Apps, Services & Tools I Use

General Tools, Apps, Services

  • F.lux – Turn on “night light” in Windows to reduce blue light and eye strain.
  • GSuite – Google email, documents, and communications.
  • ShareX (Windows) – Screen capture for Windows.
  • VeraCrypt – Encrypted drives and file-base virtual drives.
  • Dropbox – File backup and sharing.
  • Sync.com – Like Dropbox but encrypted in the cloud.
  • Pocket Casts – Android Podcast player.
  • Audible – Audio books. An Amazon service.
  • ColorNote – Android notepad with syncing to Windows app version.
  • Standard Notes – Cross-platform (with sync), full-encrypted notes application. This has replaced ColorNote. I have the premium account and use some of the advanced editors.
  • Microsoft ToDo – A simple To Do app for my daily task list. With cross-platform syncing.
  • Blinkist – Non-fiction books distilled down to key concepts.
  • Pocket – Save things for reading later.
  • LastPass – Password manager. You need this or 1Password, Dashlane, Bitwarden or other password manager.
  • Firefox – Web browser. More performant and privacy focused than Google Chrome.
  • Microsoft Edge – The new Chromium based version that came out in January 2020. Basically the same same as Google Chrome but faster and… nicer.

 

Software Development Tools

  • Visual Studio Code – My IDE/code editor of choice.
  • Notepad++ – Powerful notepad/text editor.
  • Visual Studio – The grandaddy of software development IDEs. I still use it for .NET development.
  • GitKraken – GUI Git client. It’s a paid product but cheap yearly cost for what you get.
  • Trello – Lightweight task management.
  • Clubhouse – Task and project management for software development teams.
  • Tara AI – Task and project management for small teams.
  • Slack – Communicate with your team.
  • Google Chrome – Web browser. Has the best developer console for testing and debugging front-end web development.
  • Microsoft Edge – Now equal to Chrome, but faster and without all the privacy invasive crap that comes with it.
  • Vivaldi Browser – A great alternative browser to Chrome, Edge and Firefox.

 

Software Frameworks

  • W3.CSS – Pure CSS “utility” framework to quickly and easily add styling to your web site/app for common UI paradigms (like Bootstrap but very lightweight).
  • Bootstrap – Popular “utility” framework to quickly and easily add styling to your web site/app for common UI paradigms.
  • Font Awesome – Add icon fonts to your web site/app.
  • Vue.js – My front-end JavaScript framework of choice. Incredibly easy to learn, use and integrate. Up there with Angular and React, but easier and faster to be productive with.