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Hey kids - checking in from the Namibia office.  Since most of Namibia goes on a month long holiday starting on 12/15 I'm finding I have a little time before we head on our trip north to the Caprivi and Vic Falls to mingle with the hippos and crocs. 

As an aside, I do feel for you poor American saps who I know will be grind-stoning it until at least the 23rd. And can I get a show of hands of how many of you will work at least one day between Christmas and New Years?  Tony and Donny you can put your hands down - it was really just a rhetorical question. It is all very sad really how we all have been bamboozled.  Sorry I couldn't resist the gloat.

Anyway, I thought I would take advantage of this lull created by a little more sane cultural approach to work to start a discussion of favorite free software finds for 2008. Below are a few free spiffy apps that I ran across in 2008 that I installed in 2008 and find myself still using on a regular basis as the year draws to a close. It would be great if you would like to offer one or two of your own spiffy finds in the comments.  Please include a link to the download.

DropBox - does online file storage, sync and sharing. There a many other online file sharing options but what I like about DropBox (besides it is free) is that is comes with a spiffy little desktop app that allows you to map your online storage as a folder on your desktop.  Very much like Webdrive but you don't have to host your own SFTP server. DropBox gives you 2 gigs of storage for free. (Windoze, Mac or Linux) http://www.getdropbox.com

Jing Project - is screen capturing/casting software from the makers of Snagit and Camtasia that is tightly integrated with online space where you can easily share your capture/casts with the world.  Jing is a small little app that sits in your system tray and has the slickest UI. Just point, click and save and you have an instant caputre of your screen (or parts thereof) that is ready to share with others by way of a unique URL. Also has some simple annotation features that allow you to mark-up your capture. (Windoze and Mac) http://www.jingproject.com

ScribeFire - This one is a Firefox extension but for those of us who live in the browser it is a real gem. ScribeFire is a very quick and simple blog editor that allows your to update your blog right from your browser.  It also has a nice Notes feature for saving drafts that aren't ready for publishing. (Browser based so platform agnostic) http://www.scribefire.com

That is it. Just 3 new apps for 2008 that made it to my desktop to stay. But that should be enough to get us started.  I look forward to hearing about yours.

And if I don't see you before the Holidays let me wish you a work-free holiday season starting now.

Steve

PS You'll notice that I didn't mention Twitter even though Twitterfox is a recent add to my Firefox extention package. This is for two reasons really:  (1) the lstech list is swarming with Twitter-a-holics and trust me, you don't want to get them started and (2) being a part of the whole "what-cha doin" phenomenon is really rather embarrasing now isn't it. Not something you go bragging about - but what can I say I've got a twitter problem. Which leads me to my next post....tech New Year resolutions.... but we shall save that for the second half of my holiday.