What I use...

Here's a list of the things I use on an almost daily basis to build software, stay productive, or to play around with new stuff!

Workstation

  • 14” MacBook Pro, M1 Max, 64GB RAM (2021)

    I moved to the 14” model from the 15” i9 MacBook Pro, and it couldn't have been better! The 15” was always warm (sometimes hot) to the touch, and the battery never lasted very long. I've only noticed the fans once, when I was working from my kitchen in the dead of night!

  • Apple Studio Display

    Apples Displays are always a thing of beauty, crisp, bright and vibrant, and this display stands true to that - including great speakers and sub-optimal webcam.

  • Keychron Q1

    I currently have PBTFans Spark Keycaps with Tecsee Ice Milk Switches, it's a great typing experience and sounds pretty good. Very heavy (physical weight) though!

  • Logitech MX Master 3S

    Decided I should get a proper mouse as the Magic Mouse looked out of place next to my Keychon Q1. I didn't realise how bad the Magic Mice were in terms of ergonomics.

  • Secret Labs Titan 2022

    I got my first Secret Labs (Omega 2021) chair during the COVID pandemic, as my dining room chairs weren't really up to it. That char is now at my gaming desk in my living room. But this one is just as comfortable!

Development tools

  • JetBrains PhpStorm

    My go-to IDE for any PHP based projects. I probably spend most of my time in here.

  • JetBrains GoLand

    I've been learning GoLang in my free time, and it made sense to continue on the JetBrains journey.

  • VSCode

    I use VSCode to edit smaller files (configs etc), or really large files (CSVs etc) that don't really need the functionality of a full IDE.

  • iTerm2

    iTerm2 was the first terminal replacement I used, and it's stuck around, so it must be doing something right.

  • TablePlus

    TablePlus is a great database tool, I use it daily to connect to various database engines; mongoDB, MySQL/MariaDB, Snowflake etc.

Productivity

  • Alfred

    Probably one of the first things I install when I set up a new Mac. It's a great productivity tool that has integrations with pretty much every other tool.

Home Lab

  • OPNSense DEC2700

    When I upgraded to gigabit fibre, my old EdgeRouter-4 couldn't handle QoS at the speeds so was causing a bottleneck. The DEC2700 handles it without breaking a sweat.

  • UniFi 48 Port PoE

    Massively overkill for what I need. But I wanted to move my home network over to 2.5gig, and I had just over 24 things connected at the time. So this was the only natural choice...

  • Synology RS1221+

    Houses 8 x 12TB IronWolf drives, the fans have been replaced with Noctuas and a 10gig SFP+ card installed. Home to all my TimeMachine Backups, Plex Media and Proxmox VMs.

  • Server

    Recently upgraded to 64GB RAM, Ryzen 5700G and 10gig networking. Only storage in this is a 500GB NVME drive which has Proxmox installed. All VMs etc are loaded via iSCSI from the NAS. All housed in a DeskMeet 300.

  • APC Smart-UPS (750VA)

    I've had this years and only replaced the battery once! It's a great little UPS, gives me around 28-30 minutes runtime, so just enough for those small power-cuts and to ensure everything shuts down nicely.