January 10, 2014 at 7:16 am
I can get by on the basics: black coffee, SSMS, VS and MS Office. I'd rather not just "get by". Dual Monitors, Redgate tool belt, Notepad ++, Starbucks, Bose noise cancelling headset and my ipad for music. Throw in a hot lunch and that's a hell of a day!
January 10, 2014 at 7:59 am
Dual monitors is almost a must, now that I'm used to it. When I do work from home it drives me crazy sometimes to only have one. I like to have pictures of the wife and from our vacations around to remind me of what I'm working for.:cool: Only need water, no coffee for me. I've asked in the past about getting desks we could stand at, still no luck on that. I think I would like standing better, or at least have the option to sit or stand. I'd need taller cubicle walls then so I didn't see everyone walking down the hall.
As a developer I just use whatever software they give me. I do use Beyond Compare to compare files and folders from the different environments(dev, test, int, prod). I also like to use Ultra Edit, just to be able to search across folders, I found the windows search didn't always catch everything plus I can tell it what to not look at.
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we travel not to escape life but for life not to escape us
Don't fear failure, fear regret.
January 10, 2014 at 8:15 am
Like most in IT, my duties seem to vary from day to day and project to project. Whenever I need to be onsite with a client, I usually take a USB thumb drive with PortableApps loaded on it (portableapps.com). This provides me with a host of applications that I can utilize without needing to install anything on the client's system.
January 10, 2014 at 8:17 am
A couple people have mentioned it already, but if you're not using a clipboard capture tool, you are missing out. I use ClipCache at work and loved/missed it so much I purchased it for home use. You would be amazed at how often you find a use for that string you copied 3 captures - or days! - ago ... 😉
January 10, 2014 at 8:33 am
Since I'm a developer I have to have Visual Studio. That's essential for my job. Then because I do database development work I've got to have SSMS. We do reports and are trying to migrate away from Crystal, so I've also got to have SSRS. But because we're still working with Crystal ("curses , Batman!") I've got to have that installed as well. MS Office is also necessary for me. Some FTP client (I'm not particular, just whatever is convenient). I also like Paint.NET for doing graphics work. And I also use Blend for Visual Studio for doing XAML design. I need Fiddler 2 for troubleshooting HTTP traffic with our web apps. And I love Notepad++ installed as well.
Those are what I need to be productive.
Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.
January 10, 2014 at 8:47 am
I've asked in the past about getting desks we could stand at, still no luck on that.
You can get some great standing desks nowadays. I'm not sure they're for me because I'd probably loll around all the time but I'd quite like the option.
I'm another one who really likes dual monitors, and I need them to be on risers too. And ideally nobody looking over my shoulder ;-).
It's not essential by any means but I use Evernote quite a lot for work-related stuff (mostly blog articles I want to refer back to and things like that).
January 10, 2014 at 9:04 am
I'm very particular with how my desktop is set up but the desk it sits on is usually a mess
Dual monitors when I can although I find myself working from home via VPN/RDP way too often.
A fast desktop computer with gobs of ram. I have had some embarrassingly slow computers and finally after many years of complaining, got an upgrade at work.
SSMS/SSIS 2008R2/2012
Text Editors:
EditPlus for looking at large text file
LTFViewr5U when I have to look at really large text files
Notepad ++
UltraEdit
DbVisualizer I got it to look at large schemas but end keeping it open to monitor a few of my problematic servers
SSDT-VS 2012. What a great and free tool from Microsoft. Started using it for schema compares but am finding myself working with it as a SQL editor as well
Recent Microsoft Office. Running 2013 on work, laptop, home desktop and work now.
PowerShell
VMware vSphere at work and Hyper-V on Windows 8 at home
January 10, 2014 at 9:26 am
My needs are a:
A good monitor
A good coffee shop close by
Performance Dashboard
My nice to have
PAL
PSSDIAG
SQLNEXUS
OneNote
Notepad++
Edit:
More than 1GB RAM... I swear I have work on some turtles.
January 10, 2014 at 9:43 am
jeff fisher-291560 (1/10/2014)A fast desktop computer with gobs of ram.
I'm with you on that one! Finally was able to get an upgrade at work a year ago as well... amazing the difference an i7 and 16 GB ram make... 🙂
January 10, 2014 at 10:06 am
I personally bought, back in 2001, an under the desk slide out keyboard drawer, the original Microsoft Natural full size keyboard, and the Microsoft Trackball Explorer trackball. I have since worked for three companies spanning seven office/cubical moves. I also have a similar setup at home. I can't live without it! In my opinion it is much more efficient and comfortable than placing a keyboard up on your desk, making you sit 1 to 2 feet from your monitor(s) and having to move your mouse all around, constantly falling off the mouse pad or hitting a seam in the desk or some other item, or having to pick the mouse up and bring it back to you because you've extended your arm all the way but you're still scrolling or dragging a window.
January 10, 2014 at 10:06 am
I have some SW essentials and some nice to have, most of them have already been mentioned.
Essentials:
SSMS
BIDS
Word processor
Spread sheet SW
Email SW
Internet access
Nice to have:
Notepad++
Chrome
Code formatter
But something that hasn't been mentioned and I value a lot, is a stress ball. It really helps me to think and analyse.
January 10, 2014 at 10:19 am
Knut Boehnert (1/10/2014)
Only thing I really need to be productive is one screen with 1920x1280 resolution...
I remember there was one company I was a consultant at just 7 years ago that gave us wonderful desktop machines, multi-core, multiple disk drives, lots of RAM, etc, but the monitors they gave us were 14", under the premise that we should be developing to the size of screen that the users had.
The one software thing I do like to have is a simple .Net program I wrote which polls a list of SQL Servers in an interval I define and returns info from the performance counters and ring buffers dynamic management views so that I quickly have a birds eye view of what's going on in all my SQL Servers.
January 10, 2014 at 1:20 pm
Ultra Edit +1
January 11, 2014 at 11:14 am
Michael_Garrison (1/10/2014)
One of my pet peeves is that every company I ever worked for in past 20+ years are so dang cheap on the PC's and laptop's they provide. We all have a story on this. But for example my current company gives every one 14" laptops that only have 4 gig memory but still uses Windows 32 bit which means that 1 gig of memory is not even being used. And we supposed to be developers, dba's etc! 14", i can't even see it! They also give some of us an external monitor. Mine happens to be 27", which is nice, but going back and forth between and 14" and 27" gives me a headache by the end of the day. It has been a proven fact that the bigger the monitor, the better worker productivity. And you know they pay HP an arm and a leg for these 14" things, when only maybe a few $$ we could get 17" or so laptops. And 64 bit machines!
You might negotiate this in your review, perhaps instead of some training or with a mixed investment. They give you x64, you buy a monitor, or something like that. Or maybe a second, external, USB driver to use a real second monitor instead of the laptop screen.
January 11, 2014 at 11:18 am
IowaDave (1/10/2014)
A couple people have mentioned it already, but if you're not using a clipboard capture tool, you are missing out. I use ClipCache at work and loved/missed it so much I purchased it for home use. You would be amazed at how often you find a use for that string you copied 3 captures - or days! - ago ... 😉
Giving this a try. I hadn't seen these in awhile, but I often use 2-3 clipboard items and find myself going back and forth between cut/paste, cut-new-paste, re-cut-first-paste.
Tx
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