Uses This

I wanted to do a post similar to what they do over at Uses This and give you an idea of the tools of the trade, at least as far as what I personally use. This is an area of great personal preference, so my tools are just what I am using to get the job done at this time. My tools change over time, so maybe I will make this a reoccurring post every other year or so.

Hardware

My main computer is a 16” M3 MacBook Pro . The MacBook has 36GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD drive. To be honest the computer is probably overkill for me at this time, but when I bought it I was doing a lot of things with virtual machines locally on the computer. Now I do more work with virtual machines in the cloud. IN my home office my MacBook Pro is connected to a 43” Dell Monitor via USB-C. I am not a hug fan of dual monitors, so having the screen real estate that this monitor provides me with is great. Plus, during downtime, it is a good monitor for watching content online. I use a wireless apple keyboard 10 key with touch ID and a Magic Trackpad. I also have a Anker webcam for video conferencing. I also use a 13" M4 Macbook Air when I am traveling. The computer has 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD drive. It is fine when I just need a browser, email, and maybe some light text editing. I have found that this computer can handle most of my everyday tasks.

I have a 256GB iPhone 16 Pro Max that I carry with me everywhere and a 11” iPad pro that I utilize for anything from reading, to games, to actually doing some work. I bought the Keyboard for my 11 inch iPad Pro and I really enjoy taking notes in meetings and conferences that way.

Software

These days most of my work is done in Visual Studio Code , a browser, and the terminal. For my browser, I use the built in Safari browser mostly and for the things that dont work well in that, I use Firefox. As I mentioned in other posts, I install most of my software via Homebrew, I find that it is the best way to get it installed on a Mac and an easy way to keep everything up to date. For my terminal, I prefer iTerm2 to the built in terminal. I have also done some customization to the prompt that allows me to see where I am at and what git branch I am on, maybe I will do a post on my customization.

Of course, as part of an organization, I run the Microsoft Office products for email and spreadsheets. I prefer to do my documentation in Markdown, so I use Visual Studio Code for that, or if it’s just something I want to remember for my self, I use an app called Bear that syncs across all my apple products.

Analog

While I am tech person and do enjoy my tech tools, I also enjoy some analog tools that I think help me work better. I like to carry around a Field Notes notebook to make lists, do some calculations or to jot down ideas that come to me. I also use them for various purposes throughout my house and car to track things like my reading and when I fill my car up with gas. In conjunction with my Field Notes, I like to use Blackwing Pencils. I know they are just pencils, but they are the best pencils I have ever used, come at me.

Carry

I carry everything I need to go with me in an older Timbuk2 Command messenger bag that I bought off of Amazon for cheap. The bag is still in pretty good shape, but I will be sad when it wears out because they don’t make them like that anymore, both in style and structure. I carry various cables around to make sure that I can charge things if I need to. I used to carry a powerbank with me, but I found out I never used it, only other people around me used it, so let them start carrying their own. I have tried to make my carry as light as possible and only include what I need versus trying to plan for all eventualities.

What is my dream setup

I think I am pretty close to my dream setup now, if anything I would probably want to narrow it down to just one computer that I could easily carry around, so maybe a 15” Macbook Air with 32GB of Ram and a 1TB SSD drive. That would give me all the power I could want, as well as being highly portable.

Categories: Personal

Tags: Apple