This is what I use and this is what I want. And its a work in progress.
OS
- Ubuntu Studio 9.10
- Windows 7 (Mostly just to run Adobe stuff now)
Hacking
- Eclipse + PyDev + EGit
- GeoDjango + PostGIS
- gvim – For the times when Eclipse is to heavy, particularly when hacking on my netbook.
Multimedia
- Adobe Premier Pro CS4
- Adobe Photoshop Lightroom – Haven’t really tried other photo management software. I like the way this handles metadata and has exporting presets which are good for Medill’s finicky CMS.
Writing:
- OpenOffice – Yawar’s live word count script is pretty indispensable.
Communications:
- Google Voice – I forward a Google Voice number to my mobile dumb phone, my newsroom desk phone, and a Skype number. This works great because I can give out one number to sources and be able to get their call anywhere. Google Voice is also indispensable because I can easily record the call by pressing 4 any time during the call. This is a really helpful feature for when I get a call back from a tough-to-reach source and I’m not in a place to take notes on paper or laptop.
- Skype – I use this in conjunction with Skype Call Recorder (by far the best and most intuitive Skype recording software I’ve used) to record outgoing calls. I configured my Skype account to show my Google Voice number in caller ID so sources don’t get confused about how to call me. I like Skype Call Recorder because it starts recording immediately, but then reminds you to ask for permission and whether you want to keep recording or delete the file. So, you never have to worry about accidentally turning recording off. Also, it just stores the recordings as MP3s in a simple and intuitive file/folder hierarchy.
- Tweetdeck
Information/Notes
- Tomboy – really useful notetaking program that lets me move bits and pieces of information around fast. I use my Dropbox to sync up my notes across computers.
- Dropbox
- Zotero – I use this for storing and annotating web research and PDF reports. I’m going to try storing audio recordings of interviews in here too.
Sources
- Delicious – I use this to quickly consume my web research. I like it because there are extensions for both Firefox and Chrome that make tagging really easy.
- Google Contacts – Google Contacts is not awesome, but it is a central location for contacts and integrates with Gmail, Google Voice and Thunderbird which I use for contacting sources.
Wishlist
- More useful Google Contacts – I would really love a short URL for contacts that I could easily drag into my Tomboy notes or word docs so I can easily link to contact info when I mention sources but not have to pepper my notes with a million phone numbers. It would be even more awesome to have a better Google Contacts API so someone could write plugins for Tomboy/Open Office to quickly/automatically link mentions of names to their contact record. The current Google Contacts API really only seems useful for syncing client apps with online contacts. I’d also like a quick-add that parses out contact information copied from web sites.