15 -hot- tools that made me a coding Paris Hilton.

You sling code every day. So do I. You sit down at your box, throw on those noise canceling headphones, fire up some mp3s, and get jiggy wit’ it. That’s hot. But could it be hotter?

Look good while doing things the easy way
After doing this day in, day out, for many years I’ve picked up some apps and tools that let me get a lot done in a way that may seem effortless and a bit cheeky to my peers. This Paris Hilton style of coding is mostly seen as flashy, decadent, or sophisticated, all of which are true. Some few curmudgeons on the other hand may find it criminal in its use of short cuts, helpers, and preferential treatment I give it. Those people are just jealous.

Here they are, the “hot” apps I use every day to be the Paris Hilton of developers. These apps are hot, fast, easy and a little bit dangerous. Oh yeah….

Note: I don’t pretend that these apps are super-secrets noone has listed before. Some of them can be found on Scott Hanselman’s awesome tools list or elsewhere on the interweb, but the list that follow, (broken down into general applicability) are things I use every day and have made me the defacto go-to guy in my shop for apps and tools. Now you can be too.