Complete Works, save it into a /Books directory
on your keydrive, and you’ll have the whole enchilada. Next, why not grab some Twain, Dickens, or
Tolstoy? It’s easy to create a free, giant bookshelf
of classics.
If you have room, try Gutenberg’s “Best Of”
canon of world literature, EText #11220. This
includes over 600 works — a lifetime of reading
— but you’ll need at least 750MB of space.
Every Gutenberg book is available as plain text,
so you can read them in your favorite browser or
text editor without special software. Many are
also available formatted in HTML, Plucker, DVI,
EPS, and other formats, for easier reading.
Hack #3: Reference Library
You can apply Hack #2 to put a wealth of reference information at your fingertips, in addition to
literature. Here are 12 reference titles available
from Project Gutenberg, listed along with their
searchable EText numbers:
» Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, #673
» Roget’s Thesaurus, #22
» Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia
(first volume), #200
» The Nuttall Encyclopedia, #12342
» CIA World Factbook, #6344
» US Census Figures Back to 1630, #115
» Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, #16732
» Toaster’s Handbook: Jokes, Stories, and
Quotations, #12444
» Handy Dictionary of Poetical Quotations, #15119
» United States Constitution (without
Amendments), #5
» United States Bill of Rights, #2
» Dewey Decimal Classification, #12513
» Etiquette, by Emily Post, #14314
Hack #4: A Retro Gaming Device
Along with a bit of determination, the free game
machine emulator called MAME opens up a world
of portable gaming, letting you run classic arcade-style games on any computer. First, download and
install the MAME software on your keydrive. Again,
which software depends on your platform.
MAME enables your computer to emulate any
of a large collection of gaming devices. Download and install MAME onto your keydrive. Then
you need to add the games themselves, which
are available online as ROM files. Some are in
Advance MAME
advancemame.sourceforge.net/
download.html
the public domain, others are for sale, and most
are protected by copyright — so be sure of your
source. Here are a few places to begin your search:
» MAME main site ROMs
mame.net/downmisc.html
» StarROMS authorized reseller
starroms.com
» ROM World
rom-world.com
As with the portable music player, you now
have your portable application and your content
files. Just plug and play!
Windows users can also download games that
run standalone, without MAME, at the Portable
Freeware Collection, listed below.
More to Explore:
Portable Applications
In Windows, typical computer programs must
be installed with a special setup program before
you can use them. A better approach, used on
Unix and the Mac for decades, lets you install
applications by simply copying or unpacking a
single file or directory. Thanks to the keydrive’s
popularity, many Windows developers are using
this approach to create new portable applications. Great open source programs like Firefox,
OpenOffice, and Thunderbird are now available as
portable applications that can be easily keydriven
from one computer to another. You can find good
portable applications at these sites:
» Portable Freeware Collection:
portablefreeware.com/about.php
» U3 portable application platform:
u3.com
» Portable (open source) apps:
usbapps.com
» Free Open Source Software Mac User Group
freesmug.org/portableapps
Russ Ethington is a software developer by day, inventor
by night, and occasional freelance writer who likes to take
things apart to see what makes them tick.
