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Things I use, tools I love and other stuff I recommend.

The most important question is always: what do you use for thing ___? Here is a list of all the things I use in no particular order.

Workstation

  • 14in MacBook Pro M1 MAX

    This wonderful machine just replaced a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 9th Generation which I so wanted to like but could not. The M1 is well built, has a great form factor and the display is outstanding. I do miss the keyboard of the ThinkPad, but that is about the only thing i miss at the moment.

  • Rac3 Mechanical Keyboard

    No real surprise here I assume, but like most people who spend most of their waking moments in front of a computer, I can not stand anything but a mechanical keyboard. I have had this Rac3 keyboard for over 5 years now, and I love everything about it. It feels solid.

  • MX Master 3

    I do make an effort to stay on the keyboard as much as possible, but once in a while I just can not. The MX Master 3 is a ratehr standard option as far as peripherals go I think. But as they say: if it ain't broke, do not fix it.

  • Brio 4k

    Since the laptop is mostly nearly stowed away to the side, an external camera is required. Also, can I just say that I do not understand how or why a built-in camera today has the resolution of a potato.

Server

  • i5 7500K 16GB DDR3 1TB SSD 12TB HDD

    This re-commissioned built from 2015 is the most essential item I own. It provides my entire home lab (which is quite extensive) and I have no idea what I would do without it. The detail of this machine which I call elrond deserves more than just a mention here, so there will be a full length article on this soon.

Audio

  • Behringer UMC204HD

    Not great but not terrible is how I would describe this one. It is really just a place to provide an audio interface to all that fancy stuff listed below.

  • Rode Procaster / Rode PSA1 & Rode SM6

    The aim is to one day host a podcast. In the meanwhile I also gladly use this microphone to stream on twitch.

  • Adam Audio T5V

    Granted I rarely listen to anything without headphones, but when I do I like the sound to be good. These speakers sound great to me and are affordable.

  • Bose QC35

    The noise cancelation on these is fantastic and to me they are comfortable to wear for extended periods of time. The time to go to the Bose 700 is probably near.

  • Loopback

    A rather crucial (for streaming on twitch for instance) program which I have missed a lot on linux.

Development

  • VS Code

    A year or so ago I made peace with the fact that a customised vim environment is probably not the most effective means for me anymore when it comes to writing code. I do still use vim for some tasks, but the daily driver now is VS Code. As with the server, this too deserves a bit more explanation, so there will be a full length article on this soon.

  • iTerm

    This is the default when it comes to terminal emulator on Apple hardware I think. There is another project called Kitty which has gained some traction recently I think, but there is not really any feature i am missing at the moment from iTerm.

  • Dash

    On rare occasions I am left without an internet connection and might need to look at some documentation. Granted this does not happen much these days.

Productivity

  • Notion

    Getting (and staying) organised is an endless quest it seems. That is until I found notion. Notion is kind of everything and nothing, so the best way to learn about it is just by using it.

  • Todoist

    It was the fall of 2017 when I went on a youtube spree that lead me to people who spent considerable time to configure todoist to run their life. Naturally I followed along, and whilst I found methods that work for me over the years, I have not looked back since.

  • Magnet

    This has replaced Spectacle for me just recently, and so far it does what it is supposed to do. I do not understand why this functionality is (still) not available out of the box on Apple hardware.