I rarely recommend anything unless I’ve used it, eaten it or smoked it (just kidding). Below are items that I consider, have achieved the IMPOSSIBLE 3 (Good, Fast and Cheap).
:: SKYPE - VOIP SOFTWARE ::
URL: http://www.skype.com
My Dad was the first of many to jump on this and he was raving about it for 6 months before I even installed it. For those unfamiliar with Skype (or as Asians pronounce it; Sky-pee), it’s a program you install on your computer that acts like ICQ except the primary focus is to make voicecalls to other people who also have the Skype program. So in essence it is instant messenger but instead with voice. You can still chat with users by typing to each other.
It’s all I use now to call others cross country. The call quality is 10 times better then vonage but that also depends on the Internet connection on both ends. Further you can conference call people and still type to them if you like.
My laptop has a speaker phone so I get to just talk into mid-air and listen on my surround sound speakers. For those that use it alot, you can hook up a bluetooth headset and do handsfree calling right from your laptop.
To dial regular phone numbers you can purchase 10.00/USD blocks of minutes and calls are like 0.01-0.05/min depending on where you are calling. You can also get your own number so other normal phones can dial you.
Overall it’s a great product, it’s cheap and its fast. Good, fast and cheap; three attributes that are rarely used simultaneously to descrive a product!
:: GALLERY - ONLINE PHOTO GALLERY SOFTWARE ::
URL: http://gallery.menalto.com
This product is so awesome that we, at one point, created a product out of it. It is one of the best FREE online photo galleries that are availble. How it is different is that you install it on your own website (i.e. alanwang.net/gallery). There are so many features I can’t even begin to list but from pictures to movies, it stores and shares all of your life’s images with those who visit your site.
The only small drawback is that unless you pick a hosting provider that automatically installs it for you on your website, there is some novice to medium level configuration neccessary. Or you can contact me and we can set you up!
:: Putty - Terminal access software ::
URL: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty
Ok this is a pretty geeky link but if you are looking for a simple but feature rich terminal access/shell program (to telnet and SSH), PUTTY is an awesome utility. I use it to store all of the servers and sites I need telnet/ssh access to. It’s simple, straight forward and easy to use. Plus it’s free :).