Evan's Software Tools

I've had a few friends / contacts ask me what tools I use... well here's my current list and why I use them. This is just my opinion and there are other equally good tools out there, I use several of these just because they were the first ones that I used, I don’t claim that this list is ‘best of breed’.

Last Update July 2012

This list is always available at http://bit.ly/NsJguN

Primary Tools

Email Client Gmail www.gmail.com
Office Software Microsoft Office http://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/
Web Browser Google Chrome https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/ Anti Virus Microsoft Security Essentials http://windows.microsoft.com/en-CA/windows/products/security-essentials
Online Backup Mozy http://mozy.com/

Secondary Tools         

Notetaking Evernote http://evernote.com/ Has a clipping add-on for chrome as well.Online Storage Dropbox https://www.dropbox.com/
ISO Mounter Virtual Clone Drive http://www.slysoft.com/en/virtual-clonedrive.html
Online Office / Storage Google Drive https://drive.google.com
RSS Reader reader.google.com
Don’ use this much anymore, it now feeds a tool on my iPad called Zite http://zite.com/
IM Client Google Talk www.google.com/talk/
Bitmap Drawing Paint.Net www.getpaint.net
Text Editor Notepad++ http://notepad-plus-plus.org/
Photo Orgaizer Software & Online Album Google Picasa www.picasa.com
Calendar Google Calendar calendar.google.com
System Cleaner CCCleaner www.ccleaner.com
Secure File Delete Eraser http://eraser.heidi.ie/
Virtualization VMWare Player (It now allows you to create new vm’s) http://www.vmware.com/products/player/overview.html
Changed from MS Virtual PC, vmware has better Linux support and has better hardware
Torrent Client uTorrent www.utorrent.com
Bit-Torrent is a file sharing protocol, yes, much of it's traffic is less than legal but I suspect that over time Bit-Torrent will become a major way of sharing legal/open source/creative commons material.
Game Purchases Steam http://store.steampowered.com/
Music Management iTunes www.apple.com/itunes

Installer Service

Ninite allows you to check off the 'best of class' tools in several categories and install them in one run!  http://ninite.com/
If you are setting up a new PC I’d recommend you run PC Decrapifier http://pcdecrapifier.com/ before running Ninite.

Development

Visual Studio 2010 Premium (C# is my language of choice) http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-ca

I have a list of development tool ad ons at http://bit.ly/PXFSMO
Ω

Teaching

I've been teaching for the last few months - first a Java course that went OK until the end of it...I didn't get the schedule down right and had to rush the prep for the final project - resulting in putting the students at a bit of a disadvantage. On top of all of that the course as I taught it generates a Tonne of marking that I'm still slogging through 2 weeks after the end of the course - I'm about to get yelled at...

Java was an OK language to learn, yes learn, going into the course I didn't actually know Java - just C# which is very similar. For the record I wouldn't recommend this approach to others but it is a powerful way to learn something. It's just that it's painful. I spent two months teaching for four hours a day followed by an afternoon of marking and prep then an evening of reading and prep. I still prefer my VB.net and C# over Java, most likely because I'm more comfortable with Visual Studio than the open source tools that are used in Java.

My managers at work seem to think that all you really need to do is read the power points as you present. And in some smaller one and two day seminars you might very well be able to get away with doing that, and I have previously done so but I don't like doing that. I feel really vulnerable - if anyone asks anything that is the very least 'off script' from the book there is the very real possibility of looking like a complete fool.

Now I'm coming up on teaching an Object Oriented theory course and a C# course. I'm reasonably familiar with the topics but have never taught either of them and for the three day object oriented course I need to develop the course ware. But I'm concerned with the C# course it will be a challenge to bring them through that language.

The first issue is the students, this class is composed of new programmers, they have done a little java script coding but never any full-up compiled programming. They have struggled a bit with SQL (mostly because of self esteem issues - they are quite capable of doing it when talked through it)

No the challenge is that the language they are going to be presented with is C#. C# is a very powerful first rate multi-purpose language. The problem is that it's syntax is not very intuitive. VB.net would have been a much better choice for 'first language' it reads easier, is more 'English like' and would help students that are already having confidence issues. The book I'm using is quite good but has significant 'density' - it's a hard read, even for me (in that I know this topic) to accomplish in the time we have.

So the challenge is how do I teach students that have no previous frame of reference for programming a complex language that is inherently going to be a fight for them. I'll post back with what I decide to do and how it works out.

Update: They are just finishing their SQL tests - no panic so all seems to be ok...