Deacon’s Blog

Mark, of Weblog Tools Collection, posted his list of indispensable blogging tools in What’s in My Blogging Toolkit?.

Here’s my list of primary tools for blogging:

• WordPress - Code is Poetry because it doesn’t get in the way of content. I started with Blogger and dabbled with Movable Type and both are ok depending on where you are. I wanted something that was robust, scalable, and worked with me. WordPress does it.
• Automattic Tools - The sidebar widgets plugin and Akismet. Don’t use WordPress without them.
• Firefox - I use it on the Macs and on my Windows machines. I’ve used it on Linux. It works, it is smooth and nothing in the interface is a jumble of jargonized fluff. Tabs galore, news, E-mail, WP Admin, Poland, and consistent spell checking in one.
• IE - because I have to use it to use phpMyAdmin. The version provided my my host (Yahoo!) doesn’t seem to play well with Firefox. Tonight I upgraded phpMyAdmin myself (from 2.6.3-pl1 to 2.10.0.2) because I got really annoyed after writing this.
• phpMyAdmin - for all the back-end database stuff.
• Google for everything - I use GMail for all my E-mail needs (including the GMail for mobile applications Java app). I have a countless number of E-mail addresses all feeding into one place. I use Calendar, Translate, Analytics, a personalized Google homepage, and all of Google’s varied search functionality.
• Netvibes - All my RSS, newsfeeds, bookmarks, blog searches, and assorted other knickknacks all in one place.
• MS Office Picture Manager - for simple image compression and resizing as well as a few image adjustment tools that work well for me.
• Weblog Tools Collection - where else would I find great info on new plugins and themes. Really, Mark provides a great rundown of the latest in an quick, easy to digest format.
• Wikipedia - controversy aside over a few hacked articles, it provides lots of good info if you are unclear on something.
• Firebug - checking out what I’ve messed up.
• Powered by Faith - that’s what the blog is supposed to be about. While my faith is certainly imperfect and I don’t always live up to the ideals of my faith, I still need to proclaim its saving power and rely upon it for glimpses into the sublime.