My Default Tools

I’ve stolen the format for this from Wouter Groeneveld, proving I guess that copy-paste is one of my favourite tools.

Backup system: For my laptop and desktop I use Backblaze, because it runs quietly and efficiently in the background, doesn’t cost too much, and works. Yes I’ve restored stuff from it; it has indeed saved me. For my websites I use a self-authored tool to download everything to my desktop on a regular basis.
Bookmarks and Read It Later systems: Obviously my newsletter (created with my self-authored gRSShopper app) is my primary source for this, but I also use the bookmark feature in Mastodon and (more frequently) Pinboard.
Browser: Firefox. With UBlock Origin, so I never see ads.
Calendar and contacts: Thunderbird and Google Calendar (synced). Now that I’m retiring I can finally get off Outlook. I see Groenveld self-hosts Radicale, so I’ll look at it.
Chat: Mostly I don’t chat. I use the built-in text application on my phone (Google Pixel 8 Pro). Though I’ll use whatever people need me to use.
Cloud File Storage: OneDrive, Google Drive, Backblaze, Amazon S3, GitHub. I don’t want all my heavy files on my VPS, but I do want people to be able to access them.
Coding environment: Visual Studio Code. With Claude and GitHub extensions.
Image editor: *sigh* I’m back on Lightroom Classic – Nikon’s NX Studio just didn’t preserve photo quality. But at least I got rid of all the other slow and overpriced Adobe apps in Creative Cloud.
Mail: Thunderbird and Google mail as an IMAP. I use Amazon SES to send my newsletter.
Music: Tidal. Though what I really like to do is download live recordings from YouTube (using Video DownloadHelper) and listen to them as MP3s.
Notes: Notetab.
Password Management: 1Password. Though I’d like to replace it (but not with KeePass, I really didn’t like it).
Photo Management: Flickr. It lets me store my large body of 45000+ photos in the cloud and share them, and is reasonably priced.
Podcasts: PocketCasts. I refuse to use Spotify or anything like that.
Presentations: Almost always PowerPoint.
RSS: I’m using localRSS, which I built myself. I’ll probably never use a commercial or even someone else’s open source reader again.
Spreadsheets: Google sheets, if I have to (which I mostly don’t)
Text Editor: Notetab. I’m typing this post in Blogger’s input window.
Word Processing: MS-Word. For PDFs, PDF-XChange Editor.
Terminal: Powershell, but backed up with a WSL version of Ubuntu, so I have all the commands.

Live Streaming: Open Broadcaster Software | OBS. I have also used xSplit and once bought a lifetime license, but it has been a while.
Audio Recording and Editing: I use the Pixel sound recorder on my phone because it also does auto-transcription. On the desktop I use Audacity.
Video Recording and Editing – OpenShot on my desktop. I record video with my phone, a GoPro Hero 13, my camera (Nikon Z8), and OBS.
File Transfer – WinSCP
Maps – Google Maps, Open Streetmap

Web

I have my own start page with all the online services I use frequently.

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