Free Programs I've Come to Learn That I Can't Live Without

I find myself the owner of a new computer. My old one, which wasn't even mine to begin with, finally crashed for good. Or to be more specific, I grew tired of fixing it after the most recent crash, an event that was becoming more and more common. I shouldn't complain, though; that computer lasted a good eight years, four albums or so, on top of being given to me at no cost.

Anyway, since a reinstall of all my preferred programs is fresh on my mind, I think I'll go ahead and list the ones that are essential to me, both for the sake of my own weakening memory and just in case this info might be of some use to someone else out there on a lonely pursuit of music-making and whatnot. These are all Windows-based--but many have Mac builds--and free. And of course you can donate to the authors if you find them useful enough:

Judging a Book by Its Cover

The woman with whom Gen. Petraeus had an affair was also his biographer. The name of the book? All In ... yep... all the way up to the nuts, apparently.

Jerry Sandusky had his own life story published years ago. It's title? Touched: the Jerry Sandusky Story.

You can't make this shit up.

Not Like a Phoenix, But Still Rising from Ashes

Apologies to my handful of reader(s?) for the long lapse in posts. I recently moved to a new neighborhood in NYC, which coincided oh-so-conveniently with my battered old laptop crashing for the last time. Presently, I have moved from the East Village to Crown Heights, and I now have a new computer.