uses

Workhorses:

• logos - my MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013). This computer is an absolute beast! I got it second hand and even after years of abusing it for development and fun, it still works better than most laptops out there. It also features the best keyboard Apple ever made.

• kaizen - my MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017). My wife tells me I type like I’m angry all the time and this computer’s keyboard takes a daily punishment of endless emails and Slack messages.

Communication Tools:

• Slack - I use Slack primarily as a social tool to stay in touch with friends on the interwebs.

• Google Workspace (formerly G-Suite) & Gmail - the best thing Google ever made, even if you include the search engine side. Also, switching between multiple emails in one browser window saves lives and electrons.

Writing:

• Notion - I love the simplicity of Notion. The white background and the blank page feeling make it easy for me to write down an idea real quick or hammer out a blog post.

• Hemingway Editor - I usually throw stuff in Hemingway editor before they get published. Helps me visualize the horrible long sentences and break them down.

• Grammarly - everybody makes typos, mixes in the wrong words, half-deletes a sentence, and uses commas where there shouldn’t be any. Grammarly catches at least half and saves you the embarrassment of having to apologize for an email written on the fly.

Development:

• Laravel - I first used Laravel on a project in 2014 and I’ve been a user and fan ever since. Even sneaked in a PR once. If I paraphrase Dani Rojas from Ted Lasso: Laravel is life!

• Livewire - Livewire is exactly what it states on the tin: Powerful, dynamic, front-end UIs without leaving PHP. If you like the PHP dark side, you’ll love Livewire.

• Alpine.js - if CSS isn’t my friend, JavaScript has the ability to wrap my brain and squeeze it until only lemon juice comes out. Something about JS does not work for me, but Alpine.js makes tiny interactions simple again.

• VSCode - I do most of my hobby development work in VSCode. It’sree and beats most IDEs by a long shot, although the IntelliSense for PHP isn’t as good or intuitive as in PHPStorm.

• Fira Code - the font I use in VSCode. Makes even my $h!t code readable as f*ck.

• Slime - I’ve enjoyed “close-to-Matrix” color themes for most of my development life and Slime is perfect. Easy on the eyes, yet still providing enough color to be able to scan the code quickly.

• Brave Browser - I’ve been an early adopter of Brave Browser and I can’t imagine my life without it. At the time of writing this, it reports 657 448 blocked trackers & ads, 13.84GB in bandwidth and 9.1 hours of time saved due to faster load times.

• Sequel Ace - developed as a successor to the now-abandoned SequelPro. For the users of its predecessor, it offers a familiar interface with fewer bugs.

• Warp - Warp is a recent addition to my computers and completely replaced iTerm2. Outside of these two, I deny knowledge and/or existence of any other terminal app on Mac. Complete with zsh shell. The person who developed the Cmd + click to make links clickable, deserves a medal of honor.

• Github - by opening up the team features and with the addition of supporting tools, such as Github Actions, Github has become my go-to version control hosting provider. Used for my side projects and my own open-source work. Also, the Github Desktop app keeps me out of the console for most of my version-control-related tasks.

• Tinkerwell - words cannot properly express how much time Tinkerwell has saved me over the years, especially when trying to massage some godforsaken data dump or trying to quickly whip up a minor code snippet on the fly. Proud owner of a lifetime version. Those of you interested in extending your existing Tinkerwell licence, can do so here.

• Windy - sometime you don’t feel like hand-coding a component you like and have found on the Interwebs and would rather just snag it from your browser’s DOM. Windy is a Chrome/Brave/Chromium extension that let’s you do just that and converts the individual element into Tailwind classes as closely as it can. I hate front-end, so, huge fan.

Domain purchases:

• Domenca - domain registrar, based in Slovenia. All local domains are acquired here.

• Namecheap - for domains I can’t find on Domenca, Namecheap comes to the rescue. Also has a really cool logo and color scheme generator I occasionally use for side-projects and zero-budget projects.

Productivity

• LastPass - The last time I had to remember my password was in 2019. The rest is stored within the LastPass walls. Works well on mobile and desktop. Sadly, no longer entirely free.