download tools

AutoUnpack - a program that tests all the downloads with quickpar then unpacks them deleting the rar and par2 files.

My secure thumbdrive

Thumb drives are getting bigger and cheaper - corporate laptops are restricted as to the software that you can have on them - so I thought why not create a little set of applications that run solely from the thumb drive. Of course I had to do it in a secure way - these things are getting so small it is just a matter of time until I lose one.

It was easier that I imagined - popped over to portableapps.com and downloaded their suite of apps. (very impressive)

Stopped by and downloaded truecrypt

downloaded the enigmail extension for Thunderbird Also picked up Gnu Privacy Guard

I first used Truecrypt to create a large encrypted file to contain all the software - I allocated 75% of a 1gig thumb - figuring on leaving enough room to use the unencrypted part for sneakerneting.

Just for giggles in addition to the normal strong password I created a key file on the root and named it secret key file - why not? this stuff is supposed to be fun.

Then I installed the portable apps into the encrypted partition

Added enigmail to thunbderbird (its a plug in)
and installed its necessary GnuPG to handle the encryption.