15 May 2014

Josh Uses This

I’m a big fan of UsesThis.com and love reading about people that I admire and how they work. It may seem a bit corny, but I want to do a UsesThis of my own because I’m incredibly picky when it comes to what I use. Here goes.

Who are you, and what do you do?

If I had written this a week ago, I’d have said that I’m a Computer Science undergraduate major, but I just graduated this past Saturday with my Bachelor’s.

I will start working at Amazon on AWS in exactly two months as a Software Engineer on the Dev Productivity & Tools team.

What hardware do you use?

I am a lover of Apple’s hardware & software. I’ve only owned 2 different iMacs starting with the first one that I bought in 2006. They are my favorite machine to use as long as I have a nice mechanical keyboard and a Trackball.

When I’m not at home, I have a generic Dell laptop that used to run Arch Linux but now runs Linux Mint. I can’t wait to get rid of it to get a Macbook Air. I love Linux but I get a bit tired of configuring it endlessly to work exactly how I want.

And what software?

I can’t do any coding or text editing without Vim. I love tweaking it to work perfectly with my workflow. I’m pretty obsessed with productivity and getting things done. I also have high hopes for Neovim and want to do all I can to see it come to fruition.

I can’t use OS X without a sane window manager. I was too spoiled by xmonad when using Linux. I’ve settled with Slate (my slate config) on OS X although I don’t use it to its full potential (yet).

I have a handful of Gmail accounts that I manage with Mailplane. It is a great way to manage multiple accounts.

The app that I use the most is probably Chrome for obvious reasons.

As long as I have a terminal (either iTerm or Terminal.app) with tmux installed to my liking, I can pretty much get by with only the apps from above and don’t have to install much else.

On the command line, there are a few necessities like Git, Homebrew, LaTeX and the like. With those, a software engineer can just about conquer anything.

What would be your dream setup?

My dream setup would be finished as long as I had a Macbook Air. It would be the perfect addition and allow me to work on things anywhere. Plus the size and portability make it awesome.

And maybe if I could move the mouse and click on things with my vision. That way I’d never have to use a mouse again. I’d never have to move my hands from the homerow – you know, like Vim style.