This is a collection of some of my favourite stuff. Kind of like an awesome list.
A 🌟 indicates a stronger recommendation.
Software
Bitwarden is an open-source password manager. You should be using a password manager, and bitwarden is a good one in my opinion.
Obsidian 🌟
Obsidian is a versatile note-taking app that stores markdown files locally on your computer. I use obsidian for a lot of stuff - notetaking, managing my todo list, storing content that I like (recipes, articles, etc) and much more.
Syncthing is an open-source file synchronisation tool that I use to keep local files in sync across different devices. Particularly useful for syncing photos from my phone.
Ventoy 🌟
Ventoy is an open-source tool for creating a bootable USB drive. You can put multiple ISO (or WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI) files on a single drive and boot to any of them from a menu. Very useful for installing operating systems, fixing issues with your system using rescue tools like Medicat USB or Hiren’s Boot CD , or carrying around a portable (and persistent ) live OS.
Directory Opus is a highly customisable replacement for the Windows File Explorer. Not free. I was happy to pay for it as a Windows user following my 2 month (!) free trial.
If you need to use a VPN, especially if you only need to use it occasionally, I would recommend Mullvad. Other providers may be cheaper, but only if you opt into absurdly long subscription plans. Mullvad is pay-as-you-go.
You can use any Linux distribution, but I like Fedora because it uses modern features like wayland and btrfs out of the box, and has a spin for Sway , a tiling window manager that I like. You can set up all those things yourself, but I like that Fedora handles it for you. For more information on Linux, see the writeup page.
Neovim 🌟
The one program I will mention here is Neovim, a terminal based text editor. I’m not recommending vim, or Neovim, specifically - you should use whatever editor you like, however, I do highly recommend learning vim motions , as they can make you much more productive at typing, whether you are a developer, an author, or just someone who writes a lot of emails. A lot of popular editors and programs have settings or plugins that can enable vim motions - you don’t have to spend hours on configuration files, just start typing!
Web Tools
A website for testing the effectiveness of your browser’s ad blocking capabilities.No longer maintained - looking for a good replacement.
Consent-O-Matic 🌟 Chrome / Firefox
A browser extension to automatically answer cookie requests from websites, which are often deliberately confusing in the hopes you will consent out of laziness. Especially useful if you live in a country with stringent data protection regulations.
Anonymous access to a variety of free large language models via DuckDuckGo, no account necessary. Useful for small and quick queries.
Enhancer for Youtube 🌟 Chrome / Firefox
A browser extension that adds a lot of useful features to YouTube. I use it to remove comment sections and automatically expand video descriptions.
Extensity Chrome
A browser extension for quickly enabling and disabling other browser extensions. Not available for Firefox because, for good reason, the API doesn’t allow extensions to disable each other.
A disposable email service. I use it for signing up to websites that I would rather not give my real email address to.
Minimal Twitter 🌟 Chrome / Firefox
A browser extension that removes the clutter from Twitter and makes it bearable to use.
Obsidian Web Clipper 🌟 Chrome / Firefox
A browser extension for clipping web pages to Obsidian. I use it to store articles, recipes and YouTube videos to my Obsidian vault. You don’t have to use Obsdian to use the web clipper, it works with any local markdown files.
Omnivore is an open source read it later application that can integrate with services like Obsidian. I use it to take notes on articles I read.The devoloper of Omnivore has moved on to other projects and the app is no longer maintained.I now use Wallabag .I now use the web clipper for Obsidian that I mentioned above.
A browser extension for using vim motions to navigate in your browser. I mentioned vim motions earlier, this is an example of how they can be useful outside of vim.
Music and Audio Tools
Auto EQ 🌟
AutoEq is a project designed to help non-audiophiles equalize your headphones. It provides recommended settings tailored to your specific headphone model, which you can use in EQ software. You will need to find your own EQ software, I use wavelet on Android (which has built-in support for the Auto EQ project), and Easy Effects on Linux.
A tool for analysing your Spotify library. It shows all the useful metadata that is used by Spotify’s algorithms but isn’t visible in the Spotify UI. I no longer use Spotify, because they keep trying to get me to listen to podcasts when I want to listen to music, but I really miss Exportify, if you know of a similar tool for Tidal, please let me know.
Last fm is a popular music scrobbling service that I use to keep track of what I’m listening to across different platforms. If you enjoy getting a “wrapped” report from your music streaming service, I think you will enjoy Last fm.
A website that shows you a visualisation of similar artists to the one you search for. Useful for finding new music to listen to.
Fun Web Games
GeoGrid 🌟
You have to pick the most obscure country that correctly fits in each spot on a grid. Lower scores are better.
You are given a location on Google street view and have to guess where in the world it is with increasing accuracy.
Another one where you are aiming for low scores. You are given a series of countries and a selection of sports, you assign each country a sport and win if the cumulative world ranking for your selections is under 150.
MapTag 🌟
There is a theme developing here - this is another daily geography game, this time you are given 5 locations and have to place them correctly with no markers to guide you.
Squardle 🌟
Not geography! A daily wordsearch type puzzle. Can be quite challenging. Aids are unlocked later in the day if you need them.
A game where you attempt to place a series of historical events in chronological order.
A series of games from the OverTheWire community to learn and practice cybersecurity concepts. Probably not fun for everyone, so I’m putting them at the end, but I found them really useful.
Fun Websites
A website for checking sports scores in plain text without being bombarded with ads for gambling services!
A blog with nice pictures of beaches in Scotland that I use to cure/fuel my homesickness.
A website for visualising Wikipedia traffic between articles.
A website for comparing the population density of different cities by distance from the city centre.
An infographic site showing the common elements in flags from around the world. Useful for playing GeoGrid!
You can chose from a list of famous cities from around the world and experience what it would be like to walk/drive around.
Practice touch typing by typing along with popular novels that are in the public domain.
An interactive website for visualising the most notable person born in various regions across the world.
An interactive map exploring how the boundaries of countries, states, and empires have changed throughout history.
Toronto
A map from the City of Toronto that shows a lot of useful information about the city.
I have been close friends with the owners of this used book store - whom I love and am so proud of - since I was 18, so, if you won’t take it from me, take it from famed director Guillermo Del Toro! It is located at 509 Bloor Street West.
Probably THE best public library system in the world, and I’m so appreciative to have access to it. I have a branch 30 seconds from my house, but their digital offerings are so vast you don’t really need to live near one to get use out of your library card. I particularly appreciate access to PressReader, online learning courses, and the New York Times (for the cooking section).
A website with lots of information about fishing in Toronto. Growing up I only ever fished off of piers in Scotland, so I had no idea where to start with freshwater fishing in a city and this website was a great help.
CLI and Development Aides
A website for interactively creating complex commands for FFmpeg - a tool for converting audio/video, among other things. From the creator of Enhancer for YouTube, the browser extension I mentioned above.
RegExr and GNU sed live editor
Websites for practicing or visualising regular expressions and sed commands, respectively.
A website for quickly getting to grips with languages. The first place I go when I need to do anything in a language I’m not familiar with.