> /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.

Code Editors & Themes

VS Code is great. I tried Cursor and it felt like a good experience, but I prefer the VS Code w/ Github Copilot + Claude Code combination right now.
Night Owl Black is a darker version of Night Owl by Sarah Drasner, which is my favorite theme for VS Code and any other apps that I can find it for.

Generally Useful

Affinity Suite is a single-purchase replacement for Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and In-Design. That Adobe cloud subscription, and its rising price, got so incredibly annoying that I switched and haven't looked back.
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.
Ventusky is the web app I used for quick looks at the weather. It's visually stunning and packed with all kinds of interesting information.
RadarScope is the app I use when I want to get a closer look at tornados and other events on weather radars. Click on the watch or warning, and it will select the best regional radar, and show you a detailed map of the storm with choices to view with multiple radar products.

Desktop + Productivity

Libation is the open source and free tool that I use to back up my Audible and Kindle collections to disk.
MuteMe is a little device wrapped with a LED light that comes with a well-designed app that allows you to mute your computer with a tap of a button, and change the color of the light to indicate whether or not you are muted. This is so my wife can tell if I'm in a meeting at a glance and it's awesome.
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!
Bartender 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. I also use its workflows functionality to automate a lot of random stuff.
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.
Final Draft is the industry standard screenwriting app. I hate the company's business practices.

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 goes a long way.
Arturia KeyLab Essential mk3 is my primary MIDI controller, but honestly, I use the Arturia MiniLab 3 more often. They're both outstanding MIDI controllers that integrate perfectly with FL Studio Pro.
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.