My (Currently) Favourite Programs
These are my favourite programs to date:
Arachnophilia
Webpage creator. Honestly, I haven't used it since learning HTML, and now I prefer Mozilla, but it was excellent software for my needs back then. It's highly customizable, can beautify existing code, and help you create and learn code. Also keyboard-friendly.
Audacity
An audio editor. Standalone (doesn't need to be installed, can be run right off a thumbdrive even). See site for more info, very very cool program. I just love standalone programs. They're so versatile.
BulletProof FTP Server
I actually bought this, maybe there was some limit on time or something... but it's excellent at any rate. Great for those times when I don't feel like emailing a bunch of pictures to friends - they can just go look in their folders on my computer and ftp what they want, once I open it up that is. I never said I was totally wreckless with my computer's security... LOL
CDex
Excellent cd ripper. Even consults a CDDB (database) to auto-insert the titles in for you! Very nice feature and quite customizable as to how you want your files named.
Cool Page
Coworker made me try this. It's basically a WYSIWYG webpage creator. You drop what you want onto the work area, and when you tell it to turn to HTML it does just that - What you see is what you get.
DB Power Amp Converter
AWESOME wav-mp3-andbackagain audio converter. This one installs part of itself into the right-click menu. Normally I hate that but this one has my full approval. You go into the folder where you keep your audio files, right-click, and select what you want to convert it to. (Works with the right-click keyboard button, too, hehheh.) Fast. I love simplicity that doesn't require a lot of overhead.
Ethereal
Network analyzer. Faint of heart stay out. Another coworker recommended this to me and I downloaded it just in time for it to be highly useful in my Cisco studies.
Hex Editor XVI32
Really cool hex editor, not that I've used TOO many of them. If you don't know what a hex editor is, you'd better find out before playing with this. Especially if you don't know how to use backups of Explorer.exe... hehheh
Juno
My favourite email program. Note that Juno is also a dialup ISP. In fact, I started out with them, but quickly moved onto Cable (which it works well with). No local numbers for me anymore, either, I'm afraid. Nonetheless, the software is great and has saved me once already. (Yes, once, the only time I let my computer get that bad off while I was in the middle of an unsaved email.) Very stable. Can't tell if it has spam killers in it anywhere, but I don't give that address out to just anyone and I've had it for three plus years with no issues. If you're smart, remember to keep a few freebie accounts for those "GIVE ME YOUR EMAIL NOW!" pages and any pages where you must order something.
KeyText
Automation software. Has a few quirks, but my coworker showed it to me and I was hooked. I ended up buying the full version a few days later. It can type and click and prompt wherever you want it to whenever you want it to. I currently use it to log in to my student pages for school (amongst other things). Very good for creating keycuts... heh. heh.
KillDisk
Harddrive ERASER. I mean, eraser. It wipes out EVERYTHING and rewrites with 1's and 0's. This makes it very very unlikely that anyone could ever ever ever recover data. Far better than merely formatting the hard drive. (X-philers take note.)
Modplug
Plays mods, duh. Winamp has a plugin for this but modplug sounds better, no doubt about it. (I hate admitting that Winamp can be outdone, but... it's true in this case.) Modplug.com also features a tracker, if you're into creating your own mods, and you can also download free mods here. Nothing better than free mods!!
Mozilla
MY FAVOURITE BROWSER. Briefly, it's highly-keyboard-oriented, opensource, features email/webpageediting/chat software, and is just totally cool. I'm stopping there. See recent ramblings on this (otherwise I'll be here all day praising it).
Ogg Vorbis
Very simple program for recording audio in the highly-compressed yet high-quality format, .ogg. I personally use it to record my tapes onto my computer.
Opera
My formerly-favourite web browser. Zillions of keycuts to memorize, takes some getting used to, but very cool once you get the hang of it. Mozilla, however, is far better IMO. Try both and decide for yourself.
PGP
Pretty Good Privacy. Make sure you keep your keys in a safe place and NEVER EVER forget your passwords. Pretty Good hardly describes this encryption software. Trust me. You will /not/ get your encrypted stuff back if you lose your keys or passwords.
Pow
Popup stopper. There's PROBABLY something better, but this works well for me, and I haven't found it particularly necessary to find anything else. You need to add popups as they appear, but once you do, those sites will NEVER show up again. (Unless of course you delete them from Pow's kill list.) Note that it's great to find someone who already has a good .dat file going. You can plop it into the directory with Pow and have a premade list to add to. I keep backups of mine so when I reinstall the o/s I don't have to start all over again...
Real VNC
Similar to PC Anywhere in that you can control a computer from another computer. Remote Administrator was far better (had many more features, although I don't think it was quite as fast), but it was costly so after my trial ran out I went looking elsewhere. RealVNC fit my needs perfectly and is OPEN SOURCE. Can't beat that. I've had a friend install it on her computer and we've taken turns controlling computers. Works perfectly.
Trillian
The ultimate IM software. It combines AIM, Y!, MSN, ICQ and IRC into one place. It also allows you to sign in to multiple accounts for each at the same time. Very cool. Unfortunately, it has some irritating issues with AIM at times. AIM apparently likes to change things frequently and Cerulean has some trouble working around them. Nonetheless, it's very good software and I simply keep a copy of AIM installed just in case I need it. (Not often, mostly for file transfers coming in.)
Winamp
My absolute favourite music player. Someone recently told me there's something better, but I bet it wouldn't work with my keyboard!! MWAH hahahahahahaaaaa!! Winamp rules.
WS_FTP
FTP software. 'nuff said.
Xara
Cool webpage effects creator. Again, I learned of this from a coworker. I think he's got an obsession with easy ways out of coding HTML... ::grin::
ZoneAlarm
Software firewall. Trust me, you need this. I don't CARE if you have a hardware firewall! That's not enough!! Zheezh!! Note that if you're running XP, you don't really need ZoneAlarm provided you're using XP's firewall... However, you CAN shut that off and use ZA instead. :D
That's my list. For now. I'll mention winzip, but it's so widely known... LOL
~nvnohi
Arachnophilia
Webpage creator. Honestly, I haven't used it since learning HTML, and now I prefer Mozilla, but it was excellent software for my needs back then. It's highly customizable, can beautify existing code, and help you create and learn code. Also keyboard-friendly.
Audacity
An audio editor. Standalone (doesn't need to be installed, can be run right off a thumbdrive even). See site for more info, very very cool program. I just love standalone programs. They're so versatile.
BulletProof FTP Server
I actually bought this, maybe there was some limit on time or something... but it's excellent at any rate. Great for those times when I don't feel like emailing a bunch of pictures to friends - they can just go look in their folders on my computer and ftp what they want, once I open it up that is. I never said I was totally wreckless with my computer's security... LOL
CDex
Excellent cd ripper. Even consults a CDDB (database) to auto-insert the titles in for you! Very nice feature and quite customizable as to how you want your files named.
Cool Page
Coworker made me try this. It's basically a WYSIWYG webpage creator. You drop what you want onto the work area, and when you tell it to turn to HTML it does just that - What you see is what you get.
DB Power Amp Converter
AWESOME wav-mp3-andbackagain audio converter. This one installs part of itself into the right-click menu. Normally I hate that but this one has my full approval. You go into the folder where you keep your audio files, right-click, and select what you want to convert it to. (Works with the right-click keyboard button, too, hehheh.) Fast. I love simplicity that doesn't require a lot of overhead.
Ethereal
Network analyzer. Faint of heart stay out. Another coworker recommended this to me and I downloaded it just in time for it to be highly useful in my Cisco studies.
Hex Editor XVI32
Really cool hex editor, not that I've used TOO many of them. If you don't know what a hex editor is, you'd better find out before playing with this. Especially if you don't know how to use backups of Explorer.exe... hehheh
Juno
My favourite email program. Note that Juno is also a dialup ISP. In fact, I started out with them, but quickly moved onto Cable (which it works well with). No local numbers for me anymore, either, I'm afraid. Nonetheless, the software is great and has saved me once already. (Yes, once, the only time I let my computer get that bad off while I was in the middle of an unsaved email.) Very stable. Can't tell if it has spam killers in it anywhere, but I don't give that address out to just anyone and I've had it for three plus years with no issues. If you're smart, remember to keep a few freebie accounts for those "GIVE ME YOUR EMAIL NOW!" pages and any pages where you must order something.
KeyText
Automation software. Has a few quirks, but my coworker showed it to me and I was hooked. I ended up buying the full version a few days later. It can type and click and prompt wherever you want it to whenever you want it to. I currently use it to log in to my student pages for school (amongst other things). Very good for creating keycuts... heh. heh.
KillDisk
Harddrive ERASER. I mean, eraser. It wipes out EVERYTHING and rewrites with 1's and 0's. This makes it very very unlikely that anyone could ever ever ever recover data. Far better than merely formatting the hard drive. (X-philers take note.)
Modplug
Plays mods, duh. Winamp has a plugin for this but modplug sounds better, no doubt about it. (I hate admitting that Winamp can be outdone, but... it's true in this case.) Modplug.com also features a tracker, if you're into creating your own mods, and you can also download free mods here. Nothing better than free mods!!
Mozilla
MY FAVOURITE BROWSER. Briefly, it's highly-keyboard-oriented, opensource, features email/webpageediting/chat software, and is just totally cool. I'm stopping there. See recent ramblings on this (otherwise I'll be here all day praising it).
Ogg Vorbis
Very simple program for recording audio in the highly-compressed yet high-quality format, .ogg. I personally use it to record my tapes onto my computer.
Opera
My formerly-favourite web browser. Zillions of keycuts to memorize, takes some getting used to, but very cool once you get the hang of it. Mozilla, however, is far better IMO. Try both and decide for yourself.
PGP
Pretty Good Privacy. Make sure you keep your keys in a safe place and NEVER EVER forget your passwords. Pretty Good hardly describes this encryption software. Trust me. You will /not/ get your encrypted stuff back if you lose your keys or passwords.
Pow
Popup stopper. There's PROBABLY something better, but this works well for me, and I haven't found it particularly necessary to find anything else. You need to add popups as they appear, but once you do, those sites will NEVER show up again. (Unless of course you delete them from Pow's kill list.) Note that it's great to find someone who already has a good .dat file going. You can plop it into the directory with Pow and have a premade list to add to. I keep backups of mine so when I reinstall the o/s I don't have to start all over again...
Real VNC
Similar to PC Anywhere in that you can control a computer from another computer. Remote Administrator was far better (had many more features, although I don't think it was quite as fast), but it was costly so after my trial ran out I went looking elsewhere. RealVNC fit my needs perfectly and is OPEN SOURCE. Can't beat that. I've had a friend install it on her computer and we've taken turns controlling computers. Works perfectly.
Trillian
The ultimate IM software. It combines AIM, Y!, MSN, ICQ and IRC into one place. It also allows you to sign in to multiple accounts for each at the same time. Very cool. Unfortunately, it has some irritating issues with AIM at times. AIM apparently likes to change things frequently and Cerulean has some trouble working around them. Nonetheless, it's very good software and I simply keep a copy of AIM installed just in case I need it. (Not often, mostly for file transfers coming in.)
Winamp
My absolute favourite music player. Someone recently told me there's something better, but I bet it wouldn't work with my keyboard!! MWAH hahahahahahaaaaa!! Winamp rules.
WS_FTP
FTP software. 'nuff said.
Xara
Cool webpage effects creator. Again, I learned of this from a coworker. I think he's got an obsession with easy ways out of coding HTML... ::grin::
ZoneAlarm
Software firewall. Trust me, you need this. I don't CARE if you have a hardware firewall! That's not enough!! Zheezh!! Note that if you're running XP, you don't really need ZoneAlarm provided you're using XP's firewall... However, you CAN shut that off and use ZA instead. :D
That's my list. For now. I'll mention winzip, but it's so widely known... LOL
~nvnohi
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