With Six Feet Under on hiatus for a week due to the Independence Day holiday in the States, I find myself with a little free time this Sunday night. For whatever reason, colleagues, friends and family often ask me about my preferred applications for doing everything from ripping CDs to browsing the web. Below is a list of my preferred apps for various tasks you may or may not find useful.
Winamp - I use Winamp for playing my MP3 collection. It's light on it's feet and far superior to Windows Media Player.
Audiograbber - Audiograbber is the application I use to rip my CDs to MP3s so I can enjoy them in Winamp. It's good and it's free.
Nero Express - The CD burning capability built into Windows XP just frustrates me. I far prefer using Nero Express to create audio and data CDs.
Firefox - Firefox is my preferred browser for searching the web. It's secure, fast, handy with the tabbing and it's got a pop-up blocker built into it. Boot Internet Explorer to the curb and use Firefox instead.
Yahoo! Messenger - Everyone needs an Instant Messenger and I've been using Yahoo!'s for several years. I'm happy and have never felt pressure to use the others from Microsoft, AOL and ICQ. If you want an instant chat with me, you'll need the YIM.
WS_FTP - I've tried several FTP clients, and this one is the simplest and most effective. It does the job nicely.
1st Page 2000 - Although I'm content with Notepad, sometimes I work in an HTML editor because of the colour differentiation. It's easier on the eyes and makes me more efficient. This free editor is my preffered app for such purposes.
AVG - Everyone needs a good anti-virus software application and if you want one for free there's no better than the free edition from AVG.
Spybot and Ad Aware - I use both of these tools to scan and rid my PC of spyware. Both are effective and I find one often picks up something the other didn't. Together, they rule and they're both free.
Shareaza - Looking for a good P2P app for finding a good MP3 of that killer tune you just heard on the radio? Try Shareaza. No spyware, no trouble finding tunes and far less psyche outs than you get with Kazzaa.
In order to gel with my fellow employees, I'm tied to Microsoft Outlook for email and Word for word processing. If funky formatting is not required, I'm happier in Notepad because it's far less of a pig than it's Word brother. That's about it for applications I use on a regular basis. Good night y'all.
