must have software
I thought I’d share a few of my ‘must have’ applications that I run on Windows and Mac. Listed below in no particular order.
1. Lookout toolbar for Outlook (Windows).
I can’t live without this software, if you live in Outlook like me you need this. It is incredibly fast, very lean, super useful and incredibly stable. It indexes all of your emails in your inbox (and archived PSTs if you choose) and gives you a search toolbar to use inside the outlook interface. You can use natural language search, such as if I want to find an email I sent to Jeff about a Dell, I just type Jeff Dell in the lookout toolbar, and it lists everything that matches the criteria in less than a second. You can even sort by attachments, date, names, and do advanced searches on your search results. It completely sh*ts all over outlooks in built search function, which is functionally retarded. The only problem is that the software was sooo very good that Microsoft bought it from Lookout, and incorporated it into their new ‘Windows Desktop Search’ (WDS) program (a competitive product to Google Desktop Search). However in typical Microsoft fashion they took a damn good idea and made it bloatware - bulkier, slower and less effective than the original. I tested WDS on a new XP build with Outlook 2003 (and my incredibly huge mailbox - over 2GB), and it completely failed to give me anywhere near 20% of the speed and search results I got from lookout. So I uninstalled WDS and installed lookout 2.6. All good now. Bad news is that after the acquisition MS took down all the Lookout download sites, but I’ve still got the most recent build on my server - if anyone wants it, then contact me.
2. Firefox with FireFTP and Google Browser Sync (Windows and Mac)
Firefox works better than Safari and Internet Explorer. If your a Mac user it’s essential, as sites that don’t work with Safari usually work with FireFox (so you don’t need to pollute your mac with Internet Explorer). Also essential if you are a cross platform user (Mac and Windows) and work across multiple computers like me. Features such as tabbed browsing, excellent stability, same features on PC and Mac, and loads of easy plugins to support almost any site has won me over. Download FireFox http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/
Once you get Firefox add in FireFTP (the best free FTP client for Win and Mac I’ve used) and then Google Browser Sync which will sync all your bookmarks, settings, cookies and saved passwords between computers (PC and Mac).
3. Google Browser Sync - http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/browsersync/
Even if you have a PC at work and a Mac at home you can sync all your settings between them, all it needs is internet access. I use this across four computers (3 x Windows, 1 x Mac) and it works a treat. Only negative aspect is that when you close FireFox you sometimes have to wait up to 5 seconds while it does a sync, but I’m happy to live with this for the functionality I get. Even if you have one or two computers, it’s probably worth using as it backs up all your bookmarks/passwords etc, which you can access with your password even if you have to rebuild your computer (just don’t forget the password).
It stores multiple FTP site settings, and is incredibly configurable. I’ve been using FireFTP on Mac and PC for over 4 months (daily) and it’s never crashed or failed. It’s free too. I will be donating some money to the developer soon, as he’s just done such a good job on this one.
There’s loads more software I could list here, but this post has got so long I’ll leave it for now and post more later.
The photo above is of Shoji learning piano in my room, because I though it was more interesting than posting a software logo for this entry. Notice the circular markings on Shoji - doesn’t it remind of that cartoon by leunig called ‘bummer of a birthmark’ which features a deer with a target painted on his side?
Saturday, 14 April 2007