Those great guys over at Blue Blots have made a list of 35 the decently abnormal USB drive designs on the market today. And by decently abnormal, I don’t mean a thumbdrive that has a company logo printed on it, and that’s all.

There’s usb drives shaped like pizza, sperm, Lego, keys, carabinas, even a decapitated teddy bear. This is mostly for show, but there’s one that I have previous experience with, namely the USB batteries that charge via USB but are normal AA batteries. Pretty damn cool and they still work.

Sadly, they missed out on the dog that does sit-ups…

[Via Blue Blots Via Digg]

One of the most major problems in the software market is that of piracy, and for the most part this has been dealt with quite badly. Over time, more and more copy protection systems have been put to work to stop unpaid software usage, whilst at the same time creating even more hoops for legitimate customers to jump through in order to use the software they’ve actually bought…

Cue this screenshot (click to see it properly) from USB Overdrive X:

A couple of things. Firstly, hats off to the developer for realising that using even more DRM would hurt the consumer.
Secondly, this is brilliant. Guilt-tripping would-be pirates and yet still allowing the use of the software, hoping that the user would do the right thing in the end, and if I were reading this on software I would certainly think about it.
Thirdly, “Shame On Me” button: Epic…

[Via Digg]

Now, I’m the kind of guy that like the idea of being able to take my work with me wherever I go. Many of us that work on computers do, it’s a fact. However, there are many occasions where a laptop just won’t do. For example, if I’m visiting relatives and I know that the younger family members are quite boisterous, then I won’t really be happy on bringing my Macbook with me, lest they suddenly want to play World of Warcraft. In real life. Using my computer as a shield.
Online versions of software are perfectly fine, but generally they function in a way that I find lacking. I want pretty much all of the functionality of a proper install of the software, not a heavily cut-down version.

PortableApps.com seems to be a good compromise. You download an installer (or a suite if you can spare the space and bandwidth to get it) and put it onto a USB thumbdrive. The next time you plug that flash memory into a computer (Windows), it’s own version of the Start menu appears, containing the list of applications you have got installed. And all of these programs run from the memory, without installing them onto the PC itself.

Sure, they’re a bit slow to initially load, but once each program is running they go pretty damn fast. And by default for most software in it, the saved files go onto the flash drive itself. And they have a good list of software, from the obvious Firefox to OpenOffice.org, and even the Gimp. I therefore have my favourite browser with the plugins I want and all of my favourites list intact wherever I go. There’s even an antivirus, making it even more useful if you have to clean a PC for someone in an emergency.

If you have a flash drive big enough (and you probably do. I own a few including a cheap 8 Gig drive), I would suggest at least trying PortableApps. It’s near enough a replacement of a laptop, and my last resort.