I recently read somewhere that, for this next generation, the Internet is the new television. What?!? That made me slightly depressed, considering the Web has the potential to change humanity in ways we can’t yet imagine — and can do an infinite amount more than just aggregate gossip and entertain the masses. Luckily for me, there are people in high places that share my convictions. Luckily for you, they’re a lot smarter than I am.

Enjoy!

TIME TO START TAKING THE INTERNET SERIOUSLY By David Gelernter

Click to enlarge.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s dispense with the pleasantries and move on to the second point of business — where the hell did October go? My last post was on September 27th! Have I been so caught up with Team Fortress 2 that I’ve neglected my lonely little blog in cyberspace? I’m sure that has had a lot to do with it, but to tell you the truth I’ve been fairly unplugged for the last month. At least relative to my normal life-style. A few other projects have been sucking up my time too. Hopefully they will reach fruition soon so I can get back to my life on the interwebz. (The sole purpose of that last sentence was so I could use the word “fruition”. I feel so satisfied now.)

Now on to the main topic, Google. These guys are on a roll. I know, I know, they’ve been on a roll since 1999, but the stuff that they’re gearing up for now is bordering on epic. That’s right, I said epic.

First, let me go through the Google services I use by choice, the Google services I use by acquisition, and the Google services I currently do not use.

Google Search - Okay, who doesn’t use Google as their primary search engine. Seriously, I’d like to meet you. I remember stumbling across Google way back when it was just an itsy-bitsy little search site. They grow up so fast.

Gmail - Phenomenal. That’s all I have to say about that.

Gtalk - This is my primary IM client right now. I still use all the others out of necessity, but if I had my choice, I would make everyone switch to Gtalk. I’m selfish like that.

Google Calendar – I would be lost without it. On the rare occasions when Google Calendar goes down, I can be found wandering the streets aimlessly. I even sync my calendar to MS Outlook so I can sync it to my Blackberry. It’s an ugly hack, but it works.

Google Reader – I used to read all my feeds in Netvibes. Now I’m 100% GR. It’s so smooooth.

Google Maps – This service is getting more incredible by the day. I use it religiously.

Google Images – I use it by default. It does what I need it to do.

Google Groups – Deja was one of Google’s first acquisitions back in 2001. Actually, I think they just acquired Deja’s Usenet archive, but I guess it’s all the same. I started using Deja back in 1999.

Google Docs – Formerly known as Writely. This service was fantastic as Writely and is even more fantastic as Google Docs.

Youtube – Okay, so the whole world was using this before it became part of the Google conglomerate. That’s why they bought it.

Jaiku – Google’s most recent acquisition. I tend to lean more towards Pownce and Twitter, but I have been known to Jaiku from time to time.

Orkut – I’m not a big fan of social networks (though I love the concept) and Orkut is no exception. With that said, I have an account with almost every social network on the face of the Earth, and Orkut was one of the first. This is back when you had to get an invite from someone who already had an Orkut account in order to sign up. **They’ll let anyone in nowadays! ** Google has recently redesigned the entire site and it will most likely play a key roll in upcoming future developments. But more on that later.

Feedburner – If you’re a blogger or some other kind of content creator, then chances are you use feedburner. This is a fantastic service if you’re trying to syndicate your crap….I mean stuff.

Here is a great list of Google acquisitions in chronological order. It’s fascinating to see how the company has changed throughout the years and the obvious direction they are heading just by analyzing the pattern of acquisitions on this list.

Google Photos (aka: Picassa) – I don’t foresee myself leaving Flickr anytime in the near future. It’s just too much of a great service and it’s really integrated into everything I do online. I do, however, use Picassa’s stand-alone software to organize my pictures on my PC.

Google Bookmarks – Sorry, this service doesn’t even compare to del.icio.us. Then again, it’s not really suppose to. Like Flickr, del.icio.us has really worked its way into everything I do online in some fashion or another. I love it too much to part ways with it. FYI, Flickr and del.icio.us are Yahoo owned companies. Acquisition is the name of the game.

Blogger – Nothing against Blogger, it’s a really nice platform, but I started with WordPress and I’ll most likely end with WordPress. –Wow, that sounded morbid.

iGoogle – This is a really nice service and I would recommend it to anyone, however, I have found that one personal start page just doesn’t cut it for me. They just take so long to load. Instead, I launch Firefox with multiple tabs. My first tab is plain old Google, followed by Gmail, followed by my calendar, followed by a blank tab. I find that this loads a lot faster and I can get all the same data as I could from a bloated start page. But hey, that’s just me. If a start page is your thing, then have it…..dork.

So that about wraps up what I use and don’t use out of all the Google services. Everything else is either still a novelty in my eyes, or hasn’t yet graduated from Google Labs. Speaking of which, if you’ve never been there, make it a point to stop by.

What I’m excited for, and this is kind of the point of this long and overly bloated blog post, is how Google plans on pulling it all together. I read a great article on Techcrunch called Google’s response to Facebook: “Maka-Maka”

“Maka-Maka encompasses Google’s grand plan to build a social layer across all of its applications. Some details about Maka-Maka have already leaked out, particularly how Google plans to use the feed engine that powers Google Reader (known internally as Reactor) to create “activity streams” for other applications akin to Facebook’s news and mini feeds. But Maka-Maka goes well beyond that.”

It’s a really good article outlining Google’s master plan to bring all their services together into one social-networky-type thing.

“Huber is on record as saying that the way Google plans to compete is by using the Web as the platform instead of trying to lock developers into Google’s own platform.”

“Web as a platform.” Sound familiar? It’s a term that is often associated with Google and one that I am a huge proponent of. AND, as if Maka-Maka wasn’t exciting enough, now throw into the mix the highly anticipated Gphone and the 700mhz spectrum auction which is slated to begin in January. I can barely contain myself! These are exciting times for Google and Internet enthusiasts.

Exciting times indeed!

“PodCamp Boston 2 is the new media community UnConference that helps connect people interested in blogging, podcasting, social networks, video on the net, and new media together for three days to learn, share, and grow their new media skills. Whether you’re just interested in new media or an experienced veteran, PodCamp Boston 2 is for you!”

All registered and rearing to go. Hope to see you all there.

The original…or at least the site that launched the microblogging craze. Twitter is also the most simplistic of the three sites. Where some people would criticize its simplicity, I would praise it. It’s this exact feature that makes Twitter so outstanding. There’s nothing to think about. You make a post, 140 characters or less, and off it goes for the world to see. You can follow other people’s tweets by adding them as friends, or by going to the public timeline to watch the entire community. It can be surprisingly addicting. You can tweet from your mobile phone or from an IM client too (currently AIM and gTalk). Twitter also offers some nice javascript and flash badges for you to put on your blog, Myspace, or Facebook accounts. I prefer a more minimalistic approach as seen on my sidebar. Just straight HTML and RSS. I call it sidebar blogging. Pretty clever, eh! Think it will stick?

Twitter’s prettier sister. Jaiku has almost all the qualities of Twitter and then some. One of Jaiku’s greatest features is the ability to pull all your feeds from around the net (including those from Twitter) and place them into your Jaiku. For example, I have my flickr photos, my blog entries, my del.icio.us bookmarks, and my tweets all streaming into my Jaiku. It’s like one stop shopping for everything I do on the net. They also have an improved commenting system and the ability to subscribe to different channels (groups). Think of Jaiku as a more robust and complex version of Twitter. For me, I just set it up and let it run on autopilot. My Jaiku is constantly updated by my feeds. I do pop in from time to time and post something in person or check my channels. If you’re looking for something with a little more kick than Twitter, Jaiku is probably right up your alley.

The new kid on the block. So new in fact that’s it’s invite only. Pownce almost doesn’t fit in the microblogging category. There are no outgoing (or incoming) RSS feeds to broadcast your posts. Everything is done on the site and is a very closed atmosphere. While it may not be a full-fledged microblogging platform, it does share some characteristics with the genre. I would describe Pownce as a hybrid service. A cross between microblogging, chat, and file sharing, and this is where it gets its strength. Pownce gives you the ability to choose who to send various entries to, whether in be to the public, a private message to a friend (or friends), or to a predefined group in your contact list. You can also determine what type of post to send them, i.e., a message, a link, a event, or a file — the latter of the four being the most useful. With a standard account you can send up to 10 megabyte files, or upgrade to a pro account for $20.00 a year, and send up to 100 megabyte files. I’m not sure how I feel about that yet, I’ll keep you posted. Pownce is still in its infancy as a web app and I’m sure we’ll see some new features rolled out over the next few weeks. They also just gave us 6 more invites, so if anyone would like to check it out for themselves, just say the word and I’ll shoot you an invite.

The last thing I’ll mention is that all three services above have stand-alone programs that allow you to monitor and interact with their respective communities. This is nice if you don’t want to keep your browser open all the time to receive/post new messages.

And that’s it, those are my thoughts. If you leave here with anything today, it should be this:

• Twitter = simplistic / minimalist
• Jaiku = robust / feature rich
• Pownce = hybrid (blog + chat + ftp)

twitter.com/skyecade
skyecade.jaiku.com
pownce.com/skyecade

For those of you who don’t have the foggiest idea what I’m talking about, allow me to enlighten you. Pownce is sort of like twitter + ftp + instant messaging, all rolled up into one neat little app. Of course, I’m just assuming it’s rolled up into one neat little app, since I haven’t actually tried it yet for myself.

FYI, Pownce is a new “Kevin Rose” startup — the same guy responsible for digg and revision3, as well as various podcasts and T.V. shows. He has yet to disappoint me, hence the reason why I’d love to try out his new service. I’ll keep checking my inbox.

It’s completely free and it takes only a few minutes to get a new video on your site. I signed up, created a video, and embedded it into my site in under 5 minutes. Sorry for the bad quality. I used the built-in mic and camera on my MacBook. But imagine the possibilities.

Not only can I annoy people with my writing, but now someone has made it easy for me to annoy people with my face too. Thanks bubbleguru! Their slogan should be “We are Web 2.0s version of blinking text”.

All kidding aside though, this looks like pretty cool technology. You might see me pop in from time to time. Prepare yourself.

Here’s the thing, I am a Netvibes addict — I honestly don’t remember what life was like before Netvibes came along. The only problem, Netvibes really isn’t prettiest thing to look at. At least not until now.

Read the full article on the Netvibes blog.

The JenniCam has since gone dark, but not before firmly cementing itself into Internet lore. There is a new phenomenon sweeping through the net now. This phenomenon is called justin.tv. Who’s, Justin? Justin is a guy who strapped a video camera to his head 11 days, 12 hours, and 30 minutes ago, and has not shut it off since. It streams live 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. He claims he will wear it until the day he dies. That would be interesting to see. :0

I watch it on and off while I’m at my computer and I have to tell you, it’s pretty cool (in a weird sort of way) and surprisingly addictive. I reminds me of the Truman Show with Jim Carey where anyone could turn on their televisions at any given time and see what Truman was doing, even if he was just sleeping. In fact, Justin is sleeping right now. It’s soooo wierd! Don’t worry, he’s not lazy — he’s just on west coast time.

The first thing I want is a huckleberry attachment for my MacBook. It’s a little webcam mirror that will turn the built-in webcam around and allow me to shoot things in front of me. I can’t think of a practical use for this, but I want it nonetheless.

The second thing I’d like to add to my list is this Web 2.0 poster that would look absolutely smashing in my office. You have to order this one from Europe, so I’d get a move on.

While you’re at it, you might as well throw a Zune on that list. The brown one please. It will look nice sitting next to my iPod. They can fight it out for my affection.

Here’s the break down:

• A web based desktop (i.e. operating system)
• A full featured Linux distribution
• A lightweight Linux distro and/or BIOS

Personally, I think the first option is the most likely, considering that this is the direction the internet is heading. Let’s dismiss the other two options for the time being. Most of the apps I use are internet based already, e.g., Writley (now Google Docs), del.icio.us, gmail, Google Calendar, flickr, Netvibes, meebo,…

The only thing really holding back resource heavy apps from residing on the net, i.e., video games, photo editing software, are the broadband limitations. Someday this will be the thing of the past. When that happens, hard drives will also be the thing of the past, at least in the conventional sense. This is still a long ways away though.

For those of you who don’t use internet apps, you really don’t know what your missing. Over the course of a month, I must sit in front of twenty different computers. Yes, I know, for the average user this may be a bit extreme, but for people like us it’s not that strange. My point is, it’s nice to be able to hop on to any computer and have my bookmarks, my documents, my email, my news, my instant messengers, my appointments, my RSS feeds, my photos and videos, etc… right at my finger tips.

Now imagine having your entire desktop there as well. This isn’t a matter of if it will happen, but when will it happen. When eyeOS was launched (or at least when I first saw it) about a year ago, it was in rough shape. It’s come along way since then. Though still not even close to ready for the mainstream, you can definitely see the potential. Some other webtops to check out are YouOS, Goowy, DesktopTwo, and Xin, the latter of which really caught my eye. I’m just waiting for my confirmation email to check it out.

So, as you can see, there is some progress being made towards full featured online desktops, though even I think you would be crazy to use them in their current state. Google OS could possibly change this. And I stress, possibly.

Until that day, what every power user should be using is an ajax driven, dynamic, customizable start page such as Netvibes, Pageflakes, Google Pages, Live, Protopage, or the relatively new contender, Webwag (which I have to admit, looks very impressive). Use one of these for a month and you would be lost with out them. I prefer Netvibes, but all of the above offer a slightly different look and feel as well as there own set of features.

Reddit is a social news site similar to digg, and apparently they were acquired this morning by the same company that owns Wired, Condé Nast.

Reddit is a Boston-based company that was founded by 2 guys in 2005, and has expanded since then to a whopping 4 employees. Reddit was funded by Paul Graham’s YCombinator, which is a venture capitalist firm that specializes in “funding early stage startups”.

Congratulations guys!

As of the time of this writing I only have one friend. Well, one friend not including that psycho Tom. He freaks me out. Anyways, I spammed like 30 people that I know tonight, begging asking them to be my friend. Hopefully they’ll accept my request soon so I won’t look like such a loser!

Myspace is the third most visited website on the net in the United States. THIRD! Out of billions of websites! That blows my mind. Yahoo and Google are numbers 1 and 2 respectively. So I figured, if one wants to have a presence on the net, then one should really have a presence on myspace, no matter how dirty that one feels.

Speaking of upcoming.org, I almost forgot all about this site. That would have been tragic since it’s such a great concept. The last time I was there though, the site was only a few months old and there really weren’t any entrees for the Boston area. Well, it seems like that has all changed. There’s all kinds of great events listed on the website now. I even joined the Boston Tech Events group. It’s wicked cool.

They’re even throwing a party tonight to commemorate this exciting event. I’ll be there in spirit only.

So what’s the big deal about IPTV? Well, similar to how downloadable movies will be the eventual death of video stores (and perhaps even the dvd), IPTV could put the final nail in the coffin of broadcast television. A little extreme you say? I think not! True, broadcast television will always be around, but it will be more comparable to what A.M. radio is today. This summer, broadcast television reached it’s all time lowest viewership in recorded history. This is because more and more people are finding their entertainment on the internet. Whether it be from video sites like YouTube or podcasting networks like TWiT.tv or in persistent online gaming worlds such as World of Warcraft. The latter boasts an impressive 6 million subscribers ranging from middle school kids to business executives.

IPTV isn’t quite ready for the mainstream yet. There is still one missing piece of the puzzle. For the masses to except this new technology, there will have to be an easy way to get the videos from your computer to your TV. This is where Apple comes in. In 2007, they are set to launch a little piece of hardware called the iTV. It’s a wireless box that sits on top of your television and streams video from your computer to your TV with the push of a button.

Like digg.com, Rev3′s current line-up is targeted at the geekculture elite and the techno savvy. They do hope to expand their reach to other target audiences in the future with new vidcasts. Until then, I’m more than happy watching shows like diggnation, systm, and geekdrome. You can subscribe to all of their vidcasts using iTunes or download them directly to your computer from their site at revision3.com.

In case you’ve never seen an episode of diggnation, here is a little clip of their most popular show on the Rev3 network. The show is a weekly vidcast highlighting the top stories on digg.com for that given week.

I had a chance to mess around with it for a couple of minutes. It seems very smooth, considering it’s a web app. I’ve used other online spreadsheets that are clunky by comparison. It also seems to have all of the features you would expect from Google, i.e. sharing capabilities, import/export options, etc…

At first glance, it looks like a nice little spreadsheet for day to day use. It’s definitely a great addition to Google’s ever growing list of web apps. Free web apps at that. I look forward to playing around with it some more.

Then there’s Netscape.com. You might notice some similarities between this site and Digg’s. That’s because Netscape is a complete clone of Digg, through and through. That’s fine, shitty, but fine. I’ve seen this done plenty of times before. What I’m confused about, however, is what Netscape’s head honcho, Jason Calacanis, is proposing to do next. He is offering to pay the top posters of Newsvine, Digg, Reddit, and Flickr if they post a minimum of 150 stories per month to Netscape. They would receive $12,000 a year and be dubbed Netscape Navigators. Clever, huh? But that’s not what I’m confused about either. Business is business after all.

What baffles me is this; if you are going to hire professional posters (pseudo-editors if you will) to add content to your site, then why clone Digg at all? The whole point of Digg and the web 2.0 movement is to rely almost soley on user interaction and participation. A read/write web instead of the static web of old. Why not clone Wired, or Slashdot, or CNN.com for that matter? Or better yet, come up with something original.

Leo Laporte of TWiT.tv threw in his two cents, saying that Jason has once again “whipped up a nice publicity stunt”, and a distasteful one at that. He further states that the success of Digg, and the other above mentioned sites, isn’t limited to any one set of users, but rather by user participation as a whole. I tend to agree.

Here’s where the gloves come off. Kevin Rose, co-founder of Digg.com, said the Netscape situation was Bullshit on Friday in his weekly podcast. Jason retorted by saying, “This is a serious discussion and I’m saddened that Kevin has reduced it to personal attacks.” Of course Kevin retaliated with this post on his blog, ending it with:

“ps – have a beer and relax, it’s just diggnation ”

I had to chuckle. This is geek gossip at its best folks!

In a related story, Netscape got hacked today. Visitors to the site were greeted with a pop-up message saying”Hi to all you diggers out there“.
You can’t make this stuff up.

For the time being I will continue to use HipCal. Which, by the way, is another fabulous calendar program for all you anti-googleites.

//UNDATE// I found the iCal feature. Shame on me for not having faith in my beloved Google. Goodbye HipCal, hello CL2.

It’s called the Google Page Creator and it is yet another incredible piece of software that has been released by Google. If you read my last post, I mentioned that I was a bit disappointed with the release of the Google Pack. Well, needless to say, they’ve completely redeemed themselves (as I suspected they would).

Google’s Page Creator is a site that allows you to create your own web pages and host them on Google’s servers. It’s free, it’s simple, and it’s a lot of fun. It’s kind of like Blogger meets Geocities, but better and a lot better. The interface is extremely easy to use and you don’t need to know html to make a great website. You can host files and have multiple pages, all for the low, low price of nothing. This is going to make web hosting companies like GoDaddy very unhappy This is what the internet is morphing into. A true example of Web 2.0.

Experts are now saying that people, my generation and younger, will most likely accomplish the following in their lifetime:

1. Write a novel
2. Write a poem
3. Write a song
4. Create a website
5. Learn a new language
6. Write some kind of computer code
7. Make a movie/video of some kind

This isn’t because we are smarter than our parents and grandparents, but because the tools to accomplish these things are more easily accessible to us. The Google Page Creator is just another great example of this. It’s something anyone can use, and should.

I’ve always said that everyone should own a website of some kind. This will make it easier for people to do just that. I created this website in under ten minutes. No kidding. Now imagine if I actually put some effort into it. You could do some pretty incredible and useful things with this software.

Ahh Google, how I love thee.

Being the avid Google fan that I am, I, along with thousands of others, awaited the release of the Google Pack with high expectations. Not so much for the pack itself, but to see which programs Google deemed worthy enough to land a spot in this illustrious assortment of software. However, when it was finally released earlier this month, the wave of disappointment over the community was astounding. The mediocrity of the pack was completely out of character for a company known for its innovation, creativity, and originality.

Allow me to express some of my opinions about the software included in this bundle. Shall I? Indeed, I shall.

Realplayer – The problem with putting a multimedia player in the ultimate bundle pack is that there aren’t any that really stand out from the rest. Real Player is OK, but so is QuickTime, and Winamp, and VLC, and Sonique, and even Windows Media Player for that matter. Each player has advantages and disadvantages over the other. In fact, I haven’t found one media player that satisfies all of my multimedia needs (at least not without a struggle). I personally use Windows Media Player, VLC, and occasionally Winamp. It really comes down to personal preference, and putting it in a pack like this is like putting an onion pizza in an ultimate food pack when just as many people like pepperoni pizza.

Adobe Acrobat Reader – Now this is a great program. In fact, I would say it’s an essential program. The thing is most computers already have this installed on them. It ships with virtually every new PC on the market. Not to mention with any software package that uses the Portable Document Format (PDF) for their tutorials/how-tos/instructions or other literature. Case in point, I was installing a video game last night called Far Cry and after the installation it prompted me to install Adobe Acrobat Reader. Of all things, a video games offers Acrobat Reader? There’s nothing ground-breaking about it being included in the Google Pack.

Google Earth – This is just Google showing off. It’s a great program and a lot of fun, but I would say it’s far from being essential. But then again, it is Google’s pack and they are allowed to show off as much as they want. If I wrote an amazing program like that I suppose I’d want it in my pack too. It’s just not a necessity.

Google Desktop – I tried this software for about a month and found it kinda of messy and clunky. It’s almost the sort of product you’d see from AOL or Yahoo, not from Google. It seems to veer away from Google’s minimalistic approach. I also get the feeling that Google is trying to force this particular piece software on users, a trait that also doesn’t fit well with Google’s usually consistent theme of being unobtrusive.

Norton Antivirus- You’ve come to the wrong place if you’re looking for a Norton supporter, or a Mcafee supporter while we’re at it. Both companies are a thorn in my side. They are system hogs and a bitch to uninstall. I’ve also never trusted any antivirus company that charges for their products. Their whole business is built on people getting viruses. Do I even need to mention the trouble Norton (Symantec) got into recently for secretly installing rootkits onto their customers computers. Come on! That’s like an animal rights activist kicking the crap out of a helpless Poodle. Sure, it might be fun, but it’s just wrong. Thanks, but I think I’ll pass.

Google also tossed in a screensaver pack and an art gallery viewer. I’m assuming these were used as filler. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure they’re fabulous programs. My computer just doesn’t need anymore fillers.

Google didn’t get it all wrong though. They did manage to include some must have programs into their bundle. That got me thinking. If I had to make a Skyecade Pack, what amazing programs would I include in it? Hmm. Let’s give it a shot, shall we? Indeed, we shall.

• Firefox – A definite must have for the internet warrior. Firefox is a very customizable and secure web browser. This is one piece of software that Google got right. If there is one thing you should download from this list it should be this. And if you use Outlook for your mail, make sure to check out Thunderbird from Mozilla. It’s good alternative to Microsoft’s flagship mail client.
• Google Toolbar for Firefox Google got this one right too. But of course you’ll want to download the Firefox version and not the one for Internet Explorer since you’re a die-hard Firefox user now.
• Picasa 2 This cool little program made it onto Google’s list too, and I would have to agree with them. It’s a great program (owned by Google) that manages all of your photos on your PC. I was very impressed by it’s intuitive interface and use of tags, in addition to folders. It’s also relatively small and doesn’t install all kinds of other unwanted crap onto your computer *cough* AOL *cough* sucks *cough*. Excuse me, I had something gross in my throat.
• Trillian OK, well maybe Google’s not doing so bad. They did put this little gem in there pack. I’ve used this program for years now. If you’re like me, and pray your not, you may find yourself using multiple chat/voip programs. Trillian merges AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Windows Messenger, ICQ, Google Talk (Jabber format), and IRC in one tight little bundle. One chat program to rule them all. See that reference to Lord of the Rings right there? Yeah, that’s what I’m all about. Two other alternatives to Trillian are Gaim and Miranda. Both are also nice programs.
• Ad-Aware This is a spyware/ad-ware protection utility. This should be on every ones computer until a better program comes out. It detects spyware, trojans, malware, browser hijackers, dialers, etc… And it’s free.
• Antivir This is my rebuttal to Google’s endorsement of Norton Antivirus. It’s free, it’s better, it’s free, it doesn’t suck, it’s free, and unlike other companies, it will protect you against viruses, not install them. In 3 years of using this program there has never been a virus this program didn’t detect and remove. I recommend this antivirus program out of personal experience, but there are other free antivirus programs that are supposed to be excellent. A few are avast , AVG, and BitDefender. All come highly recommended.
• Keynote This is an outline program that I discovered by accident and now can’t live without. There are too many possible uses for this program to list here. Just download it and start experimenting.
• OpenOffice This didn’t make Google’s list, but in all fairness, I would be surprised if it didn’t make the next release of the Google Pack. I have completely abandoned Microsoft Office for this free office suite. It is fully compatible with all the standard office formats and continuously under development (an example of web 2.0 and the perpetual beta). It has has a word processor, spreadsheet application, presentation software, a vector based graphics program, and a ton more.
• WinRAR Windows XP has there own compression tool, but it isn’t nearly as robust as winRAR. Sooner or later you are going run into a .gz, or .tar and windows is going to curl up in the fetal position and crash. But fear not, you were savvy enough to install winRAR. Good for you.
• Filezilla Filezilla is an FTP program. Not all of you are going to need one of these, but should the day come that you need to upload or download large sums of files from a FTP server, this is the program you should have. I used to use smartFTP almost exclusively. It’s a good enough program, but I found when I really needed a work horse, nothing beat Filezilla. I could let the thing run all night and not worry about it losing a connection.
• Artrage I suppose I couldn’t classify this program as essential, but it’s cool as hell. It’s a very realistic creative art program. It’s also one of the coolest and most natural feeling art programs I have ever seen.
• Ubuntu This is the ultimate in free software. Ubuntu is a whole other operating system. Specifically, it is a version of the Linux operating system. Not only is it a free OS, but it comes with thousands of free programs, some of which are mentioned in this list. Other versions of Linux I’ve used are Red Hat, Mandrake (now called Mandriva), Suse, and Slackware. Slackware was my favorite for the longest time, but it definitely isn’t as user friendly as Ubuntu. And the Ubuntu community is amazing. See for yourself. Just be warned, this is not for the average Joe. Make sure you know what you’re getting into before you decide to go and wipe out you’re Windows partition. I don’t want any angry emails coming my way.

That’s all I can think of right now. That was kind of fun. I may add new programs as I remember them,
or as I discover them — which ever comes first. And don’t fret, I’m still a huge fan of Google, I just hope there’s no tension between us since the release of the extremely popular Skyecade Pack. I wouldn’t want to piss off Google’s shareholders or anything.

*No Poodles were injured during the writing of this article.