Software I Can’t Live Without

Well I tried to restrain it but the inner geek in me just had to come out. Over time I have tried a multitude of different software for all sorts of purposes, and over time have come to love and embrace a few favourites, and even sit back and continue to watch a few in development. Let’s face it; the computer is developing rapidly with the web embracing social networks such as MySpace and Facebook. Well below, I will quickly skim over some of the software I have come to love, depend on or simply watch for when it will become usable to the point for everyday use. I have separated them into nice little categories and will try to keep it to plain English for all my non-technically minded friends out there.

Web Browsing

Let’s face it, the only important word to say here is “Firefox”. If you are still using internet explorer, I feel sorry for you. I stuck with internet explorer for way too long because I liked to be able to sync my 1000s of bookmarks (That’s right, I said 1000s) between all my computers. This was particularly useful for managing uni research between my laptop and desktop. But then I discovered Google Bookmarks Sync and made the switch. Now I have never looked back. This is because Firefox is so customisable. There are so many different add-ons available for Firefox that make it so much more of a superior browser. This is what this part of the blog is about. Not the security, speed or other similar (often technical) parts of Firefox that non-nerds find boring, but rather the various add-ons I have come to love and use often in Firefox making me such a fan of this lovely piece of software.

I will start with bookmark syncing. While Google Bookmark Sync is no longer supported by Google and doesn’t function in Firefox 3, there is a new kid on the block. “Weave” is its name. It is currently in rapid development with version 0.2 being the latest. It lets you create an account and with the add-on on each Firefox install, sync things like bookmarks, saved passwords and all sorts of wonderful things. Be aware, it’s still early days and some features don’t work. But if you just want to sync your lovely bookmarks, then it is a go.

The next add-on I love will be a double combo. “Adblock Plus” and “NoScript” when used together will not only save you a headache in terms of keeping the viruses at bay but also keeping most of the ads of your screen.  That means I don’t see those stupid flash ads, pictures and what not that cover MySpace, Facebook and any other webpage I come across. Adblock Plus accomplishes this in a very simple fashion that requires no user intervention. Install and forget. NoScript is a little more technical so may require a little more technical knowledge. But basically it prevents webpage loading java, flash and other things that while often very useful, can also be a security risk. When you visit a page for the first time, you will have to whitelist the site which is very easy, but this allows only the site you want to visit to load, whilst keeping the code of non related stuff such as ads, tracking material, or even virus from loading. As I said, it’s a bit more hands on, but well worth it.

The next one is “PicLens”. This little wonder I only recently discovered but what it allows is viewing pictures of certain sites (Google image search, Facebook, MySpace etc) in a very cool sliding wall style in which they can be viewed at a much faster speed, and allows zooming into selected pictures. Google for it and check out the website for pictures as they will show you exactly how cool this add-on is in ways I can’t describe.

Finally, the last add-on that gets a lot of use is “Zotero”. I’ll be honest and say that I am still learning to fully use this one, but it is proving to be very helpful. If you’re a student and have ever had to look over lots of articles on journal databases and sites for research, then this add-on will help organise it all. You add pages that you’re looking at to Zotero, then can tag it, sort it and leave comments for each. Perfect for managing the large number of journal articles that I come across and need to store for later use when writing the assignment.

Socialising

With so many Messaging clients out there (MSN, Yahoo, AIM etc) and some users like myself using multiple of these, it is great to have them in one place. To be able to chat in one piece of software to all my contacts over the various networks and also have it sync with the actual servers. Now I know there are a few competitors in this area, but one also adds the ability to work with Facebook, MySpace, twitter and link in with any email address you have (hotmail, Gmail, pop3 etc). The software I am talking about is “Digsby” and is very still under constant development. But it is functioning well on my computer and has completely replaced all the other chat clients I used. Having the ability to draw so much together (time saving) is what the internet revolution is all about.

Media

Software for viewing and playing music files, videos and what not on your computer is a very saturated area. Most people use iTunes, but frankly I am not a fan of either iTunes or apple in general (issue for another day). I currently use windows media player for my extremely large collection of music files. The reasoning is based on performance with the library and searching, and it plays the wma files I have. While it may not be perfect, it does the job. However this is not a recommendation for WMP. One piece of software I am keeping a close eye on is “Songbird”. This media player is being created to compete directly with iTunes. But where it differs is that it is linked to Mozilla, and is designed to allow for the exact same sort of add-on ability that I love in Firefox. It is also looking to integrate the web with the media player. Something that the competition in my opinion does not do well, if at all. The current version available has a few problems, but the developers are extremely active, and the coming version 0.7 in my opinion will have brought the software to the point that it can replace windows media player for my audio pleasure. Now for videos I use one piece of software. “VLC” is a fantastic piece of software that to date has played every video file I have put into it. DVDs and what not all get put through this software and it does the job in excellent picture quality.

Everyday

Now for everyday software, I thought I would touch on two things. Uni and communication/personal life organising. For any uni student, referencing can be a bitch. It is something that is required to a very high degree, and can take a lot of time to not only learn but get right every time you add a quote of paraphrase in an assignment. That is why I use “Endnote”. Luckily my uni has this available to students free of charge, but it is an absolute life saver. I add any piece of material that I come across in research, and then when it comes time to cite it in word, a selection of the book or material in endnote, a quick shortcut combo and it adds it in perfect format. It will also add the end text citation if it isn’t there already (again, in perfect formatting). While it does take some configuring, the end result is that referencing is done in the correct formatting every time and it speeds up the process considerably.

The last pieces of software I have come to rely on are “Thunderbird” and “Sunbird”. Thunderbird is an email application equivalent (but better) to such software as outlook express, and sunbird is an application that serves as a calendar. With all my many email accounts in thunderbird, and many calendars for both work and pleasure in sunbird, it is easy and even pleasurable to manage my communication and schedule. The real advantage of these software is that they are from the guys that make Firefox, Mozilla, which means they have also been made to incorporate the add-ons. The only one I will mention is “Zindus” for thunderbird. This allows syncing your contacts to Gmail and in my case, allows me to have almost the same install of thunderbird on two computers complete with all emails for the same accounts being downloaded on both (thunderbird settings here) and contacts being updated across the board (Zindus here).

While I have gone over quite a few pieces of software with what in my view are many benefits for their use. The best part about all of them is they are all free (Except Endnote). In this day and age, free software is readily available and in many cases, far outperforms the competition that charge money. However I will get back to the core of what these pieces of software do for me. They all allow for a much richer and enjoyable web experience and they all integrate everything together much more nicely. Hopefully you have come across some new software that you may consider using, and feel free to leave comments as to any that you use.