Development Tools (mostly free)

As a C# developer of the highest caliber ;), I research, and sometimes find, a lot of cool software and components.

  • Balsamiq: These guys make a great wireframes development application. You get a lot of mileage out of the free version.
  • Espresso Regular Expression Designer: This tool is amazing for Regex development.
  • Linqpad: If you're doing linq to entities or linq to sql, this is a must have.

Other Resources

As you can see, I'm no designer. Thankfully, there are lots of good design resources out there for cheap and untalented developers like myself.

  • 99 Designs: Bid on logos, web-page designs, whatever. You'll get more design hours for the buck than anyplace else.
  • 123 RF: Great site for royalty free images.
  • Website Grader from Hubspot: Great analysis tool for you DYI SEOers. Provides good direction for the and insight.

Favorite Restaurants

Hey, I'm a foodie as much as a designer. Check these places out if you're in San Diego (plus, I get some FoodFinder link juice.

  • Oceanaire Seafood Room: The food is second-to-none, and the bartenders always put on a show. Make sure to try the crab cakes and the Angry Scallops (if they're on the menu). The cheesecake is one of my favorites.
  • Jayne's Gastropub: Great food, reasonable price, cool atmosphere. The best restaurants in San Diego are in North Park, and the best restaurant in North Park is Jayne's
  • Pomegranate Russian/Georgian Restaurant: Amped up character (and characters), and guess what, these cats can cook. Get the salad sampler and the Pork or Chicken Shashlik if it's on.
  • Ruth's Chris Steak House: Amazing service, and the steaks are second to none. This is a training store for the company, so they almost always get it right. The chicken stuffed with cheese is one of the best dishes on the menu and a great bargain.

Other Cool Sites

You've got to support your friends.

  • Where We Ride: Super slick site for mountain-biking trail reviews and community. Also, a great showcase for the capbilities of KML/Google Maps development.
  • Track Happy: A quirky but fun game that tracks the journey of physical objects.
  • Failblog.org: Sometimes, you just need help keeping things in perspective. Add this one to your RSS.