In running my business, I use a number of cool technologies — technologies to play audio and video on my websites, for blogging, for desktop productivity, and more. Today’s blog entry is a list of my favorites — many of which are free. Please leave comments with your favorite technologies (no spam, thank you). You can download this list as a pdf by clicking here. Please note that this was created back in 2006. Clearly technologies have changed since then and today I use very different software!
WEB – This blog uses all three
1. 
WordPress.com blogging or WordPress.org for download (I use the download version)
2. 
Aweber for autoresponder, newsletters, webforms and more ($20/month or less and very powerful)
3. 1and1 for hosting – relatively cheap and reliable. Inexpensive domain registration. Free newsletter and website builder software, plus much more. UPDATE: Check out this article on the best budget hosting options.
VIDEO AND AUDIO
4. Windows Media Encoder – Converts various video formats to WMV format. Free from Microsoft.com.
5. RIVA FLV Encoder – Software that converts video (except WMV) to FLV (flash)
6. Web Audio Plus – converts MP3 and WAV files to flash audio with buttons for website. Free from CNET.com. This was used to create the audio message above.
7. Flowplayer – Software for playing flash videos on your website
8. Audacity – Audio editing software
9. Windows Movie Maker – Simple video editing that comes with Windows XP
10. Total Recorder – Records streaming audio, microphone input, line-in input, as well as CDs and DVDs. Extremely useful! (highcriteria.com)
11. Yasa Video Converter – Converts videos to any format. Useful if converting unprotected DVDs (VOB) to editable video. UPDATE: Uniconverter from Wondershare is awesome.
12. DBPowerAMP Music Converter – useful for converting from one audio format to another (e.g., from WAV to MP3) — $14 from DBpoweramp.com
13. Dazzle analog to digital video converter – allows easy transfer of VHS to computer for editing or DVD creation
14. Xilisoft DVD ripper – converts copyright protected DVDs to MPEG files – xilisoft.com ($35)
15. Radio Shack Phone Recorder Controller (Model: 17-855) allows you to record phone conversations on your computer or on any recording device. $27
BUSINESS GROWTH
16. PRLeads.com – inexpensive PR opportunities from journalists who want to interview experts
17. PRWeb – cheap and free press release posting which landed hundreds of newspapers hits
18. The National Publicity Summit – Landed the Oprah article here (nationalpublicitysummit.com)
19. Google AdWords and YouTube Search Marketing – pay per click web advertising
DESKTOP PRODUCTIVITY
20. SharpReader – Free RSS software for aggregating feeds from blogs and news (sharpreader.net)
21. Skype – speak to friends around the world for free
22. Download Accelerator Plus – useful for quickly downloading lots of files from websites – free from speedbit.com
23. LookOut email search engine for Outlook (free from http://tinyurl.com/46shl).
24. Google Desktop – Free desktop searching engine
25. Trillian – Instant Messenger integrator that is free
26. pdf995.com for free software to convert any document into a pdf file
27. Datadepositbox.com – remote back-up of data. Recently saved me when my hard drive crashed
28. instantpublisher.com for easy book publishing directly from Word documents
MOBILE
29. BlackBerry Pearl (8100) from T-Mobile (just got it and LOVE it) – this shows you how old this post is!!!
USEFUL WEBSITES
30. istockphoto.com for inexpensive images
31. speakeasy.net/speedtest for testing your download speeds