You may have seen before those lists of quotes from so-and-so that get linked to or forwarded around.

Recently I got sent a bunch of quotes by Steve Jobs, the Apple CEO. Some of them I really liked and I wanted to share them here.

Unfortunately, I cannot say whether a: these are all verbatim or b: whether they are actually quotes from Steve Jobs at all. I can tell you the “…in the face of death” quote rings true because I’ve watched the commencement speech where he says the same thing. As for the rest of them, they feel right so hopefully they are all real quotes.

“Almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” – Steve Jobs

“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.” – Steve Jobs

“Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.” – Steve Jobs

“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.” – Steve Jobs

“I’m as proud of what we don’t do as I am of what we do.” – Steve Jobs in Business Week

Zune Theme (.msi) [microsoft.com]
Double-clicking the .msi will install this theme. You might want to change that wallpaper though…

Royale Noir Theme – Download .rar file [istartedsomething.com]
Extract the .rar into the Themes folder usually found in the following location on standard Windows XP installs:
C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes

My machine is overdue for a format and with that in mind I have put together my list of free software that I use daily. As a Windows user of many years I am still a creature of habit, but some of this software is Mac OS X/Linux compatible.

Ad-Aware SE Personal (Windows)
Still the most effective anti-spyware available for free. Lavasoft regularly issue update definitions which are a free download from within the program.

AxCrypt (Windows)
AES-128 and SHA-1 file encryption. An easy way to encrypt files for restricted access. For users wanting access to encrypted files but not wishing to install any software, an install-free “viewer” can be downloaded, only 70kb in size.

K-Lite Codec Pack/Media Player Classic (Windows)
Easy way to solve all your codec worries and get a free media player in one hit. Media Player Classic has a built-in DVD player, support for AVI subtitles, QuickTime and RealVideo support. It can also be configured to play video files in a dual monitor setup.

Mozilla Firefox (Windows/Linux/Mac OS X)
Browser of choice. Fast, secure and has decent web standards support. I am particularly fond of Firefox for the ease with which extensions can be installed and managed. Some of my favourite extensions include Adblock which will let you block images, embedded objects, etc from entire domains/IP addresses and Web Developer, a powerful toolset which lets you quickly access technical aspects of a website. See DB’s Best Firefox Extensions for more.

Mozilla Thunderbird (Windows/Linux/Mac OS X)
A long-time user of Microsoft Outlook, I switched to Thunderbird once I ran out reasons not to. A sleek email client with the same inbuilt support for themes and extensions that Firefox has. Thunderbird’s adaptive junk email filter can be quickly trained to keep your inbox free of spam. I still haven’t found an easy way to export email and archive it to files but your email can be backed up under Windows XP by manually copying the mailbox store in Thunderbird’s ‘Application Data’ folder.

OpenOffice.org (Windows/Linux/Mac OS X)
Faced with forking out for Microsoft Office 2003 or lumping it with Notepad/Wordpad/Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003, I turned to OpenOffice.org somewhat reluctantly. So far it has been stellar as I’ve transitioned from version 1.1 to 2.0. OpenOffice supports Office formats like .xls and .doc and will let you save to those formats as well. It is a rock-solid program and now includes Base and Impress, alternatives to PowerPoint and Access.

Also:
Audacity – record, edit and export audio (Windows/Linux/Mac OS X)
Azureus – excellent BitTorrent client (Windows/Linux/Mac OS X)
Crimson Editor – a text editor that just works (Windows)
CutePDF – free PDF maker (Windows)
dBpowerAmp – right-click ‘Convert To’ music file conversion (Windows)
FileZilla – solid FTP client (Windows)
Skype – top notch VoiP and instant messaging (Windows/Linux/Mac OS X)

Update (2007-07-21):
100 Open Source Downloads – (Windows/Linux/Unix/Mac OS X/Classic Mac)

Sounds like an interesting Firefox session at Gnomedex.

Wired.com:

The conference espouses a bottom-up, audience-driven approach, making it an unpredictable if not outright chaotic affair… Discussion leaders included Blake Ross, of Firefox fame, whose presentation was upstaged by audience member…

ZDNet.com:

Blake then referenced the Firefox flicks project – and played a video called “Wheee!” from it that poked fun at Microsoft IE, which got a great response from the geeks in the Gnomedex crowd. However Dave Winer found it in poor taste, because it doesn’t address users. Dave asked: “what are you going to do for us?”. Dave said that he thinks Firefox will become just like Microsoft. Blake didn’t accept that – at which point a bit of a ‘Dave vs the crowd’ ruckus ensued. Chris Pirillo, Gnomedex organizer and host, had to step in and ask that the “conversation” be carried on later.

A final question asked about how Firefox will scale. Blake said that “I’m not looking to scale up to the size of Microsoft”. Overall a very interesting session, spiced up by Dave Winer and also Steve Gillmor’s interventions. The crowd was very much in support of Blake and Firefox, but even so Dave’s point that Firefox has to appeal to normal users instead of focusing on fighting Microsoft was a good one.

On Web Culture has a RSS link which you can subscribe to. We also do Feedburner if you’re into that.

I started using OpenOffice 2.0.2 today and I am happy to report OpenOffice.org Writer now gives me an option to ‘remember this decision’ when I choose to save as .doc instead of the native Writer format (which is now no longer .sxw but .odt).

Via Meg, a free mp3 download of José González doing an accoustic version of Massive Attack’s ‘Teardrop’ (2.9 MB). I’m not sure how long the download will stay online so grab it now.