Uses

The software and hardware I find useful in day-to-day life.

Software
Hardware
Lifestyle/Misc.

Home Sweet Home

Software

IDE/Text Editors

VS Code
- Notable Extensions (other than the necessary linters, of course)
  - Sublime Text Keymap and Settings Importer
  - GitHub Copilot
  - Peacock (handy to have different window colors for different projects)
  - PlatformIO (for those beloved Arduino projects)
Sublime Text
- Sublime Text absolutely nailed their key mappings, and this is evident in how other editors and IDE’s will often come with Sublime Text key mapping support. I personally take advantage of this and enable these key mappings whenever possible.
- Notable Packages
  - RemoteSubl (uses ssh and rmate to provide remote editing of files)
Vim
- Old reliable!
Joplin
- My favorite markdown editor and note organizer.
- I expand a little more in the knowledge base organization section.
JetBrains PyCharm (Honorable Mention)
- A former job with a Django tech stack, gave me a license while employed there. I found it to be a very powerful and convenient supplement to Django development.

Operating Systems

Arch with i3 Window Manager
- Running on my desktop PC (a.k.a. Big Rig 🚛)
- Love the ability to build up and configure the environment just the way I like it
Pop! OS
- Running on a repurposed MacBook Air (circa 2013)
- With Tiled Windows On
- guake terminal
- As much as I love Arch, it’s good to have an ‘install-and-go’ OS, and POP! OS fills this role nicely.
ProxMox
- Running on a repurposed Mac Mini (circa 2016)
- Used for self-hosting services on some Ubuntu Server VMs

Task/Time Tracking

task-warrior
- Simple and versatile CLI tool
time-warrior
- Time tracker for task warrior tasks
bugwarrior
- Syncs my GitLab issues with task warrior
taskserver (aka taskd)
- Running on a Raspberry Pi, allows task warrior syncing between my devices
syncall
- task-warrior plugin to create tasks and sync them to my Google calendar (I have an Android phone)

Knowledge Base Organization

Joplin
- May just be my overall favorite application
- Simple yet functional markdown editor
  - If more powerful editor features are needed, then a note can be opened into an external editor such as Sublime Text with a simple hotkey (default to Ctrl-E).
- Intuitively organize notes into notebooks and sub-notebooks
- Can easily search entire collection.
- Synchronize notes across devices (I use AWS S3)
- Convenient Web Clipper Plugin
  - Save URLs, selected text, or whole pages (in either HTML or Markdown format) into a note file.
- Search Integration Plugin
  - Whenever I enter a search query into my browser, the plugin will search my Joplin collection as well and display the results along side the search engine’s results.
  - If I select one of these search results from Joplin, then my note is displayed in the web browser (rather than the Joplin app itself). This is a nice convenience, because I can reference a different Joplin note without moving away from the note that I am working on.
- Mobile App

General Purpose/Environment Preferences

tmux
XDG directory organization
I feel at home in bash, however I am starting to experiment with fish.
I prefer light color themes over dark. Long time user of f.lux or similar brightness adjusting settings.
- Because it is so widely supported, I use Catppuccin latte color themes
- This article summarizes some of the studies done between light and dark modes.

Hardware

Monitor

Acer DM431K
- 43" with 3840x2160 4K resolution
- I ditched multiple monitors for a single big one, and have never looked back.
- Paired with i3 WM I can use my keyboard to manipulate application windows to be whatever size and location I need them to be in.

Monitor Stand

The books Teach Yourself C++, and Windows Internals 😹😹😹

PC Case

Antec P183(?)
- Quiet and sturdy!
- While I was a student, the Computer Science department upgraded their server room and were throwing the old servers out, so I copped one for the case.

Keyboard and Mouse

Cooler Master CK530 keyboard
- Sleek and sturdy, not too fancy
- Bought two, Cherry Blue switches for home, Cherry Reds for the office.
- Easy to clean
Logitech M570 track ball mouse
- I love the thumb controlled track ball on the side
- Bought two, for home and office, except one isn’t wireless, which turned out to be a good idea in cases where I may not have good batteries available.
Adafruit MACROPAD
- Inexpensive with a sleek appearance (I replaced the translucent key caps with some solid black ones from an old keyboard)
Inland 7 Port USB Hub
- I appreciate being able to toggle a USB device on/off with a tactile button press rather than having to plug and unplug the device’s cord.

Desk

Inland Manual Adjustable Desk
- Sturdy and spacious! Having to manually crank the desk height is not a big deal at all.
- Kind of humorous, but I bought the last one that Micro Center had in stock at the time. The price was knocked down quite a bit due to its packaging box being damaged. When I visited the store to pick it up, the kind worker dropped the price even more because he “Could not, in good conscious, sell me the item with the package being so damaged.” I did not argue. Not only did I appreciate the discount, but the damaged packaging also worked in my favor, because it meant I could load and unload the desk’s parts by myself as opposed to having to deal with a heavy, two-person carry!

Sound System

Edifier Speakers (R2000DB) desk speakers.
- Quality sound with an entry-level price point; very happy with these speakers.
Sennheiser Momentum 3 Headphones
- Out of the box, these had an annoying ‘Auto Pause’ feature, which would pause whatever I was listening whenever I turned my head. I needed to download an app to my phone in order to switch this feature off.
- Other than that, these are amazing with rich sound quality and noise cancellation.
- They have an analog jack so that I can enjoy lossless format whenever I want to feel like an audiophile.
Hidizs S8 DAC
- Provides amazing sound quality in a portable form factor, so I can travel with it as well.
AirPod Pro
- Received as a year-end bonus from a previous employer, making them a tremendous every day carry item for me.

Lifestyle/Misc.

Pen and Paper

Pilot Precise V5 RT ink pen
- Inexpensive, and easy to find in stores.
- As a left-handed writer, I have an issue with many different pens where my hand will smudge the ink as I write. I don’t know what it is about this particular pen, but the smudging issue is greatly alleviated.
Moleskine Cahier Journals (13x21cm or 5x8.25”)
- I love the durability of Moleskines. While their classic line of notebooks (both hard and soft covers) are very nice, I have found that the cardboard Cahier Journal covers are sufficiently durable while maintaining a lower price point.
- I have found the 13x21cm or 5x8.25” size to be my favorite. It is a size that is convenient to carry around while still being comfortable to write on. At 80 pages, one notebook will last me several months.

Coffee

Bonavita Gooseneck Kettle
- All of my previous electric kettles stopped working after an unsatisfactory short time, however the Bonavita seems to be carrying on like a champ.
- It came with a plastic cover to fit over the base, a note says it’s for protection against heavy or commercial use. I mainly only use the kettle once a day, but I keep that cover on just in case!
Bodum Pour Over Coffee Maker
- Simple, inexpensive, gets the job done.
50% Less Caffeine Grounds
- May not score me a lot of points with connoisseurs, but the reduced caffeine lets me chain drink throughout morning without making me feel jittery.

Exercise Equipment

Prostretch Calf Stretcher
- Perfect for stretching the calves and hamstrings while at a standing desk. I bought two, so I could keep one at the office as well.
Garmin Forerunner 235
- Great running watch with a concise interface and a lot of useful features without getting in the way
Timex Ironman GPS
- Before getting the above Forerunner, I was drawn to the simplicity of this Timex GPS watch.
- As a running watch, I had a lot of problems with it, the backlight stopped working after an update, and it would often take a long time for the watch to get GPS signal.
- However, the simplicity of the stop watch and countdown timer make it my go-to watch for all of my strength and stretching workouts.