Hardware, Software, Middleware… But only the bestof. Allright !
HARDWARE
Welcome to The BestOf Wiki ! I am one of Bob's student and be my guest. Today we'll talk about the essentials, the must-have to enjoy electronic culture.
To Start, you need a mouse,
you surely think that it's not important but in fact it sure is. Take the lowest price from Logitech for example. Confortable, ergoconomic, classy, reassuring : in a word : with it, you'll catch up !
Then you really need a computer,
harmonised to your mouse could be trendy. A ThinkPad from IBM-LENOVO is a good solution ! It is true They are expensive, and the design is a mix between Russian military and Dark Vador helmet. But they are as strong as ther reputation !
And remember more than a just guest your a part of it !
Thank you Olivier for this introduction! As a part of it please let me introduce one of my favorite device:
i love the ARCHOS PMA400.
Some people are crazy about their iPod; I think they just don't know what their talking about.
Ok the design could be sexier. Does that stop you? Seriously? What do you want, a fashion accessory or a eculture device? Good. Cause the archos pma400 is so much more than a multimedia player! Not only is it playing music, videos and photos stocked on its 30GB (you also have a USB-in to plug any other hard drive) and on its nice wide screen; not only can you record TV or watch your archos on TV thanks to the craddle (and the remote control!); but it also reads PDF and has all the personnal assistant fonctions you want on its Linux based OS: calendar, to do list, tasks of the day, adress book, loads of games and even a text editor and… an internet browser! YES you can read your e-mails or googlize as soon as you find a unsecured wifi network! wow. Have you ever heard of anything like it? (and don't tell me about the iPhone. Does the iPhone has 30GB hard drive? no!)
And it's not even big or heavy! 
And the most impressive detail: it's from 2005! Nobody has done anything as good to me since then. They're the best.
Archos I love you!
PS: do you want one now? Well good luck, they're sold out in France!
By the way, this made me tought about a topic: mobility.
also see the page about ebooks
SOFTWARES
Ok, the archos is a treat in my digitalive life; even though very helpful sometimes, it is not as essential to me as the following software:
Office One Note (v7)
a tool for notetaking, information gathering, and multi-user collaboration by Microsoft. To me it's a bit like a wiki off line in that sense that you can access different pages without opening documents: just go from tab to tab, from booknote to booknote… It's like a cross-between an explorator and an editor. Simple section/page metaphor which resembles a spiral-binder notebook. Two clicks to get to any page with a medium sized notebook. "Back" and "Forward" buttons to browse notebook.
OneNote also adds modern features such as drawings, pictures, multimedia audio, video, and ink as well as multi-user sharing of notes. Very very good as well: the automatic saving of notes—no need to remember to save or pick a file name and location.
it totally changed my life. Organizing notes and information suddenly got simple. On one interface, i can acess multiple formats (text, images, videos, links…) and all the "sections" of my multilayered life: section for school (courses notes or research for case studies etc), for jobs (to do lists, briefs, brainstormings…), or personal (images i love, recipes, traveling projects…)
all my world is there…
A feeling quite similar to the one on netvibes. (See below)
To know more about office, check out Microsoft or
Wikipédia
WEB-BASED APPLICATIONS
Netvibes
I tried to make a video on how I use Netvibes on a blog post; it’s a first try (need to get used to the softwares for video screenshots and making, which are also mentionned in there: AllCapture and Windows movie maker)
Anyway the video is actually borring, but what is to keep in mind is that NETVIBES is a great great tool to put yourself together when you’re starting to be all over the web.
I used to use it just for RSS feeds, which is its first purpose. Then I realize i could also check my emails from my hotmail+yahoo+3 gmails accounts without having to login to each.
I also created thumbs for each of the stuff im working on, and have a page for each projects with the associated email box, to-do-list, bookmarks for associated wikis, google and ma.gnolia groups, and so on…
It thus became a platform for all my online presence and tools. It’s now my home page, and I have all these great browsers (for words, images, videos, blogs… just select your favorites engines) also on same page.
Just at the point i was scattered around and spanning out, Netvibes not only re-mixed my web, but made it a clear, homely, personal place. It just changed my life.
Last but not least: they’re french!
Wikis
We have a good one here!
You can also use it for your dissertation and more. That changed my school life. It is for me the best way to organise my work on long term projects. Don't open dozens of documents to save and see your researches, it's so much easier to go through pages! you can link stuff together and that's great. And accessible from any computer, wherever you are. And less likely to be lost… I did it for my dissertation last year and I'm doing it again this year. You can also have a blog where you save thoughts or links or just recap what your are doing at the moment, it helps following track of your work in progress!
Mindmapping
see the page personal brain of this wiki!
Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking is a way for Internet users to store, organize, share and search bookmarks of web pages. In a social bookmarking system, users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share. These bookmarks are usually public, but depending on the service's features, may be saved privately, shared only with specific people or groups, shared only inside certain networks, or another combination of public and private. The allowed people can usually view these bookmarks chronologically, by category or tags, via a search engine, or even randomly.
Most people have herad of del.icio.us. I personally prefer ma.gnolia, cause it allows you to create groups (maybe del.icio.us does as well but couldn't find it). Very usefull for team work!
"Hardware and software", what is it ?
Nowadays "E-communication", "hardware" and "software" mean "problems and difficulties" for many people. So if you are in this case, take a look to this special edition of the "bobspauldingclass broadcast" :
