Stuff I wouldn't wanna live without

Generally I'm not much of a fan of these tag-you're-it-blogs because they seem so corny, but I did like this one. Sahil tagged me to come up with a list of things I just can't do without... so here we go. Here's my list of things I simply wouldn't want to live without (in no particular order):

Laptop: I seriously couldn't imaging life without a laptop. Today that's a Dell D820 widescreen with a 4GB RAM and a 2nd modular HDD for VM's. Love this guy... just wish I had a faster CPU (currently Duo 2Ghz... would love one of those Core 2 Duos... or even a quad core laptop).
Email: Nuff said... it shrinks this big world we live in. Still amazes me that I have friends I've only seen a few times on all the continents of the world (except Antartica) but we keep in touch via email.
Zune: Yes, I'm the one person out there who never liked the iPod wheel / UX... I just never "got it".
- As a sub item, my Bose QC3 noise canceling headphones. these are an absolute must on trips and in airports.
Windows Mobile Treo + Direct Push: Love having access to my email all the the time when I travel.
Membership to Delta's Crown Room: I've only had this for 7 months, but man, I can't live without it when traveling. We all have layovers... long connections. It is so nice to be able to head into a place away from the airport crowds, be able to pull our your laptop and work on a table, but not have to pack everything up just to head to the washroom for a minute. Oh... and free beer doesn't suck :). The beer is free... but the internet isn't... what's up with that? That's my only complaint. Oh... did I mention free beer doesn't suck?
Utility apps: I'll just rip off a few apps I can't be without on any machine:
- Notepad++
- Lutz's Reflector
- eWallet (on my phone too)
- Outlook 2007 (and everything else in the Office 2007 client suite)
- FeedDemon
- Mindjet's MindManager 2007 Pro (mind mapping utility)
- Virtualization software (MSFT / VMWare)
Visual Studio 2005: I can't believe Sahil left this off!
Microsoft Presenter Mouse 8000: Bluetooth mouse that doubles as a presentation mouse advancing slides and a laser pointer. Last mouse you'll ever buy (until they add a digital clock in it with a timer and vibrating alert). Thanks LL! :)
Subversion: My professional life is in source control and for me, this means SubVersion. It's an open source SCM that works great and using some of the free and not-free plugins, it integrates right into the Windows Explorer shell and Visual Studio 2005. This isn't just for your code... I use SCM for presentations and writing projects too.
CodeRush + Refactor!Pro: These two productivity addons from DevExpress are add-ons to Visual Studio that I simply can't live without. Head to their site and look at the training vidoes... the stuff just sells itself!

My turn to tag:

[Updated 7/30/2007 2:15p] Added CodeRush & Refactor! Pro... somehow these two critical things escaped me!

posted on Friday, July 27, 2007 2:54 PM

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# re: Stuff I wouldn't wanna live without 7/27/2007 7:14 PM Nick Bradbury

Nice to see that FeedDemon made your list, Andrew!

# re: Stuff I wouldn't wanna live without 7/27/2007 9:08 PM Sahil Malik

Email is stuff you couldn't live without?
Dang dude!! That'd be the first person I'd give up happily.

Seriously, I wish someone would take the initiative to completely revamp email as it exists today.

# re: Stuff I wouldn't wanna live without 7/27/2007 9:22 PM AC [MVP MOSS]

Sahil-
Funny, that's how I feel about IM. Find myself killing Messenger more often than leaving it up these days as it's so damn intrusive to what you're working on at any given moment.

Nick-
Hey man... good stuff deserves the cred!

# re: Stuff I wouldn't wanna live without 7/28/2007 1:00 AM Sahil Malik

Man, I block people ruthlessly on IM. You are right, both are annoyances, but atleast in IM, I know I won't see chinese characters anytime soon :).

BTW - I think the real problem is information overload, and the internet certainly hasn't made that situation better.

# re: Stuff I wouldn't wanna live without 7/29/2007 8:49 AM Matthew Chestnut

Andrew, What Subversion plug-ins are you using?

# ReSharper 7/29/2007 10:19 AM BigJimInDC

The simple fact that you didn't mention ReSharper in this list leads me to believe that you have never used it. No, I don't work for JetBrains, but do yourself a HUGE favor and get a copy of ReSharper and start using it (and do so for at least a week or two before making up your mind). VS2005's refactoring support was a nice step forward, but "the flow" of coding made possible by ReSharper, even more so in its very recently released 3.0 version, is so far beyond priceless. As I've told countless peers, using VS with ReSharper over VS without it is like coding .NET apps with Notepad and the command line - you can do it, but why on earth would you?

# re: Stuff I wouldn't wanna live without 7/30/2007 10:45 AM darren Kopp

The beer is free so you will forget that you have to pay for the internet. From the sounds of it, you aren't drinking enough.

# re: Stuff I wouldn't wanna live without 7/30/2007 2:12 PM AC [MVP MOSS]

Matt-
I use the TortiseSVN plugin that adds integration right into the Windows Explorer shell and VisualSVN that integrates it directly into Visual Studio... not free, but it costs less than $50.

BinJimInDC-
Actually you reminded me that I forgot CodeRush / DevExpress. I prefer it over ReSharper... I'll ammend the list.

# re: Stuff I wouldn't wanna live without 8/2/2007 4:42 PM Becky Isserman

I'm noticing everyone else, but you and Sahil listed family members. You guys are hardcore Developers.

# re: Stuff I wouldn't wanna live without 8/2/2007 5:00 PM AC [MVP MOSS]

Becky-
Yeah... Bob Fox put us in a wierd spot... arg.

# re: Stuff I wouldn't wanna live without 8/10/2007 7:46 PM Ivan

ok, i know this sounds dumb, lol. But the targus universal (anyplug) power supply, all of the adapters are included. I leave one onsite, @ the hotel, and @ home.

Also, im is complete anoyance unless using OCS & Communicator of course...

ias

# re: Stuff I wouldn't wanna live without 8/12/2007 10:41 AM AC [MVP MOSS]

Ivan-
Which Targus are you talking about?

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