Windows only: You’ve seen its flashy features and were impressed with its speed, and now you wish you could put Google Chrome on your thumb drive and take it with you wherever you go? It’s far from official, but German blogger Caschy has put together a portable version of Google Chrome you can run off your thumb drive. Just unzip the download to your thumb drive and run ChromeLoader.exe. All your Chrome settings and profile information now save to your thumb drive. This is a very early solution, and we’ll be keeping our eyes out for a more streamlined version from the folks at PortableApps, but if you’re dying to take Chrome with you, this Portable Chrome should do the trick. Portable Chrome (English translation) [Caschys Blog via Digital Inspiration]
You download hundreds of files to your computer on a weekly—and sometimes daily—basis, a practice that can take forever and has the potential to turn your organised filesystem into a cluttered nightmare. Here’s the five most popular tools our readers use to manage, organise, and speed up their downloads.
Less than 24 hours after the premiere of popular TV show Prison Break, P2P file sharers downloaded the episode close to one million times—even though you can watch the show for free, online, at Hulu and Fox.com. Why is this? Wired writer Betsy Schiffman argues it’s because file-sharing is habitual and convenient. The fact that one million people downloaded the show within 24 hours—a little less than one-sixth of the 6.5 million people who watched Prison Break on TV on Monday night—proves, though, that P2P isn’t going away just because there are legal alternatives now. “This is a group of people who define themselves in part by the technology they use and the application of that technology,” says Robert Rosenberg, president of Insight Research. “Chances are that this is only happening in a defined age group. You’d be hard-pressed to find 60 year-old guys passing this stuff off to their buddies.”
(That number also undoubtedly includes people outside the US who can’t use the Hulu or Fox options – AU ed.)
Robust online office suite Zoho has added a long-overdue file management and landing page for users, making it easier to view and edit word documents, spreadsheets, and slideshows without having to flip between browser tabs. Zoho Docs lets you preview documents in tabs within the page, manage the sharing and edit rights of any file with individuals or groups, and even chat with other people editing your Zoho stuff online. The drag-and-drop-interface, collapsible folders, and even blue and white interface might seem a little familiar to users of a certain other online suite, but it’s one of the few areas in which Zoho truly needed to play catch-up. Embedded below is a video demonstrating some of Zoho Docs’ offerings.
If you’re looking for the latest cool alternative tee, instead of checking Threadless, Busted Tees, and other specialty vendors, search them all at once at new T-shirt search engine PleaseDressMe. Simply search for a shirt by keywords (like fail whale or Obama), or browse by colour, price, or tag. Current tags range from things like “typography” to “american apparel,” depending on what you’re looking for. PleaseDressMe’s selection is decent for now, but hopefully it will expand over time. What are your favourite online T-shirt vendors? Shout ‘em out in the comments and help out PleaseDressMe with some ideas for expansion. PleaseDressMe [via Webware]
One helpful Ubuntu hacker blogger posts a guide to getting Google Chrome working as a stand-alone app in Ubuntu, using the latest version of the Windows translator WINE and a stand-alone copy of Chrome’s installer. You’ll definitely need your terminal open for this one, and the result isn’t exactly flawless—no https support, problems with pop-ups, and a bit slower than you’d get in Windows—but it is a neat way for dedicated Linux users to check out what all the fuss is about. If you’re not about to mess with WINE, try putting an emulated Chrome in its own window with our guide to running Windows apps seamlessly in Linux, or wait until the open-source browser eventually makes its way onto the open-source OS.
Install Google Chrome on Linux using wine [My Science is Better]
