Useful apps for web design and development

Some list that I grabs from the source listed below

Mind Mapping
XMind http://www.xmind.net/ (Thanks to @David_Shen for introducing this .. much nicer than Freemind! I use this for meeting notes, to-do lists and jotting down ideas)

Color Palette
ColorSuckr http://colorsuckr.com/
Color Palette Generator http://www.degraeve.com/color-palette/

On Screen Rulers
JR Screen Ruler http://www.spadixbd.com/freetools/jruler.htm
Pixus http://code.google.com/p/pixus/

Screen Capture
MWSnap http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/mwsnap.html

Hard Core Editing (i.e. know your markup)
Notepad++ http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm

Firefox Addons
Web Developer Toolbar https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60
Screengrab! https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1146
User Agent Switcher https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/59
Firebug https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843
Pagespeed http://code.google.com/speed/page-speed/

FTP
Filezilla http://filezilla-project.org/
Fireftp http://fireftp.mozdev.org/

IE Tools
IE 6 and 7 Internet Explorer Toolbar http://www.microsoft.com/downloadS/details.aspx?familyid=E59C3964-672D-4511-BB3E-2D5E1DB91038&displaylang=en
IE 8 has built-in developer toolbar

IDE
Eclipse http://www.eclipse.org/
Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 (it really does its job well, have tried hard to replace it without much success)

Wireframes/Design
Adobe Fireworks CS4 (started using Fireworks since Macromedia days and its my favorite program when a mock or design is needed)
Balsamiq http://www.balsamiq.com/ (Just started using this recently to improve my pen n paper process and its working out nicely)

Great reading for design/dev ideas
Web Resources Depot http://www.webresourcesdepot.com/
Smashing Magazine http://www.smashingmagazine.com/

source:http://www.on9systems.com/2009/10/01/useful-applications-to-make-life-easier-in-web-design-and-development/