Websites and Software I Like
Under Construction
Here is a list, with descriptions and links to a number of websites and software programs that I have used and found very useful. Many of the software is available as free open source.
Websites
| NAME | URL | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|
| cnet | www.cnet.com | Find prices and reviews for electronics and software. Find software downloads. |
| www.google.com | Uncluttered search site. Lot�s of other great offerings like news, maps,image searches, online books, etc. | |
| Slickdeals.net | www.slickdeals.net | People post and rate deals they find on various products. |
| Enfuse Magazine | www.enfusemagazine.com | A Culture, Music and Literature publication. |
| Edmunds | www.edmunds.com | Research new and used cars and prices. |
| Epinions | www.epinions.com | Read and write reviews on products and services |
| Hotwire | www.hotwire.com | Travel site where you pick you location and rating. �I use this site to rent cars and regularly save over $100 per week over renting directly. |
| Noggin | www.noggin.com | Website for kids. � Contains lots of educational games and fun videos |
| Starfall | www.starfall.com | Educational website for kids. �Exercises to help kids learn to read. |
Free Software
Some I've used for work. Some I've used for play. Looking at the list I've compiled I'm surprised how many I've used for both.
| NAME | URL | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|
| Audacity | www.audacity.sourceforge.net | A free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. �I use it to create my own ringtones from MP3 files. �I�ve also used it to record and edit voice overlays for self-paced course materials. |
| Filezilla | www.filezilla-project.org | Free FTP solution. � I use it to upload files from my PC to my web server. �I�ve also used to securely share large files with customers from FTP servers. |
| Firefox | www.mozilla.com | Tabbed web browser. � Great alternative to MS Internet Explorer. �Lots of plugins available to do fun things. |
| Foldersize | foldersize.sourceforge.net | For Windows XP machines. � I use it to easily see which directories are growing too big so I can delete files and clean up my hard drive. |
| GIMP | www.gimp.org | GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo editing. I�ve used it to create and crop images. |
| Google Earth | earth.google.com | Google Earth lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings and even explore galaxies in the Sky. �This is one of the greatest, coolest, most addicting applications I have ever come across. |
| IZARC | www.izarc.org | Freeware archive utility supporting many archive formats. �I use it to create and open ZIP files. |
| LAME | lame.sourceforge.net | MP3 encoder licensed under the LGPL. �I installed this so that Audacity could save edited files encoded as MP3 files.> |
| Microsoft Windows Live Messenger | download.live.com | Instant messaging, voice, and video. �While this application doesn�t allow you to chat with friends on all networks, I�ve found the voice and video capabilities to work well. �IM aggregator applications like Trillian don�t seem to support the voice and video features. |
| Notepad++ | notpad-plus.sourceforge.net | Source code editor and Notepad replacement. �I use it to open text files with various extensions, such as .txt, .html, and .xml. � It allow me to have multiple files open with nice tabs to click between them. �It also recognizes many types of computer code, making it easier to debug. |
| Open Office | www.openoffice.org | Free alternative to MS Office suite. Let�s you open and save MS Office format files. |
| PuTTY | www.chiark.greenend.org.uk | A free implementation of Telnet and SSH for Win32 and Unix platforms. �A command line interface I use this to access UNIX and Linux servers from my Windows machine. |
| Skype | www.skype.com | Voice, chat, and video free between Skype users. Use your computer to call anyone around the world cheaply. �I use this for voice and video chats with my brothers who use Macs. |
| SUPER | www.erightsoft.net | A simple tool to convert (encode) or play any Multimedia file. �I use this to reformat (and shrink the file size) of videos to work on my phone and my wife�s iPod Touch.. �I�ve also used it to extract the soundtrack from videos and create MP3 files. |
| Thunderbird | www.mozilla.com | A free email client I use instead of Outlook to read and write emails. |
| Trillian | www.ceruleanstudios.com | Consolidates and logs into multiple IM chat accounts like AOL and Yahoo. �I used this so I only had one application to start to keep in contact with friends and co-workers on MSN and AOL. |
| Ubuntu | www.ubuntu.com | Community developed Linux-based operating system. It contains a web browser, presentation, document and spreadsheet software,instant messaging, etc. �I�ve installed it on an old laptop to give it a new life. |
| VLC Media Player | www.videolan.org | VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats. �When in doubt, this player seems to play any media files I throw at it including DVDs. |
| VMware Player and Virtual Appliances | VMware Player and Appliances | Install VMware Player and download virtual appliances to try out new operating systems and pre-configured applications. |
Open Source Repositories
I've found a lot of useful, interesting, and fun software on these sites. Before buying a program, search these sites for free software that does what you need first. They are not always as polished or easy to use as commercially available software, but they are sure to fit your budget, and may even solve your problems.
| NAME | URL | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|
| cnet downloads | www.download.com | Part of cnet.com. Find downloads for Windows, Mac, |
| Sourceforge | www.sourceforge.net | Search for open source software |
| FreewarePPC.com | www.freewareppc.com | Repository of free software for Windows Mobile Pocket PC. |
| Freeware Pocket PC.net | freewarepocketpc.net | Repository of free software for Windows Mobile Pocket PC. |
Software Applications
These application are not free. They are proprietary software programs I have used either for work or at home. I have enjoyed using them enough to recommend them.
| NAME | URL | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|
| Camtasia Studio | www.techsmith.com | Used to record screen activity, edit, and assemble videos with callouts and audio overlays. �I�ve used this to create training materials and system demos. |
| ColdFusion | www.adobe.com | Makes development of dynamic websites that interact with databases fast and easy. �It�s been a number of years since I�ve used it, and in that time .Net and Java have gotten better and grown in popularity, especially for enterprise level web applications. |
| PL/SQL Developer | allroundautomations.com | I�ve used this application at multiple companies to view and query access databases. �I like it�s easy to use GUI compared to having to remember long Oracle commands. �Makes saving queries and exporting data easy. |
| TurboTax | www.turbotax.intuit.com | I�ve used this for a number of years to prepare my taxes. |
| VMWare Workstation | www.vmware.com | Used to create and run virtual machines, using your hardware to act as multiple machines at once. � I�ve used Workstation to create pre-integrated Windows and Linux servers running concurrently on a laptop to support training and product demos. |