This End Down

Sorry, I know this may bore you all. But I wanted to write it.

Web sites

• Tumblr: Like a blog, but smaller. Rather than having to generate content, it allows you to quickly and easily repost others’ content.
• Twitter: Like Facebook’s status updates, but infinitely more powerful. Called microblogging, many people use it for a) social networking b) status updates c) tumblr-like linkposting d) interfacing with many webapps
• Socialthing!: Combines all (or hopefully one day, all) of your status update/social networking sites into one so you don’t have to read your Facebook news feed, Twitter updates, etc. all on separate sites
• GrooveShark: Listen to any song in their library for free, legally; buy it for the same price as iTunes but with no DRM; local Gainesville company run by very cool people
• Songza: Listen to any song in their (large and more comprehensive than GrooveShark’s) index of songs available online; not sure if it’s actually legal at all
• Caloriecount: Track a lot of stuff here. This helped me get control of my caloric intake and helps me monitor my weight.
• Evernote: Track everything–receipts, business cards, notes, pictures, anything. It’s free, and it connects to a program on your computer that makes it easier to track these things. Archive your important information so you can have quick, easily searchable access to it anywhere.
• Remember the Milk: Amazing to-do list manager. Interfaces with twitter, your desktop, Gmail, and more.
• Wesabe and Mint: Money manager sites–like Quicken, but online and free. Wesabe’s way more powerful; Mint is way easier to use. I still haven’t decided.
• Lifehacker: The source for these web sites and many more

Programs (for Mac)

• Mailplane: Gmail turned into its own program. It interacts and interfaces with the rest of the OS in ways that no web site ever could.
• Fluid: The ability to turn any web site into its own program (called an SSB, or Site-Specific Browser). I now have specific programs for GrooveShark Lite, Socialthing!, Remember the Milk, and more.
• Cyberduck: Free FTP, SFTP, Amazon A3, etc..
• Adium: Awesome free chat.
• KeePassX: Free platform-independant (meaning it works for you PC people, too) password manager.
• NewsFire: I don’t know if it can compete with NetNewsWire, but I got it when it was free and NetNewsWire wasn’t… generic RSS reader.
• Evernote: The program interface to the aforementioned web site.
• EDIT: Skitch: A quick screencap/webcam capture app with easy annotation and instant access to free web hosting.

These things I use all the stinking time. There are others I’m still experimenting with… in response to my last post (which was not supposed to be about asking for presents–I just wanted to talk about gift-list programs), I’m testing a gift-list web site called Boxedup.

Also, there’s the hot new web site I heard about called spendlessgivemore. Hm. That sounds really interesting.