Useful Things

This page contains links to software I use often and very much like. I am not being required to put any of these links here, or even asked, and I will DENY any requests to add software to this list. (Unless after trying it I find myself using it as often as the stuff here.)

PHP Editor:
Dev PHP
This is a pretty nice all-around PHP editor. It can be buggy at times but the syntax hilighting is nice and it's inbuilt preview/webserver is passable. I don't use that anymore in favor of XAMPP which I will mention further on. It is also pretty light and works well from a flash drive.

Notes
IQ Notes

This little piece of software is pretty simple - it holds notes for you. It leaves an icon in the notification area that you can access your notes from easily. The best feature however is that it syncrhonizes them over ftp if you give it a server. This is what makes it better than notepad for me. It's a pretty simple little program but fits my needs perfectly.

Testing Platform/Server
XAMPP

If you've done webdesign for any amount of time you've probably heard of this, so I won't go on for long. It's not overly large, includes mysql and php, and can be run off a flash drive quickly and easily. It allows me to test my web apps from any pc easily.

Remote Desktop
LogMeIn

This is a nice free package that allows you to remotely control a PC with ease. It works like vnc, but has a few extra features and in addition does not require any port forwarding or anything of the sort. Just install and go. The only real disappointment is that the PC being controlled has to be Windows. The pro version has some awesome features, but it costs quite a bit per month, so I've only used the free trial.
Tip: Use Internet Explorer to remote control your PC if possible. While I normally wouldn't suggest this, the activex control is much nicer and more full-featured than the java-based one. I can not speak for the Firefox plugin, as I have not used it.

Music
Foobar 2000

Hey, for some of us music is necessary! Nice, light and quick, and it can deal with my enormous playlist with no problems. In addition it can convert between formats, which is a very nice feature to have, since most music conversion tools I have run across stink. (This is fairly standard but I forget about it.)

File Virus Scanner
Virus Total

This is a very nice service which allows you to upload a file then scans it with a bunch of well-known virus scanner and tells you the results. The best place to send a suspicious file before opening it.

Fonts
Da Font

Good source for fonts.