This is just a collection of cool stuff we've found over the years and might be of interest to others in their search for the perfect development environment (although other things are included). Best of all most of it is free but there are some commercial items that really are worth buying. Unless noted otherwise, the software is for windows.

Browser (FireFox) Plugins

• ColorZilla colour pickers
• DownThemAll download manager
• FireBug for drilling into just about everything, DOM, CSS, and much more
• FoxClocks for those working with international teams
• Live HTTP Headers
• MeasureIT for measuring on screen
• Pearl Crescent Page Saver Basic
• Web Developer

Communications

• Putty for Shell Access
• HydraIRC

Editors/IDE

• Eclipse - www.eclipse.org
• PSPad - www.pspad.com

File Utilities

• Abakt for file backups (works with 7Zip)
• 7Zip for compression
• Beyond Compare for file comparison - www.scootersoftware.com (great value)
• FileZilla for FTP
• WinSCP for SFTP - it's a bit better than FileZilla for file editing as you can integrate PSPad

Geographical Information Systems

• Google Earth

Graphics

• GIMP for image editing
• PAINT.net for simple image stuff and marking up screenshots

Mac Software

• Journaler for taking notes
• MAMP (backup your htdocs folder before upgrading otherwise you'll lose it)
• NeoOffice (OpenOffice for the Mac)
• SvnX SVN client
• VirtueDesktop

Music

Ok, Andrew's tastes follow people like Hans Zimmer (Gladiator, Batman Begins), James Horner (Titanic), John Williams (Star Wars), Vangelis (Chariots of Fire), Danny Elfman (Batman and Batman Returns) and many others - basically the "Epic" genre. If you don't like those then don't bother checking the following links out. Almost all have a wide selection of free MP3 downloads.

• Aaron Sapp - www.aaronsapp.com
• Chris Bouchard - www.chrisbouchard.tk
• Chris Haigh - www.cphproductions.co.uk
• Jamie Christopherson - www.jamiechristopherson.com
• Paul Lawler - www.paullawler.org
• Jared Hudson - www.jaredhudson.com
• Justin Durban (Edgen) - www.edgen.com (fav)
• Matthew A Weber - at myspace
• Michael Jorns - at myspace (fav)
• Michael Law - www.michaellawmusic.com
• Paul Houseman - www.paulhouseman.com (fav)
• Scott Buckley - www.scottbuckley.tk (fav - Aussie lad)
• Teo Wei Yong - www.audivarius.com
• Wilbert Roget,II - www.rogetmusic.com
• Will Muser - www.willmusser.com

Miscellaneous

• Open Command Window Here powertoy

Performance Tuning

• xdebug is an extension for php to help with debuging and profiling
• WinCacheGrind used to analyse the profiling data from the xdebug profiler

Sounds and Media Editing

• Audacity for audio recording
• Anvil Studio for making music

Spiritual

• e-sword bible software - www.e-sword.net