How I work

Rosemary posted an in-depth article about her 'toolbox changes' starting from way back in 1994/95 which is a great read, and then just recently Myles Eftos posted challenging some of the Westcoastbloggers to write about how they work on a day-to-day basis... so here is my response!

What desktop software do you use every day?

I use Skype constantly, and have chat windows opened at all times for both developers when they are working.

I use Putty for SSH into our file servers, and Tunnelier for any SSH/SFTP for none secure apps.

I don't have any ftp software installed surprisingly, but do use WinSCP a lot.

I have recently switched to using KeePass instead of Password Safe, and won't be switching back - KeePass is excellent software.

I use UltraEdit with UltraCompare as my text editor. I tried PSPad with Tunnelier for a while, but I found I preferred UltraEdit in the end. I am still looking for that perfect XML/XSLT editor however.

I did use MySQL Front (again combined with Tunnelier) to manage our SQL server, but have just recently uninstalled it and am now trying the official MySQL Admin and MySQL Query Browser. I am also trialling SQLyog which looks quite promising.

I have a copy of Firefox open constantly, as I use a LOT of web apps. The developer toolbar in Firefox is also used a hell of a lot when developing up CSS for client sites.

I use Adobe CS2 - specifically Photoshop a lot, and Snag It for screen capture.

What web sites do you use every day?

I use Gmail as my mail software, all my addresses get piped into the one account and I pretty much have it open constantly.

I use Basecamp as our main task database and manage all jobs in it. Basecamp is... well... it has problems, and unless there are significant changes (which I doubt there will be), I don't think I will be using it for much longer.

Google Calendar for my calendar - and if only I could pipe Basecamp Milestones into it...

I use Net Accounts daily for all my billing. Net Accounts is a straight out replacement for MYOB, but delivered as a web app and it is truly fantastic.

Delicious for all bookmarking and I have started to Google Notebook as well which I think will become invaluable.

What PDA/personal organizer/system do you use to keep organized?

None, I have no other diary/pda - however I do use my Nokia N70 for appointment alarms.

About

This is the personal blog of Adrian Lynch, owner of Millstream, developers of Spring CMS.

Version: 1.3