[ 2004-December-08 21:12 ]

Since I am reinstalling everything on my laptop, I thought I would enumerate all extra tools that I find essential for getting work done on a Mac OS X system:

• NetNewsWire (Lite) - RSS reader, for injecting information into my brain at high speeds
• AdiumX - Instant messenger supporting MSN, AIM, and Jabber
• Apple's Development Tools (XCode, gcc) - I don't use XCode itself often, but the UNIX development tools (gcc, cvs, etc) are indispensable
• SSHKeyChain (my comments) - Integrates SSH keys with OS X
• AntiRSI (my comments) - Avoid injuring your hands and wrists from RSI
• Skype (my comments) - No hassle, cross-platform audio conferencing with great sound quality
• Fink - Install open source UNIX software with apt-get
• Apple's X11 Server - Essential for UNIX apps, and for fiddling with Linux boxes over SSH
• SciTE - My editor. Its shortcut keys and quirks are etched into my brain.
• Python readline - Enables command history when using Python interactively.
• Python Image Library (PIL) - Automate your image manipulation tasks. I suggest installing from source, because then you don't have to deal with that weird MacPython stuff.
• Microsoft Office - Word, Excel and PowerPoint come in handy on occasion.