/Uses

/Uses

Tags
Lifestyle
Computer Science
Photography
cinematography
cover
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Published
September 28, 2023
Author
Ronny Coste
These are the tools I use everyday or almost everyday to write code, camera assistant, direction of photography, and still photography. These tools works for me and my the way I like to work and does not mean that you should use it and take this a point blank recommendation but as a starting point to see if you’d like to change and improve your tool-kit.
 
🌐
https://uses.tech → This pages has more peoples setup and trinkets that one can hope for 😄

💻 Main Computer

Hardware

  • 💻 Laptop: Macbook Pro 14” (M1 Pro, 16GB Ram)
  • 🖱️ Mouse: Logitech MX Master - Not used all the time but it is handy to have
  • ⌨️ Keyboard: Keychron k2 (with brown switches) - I love this mechanical keyboard
  • 🎧 Headphones:
    • AirPods Pro (Gen 1) - This are my everyday use. Great for podcast listening, best noise cancelling for the size, and great transparency mode for impromptu conversations. But it feels like they are meant to be disposable as I had to change and warranty them every 6 to 10 months in a spanned of three years (If you get these EarPods get the extended warranty you will need it).
    • Sony WH1000XM3 - Workhorse headphones. Bought them when they were release and can safely say it is one of my best purchases for me. Great for clearing out sounds from an environment like at school it was at the library, in New York streets, at the park, or at home, flying - anywhere I am it allows me to be in a quiet place. Here I have some replacement parts for the Ear-cup and the battery. Guide on how to fix it for the Ear-cup and Battery from iFixit.

Software

👨🏽‍💻 Development

  • VsCode - Favorite IDE, and my favorite extension to go with it.
    • TailwindCSS - I use tailwindCSS on most of my web-based projects, and the ease of use that it provide plus the intellisense is nice to have.
    • LiveShare - This extension is to share my local code environment and live code with a friend, or colleague.
    • Github Copilot
    • LiveServer - This app creates an quick server for your apps, and auto-refresh it. I don’t use it much but I like to have it.
    • Prettier - Formatter for my code to keep it looking pretty.
    • ESLint - Lint for my codebases.
    • Grammarly - I use it to correct typos on my readme’s.
  • oh-my-zsh - Favorite terminal for mac.
  • Github Desktop - I know the git commands but sometimes GitHub desktop is easy to use.
🌐 Browser Extensions
  • Bypass Paywalls - I use it because sometimes people share articles to a paper and I liked to read it or take a look without having to register.
  • Visbug - Helps me measure and build good UI’s.
  • Daily.dev - Daily articles, and news that are relevant to developers.
  • SimpleLogin - similar to temp-box but instead of having an entire new email address this creates one time aliases for the emails that I already use.
  • Save to Notion - This extension is my aquiles heel in my personal knowledge toolset. It allows me to create really well documented, and easy to reference items and save them on notion.

🧰 Utilities

  • Dozer - Menubar app that does one thing and one thing only. Hides my menu-bar items. It is open-source, and it is great at what it does!
  • Lulu - Security app built by objective-see. It is a great app to keep track of the internet connections that could be happening on your laptop, which apps are doing those connections, and where is that connection going.
  • Tiles - Windows snap tool for Mac. Simple, easy, and open source.
  • Veracrypt - Open-source encryption app built
  • CoconutBattery - App that checks your Mac, iPhone, and iPad battery cycles.
  • Latest - App that check with all your installed apps to see which ones needs to be updated.
  • MenubarX - Browser on your menu bar. Cool to have but not really the most use of menu bar space really.
  • Onething - It does onething as the name says and that thing is show a message that you wrote on your menu bar. It is cool to have for reminders but it takes a lot of menu bar space so now I don’t use it as much.
  • Backtrack - I loved this app but now I don’t use it as much. It record the audio constantly and allows you to save up to the last 2 hours into a voice memo. It was great when I was in college and I wanted to record the lecture and or I was talking to someone and some great ideas came up, I save the last couple of minutes or hours into my computer.

☑️ Productivity

  • Notion - CMS, Personal knowledge management tool
  • Raycast - Customizable spotlight replacement for MacOS.
  • Noteability - I loved using this app before all the time on my iPad but now all the changes that they have done have turn this app into something that I don’t enjoy using and that I will replace soon.

📱Phone & Tablet

Hardware

  • 📱 Tablet: Ipad Pro 11” (2020)
  • 📱 Phone: iPhone 14 pro

Software

  • Tailscale - Easy to use and easy to setup VPN.
  • Arri Companion App - This app is supposed to be a beta app but it is reliable and crash free in the time that I have used it. The App is a necessity is working with a Arry camera because you can control everything on the camera, and even take screenshoot of the shot while recording.
  • MyLightMeter Pro - Light meter app for my phone. Simple to use and always on me.
  • Sidus Link App - Control all of your lights from your phone, or tablet. Great tool for jobs where the light is hanging on a ceiling or there is just so many lights to keep track off.
  • Lumy App - Simple app that does a simple thing, beautifully tell me when the sun is setting, when it is rising, how much time I have for each.
  • Libby - Easy to use and access audiobook, and ebook from your local library.
  • Tailscale - Easy to use VPN to access your local network.
  • LLM Farm - Open-Source app to run open-source models on your iPhone, iPad or Mac.
  • Jump - RDP app for iPad or iPhone. I use it on the go when I bring my raspberry pi and my iPad with me to do some development and or want to use my raspberry pi for something on the go.
  • RIP Beeper - All in one open-source chat app that allows you to have all your chats in one app.
  • Rescuetime - Time-tracker for every app that I use, and helps me keep track of how I use my time.
  • ProtonVPN - VPN self-explanatory need a VPN in public places to mascarede my traffic and ProtonVPN i use it because I trust their claims more than any other VPN company.

🖥️ HomeLab

Hardware

  • 🤖 Home-Server: Macbook Pro 13” (Intel i5, 16GB Ram, 2TB SSD, 2015) - Running linux and without a battery
  • 5TB Seagate Hardrive

Software

🖥️ Self-Hosted Services

  • Nextcloud - Google photos or iCloud photos replacement. I don’t want to rent their computers when I have many computers at home to store my photos. Also I always know that my photos will be where I left them at home, less prone to be access by any non-authorize person.
  • Umbrel - Easy to use dockerize system to self-host a bunch of services. I use it because it is easy to use and have many of the services that I need.
  • Wireguard - Great for VPN’s and can run on anything really before I had it setup on a raspberry pi zero W and it worked great for browsing the web and that sort of thing. Now I use it as a backup connection.
  • Tailscale - Easy to use and easy to setup VPN.
  • Llama.cpp with a front-end - Self-host your own ChatGPT with ChatLlama, it is not as fast on my hardware it usually runs at 7 tokens per second on my Macbook pro with Intel processor.

👾HandHeld, Portable & Smaller Computers

🤔
I have been thinking about getting more handhelds like miyoo mini or Retroflag CM
  • Raspberry Pi’s
    • Raspberry pi 4b with Internet in a Box
    • Raspberry pi 4b with ubuntu
  • GPD WIN 4 - Windows handheld with integrated controllers that I play and emulate games with.
  • uConsole - Raspberry pi CM4 based PDA type computer that I use to continue improving and learning about linux and HAM Radio.
    • I also have the MilkV CM Risc-V SOM to tinker and also learn linux, Risc-V, fixing the kernel and making drivers to get things to work.
  • Lenovo Thinkpad T480 ~Trying to test and figure out all the rave about thinkpads and its keyboard~

📝Other Things I like

  • Notebook
    • Fieldnotes: Everyday notes, photography notes.

🎬 Camera Assistant & CamOP

  • Gaffer Tape - Gaff Tape can help you solve any issue that you might run into on a set.
  • Cinetools First AC bag
  • Leatherman - I have this kind of leather-man but supreme branded. It is great as an everyday carry, and AC tool.
  • Arri Companion App - This app is supposed to be a beta app but it is reliable and crash free in the time that I have used it. The App is a necessity is working with a Arry camera because you can control everything on the camera, and even take screenshoot of the shot while recording.
  • MyLightMeter Pro - Light meter app for my phone. Simple to use and always on me.
  • Sidus Link App - Control all of your lights from your phone, or tablet. Great tool for jobs where the light is hanging on a ceiling or there is just so many lights to keep track off.
  • Lumy App - Simple app that does a simple thing, beautifully tell me when the sun is setting, when it is rising, how much time I have for each.
  • Sekonic Spot meter - This style of light meter but used, and old. Great for getting accurate reading when my phone is not cutting it.

📷 Photography

  • Leica M5
  • Mamiya RB67
  • Capture One - Love using capture one, and not depending on adobe and their spyware for cull, and manage my photo library.
 
This tools list is somewhat similar to my favorite apps list the difference is that here I have the overall hardware use to run many of them, and that it is not Mac-OS focused but it is a holistic list of everything running on my home-server, iPad, iPhone, Raspberry pi, personal laptop.
None of the links are affiliate links.
Last updated on January 31, 2024