I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: there are a heckuvalot of tools out there. Here’s what’s working for me right now:
- Thunderbird – Managing my email (loving: filters, folders)
- Firefox – Browsing the web (loving: tabs, the web developer extension)
- WordPress – This blog (loving: admin panel, active community of developers)
- Google Reader – Blog-reading (loving: tags/folders, shortcut keys, starring)
- Ma.gnolia – Collecting miscellaneous links (loving: bookmarklet, preview thumbnails)
- LiveJournal – Keeping track of friends (loving: filters, threaded comments)
- Flickr – Sharing photos (loving: tag searches)
- Twitter – Microblogging and keeping track of tech pals (loving: SMS integration, Twitterrific, the fact that I can display my most recent tweet at the top of this blog)
- Last.fm – Listening to music (loving: discovering new music that I actually appreciate)
- SocialText – Keeping track of work notes (loving: separated workspaces, useful text editor)
- LinkedIn – Professional networking (loving: the reviews people have left for me there ::blushes::)
- GreenCine – Keeping my apartment stocked with good movies (loving: the independent film selection, not giving money to NetFlix)
- EggTimer – Timed reminders (loving: the “repeat alarm” feature, for jumping-jack breaks every ten minutes during bust-ass sessions. seriously.)
- Electric Sheep – Screensaver (loving: being continually surprised and impressed)
- Skype – Group chats (loving: conversation history, decent emoticons)
You’ll notice that I didn’t name Facebook, Gmail, or Google Docs — the current darlings of the web tool landscape. I have accounts with all of them, but to be totally honest I don’t have much use for any of them right now. And I’m okay with that.
If you’re curious about my hardware, here’s what I keep nearby:
- A dented and refurbished (yet sticker-free!) 15″ Mac PowerBook G4 Laptop (in a backpack that does not look like a laptop bag).
- 30 GB ipod (with cheap-ass black earbuds that do not look like they’re coming out of an ipod)
- Treo 650 (which is not meeting my needs as well as I’d like, but I just had it replaced, and I’m not ready to upgrade)
- Whiteboards – Capturing ideas, organizing quick lists, brainstorming, doodling
- A Moleskin 1-page-per-day calendar notebook – Recording major tasks, goals, and hours worked each day
- A regular lined Moleskin notebook – All other notes, journaling, lists, and spontaneous poetry
- My Roomba – Vacuuming (loving: automated scheduling, how incredibly freaking adorable it is)
The missing piece for me right now is a camera (mine recently bit the dust), but I’ve already put in a good word with Santa on that one.
This post was inspired by Web Worker Daily’s list today.
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December 8th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
Thanks for the greencine link. What’s bad about netflix?
December 8th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
Hey Thomas,
I don’t have anything in particular against Netflix… I just don’t like companies to have a monopoly on a market.
Plus, Green Cine is just cooler.
December 8th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
I can’t argue with either one of those reasons. :-)
Thanks.
December 9th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
An egg timer to remind me to stretch! I hadn’t thought of that, what a great idea! I use Minuteur (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19356) as a timer in the kitchen. I love that it ticks like a real egg timer, and that it turns my music down when the alarm sounds, and turns it back up again when I turn Minuteur off. It’s all in the details. :-)
December 10th, 2007 at 1:44 am
downloading the egg timer right now. this may just save my life!
December 15th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
you should try the social source commons – it lets you share all the tools you use to do stuff. Lets you connect with others using the same things etc.
December 16th, 2007 at 3:50 am
Wow, Kaliya, what an awesome resource! :) That’s one I wasn’t previously aware of. Having been largely absent from the online arena for a year or so, I’m out of date with many of the available tools – SSC has already pointed me to two new ones I can immediately use. So, thank you!
September 6th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Thanks for having such a great resource for backpacks. I\’ve been searching all over for this. http://www.yourbackpacks.com/
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