1. Toshiba Satellite C660-1GQ
There isn’t much to brag about my loyal companion. What I love most about it is its 14.6-inch screen. When I’m writing in Microsoft Word, the screen has enough space for the document at the center, the Search panel on the left-hand side, and the thesaurus on the right-hand side. When I’m copyediting and the Track Changes feature is on, the screen has enough space to display on the right side the corrections I’ve made, even when I zoom the document to 150 percent. However, because the laptop has been with me for quite a few years, its battery operating time has reduced from four hours to a little more than an hour, its webcam has gone pfft, and it hangs whenever connected to a wi-fi.
2. Microsoft Office Word 2013
It’s the latest and most advanced word processor in the market. Its Search feature, editing options, and thesaurus are superb, at least compared to similar programs. I, a broke guy, was only able to download a copy of this because I used to have a Microsoft 360 account that my former company was paying for. The account was closed when I left the company, so the interface of my Word now includes a distracting notification that my subscription has expired, written in a pink line half an inch wide across the screen and below the toolbar. Also, I no longer have an access to a huge online storage space. But other than those chinks, the software is working perfectly.
3. Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Edition CD-ROM
My copy is the 2004 edition. Though the content is still useful, the interface is outdated. Every time I open the program, the screen of my computer blinks and I get a notification that the “color scheme has been changed to Windows 7 basic” because “a running program isn’t compatible with some visual elements of Windows.” This program also has a good dictionary and thesaurus.
4. Blogger
This should be at the number one spot, but it is an obvious placing, and obvious is uninteresting. I started blogging in Blogger, and I never changed platform since then. I don’t feel like trying other websites just for the sake of trying. I’ve been happy here for the past seven or eight years. Blogger’s service keeps on getting better, especially when Google took it under its wings. What I love most in Blogger is the prescheduling option; I get to create my posts in bulk and set them to come out one at a time weekly.
Aside from books, this digital camera is perhaps the only sensible thing that I bought from my salary when I was still in the city working as an editor of technical documents. I lived by the paycheck; I splurged on Friday-night beer and on meals in the fancier fast-food outlets. I bought the camera primarily for this blog. I wanted my posts to have accompanying photos. However, my text-over-visuals philosophy has remained. I consider myself a writer before anything else. Photos and videos will enhance but will never replace my words.
6. PhotoScape
This freeware has been quite helpful in my photo-editing needs. As much as possible, though, I refrain from manipulating my digital images for this blog. I use this software mostly to mark my photos with the name of this blog. I used to go to Pixlr.com for this, but because I’m offline now most of the time, PhotoScape became a reliable replacement.
7. Youtube
I don’t think I need to explain the use of this website. This site is cool because my videos can be easily embedded to my blog (and other websites, for that matter). And because Youtube, like Blogger, is also now connected to Google, I can use the same account and doesn’t have to perform the pesky task of logging in multiple times. I have two things to gripe about, though. First, the quality of my video lowers when uploaded on Youtube. The original, when played in my camera or laptop, are clear enough despite the moderate resolution. On Youtube, they look like they’re taken by a 2-megapixel camera phone. My second complain is that my videos, each of which runs for just a minute or less, take a long time to upload. Each one takes thirty minutes to an hour. (But this may be due to the speed of my Internet connection.)
8. Windows Movie Maker
This software comes handy whenever I need to edit videos. Its features are limited, but it’s got all I need. Usually, all I want to do is cut the video so that it would not be longer than sixty minutes.
9. Samsung T210
This device is useful to me because of the two dictionaries installed in it recently, as mentioned above. I no longer have to endure the glitchy Encyclopaedia Britannica on my computer. For several months, I had no good use of the tablet because I had bought it for its capability to be connected to a wi-fi, something that you can’t expect to find in a remote plateau. (As you can see, I’m pretty much a one-gadget-one-use person.)
10. SmartBro
This device is here only because I’ve run out of better things to enumerate. SmartBro has been such a disappointment since November last year. When Smart started to offer “free” Internet access to mobile phone users, my broadband stick became practically useless. I have tactfully reported the problem to the company’s Facebook page and to their call center, but I got either no or useless reply. One customer service representative even hung up in the middle of the call.
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