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Uses

This page serves as a catalog of all of the tech I use on a regular basis. Inspired by uses.tech.

I also maintain a homelab, which runs all of the services that I interface with occasionally, or hum along in the background to facilitate other things.

Software

GUI programs

  • VsCode - as much as I love FOSS, VsCode's devcontainers feature is one of the best things I've ever used, and FOSS alternatives aren't as fully-featured yet.
  • Firefox, as it has been my browser of choice for many years.
  • Chromium for services that run on my homelab, as it handles custom DNS resolution more easily than firefox.
  • BalenaEtcher for imaging the disks that are used in my homelab.

Other

  • Dendron - the only tool I use for personal knowledge management.
  • Ubuntu 22.04 as my main desktop OS

Languages

  • Go has been the main language I've been using recently. I've found it shines most when creating simple, scalable http APIs
  • C# is the main language I use for rapid prototyping beyond the PoC stage, and services that require more fine-grained observability implementations (e.g Discord/Telegram bots)
  • Python is used mainly for 1-off scripts and serving AI model methods as HTTP APIs (via Flask)

Tools

  • OpenTofu for infrastructure-as-code; previously I used Terraform.
  • Ansible for state management of bare-metal nodes. I haven't used this as much since I switched to Talos Linux within my Kubernetes clusters.
  • Paranoia, because I mess around with SSL certs too much, and it's easy to just run a command and figure out if I need to mount custom certs to a different location 😅

Hardware

For the stuff I don't use often, check out my spare parts list.

Monitors

  • 2x LG 27GP950-B.AUS as my main monitors
  • LG 27UL500-W as a tertiary monitor, primarily used for viewing graphs and, occasionally, BIOS information
  • LG 27UD88-W as a quaternary monitor, used mainly as a secondary display for usb-c laptops

Input Peripherals

  • Logitech G900 Chaos Spectrum - a solid mouse I've been using for 8 years.
  • Custom mechanical keyboard, check out the keebs page for my current build!
  • Caldigit TS4 Dock to enable switching peripherals between devices with just one cord. I've also found its microSD slot to be incredibly useful, as it allows me to flash SD cards used in the MAMAMOO cluster.

Audio Peripherals

  • Rode NT1 because audio quality is of the utmost importance to me when collaborating remotely.
  • Scarlett Focusrite 2i2 3rd gen, a basic interface that has worked well for 8 years.
  • Bose NC 700 as the headphones I use when not in a call, as they have superior noise-cancelling features
  • Sony WH1000XM5 are used when I'm in a call, because 3.5m-to-3.5mm is much more convenient than the Bose NC 700's 3.5m-to-2.5mm
  • Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds for when I don't want to wear around-ear headphones; the software is just buggy enough that I'm looking to replace these soon.

Ergonomic Peripherals

  • Kontour Chief KXC420B, as it was the only mount that was specified to support the weight of my monitors
  • Rode PSA 1, because desk real-estate is valuable, and it's useful to move the mic out of the way when I'm not using it.

Other Peripherhals

Mobile Devices

Other Electronics