The Best Things in Life are Free

With the economic recession, free sounds better and better all the time. As I was setting up my new computer, I was thinking of all the free websites and programs I use. Here's a few that I can't live without.

Websites

Pandora, which is an awesome way to find new music. You set up stations by telling it a few songs you like, and it comes up with new songs you might like based on your preferences. As you hear songs you like, you can give them a thumbs up, you can mark them to download from iTunes or Amazon. I personally got about five new CDs for Christmas based on artists I found on Pandora.

Metromix.com. Of all the websites to help you find things to do in your area, I've found this one to be about the easiest and the most user friendly. I like the fact it allows you to search a particular neighborhood, so when I know approximately where I want to go, it gives me all the options.

Google Docs. Although nowhere near as fancy as a full-featured word processor, when I'm apart from my usual computer and have some time to kill, I use Google Docs to get in some writing time.

Google Books. In doing research for my nanonovel, this was extremely useful. Most classic novels are available in their full length on Google Books, and for newer novels I can at least see a portion.

And of course, Blogger and Google Reader, but 'nuff said about those two. If you're reading this, you probably already know how awesome they are.

Programs

yWriter. I had never thought of trying to use any program aside from Word for writing. However, I saw other professional writers talking up Scrivener, where you write a novel in scenes instead of all in one big chunk. It is mac-only, a no-go for me, but it got me thinking that there might be something else that would work with my PC. Just by googling "writer's software", I came across yWriter, which works on a similar concept. You write scenes and organize them into chapters. You can create character, location, and object lists. I found it to be so awesome during Nanowrimo that I actually ended up importing all of my research for my novel from a Word Document that had grown wildly unwieldy into yWriter, where I could organize it by topic. The software also creates daily backups, so you never have to worry (too much) about losing anything.

Picasa. I've gushed about this one before, but seriously Picasa3 is pretty awesome. The red-eye remover is automatic, it can link directly to Blogger, you can also use its uploader to buy pictures from virtually any photo website. It makes video slideshows of your photos. It pulls together all the pictures spread across your computer, and somehow it magically figures out the original orientation of your photo and rotates it the right way automatically.

What's your favorite free stuff?