Re: I want to go geek .. and VPC?

["Patricia M. Godfrey" priscamg@xxxxxxxx]

Robert Holmgren wrote:
> Of course Editor would be downloaded! What good would these
> things be if you're in Timbuktu? Or if your computer won't
> boot? The WHOLE POINT is 100% self-contained!
I think perhaps we're confusing two different scenarios:
1. Your PC won't boot, you've got a deadline yesterday, and all your
files are on that box. Then, yes, you are
> scrambling, heart in throat, to get your files off that
> busted hard disk, or fix bad files.
2. A setup you can put on a flash drive and carry with you in place of
a laptop or PDA or smart phone. You can stick it in a friend or
relative's PC or a library workstation or a PC at Kinko's and run all
the apps you need. That's where I was thinking of Ghostscript etc.,
not in the BARTPE emergency-type situation.
> I made one of these things today. Size is 2.7Mb, without a lot
> of external files. But it installs, 100% hands-off, on a local
> machine, off the Net (just right-click in IE, and "Open" rather
> than "Save" the file -- and the next thing you see is *your
> familiar customized version* of XyWrite in a window!). It is
> very serviceable. I can run it on ANY Win32 machine. When I
> Quit, it erases itself and all trace of its existence. Pretty
> neat.
Yes, indeed. The advantage of that is that if, say, the library or
Kinko's won't let you put a flash drive in or run anything off it,
this would circumvent their security. (Let us all be profoundly glad
Robert is a Good Guy. One shudders to think what a Cracker, or Black
Hat Hacker, with his skills could do.)
> I also have a prototype of a Portable Rescue/Recovery
> installation *builder* which is highly personalized to each
> user's habits. This is being finetuned. It is targeted at
> BartPE. As for Patricia's requirement for Ghostscript printing,
> she is going to have to add that herself.
Sounds great. And I wasn't thinking of Ghostscript printing in such a
case. That was for the portable setup. Though you might want to think
(if you haven't already, but you probably have) of including the
Generic/Text Windows printer driver. There are certain Windows
utilities that won't generate a report file or even display one on
screen, but will print to paper. If you have that printer driver set
up to print to a file, you can do an end run around BBBG and get the
contents of that report.
> Portability simply requires
> a different organizational structure, that's all. End result is
> the same.
You mean there's a way to make Windows run applications that haven't
been installed? Or possibly to temporarily install them?
> And you don't need U3 to run apps off flash drives! There's a
> Firefox plugin for BartPE that works perfectly. There's a Java
> engine too. There's a ton of stuff.
Now I'm getting confused. I thought BartPE was for rescue in an
emergency (when, I can see, you might well need Firefox to get some
downloads). But I was talking about running Firefox in a non-emergency
situation, when one just didn't have one's own full PC, just a drive,
to hand.

--
Patricia M. Godfrey
PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx