Reason #10: Bleak

Bleak

Convinced? Go to The Edge Element subscription page.

Reason #9: Moonrise

Moonrise

Convinced? Go to The Edge Element subscription page.

Reason #8: Sunrise

Sunrise

Convinced? Go to The Edge Element subscription page.

Reason #7: Dark Tower

Dark Tower

Convinced? Go to The Edge Element subscription page.

Reason #6: Ripples

Ripples

Convinced? Go to The Edge Element subscription page.

Reason #5: Ripples 2

Ripples 2

Convinced? Go to The Edge Element subscription page.

Reason #4: White flames

White flames

Convinced? Go to The Edge Element subscription page.

Reason #3: Weird sunset

Weird sunset

Convinced? Go to The Edge Element subscription page.

Reason #2: Binary

Binary

Convinced? Go to The Edge Element subscription page.

All of these images are in the subscriber gallery on the Edge Element. More images are being added every day… well, every week at least. And finally…

Reason #1: Decay

Decay

This is my favourite at the time of writing and it’s been on my laptop for a couple of weeks. For someone who changes their desktop background most days, this is an achievement.

So, are you finally convinced? Go to The Edge Element subscription page.

XAMPP

What it is: a web server running on my own computer.

Why I like it: because you don’t have to work off (or even have) a live server to develop PHP/MySQL websites. Also because I can run Web2Project.

Why you should use it: Well, if you’re a web developer you probably already do and if you’re not you’ve got no reason to use it. Unless you want to run your own private wiki or something like…

Web2Project

What it is: project management software written in PHP.

Why I like it: because I can keep track of my progress through any number of projects. Plus it generates Gantt charts for the month or the entire project on demand.

Why you should use it: If you can’t afford to buy software and GanttProject just doesn’t have enough features.

OpenOffice.org

What it is: an office suite similar to Microsoft Office 2003.

Why I like it: it doesn’t crash as much and it can open .docx files. My portable version can also have custom fonts even if a computer’s settings don’t let users install fonts.

Why you should use it: I could mention monopolies, proprietary formats and other things like that, but the number 1 reason to use OpenOffice is that it just works.

Oh, and in November a good reason to use it is that if you turn off ‘smart’ single and double quotes, the word count of a file matches the Unix/Linux ‘wc’ word counting command. This is going to be useful to everyone participating in NaNoWriMo or writing an essay. Turning off smart quotes won’t hurt if you’re planning on copy/pasting into your blog, either.

GIMP

What it is: image manipulation software

Why I like it: it has a ‘colour to alpha’ option that lets you turn any colour channel into an alpha channel, it has heaps of fun filters, it runs at a fraction of the resources of Photoshop, it has tools and the image in separate windows so you can drag bits onto your second monitor (which I don’t have…).

Why you should use it: it’s really good image manipulation software.

Mozilla Firefox

What it is: a web browser

Why I like it: it has heaps of awesome add-ons – the web developer toolbar, Firebug, Yoono, Rainbow Color Picker… the list goes on. It’s also nice to develop for.

Why you should use it: because it has cool add-ons. Yoono lets you update Facebook and Twitter at the same time.

Mozilla Thunderbird

What it is: an email client

Why I like it: it auto-detects your server settings and sets up the connection

Why you should use it: Because if you take my advice to use OpenOffice, you don’t have Microsoft Outlook anyway…

Google Chrome

What it is: a web browser

Why I like it: it has a really clean, minimal interface and if a tab crashes you don’t lose the whole program

Why you should use it: because if a tab crashes you don’t lose the whole program.

Other programs I use

Crack Attack: falling blocks game similar to Tetris Attack (apparently – never played Tetris attack)

yWriter, yEdit and yTimer: writing software that I haven’t really used yet. When I do I’ll probably post a review.

Crimson Editor: text editor/code editor with syntax highlighting and tabs

Do you have a suggestion for software I should try or want to know more about one of these programs? Comment!

From now on I’ll be trying to add a couple of images to the gallery every week. I’ll also rotate images through the free gallery so people who don’t want to subscribe still get a decent range of options. Most of my images are going to remain in the subscribers-only gallery, though.

Now the fate of my site is officially in the hands of you, the users. Will it fade into obscurity and eventually be removed or will it become a success? Only time will tell.

Well, they’re probably going to be mildly irritating to everyone since it means I’d have to go directly to the database  to add new download links and it’s already late and I’ve got goats to milk. Tomorrow I’ll try to fix the problem and get the site going properly. In the meantime, why not join up and have a look around?

The Edge Element

I’ll post messages here as well as on Twitter and Facebook when I’m done.

The Edge Element beta release poster

All TDA readers are invited to become members of The Edge Element! It’s free and you’ll get access to heaps of cool pictures!

There’s going to be other stuff as well in the future – web themes, WordPress themes and more!

Comments? Suggestions?

I’ve added links to my new Twitter account on all of these sites. Here’s hoping it all works out fine. As per usual if you notice anything odd, annoying or broken please tell me.

I’ve also added a ‘share/save’ link at the top and bottom of each post. I might ditch the one at the bottom, though – opinions anyone?

Follow me on Twitter: @siasandesign. I’ll add a proper ‘follow’ button in the sidebar some time soon as well.

In other news, there’s only a week to go before the next version of The Edge Element is released. More on this as we get closer to the date.

Legal babble: these images remain my property and are free for personal use as desktop backgrounds/wallpaper only. You can’t use them in your designs or claim them as your own. You can’t sell my images. You can upload them to another site provided you credit me as the artist and don’t alter the image in any way (except the resizing I mentioned already). Also, you have to send me a message telling me that you’ve used the image so I can visit you and see it.

If you really, really think an image should be cropped or altered or if the resolutions I’ve provided don’t suit your screen, please let me know and I’ll see what I can do. The same applies if you really want to use it in a way other than how I’ve already specified.

Electrical Sunset

Emma's Nebula

Morning Sun

Download: Electrical sunset (1600×1200), Electrical Sunset widescreen (2560×1600)

Download: Emma’s Nebula (1600×1200), Emma’s nebula widescreen (2560×1600)

Download: Morning Sun (1600×1200), Morning Sun widescreen (2560×1600)

Because the ‘Add Lightbox and Title’ plugin turns out to apply lightbox to any hyperlink that leads to an image, you’ll have to right’click on the links and select ‘save as’ to download them. I’ll figure out a workaround some time in the near future.

Coming soon:

• more cool images exclusively for Daily ALIEN readers
• Siasan on Twitter and Facebook
• The Edge Element Beta release