Tools of the Alpha Geeks – and a look at my own tools

Matt Craven

Apr. 19, 2008
1 min read

JD Lasica, who has been in Israel with a group of bloggers – including Robert Scoble, Susan Mernit, and many others, profiles the tools being used by the alpha geeks on the trip.

For example, here’s a look at JD’s tools:

Firefox
Twitter
Google Reader
Facebook
TypePad (blog platform), but switching to WordPress
Gmail
Google Talk
Flickr
del.icio.us
Skype
Ourmedia (video sharing and media publishing)
Veoh
SpinXpress (private file sharing)
ImageWell (image capture and resizing/cropping tool)
iTunes
Activewords (PC-only productivity tool)
Snapz Pro (Mac-only screen and video capture)
Flock
Dopplr
LastFM
iChat

I find these lists pretty interesting because it gives me a chance to see what tools other are using – and some insight into their own workflow.

Here’s a look at the tools that I use regularly:

Firefox (Web Browser)w/ several extensions
Twitter
del.icio.us (Bookmark Sharing) – when I’m away from my Macbook Pro, I use del.icio.us to track things I want to blog or read later. Plus it’s my repository of interesting links for later reference. I tag away like a madman.
Skype – our office phone and my personal phone and handled via Skype. Otherwise it’s cell phones for me.
Flickr (photo sharing)
iTunes
BBEdit – Text editor
Google GMail – managing multiple accounts via one email box. I just switched to this a few days ago and wouldn’t ever look back.
NetNewsWire & NewsGator – Feed reading speedmachine on a Mac. I tried Google Reader and just couldn’t do it. My workflow is much nicer under this combination.
Wordpress – I used to be a Movable Type fanatic, but in 2006 I switched and haven’t looked back. Both are good products – but Wordpress is the right one for me.
Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Bridge, Dreamweaver, and more – best damn graphical tools around. Nothing else compares.
Adium – Instant Messaging tool – Mac only, but cross-API messaging. Love it.
Transmit – SFTP/FTP client – for moving images and other audio files around.
YouTube – my place for uploading videos.. for now
Quickbooks – Financials. Definitely my least favorite part of all of these.

I’m deliberately excluding my podcasting tools since I’ll be discussing those in an upcoming post.

Those are my tools (and JD’s above) – what are your tools?

Matt Craven

Matt Craven is the former editor & publisher of The Blog Herald. Currently, Matt is the co-founder of Bryghtpath LLC, a consulting practice located in Woodbury, Minnesota. Matt's presently looking for new blogging gigs. Ping him at matt (at) bryghtpath dot com. You can follow him on Twitter.