huanix

As I spend time stumbling around the net, I occasionally land on something that makes me say, “Wow. I CAN’T believe EVERYONE doesn’t know about or use this tool!” Here’s my list of my top 10 “undiscovered” resources. Some are more popular than others, so I hope you already use some of them! These a probably not in any particular order.

1. Linux – I honestly can’t figure out why everyone in the world isn’t using Linux yet. Linux is such a powerful operating system, it makes me giddy just thinking about it. If this is your first dive, check out Ubuntu.

2. Digg.com – a hierarchical news aggregator. If it’s important, it’s on Digg.

3. StumbleUpon – stumbling around the web to find interesting stuff can take awhile – but that process is exponentially faster using the stumbleupon web browser plugin.

4. Moodle – Moodle is an AWESOME tool for anyone interested in education – not JUST schools, but for sharing education on any topic. Setting up a server takes some knowledge, but you can google for some pre-existing classes. HINT: Google for: “This course allows guest users to enter”

5. Top 100 security tools – http://sectools.org . The tools on this page blow my mind daily, and I am only competent with about 15% of them.

6. Firefox – Firefox probably doesn’t belong on this list because it’s no longer a “secret”, but if you’re still using Internet Explorer, you should give firefox a try; it can blow your mind.

7. GIMP – the GNU Image Program is a [extremely] powerful image editor that is FREE. Free, as is do ANYTHING you want with it. People believe you have to use Photoshop to have a “real” image editor, but those are the people who are afraid to give free a chance.

8.  sourceforge – sourceforge.net is a sort of searchable warehouse for free software. If you need a software tool and you aren’t sure what’s available, go and search on sourceforge.

9. google  – Google is simply undiscovered. Neither of us can conceive of the tools google offers right now. If you THINK you know everything google has to offer, you do not yet know that you don’t know Google. check out labs.google.com or  a recent google search book.

10. refactor my code – refactormycode.com is an excellent resource for seeing how others develop code. People submit code and others add suggestions and develop it; a great “learn by example” tool.

11. Open Office – If I were still using the Open Office version available six months ago (2.2) OO would not have made this list, but OpenOffice 2.3 has FINALLY allowed me to COMFORTABLY cut my ties with Microsoft Office. This has allowed me to turn my back on Windows with a smile.