the software i use + love most

mr. diggles — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 23:11:01 +0000

my friend david frey got me excited about doing on a post on what software i use most. while most of my readers could give a shit less, i think some people out there might be like well omfg, i think that is absolutely fascinating! more, more, more!

yes, i know there are probably better programs than what i choose to use – but i am a creature of habit. plus there are many factors in play when i consider using a certain platform. usually speed is #1. i don’t have time for bullshit.

my desktop

i keep my desktop clean. yes it gets cluttered when i work on a project but once i am done or need to start on a different section of a project i always clean my work space up. i don’t have a background picture. i think wallpapers are dumb. makes your brain work harder to find what you need. imagine if your car windshield was a picture but you had to look around it or through it to drive your car. ok, maybe that is an extreme analogy. for the record, i work on a 17″ macbook pro w/ 2 gb ram.

when i start up my machine – this is the order of programs i open… almost like a robot:

firefox

this is a no-brainer – firefox rules. how fast can i get my internet rolling?!?! i love the extensions. i also open up safari since i like to always have 2 browser options at all times.

adium

i use adium for my chat service. it wraps all of them in one. i usually open this right away so i can start to bother or be bothered. it is almost embarrassing that i am always on.

microsoft entourage

yes, this is bit of a surprise. it is the only ms product i use and to be honest i don’t really like it. however, i have been using some form of outlook for the past 5 years and i have been too lazy to get away from it. my friend graeme suggests imail and i have heard thunderbird is good but i haven’t really looked into it. for now, it delivers my mail in a resource hungry and clunky environment.

transmit

i host a shit ton of websites and i have always been let down with past ftp clients. transmit is far and away the best i have ever used. and the company that pushes this little drug is from portland to boot!

bbedit

i use bare bones edit to work on my markup. i have built just about every website for the past 4 years using this platform. it is super lightweight. sometimes it grinds when i save a file on a congested connection but that i more my connection’s problem not the software. that issue alone has taught me how to work locally more. i love to see it live!!!!1 i am considering coda but we’ll see. i need more time.

adobe creative suite 3 (mostly PS)

i got a copy of photoshop 5 when i was 18 and ever since i have been a believer that a computer without photoshop is like a dog with no legs: sure it is fun but can you really do anything with it? poor analogy yes.

i use photoshop, flash, acrobat and bridge. everything else i don’t really touch. but i have to have to know if i want to i can.

itunes / songbird

gotta have my music! i have used itunes for a while, like most people, but then i discovered songbird. i love that songbird has tabbed browsing and runs off the mozilla firefox engine. however, much like itunes it is a resource slut. and also much like my browsers, i often have them both open. i need more ram!!!1 when i was a pc user i used winamp. i love winamp. that shit opens so fast it is crazy.

random apps

the rest of these are programs that have made it into my dock but i use very little. i like the ilife bundle for it really is super easy. if i need to edit a video i don’t need final cut since i am not really doing anything other than cutting and adding text. iphoto is great for viewing pictures. profound. locomotive runs my local rails database which i hardly turn on. terminal i use for ssh and good old subversion. calculator helps me add and subtract and ical keeps me on time. i have never been able to keep a calender before ical.

well, that’s it. i have just barfed out my whole dock. if i had to narrow it down, all i really need is bbedit, transmit, firefox and photoshop to create a really dope project. but i need my music as well! AH!

in the honor of all these comments being posted, i would love to know what your top 3-4 programs are. if you don’t have more than 2 then let me know what your top 3 websites are. and yes, mrdiggles.com gives you a bonus. i don’t know what kind of bonus though.

mega nerd post! w00t!

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