Currently looking into
(Concepts) AI assisted software development
AI impact on software delivery is hard to ignore. I currently try to dive deeper into the topic of: ‘How our best practices will/should evolve given the opportunities LLMs bring?’
(Book) An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management
Given my current role, I’m always interested in picking up a book that organises set of defaults/best practices when it comes to tech leadership/people mngmt/org design.
Machine setup
Hardware
This is pretty standard: MackBook Air M1 for private use and a MacBook Pro M2 14’' for work. I have a clear preference for choosing maximal 14’' notebooks as I find them best for travel or working from a coffee/co-working space.
For password management I use a yubikey and pass cli.
Dotfiles & software
I’m a fan of the terminal and spending the majority of my time here. I use alacritty + tmux + neovim for that. I’m also a fan of a tiling window manager - currently I use amtheyst for that on my mac. Some other curated tools can be found in the excerpt of my setup script below.
Worth calling out: To capture my notes, I was using vimwiki for a while but moved to telekasten since switching to neovim.
#!/bin/sh
if [ ${#@} -ne 0 ] && [ "${@#"--help"}" = "" ]; then
printf -- 'This will install all the curated setup\n'
exit 0
fi
brew install alacritty
mkdir -p ~/.config/alacritty/themes
git clone https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty-theme ~/.config/alacritty/themes
brew install alfred
brew install amethyst
brew install tmux
git clone https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tpm ~/.tmux/plugins/tpm
brew install bash
brew install zsh
echo 'remember to install zsh4humans'
brew install git
brew install remotemobprogramming/brew/mob
brew install htop
brew install neovim
git clone https://github.com/LazyVim/starter ~/.config/nvim
rm -rf ~/.config/nvim/.git
brew install fd
brew install git-lfs
brew install wget
brew install gpg
brew install pinentry-mac
brew install coreutils
brew install autojump
brew install pass
brew install ykman
brew install krisp
#quick code analysis
brew install cloc
brew install scc
brew install direnv
brew install bmon
brew install lsd
brew install ripgrep
#(...) Some more stuff
Office setup
As a 100% remote-working person, I’ve decided to curate my home-office setup and while I was doing so, I’ve stumbled upon some people describing their choices and this helped me a lot. Thus I felt a bit inspired to do the same.
Display
I’m a one display kind of a person. I find this setup most ergonomic for me and the work that I’m currently doing. I’ve settled on a 27’’ 4K monitor from Dell (U2720Q) that is also able to charge my notebook (this is a key characteristics as I try to have as little cables as possible). Using a 4K non ultra wide monitor makes sharing whole screen a bit easier for others as the scaling works out of the box on the receiving end. I’m using this monitor since 2020 and cannot really find a reason why I should change that.
Microphone
I value audio quality and go an extra mile to provide very good level of it on the receiving end. For that reason, I’ve got the podmic from Rhode. Apart from being really good at capturing me talking, it’s definitely a conversation starter with people that haven’t yet seen me in any calls (Do you do any podcasting? - No, I don’t / I just try to make my remote presence as good as possible).
Audio Interface
The mic I’ve listed above uses an XLR connection, so I needed also an audio interface to run it with my notebook. I went with Focusrite Scarlet Solo. (Talking about going down the rabbit whole…)
Webcam
For a while I was using the Logitech Stream Cam but as I also enjoy making photos, I had Fujifilm X-T2 on my shelf. I once found out that Fuji offers an official software to operate the camera as an webcam. I liked this a lot and this became my standard setup. Sadly some mac update killed this and I needed to switch to a capture card (elgato camlink).
Speakers
As I prefer to not wear headphones when not necessary and at home I don’t have any co-workers to worry about, I use Yamaha HS5 monitors for calls and enjoying music while coding alone.
Light
Sometimes I need additional lighting while recording or in a call, for that I’ve got this Logitech Litra Glow light. It’s very straight forward in its use and what I like the most, is the ability to dial down how intense it is.
Keyboard(s)
(Daily) UHK 60 v1
…with Cherry MX brown switches and custom key caps by yuzu. I remember when I’ve learned about this keyboard/project while listening to the changelog podcast in 2015 and decided to join the crowd funding campaign. Few years later it finally arrived and I’ve really fell in love with it. Main reason to go with UHK was ‘staying on the home row’ & the split design to prevent RSI from happening.
(Occasional) Keychron K6
…with Glorious Panda Pre-Lubed switches and key caps from Tai-Hao. After some time, I thought that I would be really nice to have a wireless keyboard with hot-swappable switches so that I could have one cable less to connect and also the ability to experiment a bit with different kind of switches. I really like keychron keyboards as they have really good value-for-money ratio. The only problem: as this is not a split keyboard, whenever I use it for longer period of time my wrist/arm will start to complain.
Standing desk
A little Ikea hack combining a small bamboo top (I have a rather limited space. Thus, I went with a desk that has a small footprint) with height adjustable frame/legs. Officially those 2 do not fit, but one can easily drill additional wholes in the bamboo top so that it can be mounted on the frame. If you ask yourself: Why should you even bother, to deal with a standing desk? Short answer: prolonged sitting kills.
Chair
Having a proper office chair with good back support is a really important bit of the setup. For a while I was working using a simple Ikea chair and I’ve quickly developed pain in my lower back. Instead of spending a small fortune on a herman miller chair, a friend of mine recommended to look into steelcase office chairs. I’ve ended up with a white version of Series 1 as it feels less corporate.
Rug
Don’t ask me why, but I wanted to have a rug under my desk (although I’m not a drummer / I feel a bit like a one). A friend of mine, discovered that her grandpa, who sailed on a commercial vessel in the past, left her a lot of rugs as he often brought some while traveling back from another part of the world. What a coincidence, right?