Tools

This is a collection of useful and (mostly) free tools that help me in my work.

Communications

• Pidgin - A universal cross-platform instant message client.
• Xfire - In-game messaging system for windows.
• Windows Live - Email, IM, Photo, and Blogging tool for windows.

Documents & Media

Players / Viewers

• Direct X - Standard media engine for windows.
• iTunes / Quicktime - Cross-platform media players.
• Windows Media Player - Standard windows player.
• Adobe Flash Player - Browser-based media / game system.
• Firefox - The world’s best web browser.
• Java Runtime - Engine for various software.
• VideoLAN (VLC) - A cross-platform universal video player / streamer.
• Adobe Shockwave Player - Another browser-based media / gaming system.
• Adobe Reader - A program for manipulating PDF documents.
• Silverlight - A flash alternative based on microsoft technologies.

Editors

• Gimp - A cross-platform open source graphics editor.
  • GTK - A Graphical User Interface (GUI) platform that is required for the gimp and for pidgin (see above).
• Audacity - A cross-platform open source audio editor.
  • LAME mp3 codec - A read / write adapter required for audacity to use MP3 files.

Large Files

• Azureus - A java-based BitTorrent tool for windows.

Programming

Languages

• Python - The best programming language ever!
• xampp - A package containing:
  • Apache (a webserver)
  • PHP (another programming language)
  • MySQL (a database engine)
  • Perl (another programming language)
  • phpMyAdmin (a PHP / MySQL database management interface)
  • FileZilla (an FTP server)
  • SQLite (another database engine)
  • and much more

Editors / Tools

• Visual Studio - The microsoft IDE.
  • IronPython Studio - The IronPython version of visual studio.
  • ASP.NET AJAX - The microsoft AJAX framework.
• Eclipse - An open source, java-based, multi-language IDE.
  • PyDev - The python plugin for eclipse.
  • Aptana - A web development kit based on eclipse.
• Notepad++ - A free multi-language text editor.
• Subversion - A cross-platform version control system.
• Inno Setup - A free tool that generates windows installers.
• Cygwin - A port of unix / linux tools to windows.

Packages & Libaries

• Pygame - A python library for creating cross-platform 2d games.
• PIL - The Python Imaging Library.

Virtualization

• VMware Server - A free tool for running virtual machines .
• LCISOCreator - Freeware tool that creates images of disks.

Miscellaneous

• CamStudio - Free screencasting tool for windows.
• MultiMon Taskbar - Free taskbar for multiple monitors on windows.
• Synergy - A free cross-platform tool for using a single mouse-keyboard pair across multiple computers.
• Google Earth - A free 3d satellite / map browsing tool from google.
• Screen Hunter - Free screenshot tool for windows.

All design and content on this site unless specifically stated otherwise, is copyright © 2005-2009 Micah Ferrill. The rocky shore image above is courtesy of VictoriaWeather.ca and is under the creative commons license.