mouse uses and recommends...

I try to use freeware and open source software, donating to particularly useful projects and individuals.

Donations: AdFad (CM developer for p500 platform), CyanogenMod for android phones, chirp radio programming software.
Flattrs on my Flattr profile
Forums: Two Wheel Texans, Home Brew Talk
Microloans instead of charity: Kiva on its own page
Android apps on their own page
and even a few pieces of commercial software: Bluewave. Doom, Doom II.

VOIP

Ekiga client with Diamondcard back end for PC-to-Phone calls.

optics

Zenni Optical has made me two pair of perfectly serviceable eyeglasses for cheap. My single grind were $20-something (shipped). Bifocals were $50-something. Wal-mart also made me a serviceable pair, although they cost about 2X what they do from Zenni.

I love my celestial binos and 6" reflector from Celestron.

music software

I recommened abcde for ripping to mp3 with LAME, or to flac, or to ogg-vorbis (yay, ogg!), or any combination thereof.

Special mention: Rockbox is probably better than any Original Firmware (OF hereafter). It loads beside the OF which means you can toggle between rockboxy goodness and OF luserness whenever you like. Some incomplete rockbox ports still use the OF for USB connctions as the driver hasn't been figured out yet.
Here are some reasons to use rockbox:

support for bookmarks in EVERY file, or even multiple marks in the same file. This is critical for podcast or audiobook people. Jump in and out of files at will.
Plays many formats, OGG most importantly.
Plays video, even on minimal hardware. My iPod mini 2G has a slow b/w screen but rockbox will play videos on it. They are rough but you can defintely tell what's going on. Looks great on color screens.

music hardware

Android phone.

Basically anything that will take rockbox (see above). SD card expansion is a bonus, so I like the Sandisk Sansa c200v1, e200v1 and v2, etc. If you shop carefully you can get any of these for $20 or so on the eBay/refurb market.

Operating Systems

I use mainly linux distros; my thoughts on the matter and recommended distros are elsewhere.

multimedia software

MythTV via the Mythbuntu distro.

multimedia hardware

HDHR

/ GnuPG public key