5 apps that get me through my plugged life
Every once in a while you find a piece of software that helps you to make you plugged life a bit easier. Some people look for these things every day and are constantly updating and striving for the perfect setup. I don’t belong to that group, for me it’s about function and as long as it works and the competitors aren’t to far ahead I’ll keep using it. Although I’m constantly on the lookout for better quality, I don’t like to forget about practicality, it’s not practical to update every week or to change the software you’re using.
So, appart from the usual programs on any computer (the OS and some Office suite) what am I using to make life easier?
- First off there’s Evernote: A program that can be used online, on a pc and on a smartphone. What does it do? It allows me to make notes whenever I have a computer nearby or (and this is why I like it) I have my smartphone on me. A written note, a spoken note, a quick snapshot, upload it and you can reach that notefrom anywhere. It works both ways of course and it’s all synced. My main use is to take photos of books I come across and see if I can find then cheaper somewhere else. This app has saved me a lot of money
- Second app is Tweetdeck: It’s my main line into the online world. Real time information and a simple way to keep track of what people of interest to me are doing. I’ve already written about this app before so I’ll keep it short, it let’s me follow more peoplethan I could with just the twitter homepage.
- Third app is Rescuetime: A program that tracks everything I’m doing on my laptop (I only own a laptop by the way). It tells me how many hours I’ve been blogging this week, time spent reading mail and time spent in powerpoint or word. You can specify everything, make groups of things to track and at the end of every week you get a nice report stating what you have been up to. To me it’s a great help to see where my time is going.
- Fourth app is Keepass: If you’re a bit like me you’ll have dozens of places online where you need a login name and password. It’s almost impossible to keep up with them all at all times and because I don’t want to use a single password and username for everything I store them all in Keepass and protect them with one single master password. It’s not only a storage for my passwords, it also generates them. Do keep a backup of your password file somewhere other than on your computer though. It’s a lot of work to get new passwords for everything if something ever went wrong.
- Fifth and final app is Gnucash: A nice little program that helps me keep track of my assets. I constantly know where my money is going and how much I have left. It has al the features I need and much more that I don’t need and it’s easy to use. What more could you want.
- Okay, one bonus app: Windows mobile stopwatch The simplest countdown timer I could find for my smartphone. I use it every single day. It’s my countdown timer for zazen meditation.
You might have thought that I use all kinds if great programs but I like to keep things simple. Winamp for music, Google Chrome for browsing, Google mail/reader/calender/iGoogle and it’s all working from an old PB Easynote R1801. No fancy stuff here, but it works and that’s fine with me.
