Uses

The software and services I use. Think of it like a colophon for almost everything I do. Inspired by coryd.

Hardware #

• Desktop setup
  • Mac mini (2023, M2 Pro)
  • Apple Studio Display
  • Das Keyboard mechanical keyboard + number pad
  • Apple Magic Trackpad
  • Shure SM7B microphone mounted on a Rode PS1+ arm
  • Focusrite Scarlett Solo USB audio adapter
  • Zoom LiveTrak L-12
  • Monogram Creative Console
  • Apple HomePod (1st Generation)
  • Apple AirPods Max
• Mobile setup
  • 16 inch MacBook Pro (2023, M2 Max)
  • iPad Pro
  • iPhone 14 Pro

Desk and Chair #

• SecretLabs Titan XL
• Monoprice Triple Motor Height Sit-Stand Corner Desk Frame with VIVO black table tops

Programming Languages #

• Python
• PHP
• JavaScript (when I have to)¹
• Rust (learning)

I’ve also dabbled with C, C#, C++, Java, Ruby, and Go, but the above are my most used.

macOS + iOS #

Apps I use on both desktop and mobile.

• OmniFocus: No other todo app has surpassed it.
• Reeder: My preferred RSS and Read Later app.
• Obsidian: My preferred note-taking tool.
• Ivory: An elegant and reliable Mastodon app.
• PDF Expert: An excellent PDF editor.
• Ulysses: An excellent app that I use for all my long-form writing.
• Drafts: For quick text capture on the go. Launches fast and can send the results to virtually anywhere else I need it.
• Tailscale: Easy private networks and routing.
• 1Password: For password and passkey management.
• MindNode: Where I plan all my TTRPG campaigns.
• Carrot: My favorite murderous weather app.
• 1Blocker: An exhaustive content blocker for websites.
• Stop the Madness: Removes so many web annoyances, e.g. autoplay videos, click-jacking, enabling native video controls, protecting native copy and paste functions, etc.

macOS #

Apps I use on my Macs.

Development #

• Fish: This is my preferred shell these days.
• Starship: A blazing fast prompt manager for your shell, with a single human-readable config file.
• mise: I use this to manage various runtimes. It’s a drop-in replacement for asdf with improved ergonomics. It’s also much faster and doesn’t require me to run reshim after Homebrew library updates.
• Nova: My daily-driver code editor.
• PyCharm: For more complex Python projects.
• I’ve been primarily using Hatch for Python projects, but my recent experience with Rye might merit switching.
• Postgres.app: The easiest way to manage a local PostgreSQL server on your mac.
• Transmit: For file transfers.
• Warp: I’m very fond of this speedy terminal.
• Hugo: It’s what this site is built with.

Production #

• Loopback: Create virtual sound devices for easy audio routing.
• Audio Hijack: The easiest way to record audio from any source.
• Farrago: A fun and easy to use soundboard app.
• Forecast: A helpful utility to add podcast chapters to your mp3s.
• iZotope RX: The most powerful audio repair tool I’ve encountered.
• Logic Pro X: I use this for mixing and mastering every podcast.
• Third-party Audio plugins
  • Nectar: A great all-in-one plugin for vocals.
  • Accusonus ERA Voice Leveler: Sadly, no longer available for purchase, but I plan to keep my copy until it stops working.
  • Waves Vocal Rider: I’ve been experimenting with Vocal Rider the last month or so, and am so far pleased with the results. I may eventually replace ERA Voice Leveler with it. The initial experiments make the leveling sound more natural and less compressed.
  • Neoverb: For when I can’t get the reverb I want out of Logic’s Space Designer.
  • Vocal Synth: For altering voices and adding effects to them.
  • Neutron: A Swiss Army knife for mixing, and in particular has a great noise gate and intelligent unmasking tool.
  • Insight: A great metering plugin.
• Final Cut Pro: For video editing.
• Motion: For creating new animations for my videos.

Miscellaneous #

• TextExpander: Eliminates repetitive typing with auto-expanding snippets.
• Rectangle: Free and open source window management utility.
• Yoink: Once you install it you will wonder how you got by without it.
• Affinity Photo: For photo editing.
• Affinity Designer: For vector graphics.
• Affinity Publisher: For desktop publishing.
• Microsoft Office/Teams: I work in healthcare technology and you cannot escape it. 😭

iOS #

In addition to the the cross-platform apps above, I also regularly use these.

• Overcast: My favorite podcast player.
• Working Copy: A powerful Git client.
• Secure Shellfish: A great SSH terminal with Files integration.
• S3 Files: Provides Files integration for services such as AWS S3 and Backblaze B2 storage.
• Tailor: For stitching together phone screenshots.
• Endel: For sleep and concentration aid soundscapes.

Services I Use #

• YNAB: The best budgeting app I’ve used, hands down.
• Apple One: Because sometimes I’m a basic bitch.
• Dropout: I’m not going to list every streaming service I use, but this one deserves its own callout.
• Mastodon: Decentralized social networking. I’m on my own single-user instance.
• Kagi: Great search without the bullshit.
• Buffer: For scheduling social media posts.
• NextCloud: A private cloud that I self-host.
• Fly.io: A container-based PaaS with a generous free tier.
• Linode: Where I host my NextCloud server.
• Vultr: Where I host a few small VPSs.
• DNS Made Easy: For all my hosted DNS management.
• Github and GitLab: For contributing to various projects.
• Backblaze: Keeps my computers and drives backed up. I also use their B2 storage for the massive amount of raw audio files we produce recording the podcast. At a fraction of the cost of S3, it was a no-brainer to migrate to B2.
• AWS S3: This site and a few others are served over S3+CloudFront.
• Buttondown: For my newsletter.
• Audiio: Very affordable source for royalty free music.
• Fireside: My favorite podcast host.
• Headliner: For making little audiogram teasers of podcast episodes.
• Discord: For chatting with folks.
• Zoom: For our podcast recording sessions. We all record locally and use the Zoom recording as a backup in case of file corruption.