Windows 7

My 2008 List

Yes...its another one of those 'best of 2008' lists. There are literally hundreds of these flying around the internet at the moment. I thought I would add to them and put together a list of my favorite applications, services, equipment, computers and web applications of the year. This is a pile of stuff that I use every day (or almost every day) and I suppose they are things I put a lot of faith in.

So here we go, its quite a long list (no pics or anything because Im super lazy and doing this from a tiny little laptop while Im waiting for a flight to arrive)...but I need to give them all a shout out...that and I have nothing better to do :)

Web applications

1. Gmail - Because I travel about quite a bit its completely essential that I have access to my email on the move. Gmails I have found, Is the most reliable and heavy weight email service.
2. Google Reader - Again its a great way to keep up to date with your feeds from any computer.
3. Dropbox - I have already said why I love this service...its just the bees knees.
4. Evernote - Keeps all my notes and thoughts in sync and I can get access to them, create and edit them anywhere (phone, laptop, desktop...etc)
5. Remember the Milk - Great GTD web application and service, one of the few that I would actually pay to use, also has great iphone integration.
6. Mobile Me - Keeps all my Macs and iphone in sync, emails, contacts, calendars, preferences...etc
7. Delicious - Share bookmarks with friends and discover related sites.
8. Last.fm - I gave up on Radio years ago...It just got lame, but last.fm lets me share music with people who have similar tastes (Tool, Pinkfloyd, BLB, Black Crows, Boards of Canada...) :P
9. Netvibes - Has grown leaps and bounds in the last year. Functionally and graphically superior to other start pages such as igoogle, pageflakes..etc
10. Wuala - P2P distributed file system. Great idea and functionality and definitely in keeping with the ‘cloud’ computing infrastructure. No application required.

Websites

1. Reddit - fully customised, programming...etc cutting out all the crap its becomes one of the best sources for news and tech related stories.
2. Hacker News - great community, intelligent articles and insightfull commenting...minimal trolling
3. Wikipedia - When I get into something (a piece of research) It becomes an obsession and I normally feel that I need to know the subject inside out...a good place to start is wikipedia.

Applications

1. Chrome - slightly disappointed at the lack of apple and Linux support...but its still a real contender, lightweight and stable...all of the qualities that have been missing for ages. Its a real step in the right direction I think.
2. Fluid - great idea....site specific browser that apple should have added from the beginning. Its great for web apps like Evernote and Remember the milk (Google Gears plug-in)
3. Google Desktop - Cant live without it on a PC/Mac....super fast
4. itunes - only one that supports the massive library. 450GB and counting :)
5. Songbird - finally gets out of beta!! I have been with it from the beginning and is great on my PC...love the direction they are taking...brilliant music discovery platform
6. Transmission - Bit torrent client that keeps getting better and better. I have founds its by far the lightest client.

Hardware

1. MacBook Air - This little thing really started something..has its limitations but its a great device. Its my main laptop.
2. EeePC 1000H - My mobile PC...rock solid performance, great battery life, build quality and super expandable...I call it my little Hackbook.
3. iphone 3G - My lifeline :P i love it...
4. MacPro - This is my main workhorse. I keep loading it up with new stuff. It loves Xcode :)

Other

1. Coffee machine (Gaggia) - I love this machine more than I should.

So that's about it. It really is just a list...but perhaps there is something in there for you. :P Have a great new year folks!

Mad Scientist

Mad Scientists are really Mad Engineers

Flying Spaghetti Monster

Go forth and spread the word! for once I was blind..but now I see.

http://www.venganza.org/

Getting back on the horse!

I have been thinking for quite some time now about getting out of the area I am in at the moment (which is really boring and I don't see a future in it really). So im getting back into development and software engineering. For a while now I have been completely miserable at work...and basically since I left University. I think I made a huge career mistake....but I don't think its too late to change that (im only coming on 2 years out of university)

Started a few weeks ago getting back into C/C++ and Objective-C after a long absence, and im really enjoying it. I forgot how stimulating it all was and I have not gotten so obsessed about it since university.

I have a few ideas for applications I would like to build, but I think getting the time to get into them will be the main problem at the moment....but that may change soon.

I think i will post them here, or perhaps put together my own site for it. I need a new playground!