An update on the last minor collection.
1. Eureka! A free cross-platform approach to making scientific discoveries.
2. Google Scholar. For a long time, the benefits were unclear, but with one-click bibtex exports, it is faster and cleaner than Web of Science.
3. Beamer. When the inconsistencies of Powerpoint and the lack of portability of Apple’s Keynote become too much, Beamer applies the robustness of latex to presentations. For futurists, there is also Prezi.
4. Zotero. After two years of usage, Zotero is still managing (and synching) my references and pdf files to perfection. Another popular choice is Mendeley, but who needs yet another social network.
5. Vesta. Crystal structure visualization and manipulation has never been so fast or beautifull; although, J-ICE is giving them a run for their money.
6. Inkscape. Vector drawings for those Nature and PRL schematics, without the need to sell your lab coat to afford Adobe Illustrator.
7. Gimp. Not the leather clad man, but the bitmap manipulator for making your images publication quality, without the need to empty your grant budget for Photoshop.
8. Chemsketch. When you need to draw some annoyingly obscure organic molecule or make use of orbital templates, the freeware Chemsketch comes in handy.
9. Open Babel. Proof that there are too many files formats in the world of computational chemistry.
10. GeoGebra. Graphing gets a little dull with Excel, Gnuplot and Grace, so I am always keeping an eye out for alternatives. GeoGebra makes algebra and geometry fun - very nice for playing around with model analytical potentials.