The Tools I Use: Mid 2024

It’s something you do as someone with a tech blog to write an enumeration of the various tools you use to get your job done. This is what I use in mid-2024.

Hardware

Daily Use Machines

• MacBook Air Late 2020 - This is my “daily driver” machine. I like Mac hardware and macOS, but it feels constrained by some of Apple’s curious design choices.
• Base Model iPhone 13 - The camera on this phone is good, and the battery lasts for a good while. I don’t do much on my phone, so this is perfect for me.

Servers

• Homebrew TrueNAS machine - This is (most of) my former gaming PC. I put it in a Jonsbo N1 NAS enclosure, put some drives in it, and it’s now my storage system. It acts as a backup destination for all of my computers and cloud services.
• Hetzner VPS - I run my self-hosted services on here, as well as acting as a remote Docker host, to avoid the mess that is Docker Desktop. Hetzner is probably the best value VPS host at the moment.

Peripherals

• Dell U2723QE Monitor - A nice 4K display, and connects via Thunderbolt, so I can connect a single cable to convert my laptop into a powerful workstation.
• Logitech MX Keys Mini (Mac version) - Fits nicely on my small desk, and is comfortable to type on.
• Logitech MX Master 2S - I have large hands, and this mouse fits nicely in them. Also featureful without having too many knobs and buttons.

Software

Desktop

• Web Browser: Mozilla Firefox - My everyday browser. I use Chrome and Safari for testing, but I prefer Firefox. It has slightly less intrusive telemetry than Chromium-based browsers, and it’s easier to disable. Also, I’m hoping that it pulls through to prevent Google from having a total browser engine monopoly.
• Mail Reader, Calendar, Address Book, and To-Do List: Mozilla Thunderbird - Another Mozilla product, Thunderbird is great for personal organization. It does too much, but it does it well.
• Code Editor: Visual Studio Code - One of the best Microsoft products. I’ve never had any hiccups configuring it.
• Terminal Emulator: iTerm2 - There’s not much difference between terminal emulators in my opinion, but the stock Terminal.app has some font rendering issues with Powerline symbols, so I use iTerm2.
• Shell: zsh - More functionality than Bash, but still POSIX compliant, so shell scripts work with it. I also use nushell for some tasks.
• Notes: Obsidian - Obsidian has become a big deal among YouTube productivityfluencers, but it’s a decent piece of software. It’s also a great deal at the price of “free”.
• Overlay Network: Tailscale - It’s a VPN, but not the kind that gets shilled on YouTube. It allows me to access services that I’d rather not expose to the public Internet when I’m not at home. However, it shreds my battery, so I turn it off when I’m not using it.
• Window Management: Rectangle - Allows window snapping on macOS. Also provides keyboard shortcuts for managing windows.
• Launcher: Raycast - Has more functionality than Spotlight, and more customizable to my workflow.

Web

Providers

• Email Provider: Mailbox.org - Hosted in Germany, and respects my privacy. I tried self-hosting email for a while but ultimately abandoned it. They also provide contacts & calendar synchronization, which I also use.
• Communication: Discord - This thing is bad and I would not use it if it were up to me, but due to network effects, I have to use it.
• Password Manager: 1Password - I don’t trust myself not to lose all my passwords if I used something self-hosted like Bitwarden or KeePass, so 1Password it is.
• Photo Backup: iCloud - iCloud is just the most painless way to handle this on an iPhone. It’s also priced suprisingly competitively for an Apple service, although I wish there were more storage tiers available. Make sure to enable Advanced Data Protection, which provides end-to-end encryption.