Uses

Mostly for my own documentation, but here's a list of tools I use that make my life easier. Feel free to borrow any ideas.

Development

• Vim As a keyboard junkie, Vim suits my needs very well. After dipping my toes in with "Vim-Mode" in other editors, I finally made the jump years ago and haven't looked back.

• iTerm2 My preferred terminal emulator.

• Cobalt2 theme My favorite color scheme. 💙💛

• JetBrains Mono font Recent addition, but into it so far. Bonus points for being free and open source.

• my dotfiles I try to keep anything else configurable in my dotfiles.

Writing

• Ulysses I do all of my prose writing in Ulysses. I have groups set up to track progress of different pieces. Writing in Markdown is a must for me, and its comment feature is a game-changer for me. That along with writing goals and reliable sync between devices make it an ideal solution for writing.

• Byword For quick one-off documents, I may reach for Byword. Markdown support included.

Hosting

• Digital Ocean New to the platform, but their Droplet system makes getting started much easier (or just possible in the first place). (Note: referral link)

• Netlify For static sites (like this one), Netlify is great. Rock solid deployment process, and they do a lot for the community as well.

• Heroku For a project with a back-end where I don't want to worry about server infrastructure Heroku is perfect.

• Porkbun Good prices and service, combined with an adorable name and mascot.

Productivity

• Firefox Switch back to Firefox after a decade-long hiatus, and happy to see it's still on par with other major browsers. The built-in privacy features (combined with Mozilla's commitment to an open web) definitely make it worth giving Firefox another look.

• Things The best to-do app I've used, hands down. Beautiful design and tons of attention has been given to each feature.

• Alfred I use Alfred for every web search, as a quick dictionary, and to control Spotify. Super versatile and extensible.

• 1Password Been using this password manager forever. If not this one, please find one you like.

• Mailplane A native application wrapper around the Gmail interface.

• Fantastical An excellent calendar application.

• Hookshot A decent window management solution has been my white whale. I had tried Spectacle in the past, but almost every keyboard shortcut conflicted. Rectangle (from the Hookshot) dev is the spiritual successor to Spectacle. Hookshot builds on top of it to add really clever snapping mechanism.

• Backblaze Off-site backup is a necessity, and Backblaze has saved me a number of times. (Note: referral link)

• Dash A handy resource to quickly look up development documentation.

• SelfControl Easily block the websites that are ingrained in your muscle memory.

Browser Extensions

• Vimium Keeps my hands on the keyboard while in my browser. Strong recommend if you already use Vim, or even if you don't.

• 1Password Easily autofill your logins in the browser.

• uBlock Origin Best ad blocker in the biz.

• Bypass Paywalls Convenient for when you come across a blocked piece on a random site.

• Wappalyzer Curiosity gets the best of me while browsing, and this lets me keep my finger on the pulse of what technologies other people are using to build web applications.

• Terms of Service; Didn’t Read You know you don't read privacy policies, so it's nice to get alerted if there are any red flags as you browse.

• Facebook Container A Firefox exclusive, which I could argue is reason enough to switch. Isolates your browsing so that Facebook can't creepily follow you around the net.

• Video Speed Controller Convenient video controls that work on any site.