Tools I Use

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

Physical

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 M4 2024
• Synology NAS DiskStation DS920+

Peripherals

• Dell S2721QS Monitor x2 - highly recommended
• Logitech MX Master 3S
• Apple’s standard detached mac keyboard
• AirPods Pro

Capture Devices

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

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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

• Primary Stack
  • Svelte & SvelteKit
  • Tailwind
  • TypeScript
• Tooling
  • Vite
  • TypeDoc
• Cloud stuff
  • Firebase (Firestore and Functions)
  • Vercel - hosting my puzzle box website
  • Cloudflare - hosting this blog
  • Google Apps Script + Google Sheets
• Other tools
  • PlantUML & MermaidJS
  • DrawIO and Excalidraw
  • Quartz - static site generator for Obsidian

Software & Apps

All Platforms / Cloud

• Gmail/Google Calendar - email and calendar
• Notion - life management, although less and less lately
• Obsidian - notes & writing, increasingly more things
• Jump Desktop - remote desktop client
• Plex - personal media library
• Libby - getting & reading books
• Spotify - music streamer of choice
• Endel - generative background noise
• Pocketcasts - podcast application of choice
• Excalidraw - quick digital drawings
• Draw.io - diagramming
• Figma - design and whiteboarding
• Google Photos - photo managing
• Google Drive - main cloud application
• iCloud - backups for devices + some other cloud stuff
• LastPass - password manager
• Pocket - online article collection & reading
• Tesla - car stuff
• Pixen - pixel art & animation
• Monarch - money tracking
• Shortcuts - lots of stuff, but mainly Lifeline Journal inputs
• Apple’s Reminders app - location-based reminders and as an inbox
• Apple’s Calendar app
• Apple’s Mail app
• Some Subset of: YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, Paramount +, Peacock, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+

MacOS

• Visual Studio Code - coding
• Handbrake - video transcoding
• MakeMKV - movie backup
• VisualParadigm - UML & SysML
• Final Cut Pro - video production
• Fusion360 - CAD
• ImageOptim - awesome image file size reducing utility

iOS and iPadOS

• 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
• Data Jar - iOS Shortcuts enhancer
• Hevy - weightlifting app of choice
• Scriptable - iOS Shortcuts enhancer, better integrates Lifeline Journal & iOS
• Pythonista - also a shortcuts enhancer, and other stuff
• Ferrite Pro - spoken audio editor

Archive/Out-of-Use Tools

• Windows Desktop - haven’t touched in months
• Several Raspberry Pis - haven’t touched in months
• 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
  • MongoDB.com - Mongo host
• 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