Soliciting Fameby Eric W. Warnke

I like to stay mobile, properly equipped, and ahead of the curve. I will often gloat that I don’t need any single computer to do my work or access all my files.

The following is a list of excellent software that lives online, it’s either free or cheap and you can run your entire life and business with it. Anything I post here I actually use.

• Netvibes – My first stop of the day. Netvibes is the most powerful personalized homepage available. It’s hosted at Netvibes.com and you can add any RSS, Twitter, Facebook, news, and anything else you can imagine to it. It’s the perfect way to aggregate your incoming information without needing to visit a dozen websites for updates. Most of the software on this list integrates with Netvibes.
• Google Apps – I mainly use this for Gmail. I have my own domain name tied to a free Google Apps account and I make sure I have IMAP enabled so my email is consistent across whichever platform I choose to access it through. I rarely use Google Docs unless I need to make something public for editing by other people. A properly set up Google Apps account will now also allow you to log in to any Google product, like YouTube, with your own email address tied to their service. Google Calendar is also an excellent way to organize your life.
• Ninite – Ninite is an amazing tool that streamlines the process of installing software. All of the best required programs for Windows can be installed without prompts and without visiting each individual site. Well worth a look.
• Dropbox – The best way to sync and back up all your documents. I keep my entire My Documents folder in Dropbox so I can have consistent copies of it on any computer or mobile device, and even through a browser. There are some Dropbox alternatives, but Dropbox is the best.
• Mint – An excellent tool for managing your finances. Mint will aggregate (almost) all of your banking, loan, credit cards, and other financial data into one interface and allow you to create budgets, reports, and basically get a grip on when you are spending your money.
• FreshBooks – If you bill anyone for anything, then FreshBooks is for you. It’s a hosted service for managing invoices, recurring billing, projects, etc. It’s won numerous awards and it’s even Canadian. I have run several businesses using FreshBooks in the past and I highly recommend it.