Digital Tools#

My minor contribution to uses.tech

Hardware#

Computers#

At work, I use MacOS primarily, but the tools listed below I use both at work and at home.

At home, I use MacOS on my personal laptop, and keep a gaming computer running CachyOS.

My homelab runs on a Lenovo ThinkStation I got on Facebook marketplace and a Raspberry Pi 5. Going to expand with a NAS when I can.

Keyboards#

At the office I have a ZSA Voyager, and a Dygma Defy at home (gaming, primarily).

I am one of those people who can barely stand a traditional keyboard now that I’m used to a split. I have a decent number of shoulder/wrist problems on my left arm that these help alleviate (along with the ortholinear layout).

I would like to try something with a keywell, like a Kinesis Freestyle.

Mice#

For work, I use a trackball (Logitech Ergo). For games, I use a Razer DeathAdder I’ve had for as long as I can remember.

iPhone 17 Pro#

Pro for the camera, but not the Max because huge phones annoy me. Got it went my 14’s battery died.

Apple Airpod Pro/Max#

Despite being overpriced, the user experience is fantastic. I tend to use the over-ear for long sessions at my desk, and the ear-buds for the gym or when otherwise out-and-about.

Kindle#

I read a lot, and unfortunately find books to unwieldy in the places I tend to read. I would like to move away from Amazon for my next eReader.

Development#

For most of these, you can find my personal config here.

Code Editor#

I bounce between Neovim and Zed, depending on the task. I tend to prefer being in the terminal (especially when bouncing between many files and folders), but for more focused development or when I just am feeling a GUI, Zed is great.

It’s basically the perfect melding of Sublime Text and VS Code, with the power of VS Code.

I’m currently experimenting with Helix. I really like it, but find myself worried about the lack of bindings elsewhere. That’s another point in favor of Zed, as it has Helix bindings (and the best Vim emulation I’ve seen yet).

Game Development#

For game development projects, I tend to stick to Godot. I use JetBrains Rider to edit GDScript/C#, just because the built-in editor is pretty basic and doesn’t support C# great, and I couldn’t get Neovim to work with Godot reasonably well.

Shell#

Fish. I can’t recall when I settled on it, but I really love a lot of the minor QoL features like how completion works, how the config works, and the language itself. I’m too deep in it now to go back, and the collisions with POSIX are infrequent enough to not really be a problem for me.

Terminal#

Ghostty. It’s fast, and I like Hashimoto’s work.

Zellij#

Basically a tmux replacement/session-manager/terminal 10x improvement that has some nice modern QoL features.

I don’t really use it at home, but I use it a lot at work to help switch context between projects.

Git Porcelain#

LazyGit. Has made me much more willing to try complex Git operations in it’s friendly interface.

Should be studied by anyone trying to make an intuitive TUI. Say that three times fast :)

Agents, etc.#

I mainly use Pi, which has a config at ./dot_pi/ in the repository linked above.

My ‘primary’ AGENTS.md lives in the Pi config.

For Agent Skills, I use the ~/.agents/skills directory (found at dot_agents/skills in the linked repo) as it is compatible with most harnesses.

Remembering Stuff#

I loathe the word ‘productivity’ due to all the weirdo content out there on how to ‘optimize your life.’

Apple Reminders#

… for anything list-like. Tasks, groceries, etc.

I have an ‘inbox’ list I dump stuff into, and once a week or so I give them a date and priority. I have my ‘Today’ page sorted by priority and usually try to tackle them in that order when I have a chunk of time.

Epitome of keeping it simple. Overcomplicating To Do lists has led me down rabbit holes of extreme anxiety.

Also, great for shared lists. I have a wishlist I share with my partner for gift ideas (and vice-versa) as well as a shared list of local date ideas, etc.

Apple Notes#

… for writing down random things or saving stuff. Syncs across devices, decent writing experience minus weird formatting issues.

I used to be worried about lock-in and losing all my random notes, but they added a Markdown export. Plus, most of those notes aren’t that interesting, anyway.

Also great for shared notes.

Good ol’ pen and paper for note-taking#

As much as I’ve tried to find a good digital notes tool, I always come back to a good notebook and fountain pen. I rarely re-read my notes, so optimizing for writing seems logical to me.

My system is simple enough, I start a new page on each day and carry over any un-checked boxes from the prior day. Otherwise, it’s basic pseudo-bullet journaling; a dot • for a note, a ∆ for an event/meeting, a ? for an open question, and an ! for something important (and usually highlighted).

I don’t use an index or future log. Just daily pages.

1Password#

Works on my Mac, Linux computer, iPhone, and browser reliably. No OS lock-in. Can share vault w/ partner. SSH integration.

GoodReads#

Why, yes, I like Warhammer, how could you tell?

IGN Playlist#

Goodreads, but for video games. Never seen any one else IRL use it, but I like it.

Letterboxd#

More joke reviews than anything serious.

Self-hosted#

Homebox#

Home inventory tracking software with maitenance remidners sent via Discord webhook.

Helps me organize all my random hobby stuff.

Paperless#

Used for managing documents not as files, but in purpose-built software that ingests and tags. Can also filter by correspondent and document type.

One of the few tools I’m aware of that only really exists as a self-hosted application. I wouldn’t trust this to a a SaaS anyways.

Hockey#

TODO!