Craig Rettig.com

Here's a list of free software I use regularly:

• Mozilla Firefox: My web browser of choice.
• Mozilla Thunderbird: My e-mail client of choice. It's a lot more secure than Outlook Express, and has more features as well.
• Crimson Editor: A programmer's text editor that offers plenty of features including syntax highlighting, multiple open documents, macros, and other tools that make it my first choice when editing scripts and other programs.
• FileZilla: A multi-threaded FTP client that has all the features you need and then some.
• 7-Zip: A freeware compression utility that opens nearly every type of archive file, be it .ZIP, .RAR, .TAR.GZ, .ISO, or one of the many others.
• AbiWord: A full-featured word processor without all the bloat of Microsoft Word or WordPerfect.
• Clipomatic: As a programmer, I tend to reuse lots of text over and over again. Clipomatic keeps a number of your Cut/Copy's in memory, so you can use them later.
• KeePass Password Safe: This application is useful for keeping all of your usernames and passwords associated with web sites in one secure location with one master password. Hey, there's no way I'd be able to remember them all, so this tool comes in handy.

Seriously, does anyone use this site for actual research purposes? Anyone..? Bueller..? Here's a list of reasons why I think the plug needs pulled on this site:

1. I've yet to see Squidoo come up in any searches I've made — ever. In fact, I had to add "site:squidoo.com" just to verify the pages were even being indexed.
2. If you don't have it, get the Google PageRank Status extension for Firefox. Look at the PageRank of any Squidoo lens. Pretty abysmal, isn't it? Even soulless computers don't think very much of Squidoo's content.
3. Have you every seen a link to Squidoo? The only links I've ever seen were made for one of the following reasons:
   1. The linker is the Lensmaster promoting his or her own lenses.
   2. The linker is selling an e-book on how to profit with Squidoo.
4. Squidoo has been online for nearly two years. Despite being the brainchild of popular author, speaker, and blogger Seth Godin, hardly anyone knows it even exists.
5. For the same amount of effort, you could set up a blog with Blogger or WordPress and build your own site. Here you could add your own affiliate links and rake the full profits. If you decide to give some of the proceeds to a charity, you can make the donation yourself and reap the tax benefits.

Michael Calore summed up Squidoo quite well:

The bulk of the lenses on Squidoo are made up a few sentences written by the Lensmaster, followed by a dozen or so ads for books and CDs from Amazon. And, as TechCrunch points out, the best Lensmasters are only receiving about $30 per month for their work, much less than they could be making if they started their own blog and pulled in AdSense ads.

Until someone actually shows me real proof that Squidoo is useful (I'm tired of hearing about its "potential"), I say don't even waste your time.