Technology I Use

Inspired by James, I'll chime in with the technology I use. Most of it is a few years old at best.

Computer Setup

My main computer is a mid-2014 15" Macbook Pro with a 2.8Ghz Intel i7 CPU, 16GB ram, and 512GB SSD hard drive. It got a fresh battery back in January so it should be good for another few more years.

I do feel the limits of it occasionally, but not often. As it's been a while since I've gotten a new computer, I am getting the urge to replace or augment it. If I replace it outright, it would probably be with another Mac, Thinkpad, or a Frame.work.

If I were to replace it with a desktop, it would probably be a used Mini PC coming off lease from some business. But since I mostly use my personal laptop from the kitchen table (not my home office), I'd need to remote into the desktop most of the time. But I'm not sure I'd do that.

Home Server

I have a 2012 MacMini with 16GB of ram acting as a home media server. I got it from my brother and the clips that hold the ram in are broken / missing (I have no idea how). So it's using a broken cd-r (as is how I received it) to create pressure to keep them in place.

This server also runs mac OS and is hooked up to my ScanSnap and a Drobo withΒ  14TB of storage. Since it redundant, only half is actually usable. As is, it'ss fairly under-utilized with just Plex and iTunes. Maybe spending time on r/SelfHosting could improve that. If I were to get a new Mini computer, it would likely be replacing both my laptop and my home server.


Work Setup

I've been working remotely / working from home for all but 2 years of the past decade. I've always kept my work setup separate from my home setup in that period. Currently my work computers are provided by my employer and they're generally the latest MacBookPro that's refreshed every 3 years.
  • Keyboard: Happy Hacking Lite2 USB with a US layout
  • Headphones: Airpods on mobile.Β  Sony MDR7506 Professional Large Diaphragm at my desk.
  • Mouse: Magic Trackpad and a random Microsoft Optical mouse
  • Webcam/Microphone: Built in. (I really should upgrade this)
  • Monitor: Dell U2720QM 27 inch 4K


Software

  • Operating System: macOS Catalina at home, BigSur at work. Ubuntu on my servers.
  • Browsers: Firefox
  • Terminal: Terminal.app / iTerm2
  • Code Editor: PyCharm / emacs
  • Music: Plex / YouTube

Phone

iPhone XR (Yellow, 64GB)

Watch

Apple Watch (Series 5)

Site Technology

This site is powered by Tanzawa, an open source blogging engine I started building about a year ago. Tanzawa is built with Python/Django with a splashes of Javascript (Stimulus) for the maps. Mapping is powered by Leaflet.js.