The Lifelong Learner :: Do what you can, with what you have, where you are -Roosevelt ::

Here is a list of products that I discovered in 2008 and that I cannot live without. These are products that I use everyday, both at work and at home. Quite simply, I would not be able to live without them. Literally.

Blackberry – internet on the goI can’t believe I have not started using it before. Perhaps because I did not get it from work. But internet on the go is here to stay. It’s so useful and practical. I started commuting to NYC on the train, what better way to convert the downtime to catching up on news, email, etc. Great tool. Great toy.

Picasa — great photo organizerI did not know I was hooked on it until I started using iPhoto on my Mac (Picasa was released for the mac just this month). I find Picasa so much better than iPhoto. Much easier to browse and I hate that iPhoto moves your images to its internal location. Picasa is just all you need to manage your “growing” photo collection.

Canon Xsi DSLR — great cameraI own a Canon Xsi and what a difference! I used to like those small digital cameras which take decent pictures. They’re very mobile, take them anywhere you go. But image quality is not that good. You only discover it after you use a DSLR. What a difference! And great fun as well. It’s cheap now as well ($500-600). Great toy!

Jungle Disk — Amazon Webservice — central storage of filesI had about a service like this for years. Now it’s a reality. Map your network drive to an external, internet-based storage. Now I can store my files and docs centrally, and access them on my Mac, at work, and on my PC. Great and simple to use.

Delicious – bookmarkingCentral storage of bookmarks is really useful. Accessing them by tags in your browser (Delicious Bookmarks extension for Firefox) is time saving. I can’t believe I stayed away from it for so long.

Rocket Dock — Mac-like docking station for WindowsIf you own a Mac, you know what I mean. It’s a great simplification tool and a productivity booster.