Snakes In The Ball Pit > Yay, I get to talk about me!

The tech we use

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Ambious:

* MS Remote Desktop Connection Manager. I work in a research environment with lots of Windows computers hooked up to testing equipment, RDCM works well for accessing them remotely to troubleshoot/update. There's probably much better software out there if your infrastructure is more elaborate.Boots Raingear, April 10, 2019, 11:07:39 am
--- End quote ---

I fucking hate RDCM, but there actually aren't any alternatives I know of.
If you ever find any let me know.


* WinDirStat is an extremely useful tool for figuring out what's taking up all of the space on the hard drive. Run it on your computer and see your porn folder in nice pretty gradient rectangles.
--- End quote ---

WinDirStat is a godsend.

ETA: I realized driving home that this post was just me saying "yup", so..... yup.

Macho Masc Sangy Savage:
PIXEL PUSHING:

* LAPTOP: A absolute master piece of shit CyberpowerPC affectionately dubbed "Snektop", because it has a serpent logo on it. It had a decent graphics card, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M. The keyboard uses a modified version of the 2007 Spider-man movie title typeface and has the worst color accuracy.
* ADOBE CC: The meat and potatoes of my job. Most of my day is spent in InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop, but I also use XD and starting to learn how to use After Effects.
* NEXUSFONT: A suggestion from our very own Chai Tea Latte! Allows me to quickly look through and test all of the installed fonts.
* GOOGLE EARTH PRO: If I had a dollar for every time an architect or engineer sent me an aerial made from a Google Maps screenshot and then asked why a 30"x42" print was blurry, I could support my fancy coffee habit. It's free, and can save really high res and clean aerials if you aren't a moron.
* LOGITECH K750 WIRELESS SOLAR KEYBOARD: I'd like a mechanical keyboard, but the noise drives me crazy. This one is lightweight and I can be moved easily.
* WACOM INTUOS PRO 4: Came with the job, and I use it occasionally. I'm alright with it and it works just fine, but if I'm going to draw something I like to do it by hand. Not that picking up more digital drawing/inking skills wouldn't be valuable, I just produce better and more varied work on paper.
* AN 18" RULER AND 50" CUTTING MAT: My work insists on pushing shit to the 11th hour, meaning I often don't have time to send out documents to a legit printer and end up cutting down things at work.
* PLAYSTATION GOLD WIRELESS HEADPHONES: Key to surviving the open office environment! The sound is good enough for my potato ears, the battery lasts long enough. The only downside is that if you lose the dongle (as I did on the set before this), they become very expensive wired garbo headphones.
* UNDERTALE LESSER DOG ACTION FIGURE: You're my only friend, tiny dog
* GOOGLE HANGOUTS: Keeping sane by talking to other people throughout the day.
* A GIANT BOX  AND FIFTEEN REAMS OF OLD PROPOSAL COVERS: Work wouldn't give me a stand up desk, so I made one. It does not work.
ADHD MANAGEMENT:

* GOOGLE CALENDAR: I have a real problem with understanding just how long things take and how they affect my week, so I block off everything I do on google calendar with generous estimates of how long they'll take. It also allows me to move tasks around as new assignments come in, and be aware of things coming up.
* JOURNAL: Sometimes the simplest things are the easiest. With ADHD you get a lot of ideas at very inappropriate times, so having a place to put them helps keep you on track and have something to go back to. Using a phone was just too many steps. The journal also doubles as a sketchbook, diary, note taker, just absolutely everything.
* GOOGLE ASSISTANT: Seems trite, but the ability to set reminders and set timers easily is the only way I remember that I have laundry going in the basement or that I need to pick up shampoo.
* SCRIVENER: Not something I've implemented just yet, but planning on doing so. Came as a recommendation from another lady with ADHD who works as a freelance writer. The idea is you have your journal, notes on your phone, sticky notes in your pocket that didn't go through the wash yet, but no way to really organize and search those things. She used Scrivner to organize these snippets of information into manageable piles, and made a habit of entering them in daily. I haven't been able to take the time and focus on building that habit, but it's installed on my laptop at least.
* DAYTRANA: Not the perfect medicine or the perfect dose, but it helps with focus and emotional regulation, so I'll take it.
* MONDAY.COM: My work's collaboration/task tracking program of choice. The marketing team as a whole decided that out of the box SharePoint was fucking trash garbage, so we use this. The boards do help me keep a list of things to do, and I have a special category for documents that are in review and the last time I followed up with the main contact. Dreadfully helpful in juggling a ton of projects.
* ROCKET BOOK: An erasable notebook designed to be scanned with your phone and deposit those scans into designated folders. I use it for work and KBAC notes, so I can't lose them in my journal and can easily reference them later. I was initially using a folded sheet of paper but would always lose them.
* SLEEP AS ANDROID: Set at least three to four alarms in the AM, changing the songs and exact times out every few months. If I don't, I can turn them off in my sleep. It does have additional alarm functions like QR codes, shaking, math, etc., but I stopped using them when it just made me furious instead of wake up. I also have other alarms set to remember to take evening medication, to eat lunch, and meditate.
ART:

* ME456 LED LIGHT BOX: Quite frankly, one of the best purchases I've made. Used it for everything from logos, inking, to embroidery, Runs off of USB, and can even be powered by a power bank if you want to go computer free. Super bright, super light weight.
* HEAT GUN: Uh, accidentally and permanently borrowed it from the art school I went to; took it home to finish my senior show and just forgot to bring it back. I feel my differential tuition more than covers it. Dreadfully useful for melting wax.
* JAPANESE STYLE WOODCUT TOOLS: Can't remember the exact brand offhand, but a very nice set of woodcut tools that have withstood plenty of abuse. These I save specifically for wood, and use an older, crummier set for linoleum.
* STANDARD QUALITY BAREN: The printmaker's tool of choice when you don't have access to a relief press. Picked up the large size at McClains printmaking supplies, and with care and camellia oil I've got it to last for a few years. Still absolutely fucked if you want to do intaglio or litho.
* MOLDED CERAMIC TOISHI: Necessary for keep your shaped woodcut tools sharp. You're supposed to be able to use the back to keep the straight chisel's sharpened.
* LEATHER HONING BLOCK: It's a piece of leather glued to a block, but using it between cuts keeps your tools razor sharp.
* DREMEL W/ HANDHELD FLEX ATTACHMENT: A damn lifesaver for carving out large swaths of negative space and really good at working with birch plywood that is really brittle and dry. Hand tools have a habit of flaking off the birch veneer fucking up the design. The only downsides are the engraving heads, especially the small ones, dull fast and the vibrations are murder on your hand after an hour. Also pisses off the neighbors when you work until 2am and then they slam on your downstairs window in a rage.
MISC:

* ATOM/PREPROS/XAMPP/GITHUB DESKTOP: For the rare times I'm doing anything website related. Still fumble a bit with stetting up and understanding how XAMPP works, but I've done alright.
* BLUE YETI MICROPHONE: Like every dipshit with a computer and time, I too wanted to do a podcast. Might still do so someday, but other projects have taken priority.
* AUDACITY: I've heard it's good for audio recording/editing, but I just use it to mercilessly break images over my knee.
* CALIBRE: Lightweight, free program that manages my extremely legal ebook collection.
* GOONCAM: Extremely dumb but easy gif making program. I hesitate to even call it a program?
* DASHLANE: Password manager.
* POCKETCASTS: Podcast program of choice, worth the $15 bucks total (desktop and phone app). Clean, easy to use, nice interface.
* PHILLIPS LIGHT ALARM CLOCK: Winter in Michigan can be a lightless, grey hellhole, so this alarm really does help. Paired with my 3-4 sound alarms I can almost be to work only an hour late instead of two!

cat_examiner:
I like lists, so I'll try. This might be a list of tech misuse / dumb habit inertia. I'm a science teacher / researcher

Computing:

* Home -- some sort of bargain Dell from 2010, i don't know. Monitor is a Vizio TV from 2010. Runs linux, is a internet and typesetting appliance
* Work -- various Lenovo desktops for classroom use. Really good computers. One job is Windows 7, the other is Windows 10
* Problem-solving -- Raspberry Pi board for automating measurements (that can't connect to a regular computer). Works.
Document and Presentation Production

* MS Excel -- used as a calculator / graph plotter, can do a lot.
* LaTeX for document and presentation typesetting; when I need lecture notes with equations, or auto-generating formatting for tests and assignments. (MS Word's equation editor is pretty decent now, but still not quite comfortable
* Powerpoint -- Really good for image presentation (no one wants slides full of equations), and also a really good image converter
* Fountain pens / photocopying / scanning / literal cut-and-paste -- I still do tons of handwriting, and a decent pen is easier on the arthritis in my wrist. Cheap as possible and still effective. Some of my documents I first saw as a student, and inherited with the job.
* Inkscape, Gimp, Audacity -- anything in class that needs an image or audio goes through one of these, if it can't quickly be made in LaTeX
Laboratory

* Calculator -- casio fx260 -- pound for pound, the best calculator ever. (it is tiny) Every calculator i've ever used has made design / interface mistakes; this one makes the fewest ( 3, pi and 1/x are secondary functions, and newer models have hard plastic buttons), and fits in a pocket. Solar powered too!

* Swiss Army Knife, Victorinox, no corkscrew. Don't like getting stabbed by the corkscrew.
* Fluke 87 Multimeter -- built like a brick, never fails
* Painter's Tape -- a cleaner, lighter duct tape
* Vernier (the company) equipment -- really good lab and demo equipment that I didn't get to choose. Generally a fat tablet and some sensor equipment. Would choose again.
* Phone -- usually whatever is cheap and prepaid; good as an audio generator, flashlight, alarm clock, stopwatch, and user manual
* Wristwatch -- casio F91w -- for stopwatch and timekeeping while teaching / without phone, also continues habit
Organization

* Google Sites --  class websites with assignments, calendars, and links to outside materials
* Gmail -- to-do lists and bookmark keeping is done in draft emails.
* Google Calendar -- school-wide events and class scheduling
* Git -- documents and code stored and version controlled. I don't have a good workflow yet; i want to keep making a thousand folders with drafts
* Eighteen Million Manila Folders , and a cheap pocket notebook[\li]
Audio

* Headphones -- no name on them, from 2006
* Honda Fit -- decent controls, good enough sound, free time tends to be in commute
Misc Software / Apps

* Desmos -- better graphing app than a graphing calculator
* Celestia -- planetarium software, easiest for me to use
* Snipping tool / Character Map / Notepad / Paint and other utility programs -- really simple tasks, get used over and over and over
* Signal -- good phone interface, only text to colleagues and overseas friends
* RealCalc Scientific Calculator -- good interface for a calc, way better than built-in for classwork
* Vim, when i need to edit text and can choose
* ImageMagick -- decent at batch image processing, easy enough to script, still learning and works for me so far
Cats

* webcam -- logitech c270, to take time-lapse pics indoors
* Raspberry Pi / Camera -- outdoor time-lapse pics
* Water dispensor -- the sort with the invertible bottle, which is used in class to demonstrate fluid flow and pressure
* Zyrtec, Sudafed, and Afrin -- to pummel sinus issues into submission , and allow cats to snuggle

Turtle:
Hardware

* Home Desktop

* Ryzen 5 2600X with a Radeon RX 580.
* Mouse is a Razer Deathadder because I'm still a slave to the Intellimouse.
* Keyboard is a Logitech K120. I've just never wanted anything more than this kind of basic-ass keyboard.
* I am currently standing a third monitor on a TV Dinner table.
* Home Couch-PC

* A tower I keep hooked up to my TV. Has an A8-5500 APU, a largely unnecessary old Radeon 7870, and 21.8Tb of redundant storage.
* One of these days I'll get around to separating these concerns but this works so I don't touch it.
* I control it with a Wireless Logitech K400 Touchpad keyboard.
* Work Laptop

* This thing is an expensive monster and the result of how badly they tried to cheap out on us by making developers use what amounted to chromebooks.
* Intel Xeon E-2176M 2.7Ghz 6/12 core, Nvidia Quadro P1000, 32gb 2667 RAM
* Compilations that took 4 hours now take 30 minutes. Machine no longer hangs when I have the gall to run VS AND Firefox. Absolutely be the squeeky wheel if your productivity is being hampered by poor equipment.Software
* Visual Studio Code

* Javascript/Typescript & angular development. Not actively working on this project.
* Windows Subsystem for Linux

* We're a Microsoft house. Not using Windows is not an option. But at least I can fake it.
* Visual Studio

* C# development. The slight majority of where I spend my time. This is our front end. Legacy WinForms, primarily WPF. Some backend, mostly not.
* Progress Developer Studio for OpenEdge

* This is a proprietary forked distribution of Eclipse Helios (23 June 2010). It is barely updated.
* It is the best, most modern available development environment for the 4th Generation Advanced Business Language, OpenEdge, which you have never heard of and will never hear of again.
* It is our server and database infrastructure. The large minority of where I spend my time.
* I could talk for hours about the wild shit that is this language but I will not do so here.Audio
* Steelseries Arctis 7 Wireless Headset

* I cannot stand wired headphones. I bought this headset refurbished about a year ago and have been happy with it. Very comfortable, very convenient, and the microphone ain't a Blue Yeti, but it does fine.
* Steelseries Arctis 7 Wireless Headset

* Yeah so I bought a second one to keep at work because the wired one I had there broke recently due to the tragic design flaw of having wires.   

ikaribattousai:
I also have a Google Music subscription, but it's mostly worth it for the ad free YouTube. You don't realize how nice that is until you go to someone else's house who has ads.

Desktop: Intel Core i7 6700K with 16 GB DDR4 RAM and a GTX 1080
Laptop: Macbook Pro 15 inch (late 2015 model with an i7)

Software:
I guess I have Adobe Creative cloud, which is nice for audio stuff and Photoshop and all that.

Entertainment:
55" LG BQ OLED 4K TV
49" Sony X800D 4K Smart TV
LG 4K UHD Player
PS4 Pro
XBox One (mostly collects dust)
Nintendo Switch
New 3DS XL

Mobile:
Pixel 3 XL 64GB
12.9" iPad Pro w/ Apple Pencil

Headphones:
Sony MDR-1000XM3 noise cancelling bluetooth wireless headphones
Jaybird X1 bluetooth earbuds

Microphone:
Rode NT USB

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