The shit blog of Paul Chris Jones

This time two years ago, I recommended a list of programs. Since then, my preferences have changed. Some programs I don't use anymore, and some new ones have arisen to fill needs I didn't have before. For example, Spotify, a program I loved 2 years ago, is no longer around due to copyright infringement. And I used to use Adobe Flash Professional a lot, to make flash animations and games, but since then I've put that hobby to one side.

Here's a list of programs I'd get if I got a new laptop:

• Firefox (with Adblock Plus)
• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Premiere Pro
• TrueCrypt
• Audacity
• VLC Media Player
• CamStudio
• DropBox
• AVG computer protection software
• WinZip
• BitTorrent
• VirtualDJ

and Microsoft programs I couldn't do without:

• Paint
• Word
• Wordpad
• Notepad
• Excel

Admittedly, this isn't a very long list. But these are the programs I find genuinely useful and which I keep coming back to. I'll explain some of my reasons below.

Internet Browsing

I don't really know why, but I prefer Firefox to Chrome and Internet Explorer. The 3 browsers are essentially the same, though I feel Firefox is less buggy, more reliable. Once you have Firefox, Adblock Plus is almost a necessity - it prevents the display of all internet adverts, so you need never see an advert again. This includes banner ads, youtube ads, pop-ups, more or less everything. Chrome's equilivent seems to be the similarly named AdBlock.

Security

TrueCrypt is a free program that encrypts your files, keeping them from reach unless you have the password. The encryption is taken very seriously, and it's nigh-on impossible to break. It makes storing sensitive files on your computer safer.

And out of all the anti-virus software there is, AVG seems to be top at the moment. It's free, and an unfortunate necessity for using the internet without contracting viruses.

Imaging

My definition of imaging includes:

• image-editing
• graphic design (creating images from scratch).

For both, Photoshop is just about a necessity for me.

The free alternatives include:

• the very simple Paint, which can be useful when you don't want to go through the hassle of opening Photoshop to do something small;
• the horrifically-named Gimp, which is essentially a poor man's version of Photoshop

Illustrator is apparently very good for graphic design (in general, the Adobe suite trumps everything else). I haven't gotten around to using Illustrator yet though - Photoshop currently meets my basic graphic design needs.

Sound recording & editing

Audacity is a simple, free program for basic sound-editing. It's invaluable, because Windows doesn't come with its own sound-editing software in the way that, say, Paint is offered for graphic design and Movie Maker is provided for video editing.

I thought it was strange Adobe hasn't made any sound software, but indeed they have and I've just never heard about it: Adobe Soundbooth for editing and Adobe Audition for recording. I've yet to try these out.

Video-editing

If you're moderately serious about making your own films, then you'll need something better than Windows Movie Maker. Adobe Premiere Pro (why the Pro? why not just call it Adobe Premiere?) seems to be current standard for the job.

CamStudio is a program to record what's going on your screen. It can be invaluable at times.

Media player

VLC seems to be the most popular media player, at least where I live. It might be because of a unique feature: you can turn up the volume 100% louder than your computer's normal maximum. One drawback to VLC is that I've never found way to get it to play multiple songs. It will play one song, then stop, and then I'll have to manually select the next song. Essentially what I'm saying is that I can't find the playlist function. However, I've decided I rather like this rusticity (is that a word?). It allows for periods of contemplative silence between songs, the length of which is entirely up to myself. Also, I appreciate the music more if I have to make an effort.

Website design

This field is still fairly new to me. There's three ways to go here: HTML, a blog, or drag-and-drop.

• For HTML, Notepad is nice and simple for creating basic websites. For anything more professional, I've heard DreamWeaver is one of the best to have, though I've yet to give it go.
• If you don't want to code (and why should you?), there's tonnes of methods to make a website. You can make a blog (wordpress, blogger)...
• ...or a site, usually with drag & drop (geocities, wix, easysitebuild).

The number of websites that exist for you to make your own website is a long list. After all, the internet is essentially just a lot of people's websites, so it stands to reason that making websites is a thing well-catered for on the internet. There's more information here.

Programming

Just like ways to make websites, there's tonnes of programming languages. There's no one standard yet, as they're all still evolving. C# is a popular one, which can be coded with Microsoft Visual Basic. This is one of the languages to make computer games or apps in.

If you're into making games, there's programs where a friendly drag and drop interface replaces much of coding. The most memorable of these, for me (I say memorable, because it's no longer around) is Klik and Play. Why people don't use it anymore, I don't know. It's great for kids (I should know, I was one). The games you can make are very crude and rudimentary, but the ease with which you can make them is a joy. The company followed-up with The Games Factory 2, which is used today (and with which I enjoy making games with). An alternative is Construct 2, thoguh I'm sure there's many more.

3D model building

I haven't used any yet, but Google Sketchup (basic and intuitive), Blender and Unity are popular programs. They're all free.