Arbitrary Deranged Digressions

Software I use [the most]:

* Mozilla Thunderbird email client. I install this on all my machines, Mac Linux or Windows. I used to use Eudora but Thunderbird has much better IMAP support. I miss Eudora; it did some things much faster than Thunderbird. I think if TBird would automatically open multiple message windows, and they then worked the way I think they should, I'd like it a little better. :-)

* Mozilla Firdbird web browser. 'nuff said. On Windows, I toss in "Tabbrowser Extensions" so when I open a URL from email or my desktop, it opens in a new tab.

* Safari Web Browser. Mac-only. Works great, and syncs bookmarks with .Mac. I wish I could sync more (bookmarks, address books, spam score DB) across my machines.

* Adium. Mac AIM client. It also does stuff like Yahoo, but I've never bothered.

* AOL Instant Messenger. Windows AIM client. Does file transfers, etc. and I just like it / am more used to it than Trillian or Gaim. Though I keep meaning to try Trillian again.

* SecureCRT. Windows SSH client / Terminal emulator. Awesome software. I've bought it a few times. :-) Though I have not yet upgraded past 3.4.8 for no real reason. MacOS X has this built in.

* Various software to download TV shows I didn't PVR myself. mlDonkey, BitTorrent, etc. Usually I grab the shows myself and watch them on the train to/from work. But sometimes I forget or there are multiple things on at the same time. Now that I have TiVoToGo I might use this less...

* MPlayer & VLC. Great software for watching video files; both of them work on all 3 platforms.

* MovableType. Hosts this blog; I use it pretty frequently.

* Mutt. Unix text-based email client. I use it all the time, primarily on Linux, but I also have it on my mac.

* Eudora. I occasionally still use it for downloading email to read offline. I like that it syncs well to delete messages I want deleted from the server. I also like that I could set up a 'filter' that would run manually - I use that to move a message to the trash and mark it to be deleted from server when I next sync.

* Java, Tomcat, Apache, Perl, PHP, Postgresql. The fundamentals of my web apps.

* JBuilder 8 for Windows. The upgrade for 9 fell through and I never picked up X. I really want JBuilder for OSX, but can't justify the price.

* WebSphere Studio Application Developer 5.12. Windows, at work.

* MS Office (various versions at various places). I own older versions for Mac and PC, at work I use newer versions. Outlook, Word & Excel I use all the time, PowerPoint I don't use as much.

* MS Visio. I own a newer version at home, but I only use it at work; I think it's 2000.

* MacOS X 1.3 (currently .8).

* Windows XP Pro (SP 1 and SP 2). Haven't upgraded to SP2 at work because we're afraid it'll break home-grown apps that we need.

* QuickSilver - Mac app to handle keyboard-based "find & launch". Hitting command-space brings up a box where I can start typing the name of something, and it'll bring up the right thing or a list of things for me to select from. My fingers never leave the keyboard.

* Cygwin. Unix toolkit for Windows. Primarily ssh, scp, ls, find, bash, grep. But lots of other stuff.

* XEmacs, Emacs, Vi. I use each of them on all platforms.

* BBEdit. Mac-based text editor. If I'm not in a command window.

* Terminal. Mac terminal; provides an 'xterm'-class emulator.

* tcsh, bash. Command shells for Unix platforms.

* Konfabulator. Available for windows also, but I only bought / use it for Mac. Provides a framework for desktop-level 'widgets' (weather, news ticker, etc.) written in Javascript. Incredibly cool and marginally useful (for me). :-) Useful enough that I bought it just to have the forecast and a few other toys on my desktop.

* VNCViewer. Various flavors; on Windows I use RealVNC on Mac I use VNCThing. Allows me to remotely view and control computers. I'd prefer if it had encryption built into the network protocol but otherwise it's a lifesaver.

* iTunes. Mac and Windows music library & player, iPod Syncing, and of course music store. I have about 80 songs from the iTunes Music Store, most of which were free. :-)

* Quicken. I use 2003 on the Mac. Haven't been as good at keeping up with it as I should be...

* Nero. Windows-platform CD/DVD burning software. Good to archive videos to free up disk space.

* Toast. Mac-platform CD/DVD burning software. etc.

* Games - Bejeweled, Tetris, Collapse, & Freecell are the games I play the most. Other than Bejeweled, I don't play any of them that often... And Bejeweled (2) I play on the Palm; I haven't bought it for Windows and it isn't out yet for Mac.

* RSS2Email - Python-based app by Aaron Swartz; I run it on a linux box (or my mac) to search my RSS feeds for new articles and email them to me.

I think that's it for software I use regularly... Long list. Good thing I have today off. :-)