IRC Log from 2014-02-07
01:26:54 *** TRS-80 (d0365a8f@gateway/web/freenode/ip.208.54.90.143) has joined #portableapps
01:27:07 <TRS-80> Hello!
01:28:12 <TRS-80> Anyone around?
01:31:59 <Gizmokid2005> TRS-80: some are. if you have a question, just ask. If someone can reply they will.
01:35:34 <TRS-80> Aah, OK thanks.
01:36:54 <TRS-80> What I would like to do is set up some portable apps on a USB stick, to keep my settings the same between my main PC and my laptop. Can I do that and still make them the system default however (eg. Thunderbird, Opera browser, etc.)?
01:37:44 <Gizmokid2005> TRS-80: most apps will likely not be able to maintain the system default. At some point we forcibly made sure they couldn't be due to the fact that they're portable.
01:38:01 <Gizmokid2005> It could theoretically work though, I'm not 100% positive.
01:38:47 <TRS-80> Yeah, doing some reading, it seems possible with some workarounds, at least for email (Thunderbird) and browser (FF or Opera).
01:38:54 <Gizmokid2005> I would expect so
01:39:01 <Gizmokid2005> at least with the apps running they'll take precedence usually
01:39:37 <TRS-80> Well, I think to be system default, they need to be in the registry somehow. Which is fine with me on my own 2 computers.
01:40:19 <TRS-80> I would want the "portable" aspects more for the continuity of settings between computers, and not as much for the "leave no trace behind" part.
01:40:52 <Gizmokid2005> You could also setup some kind of simple symlinks with a service like Dropbox to keep things sync'd
01:41:01 <Gizmokid2005> though that doesn't help the 'leave no trace' issue
01:41:13 <Gizmokid2005> one thing to note, if you do make them the default, you'll wind up leaving traces behind though.
01:42:05 <TRS-80> Yeah I actually had mapped my Opera preferences and settings folder to be synced thru SugarSync, you wouldn't believe the number of cache files it generated.
01:42:56 <Gizmokid2005> oh I would :)
01:43:04 <TRS-80> which then in turn started having a lot of conflicts of their own in SS, due to the sheer volume of them I am guessing
01:43:10 <Gizmokid2005> I've used both Dropbox and Owncloud for my syncing...it's interesting
01:43:35 <Gizmokid2005> IMO I think it's likely that owncloud handles them better of the two, but if both machines are using files at the same time, you'll run into a lot of issues.
01:44:03 <TRS-80> yeah I am moving to a combination of dropbox + google drive as we speak, because SugarSync just eliminated their free plan
01:44:27 <TRS-80> and the lowest paid plan they have is much more than I need
01:44:38 <Gizmokid2005> I self-host my Owncloud, but still use dropbox, largely for the few apps I use that can only use that as their sync providers :(
01:45:44 <TRS-80> yeah I plan on placing a truecrypt volume into dropbox with some backups in it, I hear those work well together
01:46:49 <TRS-80> and I am making another TC volume on a USB stick with some other things on it, figured I would try out a few portable apps on there while I was at it
01:46:57 <Gizmokid2005> Yeah, I wouldn't know why not. it's just one big file
01:47:02 <Gizmokid2005> I used to run everything in a truecrypt container
01:47:14 <Gizmokid2005> I haven't tried setting it back up since I switched to my super fast USB3 flash drive though.
01:48:19 <TRS-80> well the issue becomes the delta updates, aparently dropbox will update only the changed parts and not the whole container. Others may do it too, but I found a lot of comfirmations of dropbox doing it, so I figured I would start there.
01:48:45 <Gizmokid2005> interesting...I'm not sure how that woudl work
01:48:50 <Gizmokid2005> because...the container isn't a bunch of small files
01:48:52 <Gizmokid2005> it's one big one...
01:49:30 <TRS-80> yes but apparently DB hashes the one big file into a bunch of small chunks, and then will only update the changed chunks
01:50:01 <TRS-80> for it to work, you need to add the files into an existing mounted TC volume, and then unmount it, and then DB will sync the changed bits
01:50:19 <TRS-80> that is what I have read anyway, I am setting it up now and will see if it works
01:50:31 <Gizmokid2005> That would be pretty neat
01:50:39 <Gizmokid2005> good luck!
01:50:46 <TRS-80> thanks :)
01:51:57 <TRS-80> so, back to the portable thing, do you think I will be able to make a couple apps (email and browser mainly) the system default on the 2 systems I own, while still staying fully portable say if I plug into a friends computer?
01:52:21 <Gizmokid2005> I wouldn't know why not. Not 100% positive, but you'll most likely definitely not break the portable versions
01:52:50 <TRS-80> I just want the convenience of being able to click a link and have it open in Opera. Copying and pasting it can get to be a pain, ya know?
01:54:10 <TRS-80> alright, well I guess I will take a stab at setting it up then. Just didn't want to spend the time doing all that if it wsn't going to work anyway.
01:54:24 <Gizmokid2005> I definitely do
01:54:28 <Gizmokid2005> I can't see why it wouldn't work
01:54:35 <Gizmokid2005> like you said, it might require some registry tweaks or something
01:54:37 <Gizmokid2005> but it should be doable.
01:55:03 <TRS-80> yeah I am thinking so, just thought I would ask someone with a little more experience using portable apps
01:55:21 <Gizmokid2005> TRS-80: I think there's two apps that might work
01:55:29 <Gizmokid2005> one is eXpresso and C.A.F.E.
01:55:42 <Gizmokid2005> I'm not sure if they're both actively developed and used, but last I knew those were options to help with what you were doing.
01:55:56 <TRS-80> yeah I started reading a bit on it, it seems doable
01:55:56 <Gizmokid2005> This also may help: http://portableapps.com/node/25189
01:56:15 <Gizmokid2005> this as well: http://portableapps.com/node/37743
01:56:28 <Gizmokid2005> remember TRS-80 - it's not officially supported, but it theoretically should work.
01:56:56 <TRS-80> I have just spent like 2-3 days researching encryption and other things, was just trying to save myself some time by asking someone with more experience in portable apps
01:57:16 <Gizmokid2005> This is a good place :) I don't think a lot of people try to do what you do though
01:57:18 <TRS-80> yeah thanks, one of those links is purple already, so I guess I've already been there :)
01:57:21 <Gizmokid2005> I use all of my portable apps as my main apps
01:57:32 <Gizmokid2005> but I don't worry about default associations because the apps are always running.
01:58:17 <TRS-80> mine would be too, usually, but say you click some link, it will open in whatever the system default browser is, even if you have your preferred browser open
01:58:23 <TRS-80> it's a bit dumb, really
01:58:50 <TRS-80> I mean like a link in a program, or elsewhere, not in the browser where you are already browsing
01:59:02 <TRS-80> or in an email, etc...
01:59:08 <Gizmokid2005> I don't have that email problem
01:59:11 <Gizmokid2005> but I can understand the link on
01:59:13 <Gizmokid2005> *one
01:59:29 <Gizmokid2005> Firefox is my default browser on all the PCs I use (local installs) so it just routes to the open process when I click a link
02:00:14 <TRS-80> yes but then how do you sync settings across all installs? or history?
02:00:31 <TRS-80> bookmarks I actually handle completely separately...
02:01:03 <Gizmokid2005> I don't worry about it, because I always use FirefoxPortable
02:01:10 <Gizmokid2005> but my mac and portable version of firefox are using FF Sync
02:01:21 <Gizmokid2005> so bookmarks/history/passwords/etc are just sync'd
02:01:26 <Gizmokid2005> use it on my phone/tablet too
02:02:14 <TRS-80> hmm, haven't tried ff on android, I prefer Dolphin
02:02:34 <TRS-80> and usually Opera is my daily driver, but I use FF for some things on PC
02:02:37 <Gizmokid2005> My ONLY gripe with FF on Android is the long startup time for the first site after it gets unloaded from memory.
02:02:45 <Gizmokid2005> other than that, I love it. So much
02:02:48 <Gizmokid2005> it's just easy and intuitive to use
02:02:52 <Gizmokid2005> and I'm used to how it works.
02:02:55 <TRS-80> yeah I love Opera but not on Android lol
02:03:49 <TRS-80> maybe I will have to look into what you are doing, that would be nice "one browser to rule them all" lol
02:04:10 <TRS-80> I just think that certain browsers are better for certain things, especially cross platform
02:04:38 <Gizmokid2005> yeah, see I don't have any issues with FF on OSX, Windows, Android or Fedora/CentOS (in the VMs I use it)
02:04:43 <Gizmokid2005> and it's always consistent
02:04:46 <Gizmokid2005> I can rely on the keyboard commands
02:04:57 <Gizmokid2005> it's FOSS, they're doig a lot to help the privacy of the average user
02:04:58 <Gizmokid2005> etc
02:05:23 <TRS-80> that's why I have my bookmarks in a series of interlinked simple html files, which are synced across devices using Google drive, that way it's browser agnostic
02:06:10 <Gizmokid2005> That's why I use sync though :)
02:06:26 <Gizmokid2005> it also makes it SUPER easy on android to send tabs to my desktop for "bigger" viewing without having to bookmark/email/etc
02:06:38 <Gizmokid2005> I can share to Firefox Sync and send it to the firefox install that's linked to my desktop
02:06:39 <Gizmokid2005> and voila!
02:07:13 <TRS-80> yeah I tried to do that, once upon a time, with Opera, but their Android app was crap at the time. Sounds like it's time to re-examine FF on all platforms
02:07:59 <TRS-80> it's just so slow on PC, it's just as bad as IE now, I hate to say it. I am used to Opera, so much faster
02:08:23 <Gizmokid2005> See, FF has been WAY super fast for me
02:08:27 <TRS-80> and believe me I am a big fan of FF and FOSS in general
02:08:30 <Gizmokid2005> they made some HUGE improvements after V20
02:08:36 <Gizmokid2005> and even more after v24
02:08:49 <Gizmokid2005> I've never run into a speed issue with mine and I usually have 30 tabs open and loaded
02:09:02 <Gizmokid2005> and of course, YMMV as always
02:09:22 <TRS-80> just takes forever to load initially (forever = 2 more seconds, lol)
02:09:29 <TRS-80> maybe 3 lol
02:09:32 <Gizmokid2005> but I've found that Firefox supports more stuff than Opera (the last time I checked it had better HTML5 support, faster benchmarks and also support GPUs on windows)
02:10:02 <Gizmokid2005> I don't trust chrome really. I like google's services, but their browser absolutely feels like IE take 2.
02:10:27 <TRS-80> I have barely used it.. I think I tried once and put it back down immediately.
02:10:53 <TRS-80> but did you know Opera is no longer continuing to develop their own engine?
02:11:22 <Gizmokid2005> I'm really not surprised
02:11:25 <Gizmokid2005> what's their base going to be now?
02:11:28 <TRS-80> instead they are going to start using the same underlying engine as chrome, and start contributing to that codebase
02:11:36 <TRS-80> :( /sadpanda
02:11:54 <Gizmokid2005> figures...
02:12:06 <TRS-80> Google is getting out of hand
02:12:27 <TRS-80> I can only hope that Opera influence (the browser engine at least) for the better
02:14:48 <TRS-80> Alright, well thanks for the input. And nice chatting with you. :)
02:15:08 <TRS-80> I think I will hang around for a few in case anyone else comes back from afk and has anything else to add...
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08:17:34 <pa_2287> Hello
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11:02:48 <aggelos_> hi
11:03:20 <aggelos_> i am looking for dolfin portable
11:03:44 <aggelos_> can you help me?
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