I’m often asked what software and hardware I’m using. This page answers that question.
Hardware
I switched from living in ‘Microsoft Windows Land’ since the early 90’s to the Mac in 2013. I wish I’d done it sooner because the integration between the devices is wonderful.
- Mac Studio - the daily work horse
- MacBook Air - the travel pony
- iPhone 13 Pro – Great handheld computer, plus it has a phone
- iPad Pro 10.5″ – with Apple Pencil
- I added a pen clip from the “Bullet” Fischer Space Pen to the Apple Pencil1. The Apple Pencil is finally a real digital replacement for a paper pad and pen.
- Sony WH-1000XM3 - wireless, bluetooth noise cancelling headphones
- Suzuki Bandit 1250 – my favoured transport in Australia
- Honda XR400R - transport in Vanuatu
- KTM Freeride 2018 - (a real mountain goat!)
- Caran d’Ache Fountain Pen - if I had to choose a single pen, this is it.
- Pilot Metropolitan (MR) Fountain Pens – the pens I use the most (I now have a few of these, with different nibs, and loaded with different inks)
- Fisher Space Pen – the SM4B Non-Reflective Military Matte Black, great pen
- Kuru Toga 0.7mm – my favourite mechanical pencil
- Leuchtturm1917 Bullet Journals – current notebook (Love these!)
Software
- All. O’Reilly Learning, aka Safari Books Online – access bucketloads of technical and business books and videos, wonderful training resource
- All. Obsidian - Notes on steroids
- All. 1Password – trust me, you need a password manager
- All. Dropbox – cloud file storage
- All. Git – GitHub, GitLab, BitBucket and vanilla git
- Mac, Win, Linux. Sublime Text – text editor (everything starts as text) - this is the one text editor I use, I suggest you learn one text editor and learn it really well, it’ll pay off for you in productivity
- Mac. Setapp - One subscription, multiple apps (affiliate link)
- Mac. Keyboard Maestro – I use this multiple times a day to automate repetitive tasks
- Mac. Hazel – file and folder automation
- Mac. Marked 2 – markdown previewer (part of SetApp)
- Mac. Laptop – Easy way to get your machine setup to do development work
- Mac. Jekyll Now – Easy way to get Jekyll running UPDATE 2024-12: Have just used Jay Alammar’s fork of the repo I used to help someone else setup their own blog on Jekyll using GitHub
- Mac. The Silver Searcher - ag - Fast searching of file contents
- iOS. GoodNotes 5 – Digital Ink. This is a required app if you’ve got an iPad Pro and Pencil. It makes taking real notes just like, well, taking real notes. Drop in PDF files, scribble on them, mark them up, share them - I use it daily
- iOS. Working Copy – hands down the best Git client on iOS
- iOS. Essential Anatomny 5 – understanding the body
Methodologies, Standards and Other Stuff
- Markdown – plain text formatting, easy to use on any platform, ensures future usability
- Zettelkasten - to take more useful, smarter notes
- Bullet Journal Method - Notes and journalling through the day
- Kanban – Visualise your work, Limit your work in progress
- GTD – Getting Things Done
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I get most of my pens and inks from the Pen Shoppe, 24 Brisbane Arcade, 160 Queen Street Brisbane QLD Australia. The folks there know their stuff. ↩︎