These are tools that I use on a regular basis.

See also:

• /uses
• Robb Knight’s App Defaults

Hardware

I have a MacBook Air M2 (2022) as my main machine.

My printer is a Brother HL-L2320D monochrome laser printer.

My eBook reader is a Kobo Libra 2.

For audio, I have:

• a pair of Audio Engine A5 speakers (on my desk)
• DT 770 Pro headphones
• a Blue Yeti microphone on a flexible arm

I connect all my equipment using a CalDigit TS3 Plus Thunderbolt station.

I have a Dell U3423WE ultra-wide display.

My keyboard is a ZSA Moonlander, replacing my Kinesis Freestyle Pro. My pointing device is a Kensington Orbit with scroll ring, replacing my Evoluent Vertical Mouse 4.

I used to have a Fitbit, and then I lost it.

Furniture

My desk chair is a Herman Miller Aeron. It is great.

Operating system

I am a long-term user of Apple hardware and software, and so I use macOS as my daily driver.

I am using the Tarmak set of keyboard layouts, eventually moving to Colemak.

Desktop apps

Alfred (macOS; productivity app) gives me the power to do all the things I want, right when I need them, without introducing clutter. I have a handful of custom workflows tuned for the way I work, which I imagine impresses my coworkers.

Omni­Graffle (macOS) is the best diagramming tool I know of. It isn’t cheap, but I find the price tag to be worth it. I use it to impress my coworkers.

Rectangle (macOS) is my window manager.

Visual Studio Code (cross-platform) is my editor of choice, but I am playing with Zed as well at the moment.

NetNewsWire is my RSS reader.

I use Things 3 for managing my to-dos.

I use Flow to keep my focus.

Firefox is my main web browser at the moment. I used to use Safari as my main browser.

Integrity is a good link checker. I had the idea of writing my own, but finding Integrity made my idea obsolete.

I use Zotero to collect everything I cite on my web site.

Writing:

• I use Scrivener for any serious writing projects.

• I use iWriter Pro for shorter-form writing. I like how distraction-free it is.

• I use Beat for writing screenplays. Not that I do that often.

• Bear is my note-taking app of choice. It’s my repository of knowledge, and I write my week­notes in them too.

• Occasionally, I’ll use Obsidian for specific projects. But not very often.

• I use Scapple to bring order to my thoughts. There’s some overlap with Omni­Graffle.

Services

Fastmail provides excellent email, but also contacts management, calendars, web hosting and DNS management.

YNAB is my budgeting tool of choice. My financial anxiety would be immeasurably higher without it.

I use 1Password as my password manager.

I use Buttondown for sending newsletters.

For backups, I use restic, Time Machine, and Arq.

Fonts

See also: Fontroll and Typefaces wishlist.

My favorite monospaced (code) font is Iosevka.

The serif fonts I like most are Valkyrie and Charter.

I’ve recently began to like Courier in the form of Courier Prime.

I am also fond of (font of? ha ha) Atkinson Hyperlegible.

CLI tools

fish shell is a fast, easy-to-use shell that has sensible defaults. I have barely customized it.

ripgrep is my command-line grep alternative of choice.

beancount is what I use to track my financial activity.

pandoc is a good tool for converting documents in lightweight markup languages to and from other formats.

Homebrew is my package manager of choice.

WeasyPrint is an excellent tool for producing quality PDF files from HTML pages.