/uses

Things I use   day-to-day. Like most engineers I enjoy researching gadgets, but instead of trying to find the perfect setup I aim for solid and try to get a long lifespan out of things I buy.

§Devices

I do all my work on a 14inch MacBook Pro M3 with 18GB RAM that I got as a parting gift from my last job. I use a Logitech MX Master 3, a Keychron K8 with brown switches and older Sony WH-1000XM3 noise cancelling headphones.

To read or review (academic) papers I use my iPad 11th Gen. with a Logitech Crayon pen to scribble and annotate the margins.

My phone is a Google Pixel 8 with default Android and a Garmin Forerunner 965 fitness watch to track my runs, swims, and sleep duration.

§Home-Office

I start my days standing at a Flexispot E7 (the actual desk board is cheap and from IKEA). I aim to stand at least for an hour in the morning, another in the afternoon and during a few meetings. If I don’t stand I sit comfortably in a Herman Miller Aeron which I bought second-hand for ~£500. I use a single 27-inch Dell UltraSharp U2720Q LED Monitor connected to my MacBook.

To focus I play background noise from mynoise.net   and drink coffee made by a 5yr-old Sage Barista Pro (that seems to have appreciated in value) or an AeroPress Original. My coffee beans are from Rave   or Grind   .

§On the move

If I am working somewhere else, I only bring my MacBook and my mouse and switch to less bulky Apple Airpods Pro 2. I transport all of this in my Osprey Daylite 26+6 Backpack. I initially bought it as a bag for short business or long weekend trips as it exactly fits into most airlines’ personal item allowances, but then used it for everyday travel as well.

I usually bring a charged Anker 10,000 mAh PowerBank and have been saved many times by my inCharge 6-in-1 USB cable/converter   . I use the UGREEN USB-C 100W GaN 4-Port charger which allows simultaneous fast charging of my MacBook, phone, and another device. I put all the small accessories into a tomtoc Travel Pouch.

everyday devices
Figure 1. The things I use on a daily basis.

§Coding

I stopped trying to find the perfect coding setup. I use Visual Studio Code with vim movements to write code. I use the standard Mac Terminal with oh-my-zsh   and fzf   and plain git.

§AI

My daily driver is Claude Code via a Claude Pro subscription. I also try out new models (DeepSeek, Kimi, GLM) via OpenRouter and Pi Coding Agent. I sometimes run local models like qwen 3.5:9b via LM Studio or Ollama.

§Notetaking / Organisation

I keep all my digital notes in Joplin   . To organize my day I have a single note where I add a new heading for the day and list the tasks I want to work on (usually involves copying unfinished tasks from the previous day). It’s similar to the approached described here   . I realized that anything more fancy didn’t give me more benefit. I use the Joplin WebClipper   to save interesting articles.

For physical notes I use A4 dotted notebooks from Leuchtturm1917   (expensive) or Rettacy   (cheaper). For scratch notes I use notepads from hotels I have stayed at in the past. To write I use the amazing rOtring Rapid Pro Mechanical Pencil HB 0.5mm.

§Software and Services

I use Firefox with the following extensions:

Emails arrive in Thunderbird.

I use NetNewsWire   to read RSS feeds.

I use SelfControl   to block out distractions.

I use the excellent LocalSend   to share files between my devices.

§Privacy and Security

I prefer messaging on Signal   and use Mailbox.org   for emails. For strong passwords I use KeePassXC   as a password manager with Yubikeys   as second factors. I use Mullvad VPN   when connecting to public Wifi networks and use device encryption on my MacBook and my Google Pixel. Otherwise I use Quad9   free and private DNS resolver.

I use restic   for encrypted data backups in the cloud and Carbon Copy Cloner   for local backups. I have written about my backup approach here .