Toolwerks

Screencast/Screenshot application

Wink, by debug software, is a free screencast tool. It allows you to record a series of screenshots (by default, 4 per second), then add text, audio or visual elements to individual frames or groups of frames and finally compile it into a flash animation. There are other options like timing of the animation and resolution and cropping.

This can be used to make online tutorials or to show a tech support rep exactly what steps you are taking to reproduce a problem.

It can also be used to take a single screenshot. Great little free app.

Connector, plugs and sockets

These are 3 visual resources for connectors. They are useful when you want to know the name of the kind of plug you are looking for or to confirm visually with a remote user that he actually have a USB port.

The HP Connector Chart [PDF] shows the most common connector types found on computers and A/V equipment. Very handy and can be emailed to someone who does not know USB from S-Video.

This page has actual pictures of the connectors and sockets for over 80 types of connectors, including coax and fiber optics.

This cablesdirect.com page has diagrams of over 50 connectors, mostly computer related.

HTML Conditional Comments

Conditional Comments are the name of HTML style comments that contain conditional directives for the browser. They are for IE only and thus are often employed in dealing with IE only CSS bugs like so:

<!--[if lt IE 7]>
<style type="text/css" media="all">
@import url(http://example.com/IEFixes.css);
</style>
<![endif]-->

This article gives good examples and provides a link to the official Microsoft document.

Reveal Passwords Behind the Asterisks

Here are two apps that allow you to see the password that is behind those asterisks in the Windows GUI.

X-Pass: Although it is not developed anymore and the original site has shut down, you can still get this great app here thanks to the Internet Archive. (direct download link here). I have used it successfully on Windows 2000 and XP. It's a real life saver when the user has forgotten a password he entered in an application years ago.

SnadBoy's Revelation: Even tough I did not use it myself, it is supposedly also very good. Get it here. It was recommended as a solution in this ask.metafilter.com question.

Firefox Web Dev

The Web Developer Extension does a fantastic job of helping anyone develop for the web. Need to turn CSS style sheets on and off? Need to turn a form from a GET to a POST? The list goes on and on. Anyone that develops for the web should have this plugin as for as I'm concerned.