I just found some
Portable Applications that work on a USB key. Included in the set is Gimp (photo editing) FileZilla (an FTP client) A web editor, and xampp (php, mysql and apache)
This means that I can set these apps up on my usb key and tinker with vbulletin code whereever I am. Right now, I can't have a test vbulletin on my laptop because I can't have personal software on my work PC. And, I can't have it on the computers at my night job either. I'm going to give the USB key applications a shot and see if this doesn't give me a good test bed for mod development.