Life 2.0

Even before all this Web 2.0 business kicked into gear, I found myself consistently overwhelmed by the myriad topics I had interest in, the plethora of information I had gathered, the expanse of links I had attempted to track by straight, old-school bookmarking... Even my own offline writings have always frustrated me by being random and un-arranged, without clear relations to one-another or location within the non-existent map of my mind.

I knew some rudimentary HTML back in the '90s, but when useful web improvements like XML and CSS and RSS came along, I took no notice. I still don't really know exactly what a podcast is. But lately I've been learning a lot, trying to bring myself up to speed, and I'm just stunned by the enormous amount of quality web applications for blogging, bookmarking, tagging, notetaking, screencasting, etc. etc. I don't know how to even begin to make it useful for, you know, organizing and sharing my life.

And while I agree that a lot of those social sites aren't appealing, but the idea that unites all of them is, and every so often you come across one that is extremely cool. I think, at some point, the gimmicky quality of individual sites will pass, because before long the participatory paradigm will have seeped into every aspect of the net. For me, all of that Web 2.0 stuff is wrapped up in my recent discoveries of enormous amounts of awesome software and reading about programming and stuff, so I'm on this high where the internet and personal computing in general looks positively utopic. The present looks like the future to me -- especially on the Mac, which is the platform for most of the beautiful software I've found recently. I've got to spend the next year or so learning and purchasing and creating and ultimately refashioning myself as one of those Apple snob writers/designers/coders/philosophers/developers/neohippies. Here's some stuff that I've either found lately or just think is cool (or pretty) as an application. It may seem random, I guess. Programs like those various web browsers are there because I have never really looked into alternatives to FireFox (2.0 is bangin', by the way). In general, you'll notice that a lot of it involves organizing information and such. Oh; if you had the Shiira browser, you could open all the links on this page with one click and quickly skim each one.

Web Services:

Mozy
Todoist
Stikkit
Notefish
Avanoo
Screencast-O-Matic
WordPress
Zoho Notebook
del.icio.us
Blue Dot
Google Notebook
Chipmark
CrossEngine
Hiveminder
Digg
Stage6

Software:

Scrivener
Ulysses
Papers
Yep
Yojimbo
Tinderbox
Zulupad
Mori
Coda
Stattoo
Unison
Notae
Transmit
Curio
Nisus Writer
StorySpace
TextMate
SuperNotecard
PageFour
Inform 7
Gambit
Quicksilver
Cyberduck
CSS Edit
MacJournal
CopyWrite
viJournal
WriteRoom
SideNote
Journler
DeskTopia
Mellel
TimeLine
Temporis
TimeFlyer
OmniOutliner
DevonThink
Boswell
iGTD
Midnight Inbox
Ghost Action
iCal
OmniFocus
Skim
Bean
TextSoap
ThinkingRock
Glass Writer
Avenir
Z-Write
LaTeX
iText Express
Sente
EndNote
BookEnds
Zotero
FileMaker
IdeaMason
iClip
Opera
Camino
Shiira
OmniWeb
Tofu
StyleWriter
Grammarian
Slife
Think
Deep Notes
PDF Pen
Smultron
AppZapper
Make Notes
Storyist
Delicious Monster
RapidWeaver
NewsFire
NetNewsWire
Vienna
File Buddy
Shadow Clipboard
FoxTrot
Bookpedia
iSale
Ergonis Software
ProVoc
Ebbinghaus
iFlash
Back Track
Eagle Filer
NovaMind
Papyrus
Stories & Sources
Zotero