Mitch AltmanInterview
Inventor
Adapted from Mitch Altman's interview on Uses This, published 21 July 2010. The kit is drawn from their answers and each reason is an excerpt, lightly edited. Shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the full interview ↗
Is this you? Claim this kit →Hardware
Some highlights: I invented TV-B-Gone, a remote control keychain that turns off TVs in public places.
I've used a Microsoft Natural keyboard for over a decade, and really like the split keyboard, which is way more comfortable for my wrists.
While on the road, which is about half the time, I use my new Lenovo ThinkPad T400.
Communication
Skype is way handy for making free calls, IM-ing, and sharing files with people for free while on the road or at home.
Productivity
And I inappropriately use Word for way too much drawing work.
Since making PDF files doesn't come with all software, I use Win2PDF, shareware which let's me "print" to anything to a PDF file.
Security
Coding & Development
I use an inexpensive, but really nice text editor for coding: ZeusEdit.
It has a Brief Editor emulator, all of the keyboard shortcuts of which are still stuck in my fingers from the old DOS days.
WinAVR is a complete package for programming AVR microcontrollers -- just double-click it, it installs, and works!
To upload these to my website I use WS FTP Pro, cheap and easy-to-use for FTP.
Design
For graphics I still use my old version of Photoshop 7, which works fine on Vista and Windows 7.
Though I'm beginning to really like Inkscape for more technically oriented drawing.
Media
For multi-track audio and other audio editing, I still use CoolEdit Pro 2.0, which was bought by Adobe and now called Adobe Audition -- the main difference was that Adobe added a bunch of bugs, and made it more expensive.
I also use FruityLoops Studio, for which I have a lifetime update -- fantastic for making all sorts of music.
For the minimal video editing I do, I just use Microsoft Movie Maker.
Photoshop Lightroom+ 86 others
I document my workshops as well as take street photography, and I use Adobe Lightroom to edit the zillions of photos.
Storage
But Symantec made it all bloated and expensive, so I switched to Acronis True Image.
Other
My OS on my computer at home is Windows Vista.
So, rather than have multi-boot, I just stick with one OS (but occasionally use an Ubuntu live CD when I need to run a Linux-only piece of software).
My OS on my laptop for travel is Windows 7, which is really nice.
PuTTY is free and cool for SSH.
Nero Burning ROM is fine for CD/DVD burning software.