Portable Applications

[Camy]

If you travel around and use different computers then it's dashed annoying not to have you favourite programs with you, and more than irritating not to have your bookmarks, passwords and such, to hand.

I've now got a USB stick that carries most of the software I use on a daily basis. I can plug it in, do my thing, and leave, all without leaving personal data. All you need is a USB stick or a data card.

It's well worth checking out.

http://portableapps.com/

[The Pecman]

Everybody has gotten very paranoid where I work, since our company was bought by a major megacorporation a few years back. One of the internal IT guys assured us that there are keyloggers in every computer in the building, so "big brother" is looking over our shoulder, looking at every website we visit, reading every email we type, etc. ("Every step you take... every move you make...")

For that reason, many of the employees have taken to bringing in their own laptops and doing all personal computing work on the free client WiFi line in the building. That, we've been assured, is not being spied upon.

Still, it's scary. USB stick or not, if there's background software looking at every keystroke you do, it won't matter if you're on one of your employer's computers.

[Res Ipsa Loquitur]

Deleted

[The Pecman]

Honestly, nothing done online is private. You can take some steps so that the average person can't find out who you are and what you are doing, but there is really absolutely no privacy online.

That is 100% correct. If somebody really, really wants to go to the trouble and expense, they can track everything you do on the net.

Here in the U.S., there have been lawsuits over employees' rights to privacy, but it was ruled that if it's the company's computers and the company's internet connection, the employee forfeits virtually all of their privacy. That especially includes goofing off, sending personal emails, going on porno & gambling sites, eBay, etc.

I personally know of an employee at another company who was fired after his bosses figured out he was doing about 3 hours of work a day, and screwing around on the net 5 hours a day. Incredibly, it took them a month to figure this out.