My Tools of Trade – 2024 Edition

Posted by ssmusoke.

2024 is a year of growth that I am looking forward to, having firmly settled into my role as a Tech lead for Beyonic a product of Onafriq, looking forward to strengthening my knowledge of Python and Angular, supporting more mobile app development & looking to more devops automation for infrastructure management and monitoring.

I look forward to keep dabbling with Laravel, Livewire and TailwindCSS as my side-project tools of choice.

Note – This was inspired by Wes Bos, who I am huge fan of! This list will be a living document that I will update whenever anything changes!

The previous editions are:

2024 Workspace Setup

My current hardware is focused on improving my productivity and working in a more healthy manner. I have also graduated into my new home office which I am looking to pimp up and make the cockpit of my USS-Kabanda (named after the US warships)

Home office

Hardware

My primary machine is a 13″ 2022 M2 based Macbook Pro with 16GB RAM and 1TB HDD covered with a brown colored case for scratch protection, the M2 performance is out of this world, and when you add all day battery and no fans are a big plus (the fans came on twice in 2023 and each time I forced the machine to reboot as I was in shock)

The laptop has only 2 USB-C ports, thus the Caldigit TS4 hub to the rescue, which enables me to have a single Thunderbolt 4 cable from my laptop into the hub, with all of 18 ports for all my needs. I have done an excellent job of adding accessories to it, as you will get to find out

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I switched to a Logitech MX Ergo mouse, for improving my erogonomics, and I totally love it leaving my MX Vertical as the mouse that I have on-the-go always in my laptop bag when I need to leave the home office. I have kept the Gimars Large Smooth Superfine Fibre Memory Foam Ergonomic Mouse Pad Wrist Rest Support . I am using RGB backlit Keychron K3 with Gaeton brown switches (which are very quiet)

My default screen is a Lenovo G34w-10 34-Inch WQHD Curved Gaming Monitor an ultra-wide which is now my primary monitori, gives me the equivalent of 2 full screens side-by-side. I am looking to get a standing desk in the first part of the year since the  VIVO 32 inch Desk Converter, Height Adjustable Riser, Sit to Stand Dual Monitor and Laptop Workstation with Wide Keyboard Tray which provides me with a standing desk option does not fit well on my current desk, so I had to abandon it.

I maintain my laptop in clam-shell use using JARLINK Vertical Laptop Stand to help save space on my desk.

My day-to-day audio and video accessories are a varied mix:

  1. Jabra Speak 510 UC Wireless Bluetooth Portable Conference Speaker

  2. Sony WH-1000XM5 The Best Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones for calls where I need to move around that sits on a Lamicall Headphone Stand, Desktop Headset Holder when not in use

  3. Phone calls and podcasts are powered by Soundcore by Anker Life P3 Noise Cancelling Earbuds an excellent fit, useable noise cancelling, but can only connect with one device at a time, which is a pain but I have learnt how to restrict their use to my phone (except when I am in town)
  4. Video is powered by Logitech Brio 301 Full HD Webcam with Privacy Shutter which means I never need to remove my laptop from a clam shell plus I only open the shutter when I need to be seen on video, nothing like those random videos during lockdown
Sony WH-1000XM5 Headphones on their custom stand
Jabra Speak 510 UC Portable Conference Speaker
Soundcore by Anker Life P3 Noise Cancelling Earbuds

One of the most important tools anyone who sits for long is the chair they use, as they spend majority of their time in it. I cannot find the make and model of the one that I use photos below, however pairing with Lifelong Wheels was the best decision I ever made

Power supply is erratic and is disruptive, my current hack is to use an inverter and a 200mAH dry powder battery which can support my Internet router, TV for about 8 hours of use, as well as about 5 charges from from 10% to full for my laptop which is about 3-4 days of working. The long term plan is to have a copy of this backup for my workstation

Software

  1. As a software developer my primary tool is an IDE, the Jetbrains suite of IDES
    • Pycharm is now my primary IDE
    • Webstorm for front end development
    • Data Grip for database management (MySQL and PostgreSQL)
    • Fleet for lightweight editing
    • Looking to Aqua for QA related tasks
  2. iTerm2 as my Terminal despite MacOS default shell changes, I have maintained bash as my default shell
  3. HomeBrew for package management, my primary installtion tool for both command line and gui tools
  4. Parallels for running Windows virtual machines when needed
  5. Firefox for all browsing needs and Firefox Developer Edition for web development – I dumped Google Chrome, only use it when I meet a service that does not work on Firefox
  6. Cloud storage – OneDrive for office work, Dropbox for personal use with Google Drive for backup (currently subscribing for 200GB plan)
  7. Communication and collaboration tools are Office 365, Microsoft Teams and Slack – its amazing the simplicity of fewer tools

Utilities

I have added this section for the tools that simplify a lot of my day-to-day activities, they are tiny tools in the Unix style with a big impact so I figured I should highlight them separately

  1. Alfred for opening apps (not yet grown to the workflow stage) so using the free version
  2. Caffeine for keeping the laptop awake when I need to especially during long processes
  3. Magnet (paid) for sizing different screens when in use
  4. RDM for changing resolutions as I take screenshots for documentation
  5. Typora (paid) for Markdown editing
  6. Clippy (paid) for managing my clipboard
  7. Texty (paid) for reading the SMS messages on my phone on my laptop

Do let me know if you found this useful and please share how you are setup