What tools, software & applications do I use?
This post is intended as a couple of things. Firstly, I’ve actually had a couple of people ask me what tools I use for various tasks so I’m going to compile a list of the various applications I use ‘every day’. That’s in quotes as obviously I don’t use all of these tools EVERY day but I consider them part of the list of tools I couldn’t do without. I don’t use anything particularly special but I’ll make this list for those that’ve asked anyway. Secondly, I keep meaning to make a list of tools I use for my own reference so it’ll double as that, too. This is also my first post for a while and because I’m not working at right now I’m battling to find infrastructure stuff to blog about … haha.
I’m not going to go into a whole load of detail about what the benefits of each one are – I’ll let you work that out for yourself if you want to try them (feel free to contact me if you want to discuss any of these though). I will include a couple of things which aren’t strictly applications too, e.g. hosting services. So, here we go – these details are correct as at July 9th, 2009.
Operating system :: Windows 7 RC1
Email client :: None, I use Gmail on the web and occasionally through my iPod Touch (no, I don’t have an iPhone)
Development environment :: Visual Studio Express (C#)
Text editor :: Notepad++ w/ Powershell syntax highlight add-on
FTP client :: FileZilla
Primary browser :: Firefox 3.5
Twitter client :: mixero
Password storage :: Any Password Pro
iPod manager :: iTunes (yeah yeah, comment if you need to!)
CD/DVD burner :: Burn4Free and ImgBurn
Photo processing :: Capture One 4.8
Antivirus :: Kaspersky Internet Security 8
Movie conversion :: M2 Convert for iPod
Fitness management :: Polar ProTrainer 5
Instant messaging :: Windows Live Messenger and Skype
Audio conversion :: SoundTaxi
Movie player :: VLC (everyone should use this although it struggles with the TSCC codec unfortunately)
Audio player :: Winamp
Archiving utility :: Winzip 12.1 Pro
One thing you might notice is they’re pretty much all free tools with the exception of Winzip, Capture One, SoundTaxi, M2 Convert for iPod, Kaspersky and Polar Pro Trainer 5, all of which I own licenses for (no they’re not pirated!).
Website host :: ICDSoft – these guys are AMAZING. I wouldn’t use anyone else for Unix hosting.
Email service :: Gmail
Blogging engine :: Wordpress 2.8
Online photo sharing :: Flickr (I own a ‘Pro’ account)
RSS feed management :: FeedBurner
Website statistics :: Google Analytics
Search engine :: Altavista … haha yeah right. 
Bookmarks :: Delicious – I stopped using browser-based bookmarks many years ago.
At the moment I’m also testing bbPress, phpBB and Simple:Press for a new website that might be going live shortly. I’ll provide more details when the people involved feel it’s ready to be ‘revealed’.
That’s about it really. As I said earlier I’m happy to discuss any of these if you like – just post a comment or use the Contact Me link at the top of the page.
Thanks!
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