http://ping.fm/Qh76t -- The Pale Blue Dot ... perspective.
It is a happy day, my new co-workers seem both highly clueful, and take to new technology quickly... *joy*
Cool little free mind-mapping online app that is keyboard friend, and even has decent colors: http://ping.fm/v0eEZ
finally, a weapon for dealing with stupid co-workers: http://ping.fm/OTVwW (4 levels of intensity!)
Patents Gone Wild: http://ping.fm/0HJzV
Ok Go - This too shall pass - Rube Goldberg Edition --> http://ping.fm/Tv2Yo (marching band version: http://ping.fm/zQ9GE)
Like canabalt(http://ping.fm/rg7Rp) if it were gay and loved unicorns (http://ping.fm/TSpQP) -- but oddly fun!
Dolphins are smart: http://ping.fm/IlsXE
http://ping.fm/XXEnw -- for the programmers, javascript is wierd.
We need more open debate in politics: http://ping.fm/ipYy4 (press: http://ping.fm/6RyBg) - Sign the Petition.
Great Talk; "Our Obsesssion with Efficiency" -> http://ping.fm/Icu41
YouTube Disco ... a music discovery tool ... interesting at least: http://ping.fm/rzuWO
Good article about the challenges of Wiki adoption: http://ping.fm/XAa6e
Must Have Windows Software
I recently saw http://www.catonmat.net/blog/must-have-windows-programs/ and got a bit inspired, his list and my list have a lot of overlap. This list is based on the assumption that you are using Windows 7 or Server 2008, so it will exclude things that aren't compatible or not-required.
In no specific order...
Open-Source Applications
- Vim - "The" editor by which all others are measured, use it, love it.
- Thunderbird - Still my primary email client, simple, clean, works well with imap and Gmail.
- Firefox - Still my primary browser, but has less momentum than Chrome.
- Chrome - The young upstart, gaining in popularity.
- Synergy - Control two computers (or more) with one keyboard and mouse.
- Autohotkey - More than just keybindings, automation and great features.
- 7-Zip - Great open-source compression utility, supports gobs of compressed file types.
- VLC - Amazing Multimedia player, supports lot of formats.
- Open Office - Rapidly closing the gap with Microsoft Office, already good enough for most users.
- X-Chat - Great open-source IRC client.
- Pidgin - IM client that supports dozens of networks, AIM, ICQ, MSN, etc.
- Inkscape - Open source vector editor.
- Everything - Amazing search engine for windows.
- Mingw - GNU compiler stack for windows.
- Ditto - Clipboard Manager, great.
- Gimp - Open source image editor.
- HeidiSQL - Great client for MySQL.
- Audacity - Sound editor.
- WinDirStat - Find where all that space on your drive went.
- TrueCrypt - Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux.
- TortoiseSVN - Explorer integration for subversion.
- InfraRecorder - CD Burning / Image Creation Utility.
- Freemind - Mind mapping software, great for taking notes.
- Git / Mercurial / Bazaar / Svn - Various console tools for version control, if you are a developer, you probably want them all.
- Putty - The most popular SSH client for window; for a reason!
- WinSCP - SFTP/SCP Client, just works.
Free Applications
- Foxit Reader - Fast free PDF viewer.
- Sysinternals Suite - Tons of fantastic utilities right from Microsoft.
- Virtual Clonedrive - Great virtual drive for mounting ISO's and such.
- Paint.NET - Minimalist free image editor.
- XML Notepad - Microsoft XML Notepad is a good little XML Editor.
- Teracopy - Improve file-copy performance and stability.
- Steam - Best way to buy and install games on windows, think of it as an appstore for games.
- Skype - Video-conference and VOIP, great software.
- iTunes - The well known audio/video player and portal the the Apple Store.
- HijackThis - Find out what is running on your system.
- Dropbox - Software that syncs your files online and across your computers.
- Defraggler - Great little defragger.
- CCCleaner - Keep the crud to a minimum.
- uTorrent - Tiny, awesome bittorrent client.
- Powershell - Microsoft powershell, don't underestimate it, try it out. This is part of the reason you don't need Cygwin.
Commercial Applications
- Beyond Compare - The best diff tool for files or directories.
- ViEMU - Enable vi-style editing in many Microsoft products.
- Hex Workshop - Great hex editor.
Anything I am missing, leave a comment.
Crackberry...
I am now officially a Crackberry convert:
- 3 Phone Numbers (one phone, one google voice, one skype)
- 4 Voice-mail systems (three with transcribing - YouMail, Google Voice and Visual Voicemail )
- 6 Email Address (1 via the Google Mail client(list-serv account), the rest via Blackberry Client)
- 2 MSN Messenger Accounts
- 2 Google Talk Accounts
- 1 Skype Account
- 1 AIM Account
- 1 Yahoo! Chat Account
- 1 IRC Account
- 1 Facebook Account
I got virtually every way I talk to people (except in person), on one device. All that it is missing is a Google Wave clients. Beyond that, I have found a lot of other killer applications that I use everyday. Including:
- Pandora/Slacker Radio/IHeartRadio
- Google Maps/Blackberry Maps
- Weather Network
- Opera/Bolt
- Flickr
- Poynt/Where
- Google Voice
- BeejiveIM
- iSkoot Skype
- MobiPocket
- Loopt
- GridMagic
- jmIrc
- Dub
- Speedtest
- All the built-ins (calendar integrated with outlook, visual voicemail, camera, voice memos, etc)
Consulting...
I am considering going back into the consulting game. There are certain things I absolutely love about it... 
- New people, interesting problems. I love tackling new unique problems, and getting involved with new teams.
- Getting paid for the time I spend working on a project, as a bit of a work-o-holic, this is a great fit for me.
- Flexiable hours, with my odd sleep schedule, this can be a killer feature for me.
- Ability to dodge corporate politics.
With of course, the major downsides of consulting...
- Lack of job security
- No medical insurance
- Risk of being "stiffed"
Going Social
Up until this year -- I didn't use ANY social networks, blogs, etc. Obviously, things have changed. When I first started poking around Facebook and Twitter. They reinforced my preconceptions, noisy, messy, and overloaded with data I don't care about. Underwhelming, self-important nonsense.
But, since people had started looking at me funny when I told them I did not have a twitter account, I decided to really buckle down and give these social tools a real shot. I played with different Twitter UI's like TweetDeck.. and found them very uncomfortable and unnatural. I found the follow model, interesting, but the lack of any rich content views and previews to be frustrating.
Beyond that, the group of people I wanted to interact with seemed to be spread across Walled Gardens. But, I had made a commitment to give all this social jazz (including blogging!) a real chance.
Enter FriendFeed, it is what twitter should have been. It is rich in its display, and has a "killer" features that make it a fantastic hub application (imaginary friends, groups). It can talk to from 58 (and counting) different services, including WONDERFUL integration (both directions) with twitter.
So... I am just starting this experiment of trying to open up my computing experience, I will continue from time to time to write up how it is going. Expect posts soon on FriendFeed, Delicious and the Programming for Facebook.
But, since people had started looking at me funny when I told them I did not have a twitter account, I decided to really buckle down and give these social tools a real shot. I played with different Twitter UI's like TweetDeck.. and found them very uncomfortable and unnatural. I found the follow model, interesting, but the lack of any rich content views and previews to be frustrating.
Beyond that, the group of people I wanted to interact with seemed to be spread across Walled Gardens. But, I had made a commitment to give all this social jazz (including blogging!) a real chance.
Enter FriendFeed, it is what twitter should have been. It is rich in its display, and has a "killer" features that make it a fantastic hub application (imaginary friends, groups). It can talk to from 58 (and counting) different services, including WONDERFUL integration (both directions) with twitter.
So... I am just starting this experiment of trying to open up my computing experience, I will continue from time to time to write up how it is going. Expect posts soon on FriendFeed, Delicious and the Programming for Facebook.