Here are some of my favorite sites and software that I visit and use every day: (Click on the screenshots to see the full-size image)
Software
1. Mozilla Firefox {My preferred web browser: addons, speedy, and customizable:)}
2. Object Dock {The best dock for windows)
3. Google Desktop {A nice sidebar with search indexing)
4. CCleaner {Cleans all kinds of useless stuff from your computer}
5. Ultimate Windows Tweaker {Lets you tweak your pc in many useful ways}
6. AVG Antivirus Free {The best free antivirus program–full featured and doesn’t use up system resources}
7. Defraggler {The best Disk Defagmenter for Windows(from the creators of CCleaner)}
8. OpenOffice.org {A great alternative to Microsoft Office}
9. SuperAntispyware {cleans off spyware from your pc}
10. TeraCopy { copies and moves files much faster than the explorer file handler interface)
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Here are some of my favorite web sites that I visit often divided into categories based on my interests: Technology, Graphics/Web-Design, Software and Web-Apps/Browsers/Filehosting.
(Some of the sites’ descriptions by their authors)
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Technology:
1.PCWorld {a lot of useful articles based on computers and technology}
2. LifeHacker {Tons of tips and downloads for getting things done}
3. MintyWhite.com {A great site featuring Windows Tools, Help & Guides}
4. How-To-Geek {Great Computer Help Blog}
5. AddictiveTips {Daily articles about software, OS tricks, and tips}
7. Techi
8. Techie-Buzz
9. MakeUseOf {Cool Websites, Software, and Internet Tips}
10. What’s On My PC A great tech blog with software and computer relevant posts.
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Graphics/Web-Design
1. Noupe
2. 1stWebDesigner {Inspiration, Resources and Tools for Graphic and Web Designers}
3. Six Revisions {Web Development and Design Information}
4. InstantShift {Web Designers and Developers Daily Resource}
5. Hongkiat {Online Tips for Tech Users, Designers and Bloggers}
6. Tutorial 9 {Photoshop Tutorials, Photography Tuts, and Resources}
8. WebDesignerDepot {Web Design Resources and Tutorials}
9. PresidiaCreative {Presida Creative is a creative media blog that is dedicated to bringing together the best content from blogs and resources in areas such as art & graphic design, web development, and professional audio.}
10. CreativeFan l For Everything Creative
11. DesignInformer {The Latest in Web Design and Graphic Design}
12. NaldezGraphics {Designs,Graphics and Web Resources}
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Software
1. CNET Download {almost every download you can imagine is on this site}
2. Download Squad {Download Squad’s primary mission is to seek out the best in tools, utilities and applications, browser add-ons, distractions, time-wasters and other facets of your digital lifestyle.
3. Giveaway of The Day{Free licensed software daily}
4. Freeware Genius {Best Freeware Reviews and Downloads}
6. FileHippo {Download Free Software, also has a great update checker}
7. AlternativeTo {AlternativeTo lets you find new Windows, Mac, Linux and online software}
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Web-Apps/Browsers/Filehosting
1. StumbleUpon {A great tool to help you find sites based on your interests}
2. Google Services {I mainly use GMail and Google Reader}
3. Firefox Addons {Tons of useful add-ons for Firefox}
5. Ge.tt {Awesome free file hosting service}
6. Wakoopa {Wakoopa is a social network that helps people discover the best software, games and web apps on the market.}
7. Firefox Facts {Guide to add-ons, themes, tutorials and tips for the Firefox web browser}
P.S. You may think “Really, he visits the Firefox sites every day? How could they make the list?” Yes, I really do. I guess you could call me a firefox freak:)
WISCONSIN
Wisconsin became our thirtieth state on May 29, 1846. It is the twenty-
second largest state in the United States in land mass (Ling, 7). Because of the
many farms that produce milk, Wisconsin is called the Cheese Capital of the
Nation. The state’s nickname is the Badger state, and the state animal is the
badger. The state bird is the robin. “On Wisconsin” and “Forward” are its song
and motto. The state flower is the wood violet, and the state tree is the sugar
maple.
Plenty of rain falls so Wisconsin is very green. It is filled with thousands of
lakes, and a lot of valleys and hills cover its landscape. The average July
temperature for Wisconsin is 72º F. January’s average temperature is 0º F.
Wisconsin is a leader in food processing. It is foremost in producing
cheese and is second in milk. There are forests next to the Fox River, which is
by Green Bay (Ling, 53). As a result, Green Bay has many paper mills. In fact,
Wisconsin makes 11% of the paper in the United States (Bratvold, 44).
Wisconsin miners mine sandstone and limestone (Ling, 57). Also, manufacturing
is a big part of Wisconsin’s industry. About one fourth of the people work in
factories (Bratvold, 44). Many of them are in Milwaukee because it is a port
along Lake Michigan (Bratvold, 50). Madison produces a large amount of
medical equipment, food products, and machinery (Ling, 53).
1
2 Madison is the capital of Wisconsin and the second largest city.
Milwaukee is the largest city with about one tenth of the people living there. It is
the main manufacturing center. Some of the things Milwaukee makes are
electronic equipment for healthcare, car parts, iron, and steel. Although they also
process and pack meat, it is known as the Beer Capital of the Nation .
Wisconsinites like to boat, fish, swim, golf, hunt, hike, and camp. People
like to watch the Green Bay Packers play football and the Milwaukee Brewers
play baseball. The Milwaukee Bucks are the state’s basketball team.
Wisconsin is almost like my state, Minnesota. If I ever had to move to
another state, I would move to Wisconsin because God’s taste is shown through
Wisconsin’s scenery.
WISCONSIN
Introduction
Land
A. Size
B. Terrain
Climate
A. Temperature
B. Rain
Industry
Main resources
Main jobs
Cities
Capital
City
Sports
Recreational Activities
Teams
Conclusion
ii
WORKS CITED
Bratvold, Gretchen. Wisconsin. Minneapolis, Minn.: Lerner Publications
Company, 2002.
Ling, Bettina. Wisconsin. New York: Children’s Press, 2002.
3
WISCONSIN
BY
BENJAMIN MILBRATH
7 FEBRUARY 2008
Awesome Wallpapers 
Haha, half the software you recommend I do to!
same here except
bing! and smart defrag.
Thanks for checking out this post Chris. Sorry the lists are in bad order, I am currently working on this section:) I agree that Bing is a great search engine, but I have been using Google for as long as I can remember, so I am used to it. I have heard that smart defrag is a good defragger, but I have never tried it.
no prob,
yeah, may seem weird but even though i like bing better i still don’t want it to surpass google i mean there would be no “google it”
thats like ‘to search’ lol
anyway smart defrag is great it arranges your files on your disk for a lot better performance it helps i can notice a difference when i do a deep optimize.
as far as the browser thing i actually use chrome, firefox, opera, safari(kinda), and (barely)IE8 all the time usually switching everyday from one to the other. mostly the other three though
and i’m not sure which i like better objectdock, or rocketdock
i just snap my icons on them and i’m glad they just work which is saying something for a lot of things out there lol
I too use all the major browsers, but firefox is my main one because of the addons:)
Firefox is good but the Opera browser is the best! They have a lot of stuff others don’t. Like “mouse-gestures” for an example. Why bother push some buttons when u just can make a short command with your mouse and voila. Haven’t tried Chrome but I think Opera tops both Safari and Firefox.
http://www.opera.com/
Btw have u tried IBM Lotus Symphony? I really don’t like OpenOffice since it bugged a lot last time I used it. Got a tips from a mate to check out Lotus Symphony, a freeware officeprogram. Haven’t done so yet since I have the original MicrOffice but I think it can be pretty good.
While discussing these awesome programs I just think of another one while speaking. It’s a web-accelerator called FreeDownloadManager. Makes all of your downloads a lot faster. Is fully compatible with both Explorer and Firefox. Can also run for itself if you have the correct global adress. Also has support for bit-torrent protocol which one can activate ore deactivate at will. In short terms relly good.
I’m gonna check out that ObjectDock. Thanks for the tips.
@Half-Leif:
-I have tried Opera, but for me, it is not as customizable as Firefox (with the addons). BTW, There is addon for firefox called Fire Gestures, that has the same features of Opera’s mouse gestures plus even more.
-I have never heard of FreeDownloadManager before, might try it out though:)
-I strongly recommend Object Dock:)
Hi
Thanks for the FireGestures tip, works pretty good. There’s another thing with Opera though that I really like and I haven’t found any equivalent add-on for Firefox. It’s the search engine manager. In Opera I can just type “g whatever” in the adress-field and it searches Google for “whatever”. I also use this a lot on searches on Wikipedia and other wikis by asigning a search hotkey (like “g” or “w”) for any searchengine I want (customizable). Just search directly instead of waiting for the page to load first and then make my search. Quite convenient. Firefox is good but there are a lot of stuff in Opera that I like too much too change my main browser. Got Firefox installed though and uses it sometimes. Will probably use it more often now when I can use gestures in it ;).
ObjectDock is quite nice, tried it out.
Wow, that is pretty cool. I was just wondering “How do you enable mouse gestures on Opera?”. Is it a seperate widget, or does it come built in?
Hi again
It’s built in. Just check the Preferences or if you do a gesture “by mistake” Opera asks you if you want to enable mouse gestures.
Nice, I just tried it. It works pretty well. Thanks!
I really like the idea of having a section dedicated for your best recommendations to your visitors.
And you featured great blogs here. Pretty valuable reference list.
Welcome to Awesome Wallpapers, Dennis. Maybe your blog will be on my list soon:)
I will do my best to make it there… 🙂
Great collection! I usually recommend about two thirds of what you recommend, but I’ve never heard of some apps, so thank you.
You’re welcome. Glad you found this list useful:)
[…] and is a young whipper snapper (14 to 15 years old). The blog also specializes in Firefox Addons, Sites & Software, and Wallpaper […]
I think by now it should be worth mentioning Chrome by the sheer speed of it. Most Firefox add-ons work great on it too. And for software websites I think Softonic.com and their blog (onsoftware.com) are very usefull too. It’s even in several languages (as it is the worldwide web ;)).
For the rest I think you made a great list, thanks for that!
-I agree with you about Chrome, it’s insanely fast. The problem I have with Chrome is that the themes for Firefox are so much better. Also, a couple addons I can’t live without didn’t make it to Chrome.
-Just checked out the Softonic blog, it’s really cool! I just subscribed to the RSS feed:) Thanks for the reccomendations!
Thanks for sharing. I found a couple of aps and a few websites that I’m not familiar with.
If I was sharing my favorites, though, I’d put Google Chrome on the top of the list. I used to be a HUGE Firefox fan, but Chrome is hands-down faster and safer, too. Whenever I am forced to use Firefox now, it seems downright sluggish in comparison.
You might want to check out the latest Firefox 4 betas. They are super fast:) BTW, sorry for the late reply, I missed your comment the first time:)
… and even with the new Firefox beta 4 speed on the horizon there has always been some great Firefox “pre-loaders” around that makes it super quick.
I have about 30 must-have add-ons that I literally would be lost without the likes of Tab Mix Plus, Xmarks and especially Speed Dial and AdBlock Plus. I cannot sing the praises enough about Speed Dial – I have at least 800 thumbnailed bookmarks of their homepages at my fingertips and divided among 15 subjected-pages. And honestly, when you think about it … even with the best of intentions you really never fully use your browsers default bookmarks to their full potential and “out of sight out of mind” is usually the norm for most of them until you “accidentally rediscover” them a year later.
I’ve used Chrome and Opera … and being a late-comer to Foxfire – I now cannot truly sing the praises of this browser loud enough. I’ve even thought about going as far as putting a website to help and explain all of Firefox’s advantages and it’s full potential to colleagues and friends.
btw: Did you note that there are no grammar or misspelled words here … as English is not my first language – this was fully accomplished using ImTranslator and British English Dictionary add-ons as I typed (not after or rendered apart and pasted in) … my job as a copy-writer for international press demands this of me and I very much in doubt that I could have accomplished this using Chrome or Opera.
I dare anyone to use the Speed Dial add-on for two-weeks to it’s full potential and options and then return to their former browser using the standard shortcut method. I’ve tried – it’s impossible!
I too use Speed Dial and find that it is invaluable. I also use most of the addons you mentioned. Firefox has always been the king of extensions and customizability. I use to have 200+ addons, but I now have a more managable 30+:) What I like best about Firefox is that even if you have a large amount of extensions, it is still very fast and uses a fair amount of memory.
Great collection…Ccleaner is not free anymore..
Yes it is. It has a paid and a free option. I use the free version and it works amazingly well. The paid one just adds priority support.
Was looking at the Object Dock, is that as easy to use as it looks and can you get rid of your task bar if you use the Object Dock? Considering down loading it. Thanks for the good info.
Yes you can. In the options dialog it allows you to hide the windows taskbar. Here’s my current setup: http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/5464/ss20110309091507.png
You should try Wolframalpha.com as well.. it’ll solve almost any math problem… heh type in “1.21 gigawatts” and see what it says.
AVG is good, but this person lies when saying it doesn’t take up many resources. It’s a resource hog compared to other AV programs.
On my computer it doesn’t take up many resources compared to the AV programs I’ve tested. Microsoft Security Essentials takes up 40MB of ram, AVG takes up to 4MB of ram with 5 proccesses combined. Here’s a screenshot of AVG’s resources on my system. http://i.imgur.com/RR7w0.png
Very good selections, although many use the same softwares you use, few of them are new to me. Thanks for shating. Thanks
nice sites and here also my favorite sites http://www.picsgate.com for download pics and wallpapers
http://www.freesoftware2u.com to download free software and youtube and google for videos and search 🙂
I love Firefox, but I think Google Chrome is better. I like the flexibilty of being able to type a google search on the same web address bar. Plus, chrome has cool web apps, and is lightning fast!
FYI, you can type a google search on the web address bar with Firefox.
I can understand why you use Chrome. Out of the box Chrome is better than Firefox (with speed at least), but for my needs, Firefox is by far more customizable and has way better addons than Chrome.
Thanks for dropping by,
Ben (Admin)
[…] What I Use (Software and Sites) […]
i liked the google desktop sidebar. its good. i have bookmarked this site.