Thumb drives

Damn the man.

At work, our IT team is a bit stringent on what we have on our Macs. As an associate editorial director, it's deemed that I wouldn't need something like Audacity or Handbrake. They have administrative locks on our machines so I can't go download these gems, but I've managed to get around it using my trusty thumb drive.

The nice thing about running apps off a thumb drive is that you never have to worry about installing things onto the work desktop and getting flagged. Generally, I carry Portable Firefox preferences, the above mentioned Audacity, a few little games and the ohh so helpful KillBox on my drive (a Scandisk Micro Cruiser).

In all, I've learned that I'd much rather just take a thumb drive with me than a laptop. I don't have to pull the thumb drive out of my bag at airport security checks, don't get hassled by Campbell-Ewald's IT team and I still get to be the annoying tech geek at the office.

What about you guys? Any portable apps you're fond of? Do you use your portable drive? Oh, this particular post was inspired by a comment string for a poll on thumb drives over at Lifehacker. Click the link to check it out. As a side note, probably no blog tomorrow until late. I'm in Chicago all day for a creative presentation to Chevy .

Flashback

So, I'm back to testing software. I'm currently taking a look at the ModX CMS platform for a project I'm helping pitch with Work.

I've also been busily getting ready for the holiday season. Thankfully most of the shopping has already been done. Vita and I are simply in the stage of getting ready for the flurry that will be visiting our extended family. We'll be spending some down time together as well before she hits the general surgery rotation.

Aside from all that business, we're charging ahead on the wedding. And if I can commit to one of the several templates I designed for a mini site a few months back, I could finally get a mini page up to replace our spot over at The Knot.

I'm also toying with redesigning the old danieleizans.com. This thing will be 2 years old in June, meaning it's almost overdue for a redesign.

Just a quick update. Look for my ModX templates soon.

Losing track of days

On the iPod - "Coffee" - Copeland

Hello friends.

Sorry for the long delay. I've been busy with holiday activities, meeting lots of my girlfriend's family and traveling. I've been off since last week and have really enjoyed the time off. I can't remember a time when I've actually awoken and not known what day it was.

This year, I was the recipient of a brand spankin new version of the Adobe Creative Suite 2.3. So far, I'm impressed. I use the same software on my work machine, but since my home PC is far and away more powerful, it's even better.

I've been using the Photoshop program to work on some bad photos of the dog. Next step is a new digital cam for me.