Uses

This website #

This site is generated by Hugo and hosted on CloudFlare Pages.

The theme is a custom design I made built on the pico.css classless CSS framework.

In the past I have used 11ty, WordPress, and now-defunct Anchor CMS.

Hardware #

Phone #

I use a Product Red iPhone 11, and it’s been great. I was a diehard Apple fan, then a diehard Android fan, and now I’ve come full circle.

Previous phones I’ve had and their fates:

• Google Pixel 3 (my wife and I both had one, and both of ours developed the loose camera sensor issue. Google replaced them with refurbished phones with the same issue. Never again.)
• Google Pixel 2XL (had a great bug where charging it would make the BlueTooth radio randomly stop working)
• OnePlus 3 (Camera had a slight focus issue)
• Lumia 640 (I played around with it)
• OnePlus One (still have this one)
• iPod touch 4G (not really a phone)

Watch #

2022 Apple Watch SE. After the death of Pebble I didn’t see myself getting back into smart watches, but this one is alright.

I own a Slow analog watch—which reminds me, I need to find someone to change the battery.

In the past, I was a big Pebble fan and used the original Pebble, the Pebble Time, and the Pebble 2.

Development and general purpose #

I use a 2021 MacBook Pro 14", with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

When I’m at my desk, it’s hooked up to a 27" 4k LG display, scaled down to 1440p effective space.

My peripherals include a HHKB Pro 2, a Magic Trackpad, and a Logitech MX Master 3.

Gaming #

While I used to be a PC enthusiast, I spend most of my gaming time on the Xbox Series X. I want to pick up a controller and go; not fiddle with graphics settings, updates, launchers, etc.

My gaming PC is fit with an AMD Ryzen 3600, Nvidia GTX 3060, and 32GB of RAM clocked at 3200MHz. This will be my last gaming build, but I’ve been wrong before.

My peripherals include a CoolerMaster Quickfire Rapid keyboard with MX Browns, and a Glorious Model D mouse. Both have a 1000MHz polling rate, and using them on the Xbox is hilarious.

Audio #

I love audio gear, and currently run a Schiit stack consisting of a Modi Multibit, Loki, and Magni 2. A Little Dot Mark 3 with Mullard tubes is my tube headphone amp, and Fostex TH-X00 Purplehearts are my daily drivers.

I also own a couple Beyerdynamic headphones, the DT 990s and the DT 770s.

AirPods Pro are my on-the-go set.

Networking #

I have a small collection of networking hardware, and the majority of it is Unifi by Ubiquiti, with a pihole running on an old Intel NUC.

Equipment:

• Unifi USG-3P Security Gateway
• Unifi US-8-60W 8-port switch
• TP-Link TL-SG105 5-port switch
• 2x Unifi Access Point AC Lite UAP-AC-Lite
• Synology DS215+ NAS (2x 2TB drives)

Software #

Text editing #

My text editor is Sublime Text. I use VS Code when it makes sense. I know how to quit Vim, although Helix has been my modal editor.

Sublime Merge is my Git client.

Coding font #

I use JetBrains Mono set at 12px.

Other fonts I’ve used, in order of preference:

• Iosevka
• Recursive Mono Duotone
• Hack
• Cascadia Code
• Menlo
• SF Mono

Graphic design #

Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo are my favorite graphics/photo manipulation tools.

I use Figma for mockups.

Music #

Apple Music is my current streaming service. I was a longtime Spotify user, but since they added podcasts the experience went downhill for me. Not to say Apple Music on macOS is any better. A big factor is that I share an Apple One account.

I still miss Google Play Music.

Terminal #

I use fish shell and WezTerm. I compared a number of terminals.

Notes #

I use Obsidian and sometimes per-project .md files. I used to use Apple Notes, Google Keep, Microsoft OneNote, and before it went downhill, Evernote.

My goal with Obsidian and Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) is to have one set of notes that last my entire lifetime, therefore flat-file storage and version control are important.

Todo #

Apple Reminders covers most of my needs. Projects that need more than a couple checkboxes get a note in Obsidian.

RSS reader #

NetNewsWire is my reader on Mac and iPhone.

Browser #

Depends on the wind.

Sometimes it’s Safari, other times it’s Vivaldi. Sometimes I’ve got 7 different browsers open. I use Velja to accommodate my frequent switching.

Arc has a lot of cool features, but it’s VC-funded and I’m trying not to get attached, lest I get burned later.

I used to be a big Chrome user, but www.chromeisbad.com.

I still miss Opera before they were bought out and switched to the Blink engine. I think Opera 12 is the last Presto version. The Turbo compression feature really helped me out when I was on dialup. Vivaldi comes close.

I’ve held frequently changing opinions on Firefox over the years. I keep it installed for testing.

Email #

I use iCloud Mail and the default Apple Mail apps.

I used to use Fastmail and still recommend them.