I think one thing that every geeky sort of person can agree on, is that having some sort of cloud to play with is extremely helpful. Now, my goal is to eventually find a cloud service where I can backup all of my photos (over 200gb) and one which will also back up my laptop in real time. I'd like a solid cloud backup option which doesn't charge increasing amounts of money as the storage needs increase. These cloud services do exist, I just haven't yet committed over the money needed to begin this endeavor. However, while I work up to this eventual goal, my cloud service of choice has been Dropbox.
Dropbox is a fantastic free cloud service which will easily fulfill the needs for a small, highly adaptable cloud service. One of the reasons that I love having Dropbox is that with the compatible app found on my smartphone, I can now transfer files between my laptop and phone without worrying about cables.
Another fantastic geeky necessity is an external hard drive. Mine is a two terabyte drive, which might be overkill for the less ambitious storage seeker, but for my needs it has been amazing. One thing to keep in mind with all forms of digital storage is that if data is left alone for a very long time and it is never accessed or modified or moved, it can become corrupted. An external storage device is not foolproof data storage, alternate backups should also be made.
One of my favorite devices that every budding tech-savvy person should have is a decent quality SATA cable. I prefer a USB to 2.5 cable because of the obvious ease in compatibility, but other alternatives are just as effective. It is so nice to be able to access hard drives directly instead of relying on operating systems or software. This can be especially helpful if the laptop operating system is in a crash cycle. It's nice to be able to get all of the data off of the disk and into another location where it can be scanned for viruses.
The next necessity for smooth technological tinkering is a solid antivirus software. It doesn't really matter if it's free, you just need to search for which free antivirus software has received the highest ratings for the current year. This is your best bet for an antivirus program. I like to have an antivirus and malware both running on my system. They overlap a tad, but I've never had a virus, so I'm not complaining. Also, you should have an antivirus program running on your computer whether or not you have consistent internet connection or not. I don't care if you don't have wifi, the reality is that having an antivirus program running on your computer is not going to hurt anything, and you should be cautious about having an exposed system regardless of your wifi situation.
Another wonderful thing to have is some sort of operating system bootable device, CD, or DVD. I have a windows 7 ISO image on a thumbdrive, and it has saved me many a heartache. Which just for clarifications sake, an operating system ISO image is essentially a miniature operating system. It is what you need to install an operating system on a blank harddrive, or to fix a defective operating system. It is the same thing that you buy in a box at a store like Circuit City or Best Buy. Also, just to be clear, having a bootable ISO image of an operating system is in no way illegal. If you buy the operating system online, the file you download is an ISO file.
The next thing I'd like to mention is called a VPN protocol. This service, provided by a large number of companies for a monthly or yearly fee, is basically the next step in internet security. The concept is complicated, but to simplify, a VPN protocol is essentially an internet "tunnel". The service provides you with a large number of servers that you can connect to. These servers are located world-wide, and have IP addresses to match. When you connect to a remote server using a VPN service, all of your internet activity will be conducted from the location of the server to which you are connected at the time. Web trackers, and web sites which gather information from the computers that visit will now be gathering data which says you are in a different location. Not only is your physical location protected, but your computer is protected from remote access. You essentially "hide" behind a remote IP address, and your ISP cannot track your internet activity. The users of this service used to be limited to individuals who have shady things to hide, but as internet security has become a bigger issue in this day and age, VPN protocols are becoming widely known in businesses and among everyday internet users as a valuable safety and privacy tool.
This is my list so far of different things which I have gathered which make my life easier every day. They're just nice to have around. I certainly will be adding to this list, but this is what I have so far.
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