David on 4/6/2009 at 17:48

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* (http://adium.im/) Adium - All-in-one IM client, the best out there.
* (http://cyberduck.ch/) CyberDuck - FTP/Sftp/Amazon S3/WebDav client. - Open Source, nice and stable and free!
* (http://conceitedsoftware.com/products/linkinus) Linkinus - IRC client. It's a toss-up between this and Colloquy. Colloquy is open source, where as this isn't and costs (but I got it as part of a bundle, so it was really cheap), but Colloquy is a bit buggy and Linkinus is rock stable.
* (http://nambu.com/) Nambu - Twitter client. I mostly read Twitter, and then mostly motorsport feeds, but I like this client.
* (http://www.parallels.com/uk/) Parallels - Run Windows on OSX at the same time. Amazing integration. I use it purely for Visual Studio.
* (http://www.pixelmator.com/) Pixelmator - Graphics. Good app, lots of features, always getting more.
* (http://www.real.com/mac/realplayer) Real Player - plays FLVs, isn't shit like it is on Windows.
* (http://www.transmissionbt.com/) Transmission - Bittorrent client. Nice and minimal, with bandwidth throttling.
* (http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/wiretap/) WireTap Studio - Great for recording audio from any running Applications. Handy for grabbing snippets from radio shows or podcasts.
* (http://www.kainjow.com/) BootChamp - simple little menu icon that allows you to reboot into Windows with a single click, should I wish to play a game.
* (http://boxerapp.com/) Boxer -DOSbox for OSX is shit. This is not. It's also by our very own Vigil.
* (http://www.boxee.tv/) Boxee - Internet media browser & player. Love it.
* (http://www.derlien.com/) Disk Inventory X - Find out what's stealing all your disk space.
* (http://tom-tech.com/iplayer_automator/iPlayer-DL_Automator/OS_X_GUI.html) iPlayer DL Automator - Grab stuff from the BBC iPlayer without the pesky DRM. I use it for grabbing a digital radio show that I'm never around for, but really like (Adam & Joe on 6Music)
* (http://www.macfusionapp.org/) MacFusion - mount other filesystems in Finder. Adds Read/Write for NTFS amongst others.
* (http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html) The Unarchiver - Happily extracts almost every compressed file format you can imagine.
* (http://www.panic.com/coda/) Coda - for Web Development. Most of my stuff is done in Visual Studio, but if it isn't it is done here. Panic Software is awesome.

thefonz on 4/6/2009 at 20:19

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I actually spent about 3 hours last night cleaning up my "main" desktop pc which is currently running Vista Ultimate 32bit. I'm keen to get my hands on Win 7 when that comes out but thats for another thread.

Anyway, there was a whole load of shite on here that I never used so it took some time cleaning, uninstalling, sorting out registry crap and generally having on here what I want where I want.

Its amazing how much stuff you manage to gather in a few years of use and it just hogs resources and takes up precious disk space. Oh, and for the record I've turned off all the fancy glitzy special effects in Vista and the thing purrs along now like a Kitten on a treadmill. And you know what? I'm not afraid to say that I quite like the "classic" vista look its got going.

utorrent - for downloading...ah...torrents and other legal shit.

7zip - a nice free compressor file in place of the bloated winzip and winrar.

Avira Antivirus - the best (free!) antivirus i've ever used.

CCleaner - sorts out the registry, applications, does a mini defrag of your hard disk and properly uninstalls programs. Run once a week.

Comical - to read comics

Digsby - awesome IM client instead of Windows Messenger. It links into gmail and facebook and gives you updates as and when.

Filezilla Client - for ftp uploads

Foobar2000 - i've tried itunes, winamp, songbird, mediamonkey and i keep coming back to this. it doesnt have an rss feed for podcasts but its a small price to pay for a small, very intuative and clear music player.

Foxit Reader/Editor - for all pdf needs

Google Chrome - the best browser (yes, better than firefox, i think)

Google Gears - runs alongside Chrome and speeds the internet up.

Microsoft Office 2007 - um...does what it says (note: i bought this)

Visual C++ Programming - because i like to dabble in the dark arts from now and again.

Paint.NET - much better picture editor than the standard paint in xp.

Quicktime - i use this to play some movies, but mostly to watch trailers.

Skype - you have to install this to talk to people.

Spybot: Search and Destroy - its not the fastest and its a bit clumsy but it does the job of getting rid of any pests that make it onto the computer.

KM Player - for movies

Defraggler - best defrag program I've ever used.

IMGBurn - again, never had a problem with this and it writes to dvds etc with ease.

Renzatic on 5/6/2009 at 04:57

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Considering my antivirus blocked a 6 trojans infection from a site I visited straight off of Google once, I'd never be caught without one.

And what was I looking for? Porn? Keygens? Cracks? Nope. Nothing that shady. I landed them simply by googling up pictures of brick archways and trellises.

Renzatic on 5/6/2009 at 06:01

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....I lied. It was porn. :(

Aja on 5/6/2009 at 07:28

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sometimes, koki, one is forced to brave uncertain waters in pursuit of that elusive reward

In my case it was a copy of Inoue and Deupree's Active/Freeze, which is out of print and unavailable but through iTunes (yeah right) and through a sketchy russian forum that linked to a sketchier file-server called iFolder. I had no choice but to enable scripts and click on ads to reach my prize. But I got it (IN FLAC NO LESS) and a quick virus scan sweeped the evidence clean afterwards. All's quiet on the home front now, but it was a hell of adventure: one that wouldn't have been possible without protection