Avalon Greene's Place

Info, reviews and fun stuff!

A few months back I found this place called portableapps.com. This website offers a platform and various applications which can be run from a USB stick. Back in the day I was mostly interested in the XAMPP application. This application is a complete webserver containing Apache, mySQL, PHP and Perl (the AMPP in XAMPP) that all run from a removable drive. Everything is pre-configured and ready to go just by unzipping or installing it.

The full XAMPP package includes:

• Apache
• MySQL
• PHP + PEAR
• MiniPerl
• OpenSSL
• phpMyAdmin
• XAMPP Control Panel
• Webalizer
• Mercury Mail Transport System
• FileZilla FTP Server
• SQLite
• ADODB
• Zend Optimizer
• XAMPP Security

I specially liked this application as you can run and edit websites without the need of a public server with php and/or MySQL.

The Xampp userpanel is easy to use and looks slick. With one press on the button you are able to activate and deactivate a function, or enter the admin panel to change settings.

Now it is nice to run a webserver on your USB stick but thats not all I wanted. I installed the portableapps platform and modded it. This gave me the change to change the layout theme to something I like more. After that I went to install some other applications.

I installed the following applications to use while building websites, or atleast pretend that I can build websites.

• XAMPP, this is used to run the webservers.
• FileZilla Portable, this is used for a ftp connection. Not that this is needed but looked like fun
• GIMP Portable, for the graphic touches.
• Firefox Portable, I just enjoy using firefox so it had to be there.
• Thunderbird Portable, when testing mail scripts and such.
• Nvu Portable, a simple WYSIWYG html/php editor. A mix of Frontpage and Dreamweaver.

Here a little picture of the FileZilla Server window and FileZilla connected.

Well, this is my portable USB webserver. Reactions are welcome. Tips, ideas and what else can be left in comments.

Most people out there heard about mozilla, and even more use their browser called FireFox. If you ask them about it they will tell you it’s one of the best browser out there. But what makes it so populair. A big part of that are the extensions out their for this browser that are made to make surfing the world wide web much easyer for their users.

As almost every extension is usefell or good I tried my best to make a list with the top 5 extensions.

Fasterfox (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1269/)
Fasterfox allows you to tweak many network and rendering settings such as simultaneous connections, pipelining, cache, DNS cache, and initial paint delay.

IE Tab (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1419/)
No matter how much we kick and scream, some sites will not work properly in Firefox. That’s where this handy little extension comes in handy, so you don’t even have to leave Firefox.

PDF Download (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/636/)
Nothing breaks a good flowing surfing session than the clunky load-time of Adobe Reader. This extension first asks you if you want to save the PDF, before it attempts to pry it open.

Tab Mix Plus (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1122/)
One of the main reasons I got into Firefox in the beginning was its tabbed browsing. This extension takes tabs even further.

FlashGot (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/220/)
If you use an external download manager like most people do, chances are you’ll need this extension to make it work properly with Firefox.

If you know any plugins that help your internet pleasure more let me know. Always looking for new plugins that make it all go faster!

Already told you people about Wakoopa. But as I lost all my posts and wanted to bring something up quick I will just write a new review about it. Wakoopa is a program to keep track about the programs you use. With this information the website can show you how you use your computer. Is it gaming, or programming, or just simple media usage.

The tracker is out for Windows machines but also for all you out there that rather use Linux. And for the people that don’t want people to see everything they can turn the tracker down or remove the stats from their profile!