@ work

• Computer: MacBook Pro M3 (in Black). Amazing upgrade from a very good 2020 MBP just for the battery life alone.
• Monitor: Dell Ultrasharp U3219Q. After screwing up my neck for about 18mths using 3 screens, I’m a firm believer in one big-ish screen.
• Dock: TwelveSouth BookArc. I only use a single screen so I like to have the laptop in clamshell mode and not where the cats can knock a drink on it.
• Keyboard: Kinesis Freestyle Edge RGB. Split keyboards are a huge ergonomic upgrade and the Kinesis is a simple transition (no complex layout/ortho to adapt to)
• Trackball: Logitech MX Ergo. I’ve been Team Trackball for two decades now and have only encountered wrist problems when I used mice.
• Headphones: Bose 700. They’re fine
• Microphone: Rode Videomic NTG. If I’m on a video call, I want a personal connection and nothing to get between us: that means using a shotgun mic.
• Lights: Elgato Keylight Air. I tend to work late in the evening, from a dark office, so these
• Desk: Fully Jarvis standing desk with bamboo surface. I also have a side desk from them. Now owned by Herman Miller and not sure if I would have bought it
• Chair: Herman Miller Aeron. I had one in 2001 at Media Lab Europe and finally capitulated when I found a good secondhand price to replace my (loved) Humanscale Liberty.
• Notepad: Rhodia dotpad. Smooooth with a subtle dot pattern.
• Pens: Zebra Sarasa Grand (gel), LAMY AL-star (fountain)
• Git client: Tower. Arcane cmd-line incantations do not spark joy
• Editor: VS Code. I have unfortunately joined the masses but still miss the sublime Sublime
• Terminal: Warp because Andrew Mason told me so
• Theme: Dracula for everything. The thing I value the most is not having to make a decision about a theme with a new tool. I just choose Dracula.
• Font: Monolisa. It’s paid but I really prefer it and I gotta have those ligatures.

Apps

• Meta-app: SetApp. I found I was already using/paying for many of the individual apps so SetApp made sense
• Monitoring: iStat Menus. It’s always on of the first app I installed on a Mac so I can monitor what the CPUs are doing. Also great for checking timezone, weather, etc.
• Menu bar organiser: Bartender. Tidies away all the menubar apps
• Window manager: Amethyst. I don’t want to move windows around, I want a window manager to automatically lay them out on the screen
• Screenshots: Cleanshot. This app is the closest thing to perfection. I use it at least 10 times/day
• Drag and Drop: Yoink (Mac). Make staging files by drag & drop easier but also fixes many apps that only understand dragging files from the filesystem and not from other apps.
• Calendar: Fantastical (Mac and iOS). If your calendar app doesn’t merge the same events from multiple calendars into the same visual block, then it’s inferior to Fantastical.
• Tasks: Todoist (Mac and iOS). I need a place to put personal and work tasks, sometimes share lists etc.
• Daily planning: Sunsuma (Mac and iOS). A recent addition to make planning my week much more intentional by combining tasks from todoist, Linear, GitHub, calendars etc.
• Writing: Bear (Mac and iOS). Everything I write is drafted here first, including this post.
• Mobile photo editing: PicTapGo (iOS). Used this for years as it enables fast edited but really good B&W results
• Email: Spark (Mac and iOS). I like the new version which takes a lot of inspiration from Hey
• Mastodon: Ivory (Mac and iOS). I’m mostly off Twitter and found my home on ruby.social
• Trip planning: Tripsy (Mac and iOS). I have to travel 2-3 times a year and having all that information in one place is really important. I wish TripIt wasn’t so neglected though.
• Read it later: Reader. I save articles here and occasionally remember to read them; also functions as an RSS reader.
• Recipes: Paprika It has a good importer for recipes on the web.
• Home automation: HomeControl (Mac). A useful menu bar app for HomeKit.

Swimming

• Trunks: Speedo jammers (various)
• Googles: Zoggs Podium Titanium or Zone3 Venator-X. Previously Speedo Speedsockets
• Watch: Garmin Swim 2. An unbeatable watch for the open-water or pool swimmer; one of the very few that actually records heart rate whilst swimming and accurate length readings and GPS tracks.
• Training plans: SwimSmooth Guru. I’ve been following Paul @ Swimsmooth for over 10 years now!
• Swim buoy: Orca safety buoy with pocket
• Pull buoy: Orca.
• Paddles: Finis Freestyle.
• Bag: Amphibia Evo. I think they went out of business though.
• Towel: Amphibia microfibre towel.

Everyday Carry

• Phone: iPhone 14 Pro.
• Wallet: Paperwallet. So light I don’t know it’s there and I just replace every few years when it gets too ratty.
• Laptop bag: Fjallraven Greenland Shoulder bag (small)—a neat bag for being out & about, especially when I’m on-call

Home

• eReader: Kindle Paperwhite. Reading is the only thing that can turn my brain off at night and oddly the Kindle != iPhone.
• Bird feeder: Bird Buddy. A pandemic Kickstarter purchase which is an absolute extravagance (who needs a bird feeder camera?!) but bring me a lot of joy.
• Knife: Spyderco Tenacious. I have others knives but I love the Spyderco opening mechanism and this is my workhorse until I get a left-handed Spyderco Para
• Labelling: Brother PT-P710BT Cube. Labelling boxes, drawers, and cables has been a huge improvement in my life.

Travel

• Bag: Peak Design Everyday Backpack (20L, v1). Backed as a Kickstarter but it’s really stood the test of the years.
• Sleeping mask: Manta Sleep Pro. I don’t know why it’s “Pro” but it’s designed for side-sleepers and invaluable on planes or in hotels with bright city lights. Looks ridiculous though.
• Headphones: AirPods Pros. I like them when they work reliably, which is less than I’d like
• Tablet: iPad Mini. The perfect size for watching movies on a plane or taking notes. I’ve even written blog posts on it
• Keyboard: NuPhy Air 60 v2. I love this keyboard with carry case for writing on the iPad Mini and which they made a split version for my office.