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About a year ago, I outlined on a no-longer-existent blog how to install Windows Live Writer on a USB key, for those like myself who don’t have a laptop, and want to be able to post from any machine that they sit down at without having to use the admin interface.

I recently got it in my head to put WLW on my 4GB key along with Firefox, Thunderbird, and most of what’s available on PortableApps.com.   Scott released the third version of his WLW launcher a few months ago, and I decided it to give it another try. 

If you’ve already got Writer installed, all you’ll need to do is download the launcher from TechLifeWeb, and unzip it.  Copy the contents of the C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Writer folder to the \WindowsLiveWriterPortable folder that you unzipped, and then copy the whole thing to your USB key.  Find the WindowsLiveWriterPortable.exe file on the key, and launching that will launch WLW.

The only drawback to this, though, is that the blogs that you had previously configured don’t move over into the portable version of WLW, so you’ll need to set up all of your accounts again.  It was nice to see that the issue of all accounts on the desktop machine being removed has been fixed.  This was a gotcha that I posted about, and even commented on on TechLifeWeb.  I wasn’t aware that when I setup my accounts on the key, and then tried to use the previously installed version on my machine, they were all gone.  Glad to see that it’s fixed.

One of the biggest complaints in the second version of the launcher, was that it required Administrator rights to run.  In Windows XP this wasn’t a problem, but Vista was another matter.  This issue has also been resolved, so Vista users should have no troubles.  I have no reason to believe that it would be an issue in the beta and subsequent releases of Windows 7 either. 

So if you’re a dedicated WLW user, and don’t have a laptop that’ll allow you to work anywhere, try putting the app on your USB key and go to it.

If you’ve never tried Firefox, it might be a good idea to give it a try now that version 3 has been officially released.

While there are a number of great improvements in this version of the browser (with the memory leaks being fixed one of the most important), there was one feature that I wanted to fix as soon as I downloaded the official version this morning.

The Mozilla folks have ‘improved’ the address bar so that it shows a number of “suggestions” while you’re typing an address into the bar. At first these are based on popular sites, but eventually it’ll start picking up on your browsing history, and making suggestions based on that.

It’s hardly foolproof, though. When I enter “reader.” into the address bar, it should pick up on the fact that (based on my past browsing) I want reader.google.com to come up. But, neither of the two suggestions point to Google Reader. Instead they assume I mean a couple of GR sites on Blogger. And this is with me visiting the GR site on a daily basis.

So I set out to find out how to disable this feature, as it’s not something that I want in my browser. And Firefox is supposed to be the customizable browser, right?

So, with a bit of time on Google, I found the answer. You’ll need to enter ‘about:config‘ (minus the quotes) into the Firefox address bar, and make a change to one setting on the resulting page. In the filter, enter browser.urlbar.maxRichResults and the key should appear. Double click on it, and change the default value from 12 to 0. Once that’s done, the Firefox suggestions should stop.

This makes Firefox back into the browser that I want to keep using. Now if the add-on developers could finish making their add-ons compatible with the new version, it would be better still.

For the last year and a half or so, I’ve had a black Logiix silicone skin on my 2nd generation iPod Nano, and I’ve been more than impressed with it.  iPods have a tendency to scratch fairly easily, although I hadn’t seen much of this with mine, thankfully.

But it was getting to be time for a new skin, as the Nano was starting to slide out the bottom of the skin and I had visions of it bouncing off the floor sometime.  Not something that you want to have happen.

So I decided that I’d see what I could do about picking up a new silicone skin, preferably something other than black, as it was time for a change.  Headed to the store where I’d purchased my last one, and they didn’t seem to have any for the 2nd generation Nanos.  Lots for the 3rd gen, but I didn’t feel like buying a new iPod just to get a skin for it, y’know?

As I was getting ready to leave, I saw that they were on a different rack, kind of out of the way, so I spun the rack around looking for something that caught my eye.  That turned out to be the price.  Silicone skins were marked down from $12.99 to just 99 cents.  Cool.  Sometimes obsolescence can be a good thing.  I wound up buying three, a Logiix clear silicone, a black iSeal skin, and a Logixx Optic Alloy case, which was the expensive option ($1.99)

I put the clear Logiix skin on after I bought them and it worked out about as well as its black predecessor had.  The one complaint that I have about silicone skins is that you lose a fair bit of sensitivity in the click wheel.  The center button will be fine, but dragging my finger on the wheel has been sluggish or even non-responsive at times.

So this morning I opened up the Optic Alloy case to see if it was any different.  First thing I noticed was that, being a hard case, the screen protector is built in.  I don’t have much in the way of scratching on the display of my Nano, and it’s nice to see that I won’t be getting any more in the foreseeable future.

I slid the Nano into the case, and gave it a spin.  The whole thing feels a lot more substantial, and not quite as ‘delicate’ as the Nano felt when it wasn’t encased in the silicone skin. The Nano doesn’t slide around inside the case like it did with the metal one that I bought for my holidays last year. The wheel isn’t covered, so it’s as responsive as I would expect it to be if the device wasn’t encased.  The edges are rubber coated as well, so I don’t feel like it’s going to slip out of my hand when I’m trying to find something else to listen to.

Had I known about this case a year and a half ago, I’d have picked one up and used it all along.  Of course, then it was probably $39.99, but it would have been worth it.

If you’re not ready to be upgrading your 2nd generation Nano to a 3rd gen, or even a Touch, this would be the case I’d recommend picking up for your device, and quickly if at all possible - I wouldn’t imagine that too many retailers are going to be stocking 2nd gen accessories for too much longer.

I’ve emailed Logiix to ask them if they’ll continue to make the cases available for order online, but the response from them was that the case was no longer available, but new designs were being worked on.

If you’re able to pick up an Optic Alloy case from Logiix for your 2nd gen Nano, I highly recommend doing so.  This the only case that I’m going to be keeping on mine until it’s time to upgrade it to something newer.

Over the course of the last week or so, I’ve noticed that I’ve been having more and more problems logging in to Windows Live Messenger at work.  Usually I would have to try a couple of times to get it to login, but otherwise, it would report that it was attempting to sign in, but would just spin for ten minutes or so before I gave up on it.

This morning I decided that I’d use Pidgin instead, and got this interesting error:

Disconnected: Our protocol is not supported by the server.

WTF?  Microsoft trying to block other IM applications from accessing its server?  No, that wouldn’t make sense, because logging in with WLM should work.  Entered the error message into Google, and it appears to be a known issue with the latest version of AVG 8, but there was a fix listed:

• Open AVG
• Click Tools -> Advanced Settings
• Click on the ‘+’ beside Web Shield to expand it
• Select Instant Messaging, and untick the "Enable Instant Messaging Shield"
• After clicking OK you should be able to login to Messenger with no trouble

Note that there are a couple of options for enabling protection on ICQ and MSN.  Simply unchecking the box for MSN Protection isn’t enough.  You’re required to disable the Instant Messaging Shield.

This will also make AVG complain that you’re not fully protected, and it will report that the Web Shield is only partially functional.