What I am Using
It is interesting to me personally to see what other people use to get their technical work done. I adore sites like the setup, these sites are often pointing me to better tools and more efficient workflows (when they aren’t distracting me from getting actual work done, ha!). This is my page for that, based loosely on the setup’s form.
What I Do
I often give different answers to that question, I suppose that depends on my context. What I am doing right now is working as an Information Security Analyst. I look at stuff and try to make it secure: processes, programs, webpages, servers, that kind of thing. It is actually really interesting but only if you are into that kind of thing. The other thing I do is go to college. Someday (soon) I will graduate, but until then, I will continue to work on my Information Systems degree when I am not working at my job or at being a daddy. So I am generally pretty busy.
What’s the Hardware?
I use my late 2009 MacBook Pro for pretty much everything. It has 4GB of RAM, a 3.06 Core 2 Duo processor. It has the 2 NVIDIA cards in it for graphic speediness. It is a super workhorse, and my go-to machine for getting stuff done. When the Macbook Pro is on my desk at work it is always hooked up to an external 24” Dell monitor, an Apple Magic Mouse (finally an Apple mouse that doesn’t outright suck), and an Apple Bluetooth keyboard. At home I have a 24” iMac that I picked up in the summer or 2009, it has the 4GB of RAM, and I occasionally hook up an additional 19” monitor. I use it mostly as a server, and sometimes a browsing machine. It has a 1TB HD, and I opted for an Apple keyboard with a num pad for that one. My 32GB 3G iPad is always, always with me. It rocks; I got it the day they came out, never regretted that decision. I also snagged an iPhone 4 the other day, mostly to shoot video of my new kid (he is so cute!), since my old iPhone 3G wouldn’t do it. I am in charge of miscellaneous servers for work, but I don’t think of them as ‘mine’. I do have a Dell Optiplex that is actually a pretty nice machine, it is running the latest flavor of Ubuntu Server (whatever it happens to be). My Dell Mini 9, which is a fantastic hobby machine, is either running ChromiumOS or Ubuntu netbook edition right now, I can’t remember which. It has somewhat gone into retirement with the advent of my iPad.
What’s the Software?
Hmm, what a good question. For my browser I use the Webkit nightly builds. I like the speed. I use the Finder replacement Pathfinder, which I deem to be a necessity for any real file management. The excellent Adium covers all my Instant Messaging needs. Along with Adium, I use the Riceball emoticons, not that they make me more productive, just happy. I have tried all kinds of To-Do list type applications, OmniFocus, The Hit List, Toodle-Do, etc. Right now I am just using Task-Mate. It doesn’t sync, it doesn’t do anything really but let me list some tasks and check them off. It has been working for me for awhile. Let’s see, I use Transmission for torrents, Apple Mail for work email, and gmail for personal mail. I use LaunchBar so much I forget about it. Really. I use TextMate to write code, YummyFTP to put that code in places, and Hazel to keep my computer tidy. The default terminal in OSX plus the amazing Visor plugin make pulling CLI into my workflow a breeze. I consider Caffeine to be a necessity, and instantly install it on all my Macs. Dropbox is crucial to my workflow, an absolute must have. Yikes, I had better stop. Other things come and go. A few crucial iPad apps though, that I use constantly (beware, iTunes links ahead). Reeder for my RSS feeds, Instapaper to read anything significant, Twittelator for the tweets, and Air Video to stream my movie collection to the iPad. ComicZeal4 I use to read all my comics, it has gotten way faster since it first came out. Of course I have screens and screens of apps, but these are my mainstays.
My Dream Setup?
An iPad running iOS 4 would be nice. It seems like that might happen. Sometime. For a computer I would really love to have a 30” screen and 2 24” screens rotated lengthwise on either side. Running OSX. I know, it’s insanity, but hey, it’s a dream setup! That new i7 core iMac with 16GB of RAM would hold me over in the interim.
