Uses

The /uses page is a convention for designers and developers to share the what they use to get work done. You can find a collection of these at uses.tech.

Last Updated 14 May 2025

Hardware

My personal machine is a 14" Macbook Pro M2 Max with 32 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage. My phone is an iPhone 14 Pro. I have been an iPhone user since 2009 when I saved up at my Summer job to buy an iPhone 3Gs. I have a 27" LG UltraFine 5K display.

My keyboard is a ZSA Moonlander. I love it. I started using a split keyboard when a dev I knew was getting rid of his old ZSA ErgoDox EZ. When I started at Redpanda, I used some of my hardware budget to buy a Moonlander. I switch between a Steelseries Rival 3 and a Logitech MX Master 3S mouse. The MX Master is a great device, but sometimes a wired mouse is necessary.

Software

I keep an extensive digital notebook using Obsidian. At time of writing, it's 2,815 Markdown files. About a 1,200 page book.

My browser is the Arc Browser. It's supposedly going away which makes me sad. I'm waiting until it is no longer available to switch to something else.

I am a diehard Neovim user. I keep my config in my dotfiles repo.

My terminal is Ghostty which I use with Zellij.

Programming Languages

I've settled on a solid toolbox of four languages: Go, Rust, TypeScript, and Python. Together, I can build pretty much anything I want to build. I use Go for orchestrating systems, microservices, and Web APIS. Rust is my go-to for CLIs and systems programming. I also love using Rust's Axum library for web APIs. I mostly write TypeScript for frontend work in SvelteKit. Python is my go-to for data analysis with the Polars library and for scripting.

DevTools, Platforms, and Frameworks

I use SvelteKit for web development. I don't write frontend for work so only use it for personal projects. My blog is built with Astro because it has superb content management support. Regardless of framework, I use TailwindCSS for styling and Container Variance Authority.

I deploy all my projects on Fly.io.

I've specialized around using Postgres as my database. It's an extremely powerful solution. Beyond data storage, I've leveraged it for job scheduling and queueing. I also use SQLite for "single tenant" projects with small data sets. This site is backed by SQLite which also lets me take snapshots of the database which I can store in the Git repo.

Writing

I use Leuchtturm 1917 A5 hardcover notebooks, dotted. I usually have 4 going at a time. One for work, personal notes, a journal, and software development work. The Pilot G2 0.7mm in blue is the only pen I'll write with unless under duress.

Painting

I paint with watercolor and goauche. I use Arches Cold Press paper, this ceramic palette, and Windsor and Newton paints.

Miscellaneous

Some other things I think are great.