Tools of the Trade, Part I

Things have been a little slow of late, so I thought I'd start a recurring feature: Tools of the Trade. I'll go over the tools that I use and things that I like to keep on hand. I'm a big fan of squirreling things away for later use. The trick is, of course, to remember what you've squirreled away so you can use it when the time comes. Some of these tools are portable (i.e. you can run them from a USB drive), and of course, some aren't. I'll try to identify which tools are portable, because if you're at all like me, you like to keep a nice supply of heavy-duty tools at the ready. In my experience, it pays to be prepared. During the course of this series, I'll also mention non-software tools and items that you'll want to keep around. Some are obvious (a screwdriver, for example) and some aren't (nail polish, for example......I'll go over that one another time). Also, these tools are in no particular order. That being said, let's dive in.

• Nmap (http://insecure.org). This is one of those tools that I simply can't function without. If you aren't familiar with nmap, learn it. If you're already familiar with it, read the docs again. Seriously. I make it a point to re-read the docs fairly regularly, partly because it changes a little bit from version to version, but also because it does so many things, I can't remember them all.
• Perl (http://www.perl.com). Ok, technically it doesn't have to be perl. Really any serious scripting language will do. (Ruby, Python, etc., etc.) The point is that you'll want to be very proficient in at least one cross-platform scripting language. It has saved my bacon more times than I can count.
• Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net). Portable! A very robust text editor. If you're looking for a fancy word processor, you're looking in the wrong place. Notepad++ is a great editor that supports having multiple documents open simultaneously (I curse you, Windows Notepad) and it knows how to handle both Windows and *NIX line endings (again, I curse you, Windows Notepad). It supports syntax highlighting for lots of languages and is easily enhanced by way of plugins.
  
• Subversion (http://subversion.tigris.org). Version control. Why version control, you ask? Personally, I hate ever having to do the same work twice, so any time I have a config file or script or something that I've put some effort into, it goes under version control. That way, if I manage to fubar the file (any SysAdmin or programmer who tells you they've never done that is lying), I can retrieve any previous version with no effort.
• WinMerge (http://www.winmerge.org). Portable! Have two text files that you want to compare for differences? WinMerge is the tool for you. In my opinion, the best Windows-based comparison program.

If you have any tools that you think should be added to the list, email me at sifukurt AT yahoo DOT com.