what you are looking for.
>
> How much muscle does your smartphone have?
>
> Jim
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