My Recommendations
Below you’ll find a list showcasing a variety of recommended books, software applications, web services, tools, scripts, and interesting video podcast channels. I’ve compiled this list in the efforts of suppling you with the best technology has to offer. Something I wish was available to me when I was starting off and even so now. So as I continue to come across excellent technology, I will make sure to update this list of recommendations with the best of them.
If you have something interesting and noteworthy which you would recommend to fellow web culture advocates, just let me know about it to add it to the list.
Online Video/TV Channels
Adobe TVAdobe TV is your online source for expert insight and inspiration. Feed your passion for Adobe products with insider tips, innovative techniques, and behind-the-scenes tours delivered on video, on demand. See the favorite tricks of design luminaries, take tours of cutting-edge creative shops, and find out what Adobe employees do with technology in their spare time.
TEDtalksInspired talks by the world’s greatest thinkers and doers. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Watch brilliant minds come together to discuss captivating topics.
DiggnationDiggnation is a weekly tech/web culture show based on the top digg.com social bookmarking news stories. The show is hosted Kevin Rose, founder and chief architect of Digg, and by Alex Albrecht which founded and directed the popular, Los Angeles-based improv comedy troupe, The Misfit Toys.
TekzillaEmbrace digital technology. Join the Tekzilla crew and make your tech work better for you. Or you can go live in the woods with an axe. Every Friday, Patrick Norton delivers product reviews, computer help, tech tips on everything from iPods to camcorders, HD to the Internet, plus do it yourself projects.
The GigaOM ShowThe GigaOm Show, hosted by Om Malik and Joyce Kim, is a weekly show about technology and business. Om and Joyce serve up the inside analysis of technology news that you need to know. Get the insider look with leading experts on the web industry, from major acquisitions to new web startups.
popSirenpopSiren is the intersection of modern culture, technology, science and making stuff that actually works. On a typical show you’ll get your fill of DIY projects and life-hacks from weekend projects, time-saving internet tips, innovation, science experiments and even wacky sports.
Books
Books are being added shortly.
Web Tools & Services
Web tools & services are being added shortly.
Scripts
Scripts are being added shortly.
Software Applications
Adobe’s Photoshop
Adobe® Photoshop® CS3 software accelerates your path from imagination to imagery. Ideal for photographers, graphic designers, and web designers, the professional standard delivers new features such as automatic layer alignment and blending that enable advanced compositing. Live filters boost the comprehensive, nondestructive editing toolset for increased flexibility. And a streamlined interface and new timesaving tools make your work flow faster.
Adobe’s InDesign
Explore more creative possibilities and experience new levels of productivity using Adobe® InDesign® CS3 page layout software. Built for demanding workflows, InDesign integrates smoothly with Adobe Photoshop®, Illustrator®, Acrobat®, InCopy®, and Dreamweaver® software; offers powerful features for creating richer, more complex documents; and reliably outputs pages to multiple media. With its sophisticated design features and enhanced productivity tools for streamlining repetitive tasks, InDesign CS3 lets you work faster and better than ever.
Adobe’s Flex
Flex is a free, open source framework for building highly interactive, expressive web applications that deploy consistently on all major browsers, desktops, and operating systems. It provides a modern, standards-based language and programming model that supports common design patterns. MXML, a declarative XML-based language, is used to describe UI layout and behaviors, and ActionScript™ 3, a powerful object-oriented programming language, is used to create client logic. Flex also includes a rich component library with more than 100 proven, extensible UI components for creating rich Internet applications (RIAs), as well as an interactive Flex application debugger.
Adobe’s ColdFusion
Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software solves the day-to-day challenges of Internet application development, allowing you to be extremely productive as you create and deliver engaging online applications. And because it fits into any IT environment, you can use ColdFusion 8 for everything from small departmental applications to highly scalable, reliable implementations of your most important business applications.
Apple’s Final Cut Studio 2
Dynamic new camera technologies. Powerful software-based post-production tools. An explosion in delivery formats. With technology evolving rapidly and continuously, the broadcast and post industries are always undergoing unprecedented change, and Final Cut Studio is the preferred choice among the professionals to get the job done.
FileMaker’s Bento
Meet Bento, the new personal database from FileMaker. Bento brings your important information together in one place to help you get organized. So you can manage your contacts, coordinate events, track projects, prioritize tasks, and more - faster and easier than ever before.
Transmit
Transmit is an extremely powerful ftp software application by Panic, one of the industries innovative app. builders. Transmit features an endless list of features, which takes Mac OS X ftp technology to the next level. The perfect companion for your Mac computer.
Divx’s Pro Media Player & Tools
DivX Pro includes the easy-to-use DivX Converter, DivX Pro Codec, the famous DivX Player. DivX is well known for its ability to display high-quality videos. DivX gives you everything you need to create and play high-quality DivX videos on your PC or Mac and beyond.
Coda
The one-window web development tool for your Mac. It’s a text editor + transmit + CSS editor + terminal + books + more.
Skype VOIP
Skype works seamlessly with your internet connection – you can chat away with free Skype-to-Skype calls and never worry about cost, time or distance. Share the love and get your friends to download Skype so you can talk, chat or make video calls for nothing. You can also make local, long distance and international calls to phones and cell phones at great rates too.
Nero 8
Nero 8 Ultra Edition, the newest version of the world’s best-selling multimedia suite, brings the digital world to your PC. One-click Rip, Burn and Copy functions, easy export and share to YouTube™, MySpace® and My Nero, High Definition format support, stream to Xbox 360™ and PlayStation® 3, Backup files to CDs, DVDs, HD DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs.
Firefox Browser
The award-winning Web browser, faster, more secure, and fully customizable to your online life. Firefox 2 has added powerful new features that make your online experience even better, delivers helpful new features to make your online experience more productive, and continues to lead the way in online security, and now includes active protection from online scams to keep you safer.
Adobe’s Illustrator
Adobe® Illustrator® CS3 software allows you to create sophisticated artwork for virtually any medium. Industry-standard drawing tools, flexible color controls, and professional type controls help you capture your ideas and experiment freely, while timesaving features such as easier-to-access options let you work quickly and intuitively. Improved performance and tight integration with other Adobe applications also help you produce extraordinary graphics for print, web and interactive, and mobile and motion designs.
Adobe’s Dreamweaver
Quickly and easily design, develop, and maintain websites and web applications — from start to finish — with Adobe® Dreamweaver® CS3 software. Built for both designers and developers, Dreamweaver CS3 offers the choice of working in an intuitive visual layout interface or a streamlined coding environment. Intelligent integration with Adobe Photoshop® CS3, Adobe Illustrator® CS3, Adobe Fireworks® CS3, Adobe Flash® CS3 Professional, and Adobe Contribute® CS3 software ensures efficient workflow across your favorite tools.
Adobe’s Flash
Adobe® Flash® CS3 Professional software is the most advanced authoring environment for creating rich, interactive content for digital, web, and mobile platforms. Create interactive websites, rich media advertisements, instructional media, engaging presentations, games, and more. Designers and developers working on both Macintosh and Windows® systems depend on Flash and the ubiquitous Adobe Flash Player software to ensure their content reaches the widest possible audience.
Adobe’s After Effect
Bring your vision to life with blockbuster visual effects and compelling motion graphics in Adobe® After Effects® CS3 Professional software. Work with sophisticated tools and enjoy tight integration with Adobe’s leading design applications while you deliver stunning work to virtually any media type. Design from scratch or jump-start projects from hundreds of customizable presets and templates — all from within a streamlined interface.
Apple’s Aperture 2
A Powerful photo editing and management application from Apple. Aperture 2 delivers streamlined tools for moving photos from capture to output with uncompromising quality.
Apple’s iLife
An application created for your Mac. Apple’s iLife bundles iPhoto, iMovie, .Mac Web Gallery, GarageBand, iWeb, and iDvd into one simple package. Discover new ways to enjoy photos, create movies, make music, websites, and more.
Apple iWork
An application created for your Mac. Streamlined word processing, stunning presentations and now spreadsheets. Work wonders, without the work. Includes Pages, Keynote, and the Numbers software for your Mac computer.
Parallels
Run Windows, Linux, and more side-by-side with Mac OS X on any Intel-powered Mac, without rebooting. With Parallels’ award-winning virtualization technology, you can run Mac OS X and Windows at the same time. You can even drag-and-drop files between desktops!
Apple’s Quicktime Pro
Whether you are creating content for delivery on cell phones, broadcast or the Internet, or a software developer looking to take your application to the next level, QuickTime provides the most comprehensive platform in the industry. With a rock-solid foundation that you can trust and a host of innovative features that create the most cutting-edge multimedia experience.
Apple’s iTunes
Buy music, movies, TV shows, and audiobooks, or download free podcasts from the iTunes Store 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Organize and play everything on your Mac or PC. Then sync it to your iPod or iPhone and bring it along. Anywhere. Also great for listening to your favorite internet radio channel.
Pownce
Pownce is a way to keep in touch with and share stuff with your friends. Send people files, links, events, and messages and then have real conversations with the recipients. Send messages, files, links, and events to your friends. Create a network of friends and share stuff. It’s free and easy… (When you have it installed, make sure to add me!)
Adobe’s Media Player
Adobe® Media Player software provides control and flexibility to view what you want, when you want — whether online or offline. You can queue up and download your favorite Internet TV content, track and download new episodes automatically, and manage your personal video library for viewing at your convenience.
Safari Browser
The world’s best browser, now for windows too. Experience the web, Apple style, with Safari: the fastest, easiest-to-use web browser in the world. With its simple, elegant interface, Safari gets out of your way and lets you enjoy the web — up to 1.9 times faster than Internet Explorer. The Safari browser features blazing performance, an elegant user interface, easy bookmarks, pop-up blocking, and much more.





