/uses

This page lists all of the gear and tools I use on a daily basis. This page is inspired by @wesbos' uses.tech page.

Software

Editor and Terminal

• VSCode This is my preferred code editor. I have tried many others, including Atom and IntelliJ IDEA, but VS Code looks and feels the most intuitive to me and has support for virtually every language out there.
  • I use the Beyond the Horizon Dark VSCode Theme, which is based on the [Horizon Dark] colour scheme. This website uses the same colour scheme.
  • The Live Share plugin quickly turned into one of my favourite VSCode plugins, it makes remote pairing on a project a breeze.
• My favourite monospace font is currently Fira Code.
• I use the new Windows Terminal as my main terminal. I like it because it lets me easily switch between WSL2 and Powershell or CMD, it supports custom font, and it just looks really nice.

Note Taking

• Obsidian.md is the first note taking tool I actually use on a regular basis. I really enjoy the flexibility of it, especially regarding the quickly growing plugin ecosystem. A few of my favourite plugins are in no particular order:
  • Obsidian Templater
  • Obsidian Dataview
  • Obsidian Git

Other Apps

• Firefox has been my default browser for many years now. I switched back to it after using chrome because I agree with its focus on privacy.
• Mozilla Thunderbird, I am grudgingly using thunderbird as my email program because I have not found anything better yet. If you know of a better (preferably open source) alternative that allows an unlimited number of email addresses then shoot me a message.
• I heavily rely on FancyZones of Windows PowerToys to arrange my windows in a tiled-ish way.
• Microsoft To Do, I have recently been looking for a good and simple program to keep all my tasks. Microsoft To Do seems to fit this quite well and looks stunning.

Tech Stack

• Svelte / Svelte kit is currently my favourite web framework. I previously used Vue.js and React but I like the pragmatic way of svelte the most so far.
• Hasura makes building web applications a breeze. It saves me from reimplementing the same fundamental things such as the GraphQL API, authorisation and admin dashboard for every project.
• Docker in combination with Traefik makes hosting multiple applications on the same server a breeze.

Gear

PC Gear

• Blue Snowball is the USB microphone I am currently using. I got it a long time ago when it was all the rage, and it was a huge upgrade from my cheap headset microphone. I would not buy it today but it is more than good enough for video conferencing.
• Logitech c920 is my reliable webcam. I got it a year before the pandemic (thankfully!) and I am quite happy with it.
• Ultimate Hacking Keyboard This is my first real mechanical keyboard. I really like the split keyboard layout which makes typing much more ergonomic in my opinion. I use MX Brown switches.
• The Logitech MX Master 3 mouse is the newest addition to my gear, and the first wireless mouse I own. I was sceptical about the battery duration at first but it really is not an issue for me.
• Wacom Intuos Pen & Touch small was the drawing tablet I purchased a long time ago when I tried to get into drawing. Nowadays I use it mostly for writing on virtual whiteboards.

Multimedia Gear

• I take pictures with my trusty Panasonic Lumix G7. I really love this camera, it is still very good for the price and even log lenses are not bulky at all. Check out some of my pictures on my Flickr.

This page is a work in progress, if your are curious about anything else in my setup shoot me a tweet @TiimB.