Hey! My name is Paulo Coelho Alves. I live in Lisboa, Portugal with my partner, our 2 year old kid and a 10 year old cat with a bad attitude that’s only slightly mellowed out in her old age.

I’ve been working at Plex, a fully remote company, for the last 7 years, where I’ve helped ship a ton of features for our Web client. Most of my days are spent working with TypeScript, React and Next.js.

I tend to my digital garden and sometimes let my thoughts float out into the Internet. I’m perpetually on a quest to read more.

I also make ambient, IDM, DnB and other types of music as Life Patterns. Most of it happens in the laptop, after work, pushing notes around using the keyboard and mouse. Sometimes in the Ableton Push 2 that’s on my desk, but not as often as I’d like. Of course, Ableton came out with a standalone Push shortly after I purchased mine.

What is your hardware setup?

2021 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M1 Pro chip and 32GB of RAM. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the fans on the thing. Maybe once while running part of the Plex backend locally in Docker. This machine is a beast and probably the best computer I’ve ever used.

My keyboard is a Keychron K8 with RGB Backlight, frame and Gateron Blue switches. Cheap, but it doesn’t feel like it. I use it with a wooden palm rest which provides some much needed support for my wrists.

I might be the only person that likes Apple’s Magic Mouse. The battery lasts forever, it feels comfortable, the gestures are great. Got mine years ago and haven’t felt the need to switch. Maybe it helps that I’m on the keyboard most of the time (vim keybindings everywhere I can enable them).

Got some sort of 4K monitor. Probably the best upgrade to my setup in years. Before that, I felt guilty using an external monitor and not taking advantage of the MacBook’s ridiculously high-resolution monitor. Single monitor, single app per space (sometimes more, in which case Amethyst will do its thing and tile the windows automatically). Works for me.

Just recently got a standing desk from IKEA. It’s awesome and I wish I’d gotten one sooner. My chair is also from IKEA–it’s just OK. Doesn’t kill my back but it’s not terribly comfortable either. One of these days I’ll find a decent second-hand Herman Miller and never buy another chair again.

I mostly listen to music on a relatively cheap but great-sounding Sonos speaker (also from IKEA). Sometimes a record goes on the turntable, but that’s currently in the living room. For headphones I mostly use the AirPods Max, which I purchased as a last resort while dealing with anxiety triggered by loud neighbors. The noise cancellation is magical but the Bluetooth pairing is frustratingly inconsisent.

And what are the favorite items in your workspace?

This gel ink ballpoint pen from MUJI is the best. Cheap, reliable, comfortable. Refills are dirt cheap too, so unless the body breaks down I’m set for life.

The MD Notebook is my go-to for light bullet journaling and quick notes. It’s beautiful and functional!

This modern cassette player by we are rewind is great to take on walks. My tape collection is still small, but there’s no shortage of good stuff coming out through Bandcamp. I love that it forces intention on the act of listening to music: what you take with you is what you have.

I keep an aroma stone from MUJI under the monitor. Every morning I toss in a few drops of essential oils and enjoy the fragrance for a few hours. I know nothing about aromatherapy, I just like nice smells. Something citrusy, eucalyptus or ylang ylang are my go-tos.

I love being surrounded by and taking care of plants. They don’t take much work and give so much in return.

What is your software setup?

Generally speaking, I prefer:

• For local software, single payments over subscription models
• For online services, open-source over closed-source, self-hosted whenever possible, 100% user-supported over VC, paid over free

I’ve been on a quest to reduce & simplify my software stack (inspired by Jack Baty). Obsidian manages my evergreen notes, clippings and posts. I also use it to manage work tasks, meeting notes, projects, etc. Enso is a recent find but I can’t recommend it enough. Every morning I sit down and just write for a few minutes on nothing and anything to get my thoughts in order. For posts or other longer-form writing, iA Writer.

For writing code, I’ve gone from vim to NeoVim to Emacs (using Doom Emacs) to VS Code. It mostly just works and doesn’t trigger my impulse to tinker with the settings nearly as much as the other two. That said, I’ve been feeling the siren call of Emacs again. So far, I’ve been able to resist it and just get work done.

I use Fastmail for email, Kagi for search, NextDNS for blocking ads and trackers, 1Password for managing passwords (it also integrates nicely with Fastmal, creating dummy emails when I sign up to new services).

I do a lot of my reading on Feedbin (through Reeder), but more often than not I’ll go straight to the source and check out the websites of people I like/admire. Feedbin also contains my read-later pile, which I try very aggressively to keep lean. Occasionally I’ll throw away the entire list and start fresh.

I mostly use NearlyFreeSpeech.NET for hosting and blog using the delightful Bear Blog.

Arc has been my default browser for well over a year. They do so much right and the app is a complete delight to use. I’m not sure how I feel about Browse for Me–it sure is convenient, but I wonder how much I want to strip away the actual browsing away from the browser experience. I like to follow trails of links down unexpected paths. That said, the A.I. features generally stay out of the way and can be disabled.

What are your favorite programming or scripting languages?

I’ve been working with JavaScript and TypeScript for so long I’ve grown to love it. The little language that could. It suits me well both professionally and personally. I’ve dabbled in a few others, but JS/TS is what I’d call home.

Is there anything you are missing in your setup?

More plants, always. A more comfortable chair. I’ve been eyeing these cute wooden figurines. An EP-133 K.O. II would be nice but probably destroy my productivity. Or it’d just make me really productive at jamming and making music.

What book comes to your mind that you would like others to read?

Some recent favorites:

• Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm by Dan Charnas
• Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention–And How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari
• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
• Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker

Some all time faves:

• Fear and loathing in Las Vegas: a savage journey to the heart of the American dream by Hunter S. Thompson
• House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
• Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Howdy! I’m Taylor (mayor of taylor.town).

I’m a developer, designer, DBA, chaos muppet, etc.

What is your hardware setup?

M1 Macbook Pro, LG Display, Apple Trackpad, various ortholinear keyboards, Airpods Max, Yamaha HS5, Shure SM7B, monome, VIVO kneeling chair, and other junk.

And what are the favorite items in your workspace?

Cow peepy: committed a dangerous and disrespectful crime; out on bail

Stacey: my beloved ceramic pig, whose skin somehow feels like slimy velvet

Recursion mug: recursion mug

Shrine: random family gifts and pranks

Oxalis triangularis: my favorite plant (but not getting enough light)

Books: I sometimes judge books by their meme potential

Peach: my good ol’ doggo

Yamaha HS5 and keyboards

What is your software setup?

• Amethyst (twm)
• Safari (with vimlike)
• Kitty (terminal)
• Neovim

What are your favorite programming or scripting languages?

For frontend web work, I try to do as much as possible with “cheap” web HTML/CSS. For special occasions, I sprinkle vanilla JS on top. For complex UI stuff, I really like Elm. If no server is involved, I throw it on Cloudflare Pages.

For backend web work, my code tends to be 75% SQL (Postgres) with a bit of glue code. I choose whatever language provides the necessary speed/stability and SDKs, which is often Rust or Go or Elixir. Lately, my favorite “glue” has been Deno with Hono and Postgres.js, which I deploy on fly.io. I’ll probably switch to Roc once it becomes mature enough.

My friend Kartik recently convinced me that Lua is cool! I’m hoping to make a game or two with it someday.

For quick-and-dirty stuff, I use lots of GNU Bash and hate myself for it. I’m hoping to make scrapscript my default shell by 2025!

What book comes to your mind that you would like others to read?

Collections: Consider the Lobster, Anthropocene Reviewed, Exhalation Stories, Business Adventures

Books: Catch-22, A Timeless Way of Building, Gödel Escher Bach, Omnivore’s Dilemma, Good Earth, One Straw Revolution, Inner Game of Tennis, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Vagabond (manga), Men Machines and Modern Times, Toki Pona guide, The Design of Everyday Things

Authors: John Steinbeck, Neal Stephenson, David Foster Wallace, Derek Sivers

You can read all my recent book reviews here.

Anything else?

I included a bonus picture of my messy workstation from 2021! Enjoy :)

• browse my recent projects
• creep on my /now page
• follow me via rss
• subscribe to my spam
• give me money
• send me an email

I’m a coder, I guess :) Not corporate enough to be called a developer, not academic enough to be called a computer scientist, so I guess I’m a product of the 80s computers boom underground.

I have tried to write mostly open source software in my programming time, and I still do. Other than that I write novels and short stories.

I’m from Sicily, Italy, and I’m almost 47 years old.

I truly believe that programming is a kind of art form if done with an exploratory point of view, trying to reach some kind of beauty or freshness and in general as long as you want to discover something new. I guess in general people know me for being the author of Redis, however a few folks remember my security-guy past.

What is your hardware setup?

Well, nothing too fancy I guess. Not everything I’m listing here is evident from the pictures, but this is what I use day to day:

1. A Macbook with an M1 Max, so that I can do certain machine learning stuff in my macbook directly. It’s powerful enough to locally run quantized LLMs and so forth. I use it 50% of time like it is with its own display and integrated keyboard.

2. In my home office (the one in the pictures) I also have an external monitor and keyboard, that I connect when in there. My other office is in a mall here in Catania, which has an office space section. There I just bring my laptop: all my hardware is here at home.

3. A bunch of MCUs, ESP32 and other stuff. Sensors, displays, Raspberry Pico, and so on. I like low level embedded programming.

4. A Raspberry Pi 3B that I use for many tasks depending on the project at hand.

5. A Prusa MK4 3D printer.

6. A ZX Spectrum with a MIVAR TV set that I use to play 40 years old games or write BASIC with my daughter.

7. An older Linux server that I use only via SSH.

8. A Flipper Zero.

9. Kindle.

10. As part of my office I have weights and a treadmill. From time to time I stop programming and do some deadlifts or similar exercises.

And what are the favorite items in your workspace?

The oldest ones I bet: this ancient SINGER stool, and the ZX Spectrum.

In general I don’t bind a lot to objects, unless they are either very old or made to last forever, like stainless steel or wood things.

What is your software setup?

On the Macbook, MacOS, vim, make, and all the other command line stuff.

For writing prose - Scrivener for Mac.

For 3D modelling - Blender, TinkerCAD, Fusion360 depending on the task.

I use Telegram a lot, so Telegram Desktop is always open. I also use Telegram as a note keeping application: I have a group with myself where I create topics to forward things there.

I run a few AirBnBs so I also always have a Whatsapp window open to reply to customers.

What are your favorite programming or scripting languages?

My foundational languages are C, Lisp, SmallTalk, FORTH, Tcl - languages that were useful for me to understand fundamental concepts.

One of the best very high level language that put most of the ideas in the previous ones in a good, accessible form, is Ruby.

However in practice nowadays I mostly use C and Python. C for system programming. Python for ML or higher level stuff.

Is there anything you are missing in your setup?

I wish I had some powerful NVIDIA GPU. But they cost too much and get replaced fast. So I use Google Colab which I think is a nice idea with a terrible implementation.

What book comes to your mind that you would like others to read?

Solaris by Lem.

Recently, I also enjoyed quite a bit UNIX: A History and a Memoir by Kernighan.

Derek Sivers, formerly an entrepreneur and musician, now just a philosophical writer and explorer that loves programming tools for myself on the side.

What is your hardware setup?

Fanless desktop I got from https://www.quietpc.com/ ten years ago.

Some cheap monitor that has a dead ant inside of it, literally, looking at it as I type now. Years ago I thought it was an ant crawling across my screen so I went to swat it away but it was inside the monitor and my swat killed it, so there it is still.
Propped up on a carboard shoebox for better eye level. And all of this is in an old ramshackle house that I’m going to tear down soon.

And what are the favorite items in your workspace?

• Keychron Q3 keyboard with Kailh Midnight Pro silent switches

• Kensington Expert Mouse

What is your software setup?

• Vim text editor, all day every day. Even my five books (so far), all written in Vim in the terminal.
• PostgreSQL database
• Ruby programming language
• Ratpoison window manager
• Nginx web server
• OpenBSD operating system
• Firefox browser.

What are your favorite programming or scripting languages?

PostgreSQL’s plpgsql - the built-in functions - are what contain most of my business knowledge. This was inspired by Rich Hickey’s []“simple versus complex”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKtk3HCgTa8) point, so I decided to simplify by keeping the data logic in the database with the data itself.
Outside that, a thin layer of Ruby, but that’s likely to be swapped to any other language some day.

Is there anything you are missing in your setup?

Nah. I tend to not want what I haven’t got.

What book comes to your mind that you would like others to read?

The best book ever written: “How to Live” by Derek Sivers. ☺

But besides that, go to https://sive.rs/book where I keep a constantly-updated list of every book I’ve read since 2007 with detailed notes and my 0-10 recommendation rating. It’s already sorted with my top recommendations up top.

And see https://sive.rs/uses for details on the stuff talked about here.

I am Simulacrum-0. I am building a digital platform that generates machine instructions live instead of the traditional programming language and compiling/linking toolchain. Am working on using casual, sloppy natural language to describe ‘what you want’ and then it generates the software at various levels of detail.

What is your hardware setup?

AMD Threadripper 3970X on a TRX40 mobo w/a GeForce 4090 and Radeon 5770 along with 7 1440p monitors and various input devices such as foot-pedals and gaming keypads mapped to custom commands.

And what are the favorite items in your workspace?

My favorites things are my dual-amplifiers/speakers setup, two companion cats, and a boatload of plants.

What is your software setup?

I run Arch, Ubuntu, and Win11.

Software_Choices:

• VS Code as highly configureable text editor ( tabnine is quite useful ).
• Thunderbird, Slack & Zoom for communications
• NoMachine to remote into other hosts ( for music and shared archives )
• Firefox, VLC, and Handbrake for consuming media
• Bash terminal for CLI building and git.

What are your favorite programming or scripting languages?

While i work mostly in C99 and assembly for x86_64/aarch64/RISCV, i still love the effective simplicity of Prolog, the purity of Forth, and the easily perceived snap-blocks of ‘scratch’.

Is there anything you are missing in your setup?

If i could have a comfortable, all-day VR headset with ideal text legibility, i could skip the monitors entirely!

What book comes to your mind that you would like others to read?

The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson for its imaginings of nanotech (freely make what you wish), language (super-UX media-glyphs), social-structures ( choosable cultures called phyles ), and education ( super-AI-ipad called ThePrimer ). While the story is windingly Byzantine, its considerations of various technologies is still somehow relevant today.

I’m Jerod Santo from Changelog! 👋

I make Changelog News, co-host The Changelog & JS Party, and produce other awesome developer pods. I’ve been in the software world since 2001 when a high school buddy told me to apply for a software engineering scholarship at our local university because, “You’re good at computer stuff.” There’s a lot more to the story, but that was the start!

What is your hardware setup?

My workhorse is a 14-inch, 2021 MacBook Pro with the (amazing) M1 Max chip and 64GB (!) of RAM. I couple that (via a single lightning cable for both video and power) to a 27" Apple Studio Display using a (somewhat rare) top/bottom orientation for the two displays. My Apple Display has the fancy new Center Stage feature where it ensures your face is centered in the shot at all times. That features is very cool but also annoying when you want to duck out of view to sneeze or eat a chip or something. Talk about surveillance capitalism! 😜

The rest of my gear is podcasting specific. My mic is a Heil PR 40 connected via XLR to a PreSonus AudioBox iTwo interface. I use Sony … over-the-ear headphones and have a set of … studio monitors on the ground under my desk as well.

The desk itself is an IKEA … sti/stand, but I don’t have a chair or stool in the office so it’s always in stand mode. There is a couch nearby, so when I want to rest my feet I take my laptop over there and sit instead.

And what are the favorite items in your workspace?

I’m somewhat minimalist, so I don’t have many items at all. My favorite “thing” about my workspace is the view of our driveway where the kids play and beyond to our land and orchard.

A pair of binoculars complements the view and I do have one coffee mug that was a gift from students of mine that holds pens, pencils, and other stuff like that.

What is your software setup?

My web browser of choice is Safari, but I use Brave when coding because Chrome’s DevTools are unbeatable. My text editors of choice are command-line Vim for quick and/or remote stuff and Sublime Text for everything else. I do almost all of my writing in Obsidian, read my email in Spark, share files with Dropbox, and rely on Adobe’s creative suite for all audio/video/image production.

Everything else is stock Apple software: Terminal.app, Messages.app, Photos.app, Calendar.app, Notes.app, et cetera.

Oh, and I’ve been a long-time user of iStat Menus and still use its CPU and Network widgets to this day. The CPU widget just looks cool and I love how the Network widget shows you which process is the source of which inbound/outbound bandwidth.

What are your favorite programming or scripting languages?

I love Ruby for how it helps me express my thoughts, Elixir for how it helps me get stuff done, and JavaScript for how it helps me build on the web. I’ve used many languages over the course of my career, but these three are my favorites.

Is there anything you are missing in your setup?

I could use a better video setup. The camera quality on the Studio Display lacks in the quality department (see the picture of me above for an example) and my lighting could also use some work. I have an Elgato Key Light, but I pretty much hate it. The hardware on/off switch is not easily accessible and the thing is constantly losing its network connection! The problem has something to do with my Unifi-based network (which is otherwise amazing) and this model not being able to connect to 5.4GhZ access points. If you have a lighting solution you love, let me know!

What book comes to your mind that you would like others to read?

I’m Christian, so this one’s easy: The Bible is the most important, influential & valuable book ever written. Everybody should read it, even those who don’t believe in its divine authorship.

Proverbs alone contains enough wisdom to carry you through many of life’s trials. Here’s a good one, for example, that might lead a discerning hacker directly to Stack Overflow 🤣

Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in the multitude of counselors there is safety. (11:14)

And here’s one more which helped form my approach to online life and the work I do teaching others:

Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. (9:9)

Hi! I’m Mike McQuaid:

• I’m the Homebrew project leader and have maintained the project for 14 years
• I’m the CTO and cofounder of Raise.dev
• I recently left my job as a Principal Engineer at GitHub where I worked for 10 (calendar) years
• I’ve worked from home(s) for 14 years, mostly for US-based companies.

What is your hardware setup?

My daily driver is a 16” 2021 M1 Max MacBook Pro. Some sort of Apple MacBook has been my primary computer since I left Linux.

It connects with a single USB-C cable to my Dell UP2720Q 27” 4K HDR Monitor. This charges the MacBook and connects to all my USB devices: ethernet dongle (I don’t trust WiFi), Elgato FaceCam webcam, Elgato Wave:3 microphone, Logitech G403 mouse and Apple Magic Keyboard (US layout, the UK one sucks for programming Ruby). Over Bluetooth I have a Apple Magic Trackpad. I like to alternate between trackpad and mouse for different tasks.

The MacBook sits on a platform attached to a monitor arm and the other monitor arm has my UP2720Q. Underneath these sits the Wave:3 on an Elgato Mic ARM LP and the FaceCam on a Elgato Multi Mount surrounded by a Elgato Ring Light. On the back of my monitor lives a Philips Hue Light Bar to reduce the contrast between the back wall and the monitors.

My desk is a Furna Sit/Stand desk. I like the ability to jump between my ergonomically perfect (as approved by my lovely physiotherapist wife) sitting and standing positions. When I’m sitting, I’m sitting in a Herman Miller Aeron, probably the best chair ever made.

On my desk sits a Belkin wireless iPhone and Apple Watch charger so I can charge my watch while sitting and wear it overnight (I like tracking too much sleep and health data). For sound, I have Audioengine A5+ speakers and a Audioengine S8* subwoofer (I don’t like wearing headphones all day).

The wider room has 2 coloured light bulbs to allow me to have mood lighting and more customisation when doing video calls.

When I want to relax, I switch the USB hub to play on my Windows gaming PC with my keyboard/mouse/microphone/webcam combination above. I built it myself so the hardware is always changing but I also have a Valve Index VR setup which I’m fond of to really cut myself off from the world and relax more quickly.

And what are the favorite items in your workspace?

The M1 MacBooks are absurdly fast and generally nice hardware. The Magic Trackpad’s use of gestures and massive service is great for navigation. The Aeron is a great chair.

What is your software setup?

I run the latest (sometimes beta, thanks Homebrew) macOS with as close to default settings as possible. I use Apple’s default tooling (e.g. Terminal over iTerm, Notes over Evernote) when possible until I find it too annoying or limiting. Examples of these cases are my use of Airmail over Mail (I use GitHub email notifications heavily so a great client is important) and Fantastical over Calendar. I have a fairly absurd number of email accounts and calendars so I can turn them on/off depending on whether I’m working/playing/family timing.

Everything that I have to remember (including mundane things like “empty dishwasher every day”) is either in Airmail, Reminders, Notes or Fantastical. Everything is synced to iCloud or pushed to GitHub. I can nuke my system and get myself up and running to pushing code with Strap in under an hour.

I spend a reasonable amount of time in the terminal (check out my dot files) but tend to like graphical editors and tools where I can, for example VS Code for text editing (although I’m dabbling with QtCreator again) and Fork for doing line-by-line Git commits.

1Password saves me an absurd amount of time and pain and I use it everywhere I can.

I’m still rocking Safari as my primary browser. When I really need a Chromium-based one: I use Microsoft Edge (I wouldn’t recommend it) just to be difficult as I worry about Chrome’s monoculture.

For wasting time, I have Ivory for Mastodon (RIP Tweetbot) and Reeder for RSS Feeds and a Read Later service. These are both limited with ScreenTime to avoid me wasting too much time. I get 1 minute of Reddit a day. If I want more: I don’t have the PIN and have to ask my wife. I’m not going to do that: it’s too embarrassing.

What are your favorite programming or scripting languages?

Ruby is my favourite language for more involved scripting and, usually with Rails, for building web applications quickly.

Bash is basically terrible but I secretly love it for too many things.

Go is nice for high-performance network applications but a bit sterile; it’s not as “fun” or “beautiful” as Ruby.

Is there anything you are missing in your setup?

I’d love to have more hardware-to-software bridging going on e.g. being able to script the raising/lowering of my desk.

I would like a way to auto-join video calls so I’m not late to them.

What book comes to your mind that you would like others to read?

I mostly read fiction nowadays. Probably the most influential non-fiction to work is “The Design of Everyday Things” by Donald Norman. It’s just great when you’re designing any system in thinking through how to make things pleasant instead of annoying.

My favourite recent fiction recommendation would be anything recentish my Peter F. Hamilton or Alistair Reynolds, two wonderful British science-fiction authors.

My name is Daniel Stenberg. I am a Swedish software developer. Mostly known for being the founder and lead developer of the curl project. I work full-time on Open Source from my home office.

What is your hardware setup?

My hardware and office setup is focused on my curl work. I develop software as my primary thing. I run two 27-inch screens attached to my desktop PC as my primary workhorse. I have some additional computers around for when my desktop is not enough. I run Debian Linux on my machines when I get to choose, but I have some other alternatives for when those are needed.

I have been working from home exclusively for over nine years now. I do Open Source development and the occasional live stream and webinar from this place. I spend all my work days here and often a few additional spare time hours later. I never game.

My home office is on the upper floor of my house in a southern suburb of Stockholm, Sweden.

The desk is a 300cm wide, 60cm deep homemade creation, designed to fit within the doors in the wall immediately next to the table on both sides. My original idea was to leave space to allow more than one person to work at it.

Office overview

A - Here are boxes from recent purchases and gifts that arrived. Not really for my work benefit, but good to keep it around for a while before recycling in case I need to return stuff or similar.

B - This is the new development machine that I was preparing to switch to and use as my main driver “any day now.” It is a PC running a recent Intel CPU and Debian Unstable Linux, with a fast SSD and fast memory. Meant to compile fast. I have since switched it with the machine in E.

C - An old loudspeaker from a long time ago for when I want sound. I often just use headphones (to save my family from my sounds and let the noise canceling save me from my family’s sounds) so this is not used terribly much. My wireless headphones (Bose Quiet Comfort 35) are not in this photo.

D - cable mess. I counted 29 used power plugs a while ago. I have a plan to do something to hide this better, but that has not materialized yet, obviously.

E - My old trusted old development machine. Runs Debian Unstable, with two 27 inch 4K screens. Nowadays, switched with the (A) machine.

F - backpacks. One for short stay-over trips and one I use for day trips when I do talks etc. They usually should not just be out on the floor like this, but when I took this photo, I had not done my job right.

G - my work laptop. It’s a 14-inch Lenovo 540s running Debian Unstable. I never work a lot from a laptop but when I do this is my machine. It is light enough to be easy to bring with me wherever I like. Not very powerful.

H - my headset. A light Sennheiser set with a cable for meetings, talks, webinars etc.

I - A USB hub to provide a set of extra USB ports for when the ones in the PC are not enough or not close enough.

J - Mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Red switches. I average at some 8 million key presses per year.

K - USB charger. A micro USB, USB-C and my Fitbit cables are on the table. Next to that is my ethernet to USB “dongle,” as one of my laptops doesn’t have an RJ45.

L - Two extra computers: this is a Lenovo 13 on top that runs Windows, which I use for video conferencing and the like when those glitch, or work suboptimally on Linux. Underneath is one of my Mac Minis I use for curl development when I need to work on macOS specific issues. This is the M1 version. I also have an x86 version, but that is not in this picture.

M - Extra temp screen and keyboard. Right now, this set is attached to computer (B) but I also use it for the ones in (L) when necessary. Depending on work.

N - Led light, for when I need extra bright lighting, perhaps when doing video conferences or streaming. (A gift from GitHub)

O - Kid drawings with curl theme. To keep my spirits up! The left one is from my daughter from many years back, and the right one is a more recent one from a friend’s daughter.

P - I have three of these spotlights to provide pleasant light during the dark hours. The two ceiling windows do provide adequate and rather nice light for the bright hours, but I live in Sweden and we have extended periods of darkness during winter.

Q - GitHub coasters. I need to put my coffee cup on something!

Extras explained

A - art work. A gift from curl’s 20th birthday. It features 20 * 365 small lines for everyday curl had existed, but with a twitch: they also form the big letter ‘c’ in a kind of subtle way.

B - a wooden robot that can be modified to stand or sit in different positions.

C - a GitHub star logo led thing. Powered by USB and controlled with the little remote that is on the table next to it. It can be set to different colors and numerous different light patterns. From mildly disturbing to highly annoying.

D - A wooden 3d puzzle thing in its solved shape. A gift from GitHub.

E - My Polhem Prize award. A gold medal. But in this picture there are two old chocolate fake Polhem Prize awards lying on top of, hiding the real medal.

F - A “korpen” medal I received a few years ago when my team won a floorball tournament. Gold-colored plastic.

G - My GitHub star award

And what are the favorite items in your workspace?

My gold medal award from the Polhem Prize. I keep it on my desk to remind me and keep me happy. I’m a pragmatic and my things are generally in place and in use for their practical purposes, not so much for their aesthetics. My workspace items are there to help me be productive in what I do during my time at the desk.

What is your software setup?

I run Debian Linux on most of my computers. On Linux, I prefer using KDE/Plasma on the desktop. On the desktop, I run Emacs for coding and development, I use Konsole as terminal and I use make, C compilers and gdb a lot. Old style development I guess you would call it. I use Firefox for browsing.

What are your favorite programming or scripting languages?

Most of my programming is done with C (not C++ if I have a say). The main projects I maintain are written in C. But when I need to hack something quick together or perhaps parse a lot of text, I like doing such things in Perl. Or when even simpler: in shell scripts.

Is there anything you are missing in your setup?

I have thought about a HDMI/keyboard switch to allow me more easily switch between my different spare computers into the left “backup screen” to make it a lesser hassle to alter between those machines, but I haven’t yet decided nor found a product that would be suitable.

I need to do something about the cable mess underneath the desk. Either hide them in a container of some sorts or attach a “cable basket/holder” to the underside of the table to make them less visible. And to make it easier to vacuum under the table.

What book comes to your mind that you would like others to read?

“Uncurled” by Daniel Stenberg :-)

My name’s Roman. I’m a senior engineer in one of the fintech companies in Hong Kong. Been doing all sorts of projects in different environments over the years, but most of them were always web tech related in one way or another.

I keep a low profile on all socials, but you might see my commits here and there in open-source. However, most of the work I do is closed-source.

Yet to write any books, but when I will, it will probably be about work-life balance and stress resiliency in times of uncertainty in tech ( <- think I have my book title there) and perfect workspace ergonomics.

What is your hardware setup?

Two years ago, after moving into the new apartment, I set myself on a goal to create the best and most efficient workspace for myself I ever had, and two years after, it’s still a work in progress hah (*like most of the things in software).

I use three different computer-like devices.

For my work, I don’t need a super powerful station, as most of it I’m doing in a cloud VM, where all the computation is done, and I just need a device to connect to it. So my M1 Mac Mini serves the purpose ideally. I’ve recently discovered that it only supports two monitors upon buying a 3rd one and trying to connect it. So now I have my old MackBook Pro connected as a 3rd as an extended display.

In general, I really favor mobility as I’ve been traveling a lot before Covid put it all on hold, so I have that laptop. Still, I’ve recently tested iPad Pro with a keyboard; surprisingly, it works great for all my needs! Going forward I’m planning to retire the MacBook.

Nonetheless, all those devices assemble into one big station on my desktop with the magic of OSX’s Universal Control, where I can use the same keyboard and mouse control across all of them.

Peripherals

For monitors, I’ve always been a fan of Dell, so I have

• 4k S2721QS
• oldish but still goodish ultra-wide U3415W
• MacBook Pro

This effectively gives me the following:

• 2 wide monitors for the main focus area
• 1 right-side monitor for less focus area
• 4 left-side least focus area, or 2 for wider details visibility (great for logs or long code samples to see it all without scrolling)

Plus 12" iPad, which I use for vid calls and drawing lately, and I’ve made the monitor arm work perfectly for that transforming the programming workspace into a designer workspace in seconds:

For mouse control, I have Apple’s Magic Trackpad. And my favorite and most used part of the whole thing is my ZSA Moonlander mechanical keyboard. More on that later.

Desk and Chair

I’ve always wanted to have a wide desk where I won’t have to sit 20 cm from a monitor and have no space for a coffee cup. Being through many small workspace office setups in the past and coffee shops, I’ve had enough of that low-budget vibe.

Since I didn’t know exactly what I wanted and needed to experiment first, I got myself an IKEA widest table with a manual crank cuz I love work standing. It fits perfectly for all sorts of arrangement experiments without feeling bad about it and has served me well for two years.

Though the low quality of the material is getting noticeable now (the table is curving under the angular pressure from the biggest heavy Dell monitor) and I’m tired of cranking the crank each time I need a lift, so I’m planning to retire it sometime this year for something more solid and with a lift motor.

The chair is THE Chair -> Herman Miller Embody -> best chair I ever had, and I’m so happy I’ve got a great deal for it as my spine, butt, and elbows are now really happy, hah.

Other table stuff

I love some whiteboarding from time to time and quick hand notes, so I’ve put a small one right next to me, and it’s easy to unplug it if I need to brainstorm with it somewhere else:

The cute little retro computer-like speaker from Divoom - Ditoo Plus. A great little fun toy. I really love the look, the clicks, and the sound for my needs is great.

Charges/holder for all Apple stuff from Belkin.

And a nice functional tray with a wireless charge from Orbitkey (you can see it wirelessly charging my book with good vibes there below 😊).

Light

An essential aspect of setting the mood and focus right.

First, it’s Benq Screen Bar plus - a great focus tool and an eye saver when coding at late hours or low lighting. Two Ikea side lights. It doesn’t matter which model as long as it’s not too bright.

And the bigger piece - a set of Nano Leaf wall panels. This is the best mood setter and home light automation solution I have ever had.

And what are the favorite items in your workspace?

It’s definitely the ZSA Moonlander mechanical keyboard. I’ve got so used to it! I take it everywhere where I need to work. I love the complete customization and coloring, which I’ve discovered is useful to mark particular actions of a button and not just for pretty flashy effects (which are also quite cool on this keyboard). And I can even drop using any other mouse control, as I can do it right from the keyboard, and it works everywhere! It transformed my productivity, mobility, and workflow in a good way.

The Second is Nano Leaf wall panels. I have five setups total across the apartment. The best part about them is the Scheduling function which allows me to group different panels to react in a specific way at a particular time of the day and switch on and off, indicating time periods. It helped me to be more strict with work time and know when it’s time to stop working: the 6 pm off-work schedule kicks in, and it’s time to wrap it up.

Also, it’s a perfect main light replacement and cozy mood setter. I rarely put on the ceiling light; it’s harsh, so warm light from light panels in different parts of the apartment sets a perfect accent for evening time. It also serves as an ideal reading light in the bedroom. And all of that on top of out-of-the-box features like sound reaction and gradients, making it a perfect filling for playing games, watching movies, or music.

Game consoles

I thought I would play after work, but I barely ever play, and only when friends come over. I’ve only kept my old Nintendo Switch and PS4 and won’t invest in all the newer, fancier consoles.

What is your software setup?

Out of work, I use VS Code, Sublime, ZSH, and sometimes XCode.

At work, the main tool is Intellij IDEA with high contrast dark theme (I found it visible in any light setting, even when the sun directly hits the screen).

At home, I also use Spectacle for fast desk windows across desktop arrangements - probably a bit outdated with this, but I got so used to it so much that I haven’t changed it in years.

And ClearVPN is perfect for VPN stuff across all my devices.

What are your favorite programming or scripting languages?

JS is my skill of the trade, but the best experience I had was with Ruby and Go. JS does not have a healthy community and practices vs Ruby and Go, where people make an effort to make things right from the start. By “right,” I mean not just doing the “thing” but also caring about DX. Apart from that, I would like to find some time for Rust.

Is there anything you are missing in your setup?

It’s a constant WIP, there’s always something I would want to change, and I like it this way: transforming my space around is how I can keep it constantly fresh. A new major item to update this year is the table. I might trade in the Macbook I have now for the new M2 Macbook Air to keep it up to date. And I am considering getting some items from Grovemade and some new clicky key switches, cables, etc., for the keyboard. And definitely a new desktop mat.

What book comes to your mind that you would like others to read?

Last year was major, with many events happening affecting me and the world, so I’d recommend people re-reading 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (the last one in a paper edition is the best). Looking at world leaders and certain business people, they’ve taken these two as recipes for governing the world. Crazy to think what was a utopian fantasy before is coming into reality now, which I hope we (humanity) will get ourselves rid of eventually.

Hey there.

My name is James Stanier, and people probably know me best from my books and website. I wrote Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager, which is a hands-on manual for engineers making the transition into leadership. I also wrote Effective Remote Work, which is a guidebook to transitioning our habits, tools and cultures to remote.

I run The Engineering Manager, and in my day job I’m Director of Engineering at Shopify, which is a fantastic company to work for.

I live in a rural part of Cumbria in the UK, in a small village of around 250 people. There are more farm animals here than humans.

What is your hardware setup?

For work, I use an M1 MacBook Pro, which is standard issue for Shopify employees. You can see that on the raised stand to the right of the monitor. Eagle-eyed readers will also spot a Mac Mini, which is my personal desktop machine. Out of shot I have an M2 MacBook Air which is my personal laptop. The monitor is the 27" Apple Studio Display, which is a thing of beauty. Headphones are the AirPods Max for home, and Air Pods Pro for travel.

I get a lot of questions about my keyboard and mouse. I’ve been a user of the Kinesis Advantage 2 for nearly 10 years now. Not only did it help with comfort and preventing RSI, it greatly increased my typing speed, which is handy when you spend most of your day writing. It does sound a little like a machine gun though, as those who used to work near me in offices would attest to. The mouse is an Evolent VerticalMouse 4 which, again, is just far more comfortable to use for longer periods of time.

For my webcam, it’s an Insta 360 Link, which is a 4K camera with good depth-of-field and low light support. It also has a self-stablizing gimble and can follow you around with face tracking. The microphone is a Shure MV-7 attached to a Rode PSA1 boom arm that clamps to the desk.

The desk itself is a Herman Miller Ratio sit-stand desk, that has automatic raising and lowering, which is pretty neat. The chair is a Herman Miller Mirra 2.

Front lighting is provided by two Elgato Key Light Airs, and I typically have one side emitting cool white light and the other emitting warm yellow light so I don’t look washed out on camera. There’s an Elgato Stream Deck that I use for controlling my front lighting, and also my rear lighting which is various Philips Hue lights behind my sideboard. This means when I’m on camera, I look something like this.

Next to my desk in my office I have my fun equipment too: a Roland electronic drum kit and a couple of guitars. Sometimes if you’re having a think about something it can be useful to keep your hands busy until the idea materializes.

Oh, and clearly I have put zero effort into neat cable management. Nevermind.

And what are the favorite items in your workspace?

My keyboard is definitely one of them. It is a superpower for productivity because it’s so fast and efficient. I’m writing this response on a laptop right now and wincing over how terrible my hand positioning and keypress efficiency is in comparison!

The framed picture behind me of burning matchsticks is a collage my partner made me in celebration of the first paid piece of writing I ever had published a number of years ago, so that means a lot to me.

Also, I love my guitars, even if I don’t play them as much as I used to. They’ve been in my life for over 20 years, and if they’re sitting around in a room, I’m home.

What is your software setup?

If I need to do any programming, I’m a Visual Studio Code convert now. It’s great. Other than that, I use fairly vanilla software such as the native Mac OS applications like Safari, Mail and Notes, and for any kind of office tasks it’s the Google Workspace suite. For the command line, it’s iTerm 2. My website is run on WordPress, and I use Substack for the newsletter.

Oh, and I love spreadsheets. Spreadsheets are amazing.

What are your favorite programming or scripting languages?

When it comes to number of hours spent coding, it’s Java, which I am still very fond of and comfortable with, even if I’m not using it in my job any more. I still turn to Python for putting together small scripts. I’m being exposed to more and more Ruby as a result of working for Shopify, and I must admit, it’s a cool language.

However, as a senior manager, code isn’t where I get my biggest leverage now. It’s through writing, both inside and outside of work.

Is there anything you are missing in your setup?

Now that I’ve recently picked up the MacBook Air for around the rest of the house, I’m feeling pretty like it’s complete. Sometimes the cows can be pretty noisy though, so perhaps some more considerate neighbours?

What book comes to your mind that you would like others to read?

Ah, I find recommending books so hard. So maybe I could recommend a video instead, which is The Principles For Dealing With The Changing World Order by Ray Dalio. It’s a fascinating animation diving into 500+ years of macro-socioeconomic trends.

Hi! I’m Kasia and I’m a tech lead living in Berlin, Germany. I like tinkering with stuff, be it code, space and objects around me or various art mediums. Other than for programming, I use my work space for sewing, drawing, knitting and other kinds of craft.

It was quite a challenge to design such a multi purpose workspace which allows for easy switching between different activities. While designing it, it was my goal to have a setup which is functional and minimizes the effort to start on any activity I want to do. But in the same time, I strive to create an esthetically pleasing, cozy space with a vintage touch and to be able to showcase various trinkets and art pieces that I accumulated over the years of travelling and visiting fleamarkets.

What is your hardware setup?

For work, I use Macbooks provided by the company, models vary. After hours, I use an old, 13in MacBook Pro, early 2015 edition which is still going strong! I also use an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, mostly for drawing and taking notes.

I usually keep the laptop aside, and work on an external, 27in Dell monitor. I got rid of the basic leg attachment and mounted it using ICY BOX monitor mount which is super convenient - it saves quite a lot of space on my desk. I also have a small, but feisty speaker - Klipsch The One in walnut finish.

When it comes to ergonomics, I really like my standing desk with custom walnut top from Standidesk. I only use a vertical, wireless mouse - touchpads or traditional mouse are triggering my wrist pain. For personal use I have a mini wireless Apple keyboard (without numeric panel on the right) as I need to move it around a lot when I’m crafting. For daily work I prefer using split keyboard. My all time favorite is Kinesis Freestyle 2, along with padded palm support and tilt accessories. I love the low profile, low force keys - I find that both factors contribute to much less tension in my wrists and hands.

I tested different ergonomic chairs, but surprisingly a game changer for me was a simple, rotating chair from Ikea. Hard surface encourages me to maintain a neutral, ergonomic position with my back straight and not to be completely still. One good advice I got was to make sure you can breath using your diaphragm fully while sitting and I found that crucial thing here was lowering the desk - it was too high and created the tension in my arms. Using soft, ergonomic chairs was often leaving me with tension in unexpected muscles, so I just switched.

For sewing I use two different sewing machines: for basic usage I have Juki XZL DX3 and for finishing I use overlock/coverlock machine Juki MO-735. Juki is a japanese brand that I found quite reliable, and they provide excellent technical drawings of all the components and configuration. Especially in case of overlock sewing machine, which deals with up to 5 spools of thread, having clear, visual instructions is crucial. The second machine is quite unique - less than 5 minutes of reconfiguring and it transforms into a coverlock, which usually is a different kind of a sewing machine. So it’s very versatile.

I also have a bunch of different art & craft supplies - I love my huge cutting mat and rotary cutter, inks and nibs, Polychromos colored pencils, watercolors and ceramic palettes. I also have a hobby Daylight LED lamp which is super useful for working with details.

And what are the favorite items in your workspace?

In general, I really appreciate that all of my passions come together here. I used to feel bad for having that many creative outlets - I thought it makes it harder for me to be a good engineer, but the truth is - it does the opposite. And now I embrace all sides of my craftsmanship.

In the process of designing this workspace I had to ask myself - what is my usual process for brainstorming the design for a new feature? What do I need to be comfortable and focused during video meetings? What do I need to stay focused and inspired when I’m sketching a new illustration? How do I use the space best when I need to cut into 5 meters of fabric? It was super enlightening to give so much thoughts to how I work and try out different settings - I learned a ton about myself and my creative process.

Aesthetically, I love my Rohrer&Klingner ink bootles, my apothecary drawer shelves with all the trinkets and fencing chinchillas’ art print by Paweł Ponichtera. I started epee fencing last year and love to have this little reminder in my personal space. I also love the beetle plushie holding a piece of cheese and a spool of thread commisioned by my husband from Little Hugsters.

I like having a couple of different sources of light - fairy lights and LED candles, strong LED lamp for crafting and small lamps providing ambient light. I’m not a fan of super bright light and need a couple of dim light sources to be the most comfortable. The artificial white light is one of the reasons I’m not coming back to the office on a permanent basis!

Any favourite programs/apps/tools?

My current editor of choice is VSCode with Vim bindings, I quite like its pair programming feature (Live Share) too. And there’s so many other extensions that make my life easier, like tabnine.

I use flux on max yellow setting all day so that my eyes don’t get tired. I also use the lowest brightness on my monitor - if you have sensitive eyes I strongly recommend doing that!

On my iPad I use Procreate - great for sketchnoting and drawing. For more traditional text notes that I would need in digital form I use Nebo - an app that transforms your handwriting with Apple Pencil to digital text. It’s also useful for writing my German assignments as it supports a bunch of languages and to me it’s easier that changing keyboard settings over and over. I also tested Nomad - a 3D modelling app with an amazing UI, and I would love to come back to it and explore the topic of 3D printing more.

Lat but not least - for brainstorming I really like using a physical notebook - the bigger the better, along with colored pencils - they are great for sketchnotes. I love Faber Castell Polychromos colored pencils, they have amazing color range and feel super smooth on paper. They are expensive when you are getting a big set, since those are artist grade pencils, but you can buy single colors in art supply store - and for sketchnoting you won’t be needing more that 3-5 colors anyway.

What are your favourite programming or scripting languages?

Definitely Ruby! I like that it’s verbose and concise. On top of that I appreciate the Ruby community a lot - great at discussing conventions, good design and adopting new concepts and practices. I was inspired by so many great folks in the community - Sandi Metz, David H. Hansson or Eileen M. Uchitelle just to name a few, as well as plenty of my colleagues with whom I had a pleasure to work over the years.

I also find it quite a remarkable entry level technology for building web apps. I was teaching Ruby in a couple of workshops (mostly, Rails Girls) and I love how convenient Ruby is in showcasing basic programming concepts as well as explaining how web apps work. In the same time, it really is a solid technology with good tooling (not just for development, but also monitoring, benchmarking etc.) that can be used to build great, scalable applications solving real world problems.

Is there anything you are missing in your setup?

I would like to get a camera that I can mount on top of my screen - for now, in order to have video calls, I need to get my laptop back in front of me.

I also want to 3D print this ink and nib holder. And to hang all of my art, prints and postcards that I’ve gathered so far, but haven’t gotten around yet.

What book comes to your mind that you would like others to read?

One book I can recommend to everyone working with web applications is “System Design Interview” by Alex Xu - it’s technically meant to help in interviews, but the title doesn’t give it justice. It’s such a good read - the author basically takes different cases of scalability problems and takes us through designing a system that meets the requirements and iterates on improving it. It is very engaging and so interesting to read - you can finish it in one weekend. Maybe it’s just me, because I really enjoy those kinds of system design challenges, but I think it is also super informative. It gives you a nice framework to go about scalability problems and thus it’s not that intimidating anymore. It’s a great basis for any further deep dives.

I also enjoy reading stories a lot. One that I read and appreciated not so long ago would be “Revenge: Eleven dark tales” by Yoko Ogawa - it’s a book of short, quirky stories, which are all interconnected. I love the atmosphere that gets you immersed in the stories very quickly and lingers even after you read it. There’s a strongly bizarre feeling to it, which you may know from the works of Haruki Murakami - if you like it, you should enjoy those stories too!

My name is Denys, and I work as a principal software engineer. I’m a full-time father in my free time, and I work on my personal projects if any minutes are left. I run an Ubuntu on a home server and a Hackintosh on my desktop. So it spares no free time at all.

What is your hardware setup?

Mostly it’s a MacBook pro provided by the employer. As a desktop, I have a Hackintosh and Windows 10 for games in dual boot. The home server is based on Atom and is about 10 years old (but running very well).

You see an M2 MacBook pro in the photos. It’s my wife’s. But, of course, I use it too. Currently, I’m considering selling my desktop as I believe that Apple will only support Intel for a short time.

As for peripherals, I have an Ergodox EZ keyboard and a Kensington Trackball. Most apps let me use just the keyboard, so I rarely touch the trackball.

I have a very minimalistic KVM. It has no video switchover. Just USB. I have an extra step to bother with monitor settings. But no limitations for 4..8..128K of the future monitors by a cheap KVM.

I recently upgraded my laptop setup to a “single cable” with an Anker hub. Very convenient and the best quality for the money.

I have a 1Gbit managed switch under the table. Unfortunately, my desktop’s “remote power button” turned out to have a bad design, so I had to hide its blue indicator under the scotch tape. And an audio cable is much better than a cheap USB audio device. But all that does the trick - I can hide my desktop under the desk.

And what are the favorite items in your workspace?

Keyboard. I have spent many hours tinkering with its layout. And it makes my inner child happy when the LED change colour on the layer switch.

Also, I like my shelves. They don’t have crazy capacity but it pushes me to minimalism, and to sell stuff I don’t really use.

Any favorite programs/apps/tools?

It’s the latest macOS, Brave with Vimium, iTerm with Oh my Zsh, MacVim and Obsidian. So I’ve got a Hackintosh for my personal projects: the most affordable way to run my software elsewhere.

Of course, I use IntelliJ for Kotlin and Scala. Still trying to figure out how to move them well to Vim.

What are your favorite programming or scripting languages?

Ruby. It will always be in my heart. If I need to solve some system administrator task or automate something, it’s the first (and the only) go-to tool.

I also do Kotlin at work and for some of my personal projects. Used to do Scala, but Kotlin brides with its simplicity.

Is there anything you are missing in your setup?

I’d like to experiment with my chair. Trying a fitness ball, a saddle chair, or one for knees is something for 2023. Although my current chair still holds together, I bought it used two years ago. So, naturally, it’s the first upgrade. I was thinking of a walking treadmill. But it’s a significant investment.

What book comes to your mind that you would like others to read?

Domain Modeling Made Functional. Everyone who is into object-oriented programming should try FP elements, at least.

I’m Peter Cooper, a programmer and newsletter publisher from the UK. I’m best known for publishing newsletters like JavaScript Weekly, Ruby Weekly, plus several others which can be found here. I also spend a lot of time researching, playing around with developer tools, and generally trying to keep the saw sharp!

I previously worked in a nearby office with my employees but since COVID we’ve all ended up working from home and quite like it. We’ve kept the office as it’s still full of stuff, but I now mostly work from a spare room that I’ve commandeered and turned into an “office” of sorts. It it still pretty junked up though and remains a “work in progress” after two years.

I am not one for tidiness at the best of times though, so it suits me just fine, and may provide some nice balance given how everyone else has such tidy, attractive workspaces!

What is your hardware setup?

Currently I plug my 14" M1-based MacBook Pro into a LG Ultrafine 27" 5K monitor and a secondary Acer 4K monitor.

I used to use an iMac Pro but this is streets ahead. I previously had a 15" M1 MacBook Pro but kept running out of memory. With 64GB in the 14" one, it’s a lot faster still and doesn’t sweat at all. So now I can use the same machine whether I’m at my desk or sat on the couch which is nice.

At my desk I use the wireless Apple Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad and actually prefer these to every fancier keyboard or pointer I have tried. These are absolutely perfect for me.

I also have the typical array of secondary devices: Android tablets, iPads, backup MacBook Pros, even a Thinkpad which I’m playing around with.

I also have a Microsoft Surface Book 3 which I hated for years until I discovered its “presentation” or “canvas” mode where it basically acts like a back to front notebook or a semi-tablet. It’s fantastic for large screen browsing, simple gaming, watching YouTube, showing dashboards or spreadsheets, and the like.

And what are the favorite items in your workspace?

When I’m actually at my desk, I quite like having a vinyl record player (Audio Technica AT-LP120), CD player (Arcam something), and some reasonably good speakers (Q Acoustics something) at my disposal. I do like good sound!

Beyond that I am not very sentimental or anything so I can pretty much work anywhere if I have to.

What is your software setup?

On my MacBook Pro I run macOS and spend most of my life in either a browser (Chrome, usually), Photoshop, Screenflow, Inkdrop, Telegram, iTerm 2, or Visual Studio Code. That makes up about 99% of my workday.

InkDrop is well worth checking out as it’s probably the least well known program I use. The developer does some absolutely fantastic screencasts about how to use it. It’s a Markdown-based information organization and note taking app.

What are your favorite programming or scripting languages?

I experiment and play with a lot of things, but I’ve primarily been a Rubyist for 18 years now. Prior to that I was into Perl for several years, and before that I was programming on DOS in Pascal, C, and originally BASIC.

I now spend most of my time with Ruby, shell scripting or, increasingly, Python. JavaScript creeps in all over the place as well, given my work, and I still keep a hand in with C, though mostly by reading it rather than writing.

Is there anything you are missing in your setup?

Probably time! Which isn’t my setup’s fault ;-)

I don’t spend as much time at my desk as I would like as I have other responsibilities around the house, etc. But maybe one day I can focus more on it.

I would like more space and something a bit more dedicated than a spare room, but sometimes practicalities get in the way. I don’t want to upgrade my entire house to suit my work environment, so it’s probably better that I continue to adapt by using smaller and more flexible tools. The M1 MacBook Pro has helped a lot with that by cramming so much power into such a tiny unit.

What book comes to your mind that you would like others to read?

The older I’ve gotten, the less I’ve realized universal recommendations make any sense. So I don’t have anything I would specifically request others to read.

But I am a particular fan of medical memoirs. “Do No Harm” by Henry Marsh is a fantastic look behind the scenes at how a brain surgeon operates (literally and figuratively), the emotional impact of the work, and how systemic factors impinge upon surgeons’ ability to deliver good results.

Although medicine is significantly more important to the individual, there are surprisingly a lot of systems-level parallels with software development - surgeons and software developers deal with a lot of similar bureaucracy, decisions, and problematic interactions with stakeholders, even if a programmer isn’t usually dealing with life or death!

I am Nikita, a programmer with a side hobby of UI/UX and design. My most notable projects are DataScript, Rum and Grumpy.Website. I also createad one of the most popular programming fonts: Fira Code.

I moved to Berlin three years ago from the middle of Siberia and I love winters a lot more now. You can always find me tweeting @nikitonsky.

What is your hardware setup?

One laptop to rule them all: M1 MacBook Pro 14". I was also quite happy with M1 Air before it, but this one has a much better 254 DPI 120 Hz screen.

Top lid is branded with logos from my open-source projects that I designed myself. I’m not huge fan of stickers but it does give it personal touch.

For monitor I use 27" LG UltraGear 27GP950-B. It’s 4K, which is equivalent to 1080p at 2× scaling. Many people find it too large for their taste, but I don’t mind. Any scaling factor besides integers (1× or 2×) look too bad to my eye anyway.

Another important feature of LG 27GP950-B is 144 Hz refresh rate. Because I love smooth animations and much lower latency, even though I work primarily with text. It’s still very noticeable. In fact, after I bought my MBP and upgraded iPhone to 13, all my screens are 120+ Hz and wide color gamut, which is a great place to be.

As a stand, I use BONTEC Monitor Bracket and Amazon Basic (I think) laptop holder. I don’t really rely on a second screen though and would perfectly fine with just one.

Keyboard is Helix with red Kailh Chocolate V2 Low Profile switches and MBK Choc Low Profile Keycaps that I had to order from Japan and solder myself. Notable details: silent (-ish, at least compared to blues which were so noisy people started complaining), split (my hands ache otherwise), ortholinear (because staggered layouts make no sense), simple grid layout (looks nice), low profile because I like how it looks, 60% because I like pressing digits with single finger.

I don’t use mouse and rely on trackpad only, which works great on macOS. Make sure to enable tap to click and three-finger drag!

Headphones are old Bose QC35 which still work great. I’m not a big fan of music and I use them for noise reduction mostly. On the go I prefer Air Pods Pro because they are much smaller.

And what are the favorite items in your workspace?

I tried many different fidgets over the yeat, but begleri is the one that stuck with me for a long time. Make sure to buy the one that has metal ends covered in something soft — I destroyed at least one trackpad with metal ones.

I also love cable organizer from Ikea, how it makes all the cable mess look decent.

What is your software setup?

I’m a huge Sublime Text fan and have developed a few plugins for it over the years.

• Clojure Sublimed
• Sublime Executor
• Sublime Profiles

And a few color schemes:

• Alabaster
• Writer
• Commander

I love how well-made and fast Sublime Text is, and I also like that it doesn’t change too fast and it has no fat — no unnecesary features.

For Git, I use Sublime Merge which I find simple yet fantastic. Apple Terminal because I try not to do anything fancy in CLI, and it’s very fast.

Dash is an app that I thought I don’t need for most of my career, but discovered two years ago and now have it on a system-wide shortcut and in muscle memory. It’s fantastic.

Figma and Pixelmator Pro for graphic design.

1Password (I hate login with Google or any other social network and always login with email), Bartender for hiding rarely used menubar icons (it’s double useful on notched laptop screen), Dato to show calendar when I click on the clock, ColorSlurp for probing colors, Infuse for playing videos, Raycast as predictable Spotlight replacement, Telegram for blogging, content consumption and communication.

I am also trying to get off Google, so my setup is Firefox, DuckDuckGo, FastMail, Apple Calendar, Apple Photo.

Any favorite programs/apps/tools?

I prefer Syncthing to Dropbox/iCloud/Google Drive/One Drive for its simplicity and no-nonsense attitude.

Unsplash Wallpapers because I love having a beautiful new wallpaper every day.

Rectangle for controlling windows.

Karabiner Elements for remapping cursor keys to home row. Try it, it will change your life.

I am a huge fan of iA Writer, but have since replaced it with Sublime Text. One day, I’ll move EVERYTHING into Sublime :)

What are your favorite programming or scripting languages?

Clojure. As simple as that. I can’t help but enjoy doing anything in it. It’s also a language that resembles how I think the most: what I write is what I think, often literally.

Is there anything you are missing in your setup?

I wouldn’t mind 5K/120Hz monitor but those don’t exist yet. iMac Pro this year, Apple, please?

I am also dreaming of building even thinner split keyboard (Apple Magic Keyboard-like, but ortholinear and split) with wireless connection one day.

What book comes to your mind that you would like others to read?

I am not a huge books fan, but I watch movies a lot. From less obvious stuff that deserves a lot more attention than it gets (hidden gems) I can recommend, for example, Bored to Death, Get Shorty (TV series, don’t confuse it with the movie), The Fall (also a TV show), Slow West, Under the Skin, Dragged across Concrete, and, maybe, The Long Goodbye?

I’m Michiel Borkent, also known as @borkdude in various places on the web. I’m a software developer from The Netherlands. I’ve been working fully remote since 2016. I prefer working remotely over working in an office as I’m quite sensitive to sounds and movements around me. I started experimenting with Clojure in 2010 and have been using it ever since, while also dabbling with other languages. I’m mostly doing sponsored open source work within the Clojure community nowadays. The tools I’m most known for are babashka and clj-kondo. Babashka is a scripting environment for Clojure with batteries included and similar fast startup time as bash. Clj-kondo is a static analyzer and linter for Clojure, which is useful on its own but is also one of the building blocks of clojure-lsp. Check out my Github profile to see what I’m currently working on.

What is your hardware setup?

I’ve been using Mac laptops since around the same time I started exploring Clojure. I don’t think that was a co-incidence because Windows, which I used before that, wasn’t usually treated as a first-class citizen in developer tooling then. I recently migrated from a Macbook Pro 15" 2019 i9 to a Macbook Air 13" 2020 M1. Initially I intended to only replace my travel laptop with the M1 but it turned out to be more performant so I switched completely.

I like working from coffee places on my laptop. The 13" screen was a bit of a downgrade from the 15" one in this mode of working, but I feel that bigger screens don’t make me more productive. I can go for hours on just the laptop. I’ve also been doing that at home for about a year, while sitting at the dinner table, but started to get neck aches due to bad posture. After having moved back to my desk, I noticed that the Dell Full HD 24" screen I was using looked very pixelated compared to the Retina screen of my laptop. After a week I wasn’t used to that and asked around for good monitors compatible with Macs. I decided to go for an LG 5K Ultrafine 27". It’s quite the upgrade and I’m happy with it so far.

In the last company I was in, I was working on a project which demanded quite some memory due to an in-memory index. In that job, I’ve bought several new machines to keep up with that. Eventually I assembled a PC and installed Windows + WSL2 on it, so I would never have to buy a new machine for that project again. You can read about that here. It has an AMD Ryzen 9 3950X processor and 128GB memory. You can see all the specs here. Right now I’m only using this machine to test Windows or linux-specific issues with my open source projects, so for that purpose it’s quite over-spec-ed, but it did the job in that specific project. The plan of moving my development to WSL2 didn’t pan out as I’m still using macOS most of the time.

I don’t have any fancy keyboards and just use the standard Apple Magic keyboard and mouse. I recently bought an Apple touchpad and sometimes switch between that and the mouse.

I have a Blue Yeti USB microphone which I bought after I was on a podcast and noticed the subpar sound quality from my laptop. Since then I’m using that whenever I’m guesting on something that is recorded. For meetings I usually don’t bother connecting it and now use my Sennheiser HD4.50 bluetooth headphones with noise cancelling and built-in mic. In general I like Sennheisser’s sound better than brands like Bose and Apple, so when the time comes to upgrade this, I’ll probably be looking into Sennheiser again but in a higher segment for even better sound quality.

On each side of my desk I have a Dali Zensor 1 speaker connected to a small Denon hi-fi set (DM39 DAB Micro System), which is connected to my screen via a quite old external sound card (M-audio MobilePre). I use it to play music: mostly progressive rock and metal, through our living room, where my desk is. My wife also still uses it to play CDs, mostly early music and Bach.

I sit on a Steelcase Leap Office Chair which I bought second hand. I liked it so much that I also bought my wife one.

In the winter I use a HappyLite in the mornings to compensate for the dark days.

And what are the favorite items in your workspace?

Probably the Macbook Air and the new LG 5K monitor. The laptop is very light, yet performant, so it’s perfect for travel, working at a coffee place and at home. I just connect one USB-C cable from the new monitor and I can continue my work. The monitor feels like an extension of the laptop’s smaller high quality screen.

What is your software setup?

I use Emacs for all my coding. The setup is based on Bozhidar Batsov’s prelude. Like many Clojure developers, I use CIDER which relies on runtime information from a running REPL, but also clojure-lsp which exclusively relies on static analysis, an interestingly powerful combination. Clojure-lsp is using clj-kondo, the static analyzer and linter I wrote for Clojure for its Clojure analysis. When I started clj-kondo, I didn’t realize that it would benefit me in this way later on. It’s funny how these things can come together in the OSS world.

I use iTerm2 as the terminal application with zsh as the shell together with oh-my-zsh.

Any favorite programs/apps/tools?

Emacs is an all-time favorite. It’s comforting that a project from 1976 can still be relevant today, especially with all the churn in programming languages and tooling we see today.

Recently I discovered difftastic which improved the git diff experience when reading Clojure pull requests locally. Wilfred did an amazing job on that.

During travel, I use TripMode to save on mobile data usage.

It’s gone a little bit out of fashion, but I still use Dropbox for synchronizing personal documents that are not in a git repository on Github.

As already mentioned, Clojure-lsp has become a boost to my daily Clojure development.

Magit is indispensable when it comes to working with git inside Emacs.

What are your favorite programming or scripting languages?

I’ve dabbled with various languages during my career as a software developer and will continue to do so. I started out with Common Lisp during an internship. The code-as-data-structure approach was mindblowing to me. When entering the industry I was quite disappointed with the proliferation of OOP and verbose frameworks. I didn’t feel like learning what J2EE was, it sounded so boring to me. I joined a company which happened to use C#. I started using F# in my spare time which I quite liked, but soon after, I discovered Clojure and it stuck with me ever since. I still like learning new languages like Haskell or Rust, but I keep coming back to Clojure when I want to get things done. Perhaps Clojure just matches how my brain works, more than other programming languages that I’ve used.

Clojure is a Lisp dialect which runs on the JVM and emphasizes interactive, functional and data-oriented programming. For scripting, compared to bash, it feels quite heavy and a bit slow too start. This is why I started the babashka project which compiles a Clojure interpreter, written in Clojure, which almost support the full language, to a native binary for ultra-fast startup using GraalVM native-image. Babashka comes with various built-in libraries which makes it a complete, standalone tool. There is also a variant of Clojure which compiles to JS: ClojureScript. Since the Clojure interpreter I wrote, SCI, also works inside ClojureScript, there is a similar scripting project which targets Node.js: it’s called nbb: Node.js babashka.

Is there anything you are missing in your setup?

I’m quite satisfied with what I have. When I was in a band as a keyboardist and vocalist, I used to take keyboard solo lessons from a virtuous keyboardist. I asked if I should upgrade my synthesizer. He told me: it’s not about the gear. It’s more about practice than having more advanced tooling. That comment is still in the back of my mind whenever I’m tempted to pimp my setup. Of course it’s important to buy things that last and keep you healthy, like a good office chair, so I won’t save money on that, but I feel my setup is in pretty good shape right now.

What book comes to your mind that you would like others to read?

I should really read more books. Most of my time is spent on actually writing software. When I wrote SCI, I discovered that I had been implementing what was described in Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs and when I read the chapter about optimizations, I applied a couple of those techniques.

I’d like others to discover Clojure. Perhaps it will match your brain, or it won’t. You will only find out after using it for a while. But if it does match your brain sufficiently, there is no way back. I enjoyed The Joy of Clojure by Michael Fogus and Chris Houser when I got into Clojure myself. I think doing and reading is probably the best combination to master a new language.

I’m Chris, a software engineer based in the UK.

I worked in finance for seventeen years, but recently left to join a startup. 100% WFH has changed my life for the better. I now get to see my young son in the evenings; I avoid a three-hour-daily commute and save £5,000 in annual train fares to London.

Back in 2013 I took a year out of work to teach myself Scala. I built a rentals marketplace website as a pet project to focus my learning. The website didn’t work out, but learning Scala reinvigorated my love of coding, and gave me a marketable new skill.

Seventeen years ago I built an online caption contest which I still run, and I’m currently converting its tens of thousands of lines of PHP code into Scala/ReactJS.

What is your hardware setup?

I have a couple of high-spec silent Linux PCs built by QuietPC. One of them has 128GB of RAM, and hosts a large (100M+ nodes, 1B+ connections) graph database in memory for a personal project I’m working on called “journo bot,” which can classify tweets in real-time for a given topic or local area of interest.

For my day job I have an M1 Macbook Pro, which is astonishingly fast. Having been forced to use Windows PCs throughout my time in finance, it’s an absolute joy to finally use MacOS and Mac hardware for career-related purposes

The monitors are Dell Ultrasharps: two 32" screens and a 49". The ultra-wide format is perfect for development work. I can have my IDE in the centre of my field of vision (rather than the pair of bezels that I used to have with a two-monitor setup), and apps, docs, log files and terminals in the periphery.

And what are the favorite items in your workspace?

Herman Miller Aeron chair - it is the king of ergonomic chairs, and has a vented seat and back-rest which is great in the summer. An AEG portable A/C helps, too, but is pretty noisy.

High-impedance headphones (Beyerdynamic DT 1770 Pros) and a quality headphone amp (Marantz HD-DAC1) do magical things with high-res audio from my iPhone.

Any favorite programs/apps/tools?

IntelliJ is my go-to IDE. Always evolving. Great ecosystem of plugins. Great in nearly all major programming languages and database management.

ReactJS makes web development fun. I added a drag-and-drop photo upload feature (powered by FilePond) to my caption contest site the other day, and it was trivially easy to wire in.

I use Barrier as software KVM (allowing me to move my mouse pointer seamlessly across the monitors despite them being plugged into separate machines)

Behind me, I have another Macbook Pro rigged up to an 88-key MIDI controller keyboard, running Keyscape, a software synth. I’d recommend this if you’re into classic electric pianos (watch this amazing demo video and you’ll see what I mean).

Is there anything you are missing in your setup?

I’d like to have a couple of wall-mounted TVs for Grafana.

I use Grafana to track everything I can - all the usual PC stats, plus temperature and CO2 levels across the house (using Raspberry Pis), the value of my home and investments, the progress of my social media bots.

What book comes to your mind that you would like others to read?

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. Don’t be put off by the fact it’s a self-help book. It focuses on building a character ethic that is universal and timeless. A unique and worthwhile read.

I’m Martin Jones, and I am a freelance technical instructor. During the pandemic, I have been teaching with a station that has helped me to apply technology not typically used in person and helped reduce the disconnect caused by being remote.

What is your hardware setup?

My setup is naturally very different to one for a developer. There’s not a lot in the way of fancy specs. For example, consider the keyboard. You might like a nice mechanical keyboard (I have an ErgoDox on my dev station, which isn’t shown). That’d be too big and noisy for the teaching station. A membrane keyboard is a better choice for the audience’s experience, and it needs to be small because the station is tight on the instructor.

The picture above shows the teaching station in the lowered position, and the following list provides the key:

1. Homemade sit/stand desk.
2. Video lighting
3. Shock-mounted microphone (travels up with shelf)
4. Teleprompter monitor
5. Safe (never broadcast) monitor
6. Output monitor
7. Presentation monitors
8. Physical diagram area
9. Digital diagram tablet
10. Stream deck
11. World clocks
12. Floating camera controls (I didn’t finish them)
13. Standing chair

I had to make the sit/stand desk because I found none that supported the needed travel, weight, or transition speed.

The teleprompter monitor is also homemade. It allows me to look directly into the camera while seeing the material presented or the audience. This monitor, like some of the others, is on the smaller side. That’s because they’re more for monitoring rather than reading, and I can see more with less eye movement with a small monitor.

I don’t use the Wacom tablet much; I nearly always draw on paper seen by a downward facing camera. It’s easier for me, and it’s a favourite amongst the audience, especially when everything else is so digital.

Most of the station is controlled from the stream deck. This includes sound effects played through my microphone. I use them very infrequently, often teaching for a couple of days before using one. That way, they come as a pleasant surprise rather than a gimmick.

The standing chair is excellent. I can simply lean against it a little while when I am teaching and it is positioned to remind me where to best stand for the camera.

The graphics card was a bit of a challenge. I ultimately settled on an AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT Challenger. I needed multiple outputs and near silent operation. One of the DP outputs is split for two monitors.

I have a blog posting that goes into the details of the build for anyone interested.

And what are the favorite items in your workspace?

The teleprompter. It’s made from a 7" LCD screen, a two-way mirror, and a Logitech StreamCam.

It’s a bit rough and ready - the driving circuit has been left exposed (visible on the right in the picture above) but the audience doesn’t see that, though.

The monitor is at the bottom of the box, and the camera is at the back with the two-way mirror positioned between them at 45 degrees. The picture above shows the mirror raised so that both the monitor and the camera are visible. OBS has fullscreen projection to this monitor, but it needs to be flipped because of the mirror.

It’s a big deal because it allows me to come as close as possible to eye contact with people on the other side of zoom. It’s possible to half do that by looking into your camera, but you can’t see the other person’s body language as readily. Instructors get hired because we can help people to learn things far faster and deeper than they can on their own. The better we can read the learner, the more effective we can be.

If I’m allowed to pick another, it would be the world clocks. Ostensibly it’s so I can track time when working across regions (some training happens concurrently in four time zones). But you can probably guess it’s also a gentle nod to Back to the Future.

Any favorite programs/apps/tools?

The question probably doesn’t mean wood or metal work tools, but I needed them in construction. I’m lucky that I had the space and the tools to do the build.

OBS is probably the most critical piece of software. But to give a less well-known tool, I also use Presentation Pointer. It has various tools for highlighting parts of the screen.

What are your favourite programming or scripting languages?

I teach a few languages, mostly C++ at the moment, but if I was to pick the languages that make me smile most while developing, then I’d go for C# and JavaScript.

Is there anything you are missing in your setup?

When the pandemic started, I had a very basic setup for remote teaching. My wife suggested it would be worth getting ready for the long haul, so I built a more capable station. After two further iterations, I ended up with the Mk III, seen above. The Mk III has been stable for the last two years, so I don’t think I’m missing anything.

There were two things I planned to add but abandoned. One was the ability to control the position of items in OBS from the controller attached to the shelf. I also had a silly idea of writing a plugin for OBS that would see the position of my arms and then draw lasers onto the slide.

What book comes to your mind that you would like others to read?

It’s a reread for me (about the sixth time probably), but I’m excited to be starting ‘Dragonlance Chronicles’ with one of my kids as their pre-bed reading.

Hiya, I am lrlna! I am a Rust engineer leading the apollo-rs project, an ecosystem of GraphQL tools + compiler in Rust. I spent my childhood in Ukraine before immigrating to Vancouver, Canada with my parents, and have since lived in London, Berlin and as of recent Copenhagen.

I used to do a lot more computers and open-source after work, but my recent job has been keeping the computer part of my brain quite content! So instead, outside of office hours I’ve been focusing on making programming (and non-programming) zines, and growing veggies on my balcony. I’ve got two black norwegian forest cats, Nori and Chashu, whom I love to bits.

I also occasionally give talks, like this (quite old) one on HTTP/2, or the one on working in Rust + wasm, or this most recent one about my work on apollo-compiler.

What is your hardware setup?

COMPUTE.

Back when I started programming I had this really old incredibly bulky (6 kilos at least, I swear) laptop running Linux Mint. I loved it, because it was my own, and I fixed every single thing that went wrong with it including a weekly driver issue. I hated it, because of the aforementioned weekly driver issues. Also 6+ kilos!

I’ve made my life a lot easier since. I have a travel work-issued 2020 MacBook Pro (M1) that I take with me for conferences, offsites or when I work from my coworking space (coworking space is a stretch, it’s actually a Riso publisher, a café, and a fermentation library where I come to work from once or twice a week to hang out with people way cooler than me \o/).

At home I have a custom-built PC running Windows my partner helped me build. It’s a very smol , , , , but very powerful (baby).

The story of it is that it got assembled in quite a haste in May 2021 because my previous computer refused to run rustc on pretty much anything but hello-world repos. Terrible timing really - you may remember finding a CPU and a video card in early 2021 not only required you to pay triple the price, but also giving up an arm, a leg and your first born child (as supposed to only an arm and a leg as of the time of this writing). Regardless though, I am pretty happy with it!

Notable parts that may be of interest:

• Lian Li PC-Q37 Mini ITX Tower Case. I really wanted something small, aesthetically pleasing with a super clean front. Voilà, Lian-Li mini!
• AMD Ryzen 9 5900X CPU. A gift, an offering, if you will, to the Rust compiler.
• There were no video cards when this was built originally, so thankfully the original MSI GeForce GT 710 2 GB we put in got replaced with MSI GeForce GTX 1650 G5 4 GB in January 2022. I can now watch videos…. because with the initial card I couldn’t!
• GIGABYTE X570 I AORUS Pro Wi-Fi Mini ITX AM4 motherboard. A smol case needs a smol motherboard, and this one fits perrrrfectly.
• Vortex Race 3 Keyboard with ~ blue ~ switches. I’ve been using the grey keycaps that it came with lately, but sometimes I spice things up with the Norbauer + Co’s After School 1992 keycaps.

The entire spec (minus the keyboard) of my PC is on pcpartpicker, for those interested! I have very little interest in hardware and really just wanted rustc to go brrrrr, so huge thank you to my partner Yoshua Wuyts for helping me put this together.

DESK & ACCESSORIES.

I use my office as a workspace and as a cozy studio I can create in, or come read in on the weekends. In the summers it also functions as a plant sowing station (🌱 surprise 🌱).

All of this to say, I spend an unreasonably large amount of time here. Pretty much everything I choose for my desk is to make me feel comfortable and at ease while working or making things.

My partner and I used to live in a much smaller space where I didn’t have my own office. Luckily, last year we moved to a slightly larger flat, and I have an office. Something, something must have money and a room of one’s own if she is to write fiction code.

A few interesting specifics about my workspace:

My desk is part of the Poul Cadovius Royal System shelving. It’s a lot smaller than most people’s setups. I can keep it tidy a lot easier than some of the larger setups I had before, and the simplicity of it helps me focus in just the right way. The shelving system itself houses ~ some ~ of my books. Unfortunately, I have a downright awful habit of buying more and more books so I am running out of space very quickly.To extend the desk a tiny bit (but mostly to fit my Røde mic), I also have this super cute clamp tray I got from Present & Correct in moss.An LG 27” 4K monitor that fits pretty much exactly in the space I have (score).

A teeny tiny portable B&O Beoplay 1 speaker (if you’re about to buy this exact one my recommendation is to a b o r t , a b o r t , a b o r t).

To the surprise of many people, I don’t have a special desk chair! It’s just a regular dinner table chair from TAKT. I like these better than any of the swivel chairs, plus it’s easier to sit cross-legged (important).

I got a cutting mat to use as a desk mat lol. Seriously though, none of the desk mats I saw I liked, plus this cutting mat does a nice job of turning me into a computer person from the 70s (time to learn how to work an IBM).

I like to have a nice smelling candle, especially once summer is over and it keeps getting darker (and darker and darker and darker and hello welcome to the north darker). Right now it’s the Frama’s Deep Forest one (in a P.F. Candle Co jar cuz the original one broke). Sometimes I alternate this for my little MUJI diffuser.

I need noise cancelling to focus, so I either listen to music with my B&O Beoplay 9 over-ear headphones (if you’re considering buying these, my recommendation is to a b o r t , a b o r t , a b o r t), or use my Happy Ears ear plugs (best purchase ever)

And what are the favorite items in your workspace?

What I enjoy the most about my space is how everything comes together, and the routines and habits I establish around my workspace. For example, I really enjoy shutting everything down at night, and starting everything up fresh in the morning. I love starting my day making a pour-over, bringing it to my desk, powering up my pc to open up to read a thing or another.

There are a few cozy spots I keep for my cats for when they come to hang out with me - a little soft blanket under my desk for Chashu-cat, and a HAY box for Nori-cat to curl up in. Naturally, my efforts in creating comfortable spots for cats are quite often futile (they sleep in most random spots), but at least make for a really cozy workspace for me, myself and I.

I also really like my lil nicknacks and books I brought back with me from various places of my life. Noticing them during the day brings me a lot of joy (everything from my past that didn’t bring me joy went in the bin as per Marie Kondo ofc) and helps me destress if I am dealing with a problem I can’t solve.

I keep this mini crate full of zines that I’ve collected over the years from friends and independent publishers. Also a bunch of small press poems and writing collections I pick up from used book stores whenever I go places. There is one called Horticultural Appropriation by Claire Ratinon & Sam Ayre; a riso-printed poetry collection called Silencio by Maria Meiga; another is IMAGO, a poetry magazine published by University of Calgary English department, in what year, I don’t know; a few palm-sized beautifully illustrated zines by my friend Marina Kukso including Head in the Clouds and Secret Art.

I’ve got a beautiful vase by a Berlin-based ceramist Violaine Toth that I bought during the pandemic to cheer myself up; and another one by Jérémy Belina that lasted a grand total of 2 days before being knocked over by a cat (the culprit has disappeared and has yet to be found).

My mum collects squirrel figurines (I collect books, collecting runs in the family apparently). She brought me one of these super cute marble vintage ones when she came to visit me in the summer. It’s now part of the nicknack collection keeping my pilea company, I don’t make the rules.

I have these two cassettes by Plazas and Mu I’ve been moving with since Vancouver.

A combination of all of these things and then some makes me really quite happy. It helps me enjoy coming into my workspace to start my day whether it’s working on my projects at work, or just creating something.

What is your software setup?

I don’t have too many software tools I use as of late. I used to have all sorts of scripts I’d write or hyper specific tools I’d use. I, for some reason, thought it would give me the “proper hacker” accolades among other programmers, but now I don’t give a shit and just do what actually makes me most productive!

From home I work on a Windows machine. Developing on a Windows has come a great way since the terrible time many of you and myself probably had growing up.

But right now, brief break, Nori wants to say hi———————–9iupo90-[].

As I was saying, writing Rust on Windows so far has been easy and hassle free, at least in the space I work in. I run vscode with vim bindings using rust-analyzer and nushell. I’ll rebase/reflog/cherry-pick from the cli, but I also sometimes just use Github Desktop. The diffs become so much more readable, and some things are just chiller and allow me to just focus on the actual coding.

The one feature that I miss the most working primarily on a windows machine is airdrop. All the drawings I make on an ipad for my zines or my talks need to make their way over to a pc, and I really wanted to do that with the same ease as airdrop. An unlikely hero stepped in to make this work seamlessly - Tailscale. Aside from being a VPN service (a very excellent VPN service, in fact), it also lets me transfer files instantly between all my devices that have it running with a feature they call Taildrop. Genius!

I also have NextDNS running on all of my devices for that extra firewall protection. Super easy to use, install and forget about it sort of thing.

I make drawings for my zines in Procreate on ipad pro, and finish them off in Affinity Publisher. Along the same lines all the drawings for my talks are also done in Procreate. I used to use google slides for all my talks for years, but recently switched to making them on my ipad or mac in Keynote. The main reason is because I could save and reuse certain styles for shapes and fonts, as well as use previously installed fonts that aren’t part of google font suite.

I need to listen to music while I work. I cancelled spotify a while back, so all my music now is either via youtube, or records I buy on bandcamp, or our household’s NAS (software x hardware collab) via Emby media server via Tailscale.

This isn’t quite software, but more of a productivity setup, but I’ve been following pomodoro videos in the past couple of weeks while working. Abao in Tokyo channel is my go-to. Abao’s vibes sorta match my workspace vibes - a pleasant and much appreciated coincidence.

I also use things like Hackmd and Notion depending on the need and context. Hackmd is nice when the final thing needs to be in markdown, Notion is my little personal database for articles, travel/hiking planning, noting down where I bought one part or another.

Any favourite programs/apps/tools?

As all rust developers, I must first sing praises to rustc (there is some sort of unspoken agreement idk, but we all do it!). I have literally never been as happy writing code as I am when writing rust with the help of its compiler. I no longer shout at my computer, but instead have somewhat intelligent discussions (ok fine, sometimes negotiations) with the borrow checker and the compiler.

I love rust-analyzer, and honestly any LSP. Makes life easier, thinks about the basic stuff so you don’t have to because you’ve already spent the last 10 years thinking about basic stuff so now it’s LSP’s turn etc, etc.

My hands down most favourite organisational tool is a bullet journal. That’s right, my day-to-day organization lives outside of a computer world entirely (computers were a mistake etc etc). I have used all the todo apps under the sun, but nothing except a bullet journaling has ever been able to keep me from forgetting things. I still forget lots and lots of things, but just imagine what it was before the bullet journal. Plus, it gives me a bit of time during my work day to be away from a computer to organise myself. Surprisingly does wonders for productivity.

What are your favourite programming or scripting languages?

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Is there anything you are missing in your setup?

I’ll be forever looking for good lookin cable management solutions that are functional and fit with the aesthetics of my space. I am sure I’ll find it right on my very last day before retiring from computers, because that’s just how life goes sometimes and you know what, I am okay with that.

A better camera and a better light setup. Logistically it might not work in my space, simply because I don’t have much space left. But maybe something will? This one I haven’t given up on just yet.

I would also love to draw on stream, but unfortunately that requires another video card, and I am out of slots on my motherboard. That being said, I did stream a few times, and it’s been years since, so perhaps this is just really not meant to be.

I want to get my computer off the ground! I am currently thinking of trying to find a vintage Componibili trolley/storage unit. It might also solve my cable situation (meaning I shove all my cables in one of the drawers and forget about them).

What book comes to your mind that you would like others to read?

As you may have gathered from this piece and these photos, I read a bunch, so this is a marvelous question. I’ll give you three books: a computer, a fiction, and a poetry collection.

A computer book. Engineering a Compiler by Keith D. Cooper & Linda Torczon.. An excellent, in-depth read on compiler design. I go back to it regularly in my current day-to-day work.

A fiction book. The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector. My friend Sy Brand mailed me this book last year for my birthday, and boy is this a wonderfully weird read! This sculptress in Rio runs into a dying insect and goes into this whole existentialist and spiritual crisis. It’s just all very wild. Also incredibly well written. Clarice Lispector is a genius, honestly.

A poetry collection. Soon, the Future of Memory by Anja Saleh. Incredibly touching poetry of the life of a German woman of African descent. A few of my favourites include, “anja [an-yaa]”, “questions from an african mother to her european child”, “rev/ululate”. I cried a lot, it’s beautiful.

I’m Bozhidar and I love computers in general and programming in particular. My fanatic devotion to Emacs is known world-wide. I spend a lot of my (free) time on GitHub, contributing to various open-source Ruby, Clojure and Emacs Lisp projects. My most notable open-source projects are RuboCop (a linter/formatter for Ruby) and CIDER (a Clojure IDE for Emacs).

I’m a constant learner when it comes to programming and I love playing with new programming languages - right now I’m learning OCaml.

You can learn more about me here.

What is your hardware setup?

Computers

I’ve got two computers - one reasonably powerful desktop computer that I use when I’m at home and one thin and light laptop that I use when traveling. I’m a big believer in “laptops stand for portability” and I really dislike desktop replacement type of laptops. Yeah, some people really need them, but I’d hate to carry constantly with me a laptop that’s 2+ kg.

After many years of being a Linux and macOS user I’ve switched mostly to Windows a couple of years ago and my experience there has been fairly positive. I get access both high-quality Windows apps and great Linux environment in the form of WSL.

I’ve recently ordered the new Macbook Air with M2 and down the road I might get a M2 desktop machine as well. Like many others I’ve been really impressed by the performance and power efficiency of Apple’s recent chips.

Peripherals

I’m obsessed with mechanical keyboards (and typing in general). I own many keyboards by my favorite one by far is the legendary Leopold FC660C (with Topre switches). I hate being apart from it. I also have in cold storage a few Das Keyboards (I forgot the exact models) and two KUL ES-87 keyboards. While they are no match for Topre, I do enjoy using Cherry MX Blue switches every now and they. No one around me enjoys me doing so, though (they are very loud).

Some other peripherals in no particular order:

• Microphone - Samson Meteor (I also have an extra smaller Samson Meteorite for the road)
• Speakers - Audioengine A2+
• Camera - Logitech C925e with a privacy shutter
• Mouse - Logitech G305 (do play the occasional game every now and then; mostly StarCraft II)
• Display - LG 27UK850-W 27" 4K UHD IPS

Unlikel many programmers I’m using only one display for work. I was using 2 displays in the past and I frankly didn’t notice any massive productivity gains, so I decided to unclutter my desk, although the options of getting a second the display again down the road is always on the table. Or perhaps I should just get a larger ultra-widescreen display. We’ll see.

Desk & Chair

I’ve got a standing desk from Steelcase, but I bought it so long ago that I completely forgot its model and I’m too lazy to look for it now. :-) I totally love it, even if I have to admit I rarely use it in standing mode.

As you you can see from the pictures my desk is pretty empty. I’m the type of person who really likes minimalism and aims to get rid of anything they don’t really need. My wife doesn’t approve of my design choices. :D

My chair is Steelcase Gesture, which I find extremely comfortable. It certainly rivals the famous Aeron chairs that many companies and programmers favor.

Pro tip - don’t place your workspace in your bedroom! I did this to optimize the space at home and I totally regret this decision. :D

Misc

I travel a lot as I’ve been working in a fully remote company for the past 8 years. When I’m away from home for an extended period of time I always take with me a Roost laptop stand and some lighter external keyboard (e.g. an Apple Magic Keyboard).

I’m not a big fan of headphones (especially over-head headphones) and I almost never used headphones for work.

And what are the favorite items in your workspace?

The Leopold FC660C keyboard is the definitely my favorite item - if you ask it’s one of the best keyboards in existence. :-) Probably I’d put the speakers right after it, as I love music and it took me a while to find good, yet compact speakers for my desk.

Any favorite programs/apps/tools?

• Emacs is my main workhorse and I do all of my programming and blogging there. I’ve written a lot on the topic in the past. (e.g. https://batsov.com/articles/2011/11/19/why-emacs/)
• As noted earlier I program mostly in Linux (WSL).
• Zsh is my preferred shell and these days Windows Terminal is my terminal emulator.
• I’m using Obsidian for note taking and syncing across devices. I’ve tried every note taking app that exists before choosing Obsidian.
• I’m using Microsoft To Do as my todo app. Same as above. :-)
• 1Password is my go to password manager. Before it I was using LastPass for ages.
• My emails are powered by Fastmail. I’ve written a few articles about why I love it on my blog.
• My blogs are all powered by Jekyll.
• I’m a big fan of Microsoft’s PowerToys applications for Windows power users.
• I’m a big fan of Signal & Discord when it comes to chat apps.
• Firefox is my main browser, but I’m forced to use Chrome for some work-related tasks.
• Like most people today I’m obviously using Slack, Zoom, Google’s GSuite, etc.

What are your favorite programming or scripting languages?

Ah, that’s a tricky section to write! Over the years I’ve done professionally C, C++, (a bit of) PHP, Java, Scala and Ruby. I’ve been mostly focused on Ruby at work in the past decade.

That being said, my biggest passion have always been Lisps and functional programming languages. I’ve spent a ton of time with Common Lisp, Scheme, Clojure, Emacs Lisp, Scala, Haskell, Erlang, Elixir, etc. If I have to pick a few “favorite” programming languages it’d be something like:

1. Clojure
2. Ruby
3. OCaml
4. Erlang
5. Haskell

Clojure is definitely my favorite programming language for many reasons, the rest of the numbering is kind of random. Most of the my open-source work in the past few years has been focused on Clojure as well.

Is there anything you are missing in your setup?

Not really, but there’s always something you can do better, e.g.:

• I’ve been thinking from to time to get a 4K webcam with support for Windows Hello
• Every time my neighbors start a renovation I’m thinking of getting some big headphones with active noise cancelling :-)
• Probably I should get some fancier ergonomic mouse at some point
• A quieter CPU fan would be nice (I like the visuals, but I hate the noise it makes)
• From time to time I wonder about getting some ultra widescreen curved display

Still, I guess I don’t really need any of those items badly, otherwise I would have got them a long time ago. I try to restrain my urges to buy every cool gadget that I see. It’s hard!

What book comes to your mind that you would like others to read?

I assume we’re talking about books on programming, right? :D If so - the first book that comes to mind is the 25 year anniversary edition of “The Pragmatic Programmer” - perhaps no book I’ve ever read captures the essence of our job as programmers better than it. When I was going over the book I constantly felt that it brilliantly reduces pretty much my entire ~20-year long career into great advice. Of course, you tend to understand how valuable and true this advice is only in hindsight. :-) I recently read another classic - “Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software” and I can’t recommend it highly enough to the people who want to understand how computers work at the lowest level. This book is truly a work of art!

My name is Dashiell Bark-Huss. I’m the founder of WishTender - a wishlist for content creators to get gifts safely from fans. I also am a lucid dream hacker and study participant.

What is your hardware setup?

I have a 16" MacBook Pro 2021 M1 and a curved 34" monitor (that I got as a gift on my WishTender).

I’m not very deliberate with my software/hardware/apps. I grew up only using apple because my dad invested in them and we were only allowed Apple products. So I’m used to Apple and haven’t gotten the hang of other brands. I once took a programming class with Dell computers and I nearly failed it. I like how all Apple devices sync up really well so I prefer to keep everything Apple. I use the nearly maxed out M1 Macbook Pro because I run a lot of CPU intensive programs. I have an iPhone X. Both devices my apple-loving-dad bought for me unprovoked. So I’m very lucky and not going to say no! I also inherited my bubbie’s iPad Pro but I ended up not using it so I gave it away.

And what are the favorite items in your workspace?

My computer, my monitor. I love it all.

I have post-it-notes I put on my monitor for inspiration. I also have a picture of a garden because I want to buy my spouse a beautiful garden one day. That helps motivate me when things are tough.

What is your software setup?

Whatever the latest Mac OS is I suppose!

I use VSCode because everyone else does and it works for me. To store notes I use random pieces of paper or apple’s Notes app. But I’m starting to use Todoist and Notion to be a little more organized. Since a lot of people use them I figured they’re reliable and would have a lot of integration and tutorials. I use Chrome because I like their dev tools. Sometimes I use Llama Life for focusing.

Any favorite programs/apps/tools?

My favorite tool is my Symbodi Vertiball. It’s a wall mounted massage ball. I take breaks during coding and use that all over my back and neck.

What are your favorite programming or scripting languages?

Whatever I need to make it happen. JavaScript and C++ right now

Is there anything you are missing in your setup?

Everything feels fine at the moment.

Not pictured: I like to move around; to the couch, bed, and sometimes even the floor. I also do some Arduino hacking in a tool shed.

My area is really messy right now. I don’t really notice it. People put things my desk that I don’t put there. I tend to not notice and not move them. Like this hat used in a raffle that was placed on my desk that I just noticed.

What book comes to your mind that you would like others to read?

Influence by Robert Cialdini

I’m Holly, and I’m a Senior Principal software engineer at Red Hat. I’m working on Quarkus, with a focus on the Quarkus ecosystem.

What is your hardware setup?

I only joined Red Hat a few months ago, so I’m basking in the new-employee new-laptop phase of the hardware lifecycle. My work machine is a shiny new 14" M1 MacBook, and it’s glorious. Even though my laptop is beautiful, I hardly ever touch it or open it; it lives on the floor next to my desk, attached to an external monitor. As well as the monitor, I’ve got the usual peripherals like keyboard, mouse, trackpad, speakers, headphones, camera, and microphone.

I feel lucky to have been one of the first in line for the 14" M1, because it’s fast, quiet, the battery lasts for ages, the keyboard is good, and it has an HDMI port. I’m the sort of person who always forgets adapters, so it’s a relief to have idiot-proof HDMI connectivity. The 14" size is light enough for travelling and powerful enough for home, so it’s perfect.

My display is an HP Z27 that I chose because I wanted a decent-size USB-C monitor that would charge my laptop and have lots of ports. The HP does what I need and I don’t notice my display one way or another, which is probably about right for a monitor. I sometimes wonder if I need multiple monitors so I could have more screen real estate, but I’d only fill the extra screen space with browser tabs and terminal clutter.

When I worked in an actual office with other people, we had hot workstations with wireless keyboards, and they were a headache. You’d arrive in the morning, sit down, and discover someone had pinched the keyboard off the desk you’d been using. Not having a keyboard was bad, but what was worse is that the thief’s keyboard would still be paired to your laptop. So at some point, usually on a web meeting or demo, random keystrokes would start appearing on your screen. The low point was when I ended up running through the office yelling “stop typing, stop typing, if your keystrokes aren’t appearing, I have them and I don’t want them!”

That’s a long way of saying I used to think wireless keyboards were a terrible and pointless, until I got one at home, and loved it. The Apple Magic Keyboard battery seems to last for a year between charges. It’s unexpectedly useful to be able to clear the keyboard off my desk without a tangle of cables trailing after it. The Apple Magic Mouse is less great, as lots of people have observed.

After I bought the mouse and complained about the silly charging mechanism, I ended up being talked into buying the Magic Trackpad by twitter. It wasn’t best purchase either, because even though I have both mouse and trackpad, I mostly use the mouse.

I have two sets of headphones at my desk, plus speakers. It’s ridiculous, but I seem to genuinely need all three. (Thank goodness for headphone hooks.)

I mostly use a tiny pair of wired Panasonic RP-HS46E-K clip-on earphones. They’re almost as invisible as in-ear headphones, are very comfortable, have quite decent sound, work a monitor for my fancy microphone, and cost £7.49. I also have a pair of noise-cancelling Bose NC 700 headphones. I wouldn’t use bluetooth for an important recording, but it’s nice to be untethered from my desk during meetings. Walking around the house helps me focus on what’s being said rather than getting distracted by code or twitter. I use the external speakers if I’m listening to music.

For recordings and meetings, my audio input is a Røde Podmic, alongside a Scarlett Solo audio interface, a Røde boom arm, a Klark Teknik CM-1 booster pre-amp, and a Røde windshield, plus the little wired headphones as a monitor. The Scarlett Solo and pre-amp lives in the cable tidy under my desk, because otherwise it’s a lot of boxes and wires.

The second-worst thing about my audio setup is that it’s quite expensive. The worst thing is that I’m not sure my sound is actually good. I need a friendly audio engineer to analyse my recordings and tell me what I’m doing wrong. Too much echo from hard surfaces? Too soft-spoken? Too far from the mic? Clipping? For a while I was producing embarrassing recordings with sound only on the left channel until a colleague pointed out the problem. It’s a known problem when the Scarlett Solo is used by amateurs. It seems I’m a sad and bad example of “all the gear and no idea”.

My only consolation is that I compared the Røde to several other mics, and in my experiment recordings, the Røde was best. So maybe my sound would be even worse if I hadn’t invested.

I’ve had a happier over-investing experience with my webcam. I used to use the classic Logitech C920. When my partner’s cheap webcam broke, I took the opportunity to upgrade to the Logitech Brio and give them the c920. What a difference! I was able to completely get rid of my ring light, because the Brio copes so well in low light. When doing green screen recordings, I used to have to record at the brightest time of day and play with OBS settings to avoid flicker with the C920. With the Brio, chroma key just works. The Brio also serves my vanity, because I look better on the Brio. It’s not a documented feature, but I’ve seen speculation that the Brio has some skin smoothing filters in there to make the image more flattering.

On the subject of green screens, I have an Elgato green screen and it’s very well-designed and totally worth the price. The gaming companies have some excellent kit for home offices. My office does become pretty awkward to navigate when the screen is up, though.

And what are the favorite items in your workspace?

At the start of lockdown, I took the money I’d been spending on commuting and bought a good chair and a good desk. Like many owners of standing desks, I don’t ever work standing up. In my defence, even when I bought the desk I was fairly sure this would be the case. (I feel faint if I stand for too long, and fainting-while-working doesn’t appeal.) The standing desk isn’t a waste, though, because I stand up for talks. It was advice I got from KubeCon, and I can confirm: speaking while standing does help with engagement and posture, even at home.

When I got my desk I was trying to fit a desk into a 110cm gap and also match existing furniture, so I sourced E:Lift LINAK standing desk legs and then ordered a separate custom top from a lumbermill. This let me choose the finish and exact top size, so I’d recommend that route.

I like my desk, but I love my chair. When I was chair shopping I shortlisted a HÅG Capisco partly because the selection of colours was better than other vendors. Once I looked into it more, I realised the Capisco met a lot of needs I didn’t know I had. It’s a fidget chair. You can sit on it like a normal chair, you can raise the desk halfway and perch on the chair, you can sit sideways, you can sit backwards, you can massage your feet on the base, and it’s small enough to tuck tidily away under a fully-raised standing desk.

My chair is pale grey wool with custom turquoise stitching. Some day I’ll spill coffee onto the chair and it will be a major tragedy. The good side-effect of buying a chair in an unwise colour is that it encourages good lunch-break discipline. I almost never eat at my desk, because I’m too worried about dropping staining food on my chair.

What is your software setup?

My software is pretty simple: have IDE, will code. I mostly work on Java, with a bit of JavaScript. I’ve recently switched from Eclipse for Java and VS Code for JavaScript to IDEA for Java and WebStorm for JavaScript. It’s taking me a while to get the muscle memory for keyboard shortcuts, and I still haven’t got the knack of getting the Java structure right and keeping the IDE classpath in sync with the maven classpath.

I use Keynote for presentations, although I end up having to convert back and forth to Google Slides for sharing. Red Hatters love Linux (for good reason), so all the tools we use need to be cross-platform.

Any favorite programs/apps/tools?

I do really like Keynote, which is why I’ve persisted with it despite the conversion hassle. I also enjoy using Tayasui Sketches on my iPad for illustrations, although I’m still learning how to take advantage of what it can do.

What are your favorite programming or scripting languages?

I’m in the lucky positions that Java and JavaScript, the languages I use every day, are my favourites (or maybe ignorance is bliss, and I don’t know what lovely languages I’m missing). I’ve done some Go programming in the past. When coding Go I mostly ended up thrashing around trying to make things compile by randomly adding and removing ampersands to references, which made me feel rather dumb. However, the go fmt debate-free formatter is the best thing since sliced bread and I wish every language had one. I wrote Swift for iOS development and I didn’t mind Swift, but found the tooling strangely lacking. I’ve also done some Ruby on Rails but never got past the “I don’t understand what I’m doing but will keep copying and pasting” stage.

Is there anything you are missing in your setup?

I was planning to buy myself a desk-mounted Elgato ring light to replace a cheaper ring light that was always getting in the way and falling off the desk at bad moments. In the end, after my webcam upgrade, I decided I actually didn’t need a ring light at all.

When I travel, I bring my Bose NC 700s, but they’re a bit too bulky for my bag. I’m planning to get some AirPod pros for taking meetings on the road.

I need to sort out my recording audio, but I’m hoping I can do that without buying anything else!

My name is Noah. I stand in front of the cute bear and chimpanzee there, pressing buttons at random on a mechanical keyboard.

Currently Shopify pays me to work on YJIT, a Ruby JIT that’s part of CRuby since Christmas 2021. My biggest point-at-it contribution is probably speed.yjit.org and yjit-metrics, which I more or less built from scratch.

I’m probably best known for writing Rebuilding Rails, though I also wrote Mastering Software Technique, give talks and various other stuff.

Short version: I write code, I record videos, I hang out with my wife and take care of my kids here in Inverness, Scotland.

What is your hardware setup?

I have a late-model X86 MacBook Pro for personal-and-various work, and an M1 Macbook Pro for Shopify work.

You can see the external monitor, some kind of basically-adequate LG on a medium-cheap monitor arm. That rat’s nest of cables is connected to a CalDigit Element Thunderbolt4, which is either a gigantic USB-C hub or a smallish docking station, depending how you squint. That lets me switch all the hardware smoothly between Shopify and non-Shopify laptop.

“All the hardware” is a Logitech StreamCam (it’s fine), a MIDI interface for that piano, my clacky FNatic Streak mechanical keyboard, my Wacom Intuos Pro drawing tablet, a Yubikey and no doubt some other bits and bobs I’ve forgotten.

For audio hardware: that’s a Shure SM7b microphone attached to a Scarlett Solo audio interface, by way of a DBX 286s signal processor. It’s horrifying overkill for my actual needs and I love it. That is a beautiful-sounding mic, but it really needs a freestanding non-inline amp/signal-processor to overcome its tendency toward line noise. Also, the Solo has a proper monitoring jack (they’re as useful as people say,) and I have a decent pair of Sony MDR-7506 studio-monitor headphones plugged into it.

There’s a Canon EOS 250D camera in a bag on the desk. I want to love it. It’s really hard to use a DSLR for simple stuff, and so it mostly gets ignored in favour of webcams and my iPhone for day-to-day use. The photos and video look great, much better than a phone or webcam. Everything else about using it is pain.

There’s an ElGato Key Light Air on the desk for close-range lighting, and a couple of cheap photographer’s softbox lights in the background. The giant whiteboard makes a good reflector for them when I want diffuse lighting – plus, y’know, giant whiteboard.

The cheap IKEA sit/stand desk has a hand-crank. That’s important with my four-year-old around. I’d rather have her crank it up and down a few times than sit for twenty minutes playing with buttons and knocking things to the floor.

The piano is a Kawai ES-110 on a nice Z-stand from Thomann. It’s a fairly recent acquisition and I’m still getting it integrated. I’m enjoying it a lot. The chair next to it is an Aeron - quite pleasant, and mostly the cats have adopted it when I’m not playing piano.

And what are the favorite items in your workspace?

The microphone is a standout. My piano is pretty loveable. Before the current piano I was using an old cheap Yamaha keyboard. The ES-110 is among the cheapest “real” digital pianos, and the difference from non-real ones is night and day.

The kids and I talk about the “Disco keyboard” with the rainbow backlighting.

The view over Inverness is also pretty awesome.

What is your software setup?

I mostly work on CRuby. That means a combination of CLang and GCC for the C parts, and of course CRuby for (most of) the Ruby parts. I’m using VSCode at work, and sometimes at home too. Sublime is its big competitor for my own stuff. I’m an old console guy, so mostly iTerm2 is the non-editor part of my environment.

For presentations I’m often using Keynote, which is fine-to-good. Affinity Photo and Designer for drawing.

Also Camtasia, which is fine-to-mediocre. Audacity lately, which is the “very open source” kind of good – excellent at what it does, terrible interface.

Any favorite programs/apps/tools?

I feel like an impostor using Affinity Photo, but it’s been making me better at drawing. That’s always nice.

What are your favorite programming or scripting languages?

I love my Ruby. Also C, when I can justify using it. But I feel like I’ve slowed down on caring about languages. I needed to pick up Rust for a recent project and it was… fine. I feel like I would have had stronger feelings a few years ago.

Is there anything you are missing in your setup?

I have a greenscreen I need to work with until I can use it reliably. I’m trying to figure out what DAW I need to do fun things with the piano.

Hello! My name is Vitaly, I am a Ukrainian living in Berlin, Germany. I am a software engineer, currently finding myself in engineering management at Zendesk.

I like reading, writing, video games, and exploring new things. I run the Tech Lead Compass one-pager, and occasionally write in my personal blog. Sometimes, I am also tweeting @VitalyPushkar about tech and politics. But more importantly, today I am launching the Hacker Stations!

I like learning about other people’s setups and have been frequenting multiple “rate my setup” blogs and subreddits over the years. But I’ve noticed that I am biased towards programmers’ setups only. I like reading about other engineers’ hardware preferences, various tools, favorite editors, knowledge management, etc. That’s why I decided to create Hacker Stations to focus exclusively on that. I hope you will like it as much as I do.

What is your hardware setup?

I own multiple systems.

An old Macbook Air from 2013 with 8G RAM which I am using for casual browsing and writing. Last year I was eager to buy a new M1 Macbook Air, but then decided in favor of sustainability and just replaced the battery in this old one. I am pretty sure it’s going to survive another couple of years of occasional use.

Then, I have an Intel-based 16" Macbook Pro with 32GB RAM for work. It’s living its life mostly in the clamshell mode, connected to my 34" Xiaomi Ultrawide Gaming monitor, and a USB switch.

The monitor is not perfect, as it is only WQHD, but the 144Hz refresh rate is noticeable in gaming. It was an impulsive purchase, and I am now thinking about buying a 4K monitor, instead, even though it’s not that bad considering I am sitting quite far from it.

The USB switch, which I am using to share the peripherals between the work Macbook Pro and a personal PC, connects an old Logitech HD Pro C920 webcam (still running strong after all these years), a Logitech G502 mouse, and a Blue Snowball microphone mounted on a cheap arm off Amazon.

I’ve also managed to somehow mount the webcam on top of the Xiaomi Monitor light bar, with a cheap light ring behind it. The Xiaomi light bar is really cool: it attaches to the base on magnets and has a remote switch to turn it on/off and adjust the color warmth and intensity. The light ring is rather small but it’s more than enough to be visible during meetings and to help the webcam focus properly in low light conditions.

My standing desk is the IDÅSEN from IKEA. I still haven’t developed the habit of standing during the day, but sometimes I do. It’s also important that I can adjust the desk for my height and the height of my chair while sitting - to be ergonomic. My chair is the boringly default Aeron from Herman Miller. I bought it refurbished from Ferbox. These guys are amazing! The chair was like new while costing three times less. I love this chair and finally feel my posture has improved and I am getting less tired from sitting during the day. My previous IKEA Markus was OK while I had it, but after switching I can say the difference is the day and night.

After falling for the mechanical keyboards hype and trying a couple of different keyboards over the years, I am finally back and happy with a simple Logi MX Keys mini. It supports easy switching between multiple devices, and I am sharing it between the PC and the work Macbook - just like other peripherals. Although, for it to work with the PC while it’s booting (for OS selection, BIOS, etc), I had to buy a special Logitech Unifying receiver instead of connecting via Bluetooth.

My keyboard and mouse are resting on top of the Orbitkey Desk Mat, which I adore. It has an underneath layer to store documents and papers which I use to keep my desk tidy.

Finally, my PC is custom-built at the beginning of the pandemic. I find PCs to be more interesting from technical, aesthetical, and ergonomic perspectives than laptops. Growing up I only had PCs and it might be I am just biased. My PC features an AMD Ryzen 7 with 32GB RAM and a cheap AMD GPU encased in the popular white NZXT H510. At the time of building it, there were already shortages of components, and I decided in favor of an upgradable build. The ASUS TUF x570-PLUS motherboard will support a next-gen CPU in a couple of years. GPU prices were outrageous at the time, so I bought the modest Radeon RX 570 intending to upgrade it soon after. Ironically, now mid-2022 GPU prices are finally down and I can buy something good, it turns out that the current GPU is enough for me considering I am not playing any AAA games. Same with the RAM - I started with 32GB, which can be extended any time up to 128GB, but so far it’s been enough.

Recently, I’ve also started using a Yubikey for two-factor authentication and it’s been a blast! No more of the annoying “unlock the phone, launch the authenticator app, find the website, enter the code before it’s disappeared” drama. Now I log in with a single touch on the key, also shared between my devices with that USB switch.

Another device connected to the monitor is my beloved Nintendo Switch. I enjoy the mobility of the Switch, but often also play on the screen with the external Switch controller.

For headphones, I switch between the first generation noise-canceling Sony MDR1000x for work, and circumaural, open Sennheiser HD 559 for leisure. It’s all I need when it comes to workplace audio, and when I am outside, listening to audiobooks or podcasts, I use the Galaxy Buds Pro which I got “for free” with my phone.

A couple of years ago I became rather frustrated with Apple’s lack of innovation and pricing policies, so I decided to migrate off to Android. I’ve been relatively happy with Samsung smartphones since then (S21 currently), mostly because of the cameras and the camera software quality. But I despise the Samsung bloatware.

Apart from the smartphone, I also own a Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite for occasional note-taking and watching TV shows in bed. I looked for a cheap yet quick and usable tablet and am more than happy with this one.

I might get back to Apple in the next iteration of my hardware upgrading, considering the innovations with M1/M2 and decent iPhone SE models.

Although discontinued, I still find the Fujifilm XT-20 to be a very decent camera, which I am using when travelling.

For video, I’ve recently purchased DJI Action 2 and I really like how small and modular it is. The chest magnet clip is such a great idea! The quality is decent, too.

And what are the favorite items in your workspace?

Not listed above, the most important gadget on my desktop is the CO2 monitor. It’s an unknown brand CO2 monitor off Amazon, but it has changed my life. Before I would get really tired and sleepy by 3 PM and I could never connect the sleepiness with the lack of oxygen. It’s not that I didn’t air the room before - I did! But I never realized how quickly CO2 builds up again, and how often I should let the fresh air in. Since buying the monitor, I’ve been more deliberate about letting the fresh air in and having a fresher mind as a result. A must-have item in every home!

What is your software setup?

These days, I am very minimalistic when it comes to the setup. Earl into my career I would try out all Linux distros and WMs, all mac apps, and all possible IDEs, editors, and plugins. I had an extensive Emacs setup at some point, and a pretty custom i3wm setup as well. Somehow, over time I got tired of supporting all of that, and also needed a more cross-platform, hassle-free setup. In the end, I downshifted to stock versions of Linux Mint and Mac OS.

The only couple of things I am still unapologetic about is iTerm2 with zgen zsh, and Firefox.

I use the VS Code with standard key bindings and only necessary plugins for each language.

I like asdf for managing multiple runtimes, fzf for command line fuzzy search, and exa and bat as modern replacements for ls and cat, accordingly.

I am managing my passwords with Enpass on all my devices.

I take notes with Joplin. In Joplin, I am trying to follow the PARA method and it’s been quite successful so far. I wanted to like Obsidian but the bumps I had to jump over to view and edit my notes on a smartphone were just too much.

On Macs, I prefer to streamline all my workflows through Alfred. I automated a couple of annoying things with Alfred, but nothing radical.

Also, a big fan of Audible, with a library already longer than I can ever listen to.

Any favorite programs/apps/tools?

I can’t think of anything specific, but Firefox is probably the closest to what I am almost religious about. I hope they will keep delivering, considering all the mismanagement at Mozilla in the last couple of years.

What are your favorite programming or scripting languages?

After all these years, I still think that Ruby is a wonderful language, and Ruby on Rails is the best pragmatic choice for creating pretty much any web application. I can confidently say that I went the full circle on it as this meme suggest. Clojure and Scala are my two other favorites, although I have less experience with them.

I still can’t – and probably never will – like Javascript and its ecosystem. It’s an irrational fear at this point, but I am dreading it every time I have to work with it. Thankfully, there is TypeScript now, which I am slowly getting into. Although that doesn’t fix the terrible JS ecosystem problem until Deno is ready to use in production.

Is there anything you are missing in your setup?

I would like to have a second monitor with 4K resolution for work, but to still keep the ultrawide one for gaming. Unfortunately, the space and the power consumption is the issue, so I will probably have to make the hard choice.

An M1 or M2 Macbook Air is on my list once my old Macbook Air goes into the eternal cloud.