Whether he's keeping us up-to-date on the latest and greatest hardware hacks or sending droves of roombas to do his bidding, MAKE Magazine's senior editor Phillip Torrone is a pillar of productivity. Here's how he works (also check out a screenshot of his workspace after the jump):
LH: What desktop software do you use every day?
Phillip: I live (and die) in Ecto, it's how I publish 99% of the things you see on MAKE. Ecto is a desktop client for blogging and publishing on the web. Others: NetNewsWire (RSS/Mac), Feeddemon (RSS/PC), Gaim-PC / Adium (Mac Messaging - iChat/AIM/MSN/Yahoo/Gtalk and now Project Gizmo)... Skype. Firefox, with loads of extensions. Whatever text editor of the moment for writing, usually OpenOffice / NeoOffice. Photoshop... IRC (Colloquy - Mac, HydraIRC - Win) - Skype, Terminal, PuTTY. Fugu... iMovie, iTunes/GarageBand. Second Life and Sketch Up.
LH: What web sites do you use every day?
Phillip:
MAKE (The MovableType interface).
Flickr
Instructables
Gmail
Digg
Make stats / metrics I watch
Yahoo publisher beta page (ad stuff)
Texterity traffic - MAKE's digital edition
MAKEbot, not a site - he's RSS over IM, but helps me do stuff
Basecamp... well, not *every* day, but close.
As far as what sites I/we/MAKE check out each day, we've put as many as Technorati allows in the MAKE favorites list.
I also have to keep tabs on our Maker community, so I've rolled up all things MAKE in one OPML file - these are feeds for MAKE's blog,articles, photos, projects, bookmarks, audio/video - pretty much our DNA...
LH: What PDA/personal organizer/system do you use to keep organized?
Phillip: Sidekick II.
But, most of the the time... I keep a text file on my desktop with the stuff I need to do or places I need to go. A text file has never let me down, or hurt my feelings.