> /Uses

The idea of a /Uses page is to tell you about the stuff I use to either distract myself or bring more efficiency to my life. I swiped this idea from Wes Bos.

Coding Tools & LLMs

Zed is a code editor from the creators of Atom that feels a bit lighter than VS Code. It's roughly the same experience, but I grow suspicious of Microsoft. I tried Cursor and it felt like a good editor, but the company behind it also gives me the ick. I can just feel their enshittification hammer deep in its backswing and I hate it.
Claude Code fits perfectly into my style of development and it has super-charged my productivity. I have always approached programming as a sculptor rather than as an architect, and this tool has reinvigorated my love of making stuff in an insane way.

Generally Useful

DaisyDisk is a little $10 app that analyzes your disk so that you can find and delete large files that you have forgotten about.
Parsec is a great app to act as a virtual monitor from another device, and it works well enough to stream games from a gaming PC to a Mac. That's exactly what I use it for.
WeatherWise is a realtime super resolution weather radar app that runs really well in a browser. I think that it's the best app available for amateur weather nerds who are looking for advanced info in a digestible form.

Desktop + Productivity

Libation is the open source and free tool that I use to back up my Audible and Kindle collections to disk.
Alfred is a very handy little app that allows you to create simple workflows between different apps and services. I use it to automate a lot of random stuff.
HyperKey is a very cool little app that gives your Mac an extra modifier key that is a shortcut for CMD+OPT+CTRL, so instead of typing CMD+OPT+CTRL+L to lock my computer, I just type CAPS+L. It makes caps lock useful!
Vanilla is a great app for managing your menu bar icons. I use it to hide the icons that I don't need, of which there are many.
RayCast is a great productivity app that I use for a lot of things. Mainly, I use it for its app launcher, but its snippet (text expansion) tool is also very good. If you're a Windows user and need text expansion, I highly recommend Beeftext.
Shutter Encoder is a great media converter. I like it more than Handbrake, which is actually saying a lot because Handbrake is awesome. This is just a better experience in my opinion. If you just want to clip something out, it's amazing for that too, because it's got a little integrated video editor.
Cryptomator is an amazing and free tool for encrypting sensitive files that you keep synced via cloud backup. I like the approach of individually encrypting files vs. syncing an entire virtual disk every time I make a minor change.
Cleanshot is a great tool for taking screenshots and annotating them. It's free, and it's got a lot of features.
Screenflick is what I use to record my screen when I'm doing how-to videos or something of that nature. It's very good but not free unfortunately.
Beyond Compare 4 is a great diff tool for Windows, Mac, or Linux. There is a better one for Mac called Kaleidoscope but I'm not going to pay a subscription fee for a diff tool.

Multimedia + Home Theater

Beelink SEi12 powers my media server running Ubuntu Server.
Beelink SER8 powers my home lab running Proxmox.
Apple TV 4K is the choice I made for my streaming device. It's simple, powerful, and works well with my iPhone. Also, it can turn my TV on and off without me setting anything up, and I'm a simple man.
Apple Homepod is the smart speaker that I use for my home theater setup. It sounds good, I can use it as a speaker for everything going through my TV (eARC HDMI), and it works well with my other Apple stuff.

Writing Tools

Obsidian is my second brain and I use the spaced repitition community plugin to augment my memory with flash cards. I honestly don't know how I would live without it at this point.
Scrivener is a tremendous writing tool and allows me to organize my thoughts, research, and drafts all in the same place — in a way that makes sense to me. I use it to store all of my creative writing work.
Plottr is an amazing tool for outlining stories, and comes equipped with a lot of useful templates that are fun to play with.
(beat) is a minimalist dream of a screenwriting app with the ability to write your own plugins. The developer and the community they have built around it is awesome. It allowed me to fire Final Draft into the sun where it belongs.

Audio Production + Recording

FL Studio Pro has been my go-to DAW for over two decades now. I've tried Ableton, Logic Pro, Bitwig, and Studio One, but I always end up back with FL Studio. I can identity improvements in the other DAWs over FL Studio, but familiarity is hard to let go of.
Arturia MiniLab 3 is my primary midi controller. It's an incredible value for the money and I highly recommend it.
Roland J-6 is a cool little chord sequencer that pairs well with my lack of a background in music theory. It's like a little magic wand that makes it incredibly easy to start a new project off with a bang.
FabFilter makes several VST plugins that I can't really live without. Their stuff breathes life into my tracks.
Cableguys also have great plugins, such as ShaperBox, Snapback, and HalfTime. They are all very useful and make their way into many of my songs.
PreSonus Quantum ES 4 is my USB interface and I have no complaints. It's a great little device.
Shure SM7B is my microphone of choice for the moment. It's kind of a lot of people's microphone of choice, for good reason. It's just a great sounding microphone, all around, especially if your space isn't acoustically perfect.
Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro open-back studio reference headphones are my go-to for producing and mixing my music and vocals. They are the best headphones I've ever owned. Just perfect.

Computer Accessories

HyperX Cloud III Wireless Gaming Headset is a very solid choice for a wireless headset that relies on a USB dongle instead of bluetooth, which is my personal preference.
Apple Magic Keyboard was a purchase I was skeptical about at first, but I think it's actually kind of perfect. No notes.
Logitech MX Master 3S is the best mouse in the world, in my opinion. Feels great, works great, and the thumb button is unmatched. Going further over the top with features, it has a great scroll wheel, battery life, and a little spinner on the side for volume control that I have reconfigured to zoom in and out.