Eye LogoThe Column

Aaron Gillespie

Husband. Father. Writer. Coder. Engineer. Purveyor of bad jokes.

Subscribe
Lawrence, KS
My Notes
Movie Podcast
Puzzle Boxes
GitHub

Tools I Use

Jul 25, 20245 min read

This page I update from time to time to reflect what tools I use to do things.

Physical

Wood shop

  • A ton of Ryobi One+ Power Tools
    • Drill
    • Driver
    • Circular saw
    • Reciprocating Saw
    • Jigsaw
    • Multi tool (aka oscillating saw)
    • Orbital sander
    • Mouse sander
    • Brad Nailer
    • Hot Glue Gun
    • Various lights
    • Radio
  • Standard hand tools
  • Handmade Workbenches
    • Table saw
    • Miter Saw

Tech

Computers

  • iPad Pro 12.9 (4th Gen)
  • iPhone 14 Pro
  • Mac Mini 2023
  • Windows Desktop (custom build, aging)
  • Synology NAS DiskStation DS920+

Peripherals

Capture Devices

  • Apple Pencil
  • Apple Smart Keyboard Folio
  • Audio Technical ATR2100 microphone
  • Apple Watch SE
  • Oura Ring 3

Infrequently used, but still around:

  • Canon EOS Rebel T6
  • GoPro 7 Black

Fitness Tools

  • Half rack - brand unknown
  • Olympic bar - 45
  • Olympic bar - 35
  • Olympic rings
  • EZ bar
  • Iron plates - 45x4, 35x2, 25x2, 10x2, 5x4, 2.5x2
  • Hex dumbbells - 5 thru 35 in 5lb increments
  • Bowflex Selecttech 525 x2
  • Corner cable machine
  • Magnetic resistance rower
  • 8 horse stall mats
  • Pull-up bar - homemade, using floor joists and 1inch steel pipe

Digital

Development Tools

Software & Apps

All Platforms / Cloud

Windows 10 &/or MacOS

iOS and iPadOS

  • Apple’s Reminders app - location-based reminders and as an inbox
  • Apple’s Calendar app
  • Apple’s Mail app
  • Streaks - habit tracking
  • Procreate - making drawings & comics
  • Procreate Dreams - animations
  • Working Copy - Git client/writing app
  • GoodNotes 6 - doodles, although this may be deprecated soon by…
  • Concepts - doodles & drawings
  • Shortcuts - lots of stuff, but mainly Lifeline Journal inputs
  • Data Jar - iOS Shortcuts enhancer
  • Monarch - money tracking
  • Hevy - weightlifting app of choice
  • Scriptable - iOS Shortcuts enhancer, better integrates Lifeline Journal & iOS
  • Ferrite Pro - spoken audio editor
  • Some Subset of: YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, Paramount +, Peacock, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+

Archive/Out-of-Use Tools

  • Chromebook Plus - fully replaced by the iPad Pro
  • iPhone 11 → upgraded
  • Apple Watch Gen 1 → upgraded
  • Sony Movie Studio Platinum 15 → I replaced it with Final Cut & never liked it to begin with
  • Wrapper-Lib - my own NPM Module! Replaced with Svelte
  • Todoist - task management → determined the native iOS Reminders app + Notion covers my task management needs
  • Things 3 - task management → Same thing happened as Todoist
  • Fantastical - good app, I built my own widget that replaced what I used it for
  • Strong App → offered no Lifetime Subscription options, so I switched to Hevy, which I bought a lifetime subscription for immediately
  • Curve → Nerfed their free tier to the point of being unusable
  • LumaFusion → I got Final Cut Pro
  • IFTTT - automatic quantified self tracking → with their transition to a “pro” plan I decided to see what it was like to live without
  • Mint → Intuit decided to kill Mint, so I got Monarch, which is better than Mint
  • Codepen.io - front end development in-browser → I spin up my own local sites
  • RescueTime - automatic time tracking → doesn’t work well enough with iOS for me to trust it
  • Shapr3D → Learning Fusion360
  • Audacity - audio recording → began using Ferrite Pro for recording
  • Axis360 → My local library finally got it and transitioned to the much better Libby
  • Glitch → replaced by firebase/vercel
  • React → it’s been long enough since I used React I’d be relearning a lot of it
  • Bootstrap → meh
  • jQuery → who needs it anymore
  • Bootstrap-Table → Recreated with my own stuff
  • MongoDB + Mongoose → replaced with Firebase
  • Toolbox Pro - iOS Shortcuts enhancer → no longer used by any active shortcuts
  • Android → switched to iOS after nearly a decade of Android devotion
  • Android Studio - no longer on Android, so no longer interested
  • Inbox by Google → killed by Google
  • Google Reader → killed by Google
  • Google Play Music → killed by Google
  • Google Tasks → killed by Google (eventually brought back, but whatever)
  • Google Fit → never grew into anything worthwhile
  • Google Keep → lacking desired functions
  • Chrome Remote Desktop → Jump is much better on the iPad

Recent Content

About

Search

SearchSearch

Recent Content