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I have dealt with a large variety of software programs, from graphics and web-design programs to games. I currently have the following programs of note:

• Windows XP Professional-- This is very stable, and fairly fast. I, as a visual person, much prefer its interface to that of Windows 95, etc. Of course, Mac OS X is great also...but won't run all of the programs I use. Use: very high. Rating: high
• Adobe Creative Suite 2:
  • Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional
  • Adobe Bridge 1.0
  • Adobe Common File Installer
  • Adobe GoLive CS2
  • Adobe Help Center 1.0
  • Adobe Illustrator CS2
  • Adobe InDesign CS2
  • Adobe Photoshop CS2
  • Adobe Stock Photos 1.0
  • Adobe Version Cue CS2
  Wonderful suite, but very expensive. I got this suite through the University at a very deep discount. Photoshop is what I do all graphics on now, and I find Acrobat quite useful as well. Use: high. Rating: very high.
• Adobe Photoshop 7.0.1-- I got the Adobe suite through my job as a TA in the Spring of 2005. I used Photoshop 7 frequently, and pretty well learned most of the basics for Photoshop. Since then, I purchased Adobe CS2, but I still have Photoshop 7 installed. I'm not sure why. Use: low. Rating: high.
• Adobe Reader 7.0.5-- This is the most widely installed piece of software made right now. Adobe Reader is installed on 97% of computers. Useful...though I do have Acrobat Professional, this starts up faster. Use: moderate. Rating: high.
• Adobe SVG Viewer 6.0-- I use this for viewing a digital atlas that is produced in the vector SVG format. Use: low. Rating: moderate.
• AISC Search Utility for Structural Steel Shapes 3.1-- Came with a textbook, I think. Woo hoo. Use: never. Why is it still on my computer?
• AOL Instant Messenger-- Good for chatting with friends online. I'm on it often, but I won't post my screenname here lest I be spammed. Use: high. Rating: high.
• Audacity 1.2.4-- This is by far the best free audio editing program, and it can do everything I need. Of course, all I do is record a little, raise the saturation level on some mp3s, and edit out pops sometimes. Use: moderate. Rating: high.
• Burn4Free CD and DVD-- I actually don't use this often--I got it because I needed to burn a CD image and Windows can't do that. Use: never.
• Canon Utilities PhotoStitch 3.1-- This stitching program came with my camera. It is OK, but Autostitch, a free program, works better in my opinion. Use: low. Rating: low
• CCleaner-- This useful little program will clean up all the caches and temp files on your computer, emptying disk space. Use: moderate. Rating: high.
• Corel Painter IX-- The premier painting program, supporting every type of painting or freehand drawing you can imagine. To go with this, we (my brother Andrew and I) purchased a Wacom Intuos 3 drawing tablet. Together, one can do some excellent work...if you are an artist. I have *some* skill as an artist, and you can see some examples of my drawings in my graphics section. As for the program itself--it is powerful, but not particularly easy to use. You can't do everything you might want to, but it is still the best on the market. It is rather expensive, though. I would only recommend it if you are an avid artist (like my brother). Use: low. Rating: moderate.
• Europa Universalis 2-- This is the best historical strategy game yet made, in my opinion. It covers the whole world, from 1419 to 1819, with tons of historical events. The game covers the diplomatic, military, and economic facets of the time period well, along with some of the governmental and religious portions. Besides being a superb game, this game is very mod-able, and there are some superb historical modifications availiable for it, that add an extra dimension to the game. I have made a few mods for it myself. Use: never. Rating: very high.
• Font Creator 5.0-- Using this, I actually created a font of my own handwriting, which I use sometimes on things I print out. Obviously, no one else has the font, so it would be useless to use on anything anyone else views (like this website). Use: low. Rating: moderate.
• Google Earth-- This is an absolutely excellent program. I've got tons of friends' houses marked on the map, including some in foreign countries. Use: moderate. Rating: very high.
• Lux-- An excellent Risk spinoff. The AI is far better than the "Risk" games, and there are tons of options. Hundreds of maps have been made by fans. I have made quite a few my self, among which are some of the highest rated maps. Use: low. Rating: high.
• Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004-- Dreamweaver is THE webpage and website program to use. It is far better than any other I have used. Use: high. Rating: very high.
• Mathematica 5.2 for Students-- I got this through the University. Hard to work with, but for complex matrixes you've got to have something on computer. Use: low. Rating: low.
• Microsoft Midtown Madness 2-- One of the best games ever made. I have modded this thing to death. The version we run on our computers for multiplayer is hardly recognizeable. All the cars are custom, and I've modded all the custom cars for balance. And the physics has been changed to make it far more realistic. And we have alternate cities and races...It's fun with 3 or 4 at once on our computers. Use: never. Rating: high.
• Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003-- A solid suite, but not great. The interfaces are convoluted, and not everything works perfectly. Runs slower than any other programs on my laptop. One really needs it as an engineer, but I wish there was something better to be industry standard. I use this a ton, particularly Word and Excel. Use: very high. Rating: high.
• Mozilla Firefox (1.5.0.7)-- THE web browser to use. Beats Internet Explorer by a mile. Use: very high. Rating: very high. Installed as plugins:
  • PDF Download-- Adds choices on what to do with PDFs. Use: moderate. Rating: moderate.
  • HTML Validator-- Checks the HTML on any page for errors. Use: low. Rating: high.
  • Tabbrowser Preferences--Adds control over tabs. Use: low. Rating: moderate.
  • FireFTP--Adds FTP client capabilities to Firefox. Use: never. Rating: low.
  • Adblock-- Blocks advertisements. Absolutely wonderful to have. Use: very high. Rating: very high.
  • Fasterfox-- Supposedly speeds up Firefox. Use: moderate. Rating: moderate.
  • ScrapBook-- A program to save webpages to disk and view them later. Useful. Use: high. Rating: high.
• Multiframe 4D Demo-- I used this program extensively for my capstone project, a spectacular interstate bridge. The program does structural analysis of models. Use: low. Rating: high.
• Neat Image v5.5 Home-- An excellent program for removing grain from photographs. I use this a lot. Because I take a lot of photographs. Use: moderate. Rating: high.
• ObjectDock-- This is more fun than really necessary, and it does take some system resources. It places a "dock" on the screen with the programs you use the most. It replaces the quickstart bar and, to some extent, the start menu. Use: very high. Rating: high.
• Paint Shop Pro 7 Anniversary Edition-- This was my favorite image editing program. It is considerably more user friendly than Photoshop, cheaper, and has nearly all of the same features. It has sufficient export features to allow me to create the graphics for this site, slice them, and create an html page to hold the table. Of course, I then had to totally rework the table....never mind. I endorse this as one of the best raster graphics program. Its faults are a lack of "Actions," recordable series of actions that can be replayed, and very high memory usage for selections. I have since obtained Adobe Photoshop, so I use that now. Use: never. Rating: high.
• Picasa 2-- A nice little program for viewing and organizing images. I don't use it much. Use: never. Rating: moderate.
• Registry Mechanic 5.2-- This program fixes registry errors. Unfortunately, the free version doesn't do very much. Use: low. Rating: low.
• SmartFTP-- This is the program I use for uploading and downloading files to the servers; Dreamweaver can do this as well. Very nice. Use: low. Rating: high.
• Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.4-- I guess this does something with spyware. I haven't used it in a long time--maybe I should. Use: never. Rating: low.
• Windows Media Player 11-- The latest and best version of media player. It's playing in the background as I type here. I really like it. For visualizations, I use a plug-in that shows pictures from My Pictures. Use: very high. Rating: high.
• WinRAR archiver-- A useful zipping and unzipping program; does the RAR files as well (obviously). Use: low. Rating: moderate.
• XnView 1.82.4-- A superb basic image viewer and editor, for quick jobs. A must have, in my opinion. Use: moderate. Rating: very high.
• ZoneAlarm Security Suite-- My firewall and antivirus. I have not been particularly pleased with it, and have had several battles with it. I've had to reinstall it. Use: high. Rating: moderate.

I have played a large number of games. I do not play violent games, for the most part, nothing rated worse than T and few that. My tastes run toward strategy historical games and driving games. I also play some sports games, though if you want me to spend my money it will probably be on a strategy+history game. I gave up computer games last spring, as they were consuming too much of my time. I tend to "get into" things, and it is easy to spend a lot of time on computer games. Not good. (I do play against 3 brothers every once in a while on Frogger 2 multiplayer, on Philip's or Joseph's computer turn.) Over this winter break I have played some Knights of Honor, but will probably stop again once I go to work.

Other games I have played (or watched family play):

(Ranked according to their quality when I played them)

Other games I have played the demo of...Actually more than these; these are the ones I played more than once.

Here are some of our favorite computer games.