My tools of the trade.
It's fun to compare notes on the gear we all use, so consider this my entry in that conversation. It's also a good excuse for some affiliate links, right?
Hardware
Lenovo ThinkPad X11 Carbon Gen 11 14
A super-light laptop great for travelling. Looks amazing with the Dbrand
ThinkPad Universal Thunderbolt 4 Dock
With a single Thunderbolt cable my laptop is connected to power, a monitor, camera, keyboard, mouse, speakers, and microphone.
Lenovo 27-inch FHD Monitor
The 2560x1440 resolution is crisp at 27" without needing to be scaled, and it has enough space to place two windows side by side. I screen share a lot so anything larger or ultrawide is annoying.
At 200% scale this is the perfect resolution for recording a Laracasts course!
Drop ALT 65% Mechanical Keyboard
I have a small collection of mechanical keyboards, including a HHKB Pro 2 and an IBM Model M SSK, but this simple 65% keyboard is my daily driver.
Sony Alpha 6400 Mirrorless Camera
I love this camera. It has interchangeable lenses and it's very compact compared with my previous DSLR. Most of the time I combine it with a Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens and a HDMI capture device to create a very fancy webcam. I also love to combine it with the super flexible Tamrom 17-70mm f/2.8 for travel and family photography.
Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens
This is the lens I use at my desk for YouTube, online conferences, and video chat. The f/1.4 aperture is great for shallow depth of field.
Herman Miller Embody Chair
I've owned the black version of this chair for at least 10 years and it's still comfortable and the coolest looking chair around.
Wool Felt Desk Pad and Coasters by Minimal Desk Setups
I really like the look and feel of this desk pad. It also makes it easy to slide my mouse and keyboard out of the way.
Audioengine A2+ Speakers
These sound amazing and look great on my desk.
Sennheiser HD598 Headphones
These open-back headphones sound fantastic and are very comfortable.
I did have an issue where one speaker stopped working, but I picked up another broken pair and Frankensteined myself back a fully working pair.
They've been discontinued, but the Sennheiser HD 560S looks comparable.
Audio-Technica ATH-M50x Headphones
There are times where I want closed-back headphones and these fit the bill nicely! They're not as comfortable as my Sennheisers, but the sound doesn't leak in or out.
BM-800 Condenser Microphone Kit
I picked this up when I started podcasting and didn't really know what I was doing. I still think it sounds good so I haven't upgraded it yet. Check out my podcasts page to hear what it sounds like.
Behringer U-Phoria UMC22 Mic Interface
This powers my microphone and gets the XLR output into my laptop.
Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro
This is my first pair of wireless earbuds and I love them. I won them by coming second place in Tighten's Laracon 22 puzzle challenge.
Software
My dotfiles are on GitHub at https://github.com/jessarcher/dotfiles.
Fedora Linux with GNOME
I've done my fair share of distro-hopping over the years, including building a custom Linux From Scratch system. Once I lost interest in tinkering around, I settled on Fedora with GNOME.
Kitty
A super-fast GPU-based minimalistic terminal with just enough features.
Tmux
I spend most of my time in a terminal so a terminal multiplexer is a massive productivity boost.
Neovim
Hands down my favourite and most useful piece of software. I got started with Vim in my late teens, so modal editing is fused with my brain now.
Check out my Neovim episode on the Things Worth Learning podcast to learn why I love it so much, and then check out my VimConf 2021 talk to see how I've set mine up!
Firefox Developer Edition
I'm a web developer so my web browser is very important to me. That's why I choose Firefox!
Laravel
I've been a fan of Laravel for long before I worked there and it is hands down the tool I reach for when building a web application.