Things I Use

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Inspired by Jamie McHale I thought I would add a page listing things that I use.

Operating System

I love both Linux and Mac and happily move between them. As my distro I'm currently trying out Pop_Os!. I like to switch it up but tend to stick most with Debian based systems.

I don't feel very at home on Windows but as I build multi-platform software most days I use all three.

Editor

Micro for quick lightweight editing.

For heavier editing I use Vscodium for the consistency across platforms and occasionally Xcode or Android Studio for platform specific apps. I was interested in Zed as an alternative open source editor but was put off by their pivot to AI.

Theme

I like to regularly change my theme up too, at the moment I'm using Nord but I'm also a fan of Solarized and Winter Is Coming.

Terminal

On Linux and Mac I've recently switched to Ghostty, and I previously used Alacritty and iTerm2

For my shell I use ZSH with Starship as the prompt.

Keyboard & Mouse

I use an Ergodox EZ keyboard and a Logitech LIFT vertical mouse when I'm at my desk.

Camera

My favourite camera for birds is the Nikon P1000. My more general use camera is the Sony A6500. My favourite lens to use on it is an old vintage Chinon 50mm f1.8 lens.

Headphones

I got a pair of Bose QC35 in 2017 and since then I have quite probably spent more time wearing them than not. One of the best purchases I've ever made.

Earplugs

For gigs or very loud spaces I wear my Flare isolate earplugs which are simple and comfortable. They don't sell the isolate any more but I'm really grateful they still sell the replacement tips. Their replacement version seems to be the Earshade.

For noisy environments where you want to lower the overhead but still need to be able to follow conversations I had lots of people recommend the Loop Engage earplugs but they really didn't work for that use case for me. They still gave me the internal skull pressure/sound when I spoke and I struggled understanding other people. They are comfy and I do still wear them in environments where I might otherwise have my noise cancelling headphones on and don't need to interact, so I'm still including them here, plus they do seem to work for that purpose for other people.

The earplugs that did help me in pubs/places with conversation are the Flare Calmer earplugs. They're subtle and it's hard to explain what they do to the sound but they really do help making the sound a bit less stressful.

Software

Where I can I always reach for open source first.