Recommended software and resources

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Albert Wiersch
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Recommended software and resources

Post by Albert Wiersch »

I've made some updates to our recommended software and resources page:
https://www.htmlvalidator.com/htmlval/resources.html

I've added some great programs and utilities like UltraMon, Directory Opus, SecureCRT and SecureFX, Dekisoft Monitor Off Utility, and EmEditor.

Some of our "must have" programs/utilities for our main CSE HTML Validator development system now include (alphabetical order):
  • ClipMate
  • Direct Access by Nagarsoft
  • Directory Opus
  • EmEditor
  • FinePrint
  • Firefox
  • Monitor Off Utility by Dekisoft
  • SecureCRT and SecureFX
  • UltraMon
Image

What are your "must have" utilities or programs?
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Martin
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Re: Recommended software and resources

Post by Martin »

Besides CSE HTML Validator :wink:

I am a big user of:
Photoshop (bloody expensive :twisted: )
Coolruler (freeware)
CuteFTP (shareware)
Wampserver (freeware)
Colorpic (freeware)
Advanced JPEG Compressor (shareware)
HTML-Kit (freeware)
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MikeGale
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Re: Recommended software and resources

Post by MikeGale »

I've been enticed into sharing a little bit.

What I'm going to list here might be a outside your normal box, that's deliberate.

Fineprint.

Foxit.

Litmus to check emails across mail agents.

For regular and really boring tasks I run processes on a schedule. The tasks are unique for me but the techniques can be used by anybody. I run them under the system scheduler. They used to be built in script but are increasingly being done in compiled assemblies. I'm using .NET but whatever suits you. I find that LINQ and F# are astonishingly productive.

I have some custom logging on web sites. It gets to me via automation above. The things you can have auto reported to you are very powerful!

PaintDotNet sometimes, free.

Various online services to store stuff.

Wordpress for simple publishing jobs.

FeedDemon, combine it with Google (or whatever) custom searches (that give you an RSS feed) and you have a tool that some CEO's pay a lot for. Free if you want it to be.

Coming and maybe's.

I use about five browsers. (So I maintain an understanding of what others see.) None of them actually do what I would like. (I want to transition seamlessly to working on my projects from any browser that I use.) I have some ideas along those lines. If I can make time I know what I'd like to do. Currently it's a bit too hard, and I don't like the programming models. Maybe I'll end up with a programmable browser/s that actually do what I want, within 5 years.

Some people are doing stunning stuff with the cloud. Look at what Pete Warden managed here http://bit.ly/aJvtuZ. Unbelievable if you've never thought about it before. Individuals using AWS, Azure, the new Rackspace open source thingy... can do awesome jobs at low cost already. Big corporations used to spend mega-bucks doing that sort of thing, now you can do little jobs for dollars. It's here it's today. Wow.

I'm looking at something called Tabbles. It breaks away from the heirarchical storage ideas. Essentially you tag your whole filing system with whatever labels make sense to you. Maybe a bit like what WinFS aspired to be. This might be my future. Not ready to say yet.

An MS product called OneNote looks interesting. The online version is free. A curiosity until I gave it a spin. An extremely promising idea. I haven't the time to give it a good workout at present. I hope to get a chance.

I see a slow rise of aggregators that one day might tame your Forum, Linked-In, Facebook etc. life into one coherent whole.

If even one of those sparks enough interest to look deeper I'm pleased.
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migman
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Re: Recommended software and resources

Post by migman »

Good links all. Thanks everybody!
I'll post a link to my fave utilities, because it is mutating daily as I migrate to Win7. There's nothing quite like an O/S upgrade to force an overhaul of the workflow (.... geez that was some inelegant prose! ; < ) )
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Albert Wiersch
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Re: Recommended software and resources

Post by Albert Wiersch »

Another program I'd like to recomment is Blumentals Easy Button & Menu Maker for creating buttons and menus. I recently used this software to create the new green buttons we have on the site. I think they look good & clean and it was much less time consuming that my old way of using Photoshop Elements. Below is an example. They don't highlight on mouseover here in the forum, but they do on the website.

Image
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Martin
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Re: Recommended software and resources

Post by Martin »

Those buttons look pretty good :D . Although I find it easy to create a button in Photoshop (for instance this one I made for my blog

it takes more time to code a button with mouse over effect. The software you talk about sounds like an easy solution. I like easy solutions :D .
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