Debian, xmonad, emacs, rxvt-unicode, conkeror, bash, git, perl, ghc, xmms2. Gnus for email, rcirc via irssi-proxy on a remote server for irc, bitlbee (via irssi) for Google Talk and AIM. Github and Gist for collaboration. (Github is such a good tool that I pay for it, despite not needing any of the paid features! Irrational!)
The idea is to reduce overhead; anything I want to do is always a keystroke away. Most of my time is spent working or relaxing, rather than fighting with my setup. It Just Works, and is easy to interactively fix. (Want a different window arrangement? Just code it and hit Mod-Shift-q. Want an Emacs utility? Just type it in and hit C-M-x. Easy. No overhead.)
Hardware:
Intel i7 (4 cores), 30G SSD for /, 1TB 3-way RAID-1 for /home, 24" Dell monitor, Embody chair, crappy desk, and iLift monitor mount. Topre Realforce 87U keyboard. HeadRoom Micro DAC/amp (fed from the digital output of an old EMU10K1 sound card) and DT880 headphones.
It will be the perfect setup when I get a Steelcase Airtouch desk, Ultimate Ears custom headphones, and a 30" monitor. First I need to win the lottery :)
This, except vim instead of emacs, and my desk is a surfboard that I'm currently not using (I have a big wave board and a small wave board, I'll switch out the two depending on if it's summer or winter - provides a good desk and a way to store unused items).
Very similar here, but I still use XChat. Do you use anything on irssi to give you desktop notifications? I know it's a matter of taste (some people hate interruptions) but I really need alerts when I receive IMs or a coworker brett:'s me in work IRC. (And for that matter, why not ERC?)
I don't run irssi on my desktop, so no. Alerts are provided in the form of rcirc-track-minor-mode. No, there is no sound, but it's Emacs, so just implement it.
The deeper issue is, what are you doing at work that can't be done inside Emacs? You don't need sound if you are already in Emacs!
Oh, I hadn't heard of rcirc, I didn't realize you were using IRC via Emacs already (I hold no allegiance to ERC). I'll check it out.
One more question: have you noticed bitlbee failing to proxy lines with non-ascii characters? That was by far the most annoying thing I ran into, but I was using it via Xchat --- for example, a non-technical friend copy/pasted some text with curly quotes and I get nothing but "FriendName: " (blank line). I had to return to Pidgin just because of that.
Who am I: Freelance programmer - mostly web stuff. Also working on a potential startup involving text classification.
Hardware: a Thinkpad W500. It's a very solid machine with lots of CPU, GPU and screen resolution. My only complaint is that the audio ports are on the front. No need for a desktop or any kind of subnotebook, though I do occasionally wish this machine had a couple dozen more cores.
OS: Ubuntu 10.10. Pretty much stock. Gnome, Compiz, etc.... A few notable oddities: I have the WM configured to raise only on title/border clicks; inner clicks focus without raising. That solves some of the same problems as tiling. I also have the whole trackpad set to work as a scroll surface, as I always use the trackpoint for a mouse.
Dev tools: Emacs, Git, Slime, Clojure, Ruby, Common Lisp on occasion, and sometimes I pretend to know Haskell. Occasionally have to deal with PHP, Javascript, Java and other cruft. Other languages on occasion as appropriate.
Other stuff: Chrome, Firefox, Quassel, Thunderbird (I actually like Evolution better, but it got unstable about my 3gb inbox), Virtualbox with WinXP and Win7.
Dream setup: the Thinkpad W510 looks pretty good. It's just like my W500, but with more memory slots, more cores and the audio ports on the side where they belong. It would also be nice to have a big, fast SSD and enough money that I could do all my heavy-duty number crunching on an EC2 cc1.4xlarge instance.
Thinkpad X41 running OpenBSD, will be replaced by an X60-something eventually.
Acer Aspire One running (mostly) Debian and Windows 7, dual-booted. I found it cheap on craigslist, and it's light enough that I don't have second thoughts bringing it while biking about. I still prefer my thinkpad, but it's surprisingly adequate.
amd64/OpenBSD desktop, two Acer 24inch monitors, Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 (Dvorak), Kensington "Expert Mouse" trackball (the best left-handed trackball I've found, by far).
Another old, cheap, cobbled together computer running OpenBSD as a firewall / router / server.
A Haworth Zody chair and a fantastic wrap-around desk my father-in-law built.
Software: Emacs, Lua, dwm, dmenu, tmux, git, runit, w3m, mpd, nethack, xwrits, the usual Unix toolchain, etc.
I'm going to leave hardware out of this for the simple reason that given enough resources, as Paul Graham rightly said, we'd all want the fastest computer possible.
Awesome is a great window manager because it's lightweight, robust, and tiling. I can't even explain how much my workflow has improved since switching to a tiling window manager. Awesome is much less intimidating than xmonad, and uses Lua as the scripting interface.
- Editors: vi for small edits, joe for bigger projects
- Terminal: rxvt-unicode
- As far as peripheral software, I use:
lighttpd as my web server
Ruby as my scripting language of choice
nmap as my port scanner (RIP unicornscan)
ncat as my netcat varient
OpenOffice for reports (yuck!)
- I prefer Xen to OpenVZ and VirtualBox to VMWare.
- Oh, and I have an iPhone.
- As a shameless plug, I also use http://sleepyti.me every day to figure out when to go to sleep or what time to set my alarm.
- Laptop: 13-inch Dell XPS, 4GB RAM. My original model (XPS M1330) literally went up in smoke and Dell kindly sent me an updated and upgraded version (Studio XPS 13) for free. I like the size, but it runs very hot and has some terrible design features like the air vents which are half blocked when the screen is open. Next time I'm getting a Thinkpad.
- OS: Ubuntu 10.04 64-bit. Rock solid. Launcher/dock: Gnome-Do, Browser: Chrome, Editor: Vim, Version Control: Git (though my Git skills are still a bit shaky), Music: Songird.
- Special mention goes to Redshift (http://jonls.dk/redshift/), which is one of those colour temperature programs. Recommend you try it or f.lux for a few days. If I turn it off at night I can barely look at the screen it's so bright.
- Second OS: Windows Vista 64. This was pre-installed. I can't stand using it (not sure which of the home/business/ultimate editions it is), but I've kept it around for occasional Sky Player (for watching Premier League games - needs Silverlight), Photoshop and Portal.
Other electronics:
- I had a pair of Ultimate Ears Super-fi 5 Pro headphones
and they were incredible: Total isolation and excellent clarity, even on the tube, but they have gone missing. I'm going to order another pair soon.
- Nikon D300 Digital SLR with a few manual primes. I love the heavy, solid feel of these lenses. There's no going back to a kit zoom lens with a plastic mount after you've learned to focus quickly, which doesn't take long. My favourite lens by far is the 105mm f/2.5: http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/nikkore...
- Mesa/Boogie Nomad 100 guitar amp, was going cheap in the local classifieds. Weighs a ton, is impressively loud, keeps blowing fuses and even doubles as an extra seat. In front of it sits a Crybaby wah, and I need to get a delay pedal to put in the loop.
I've noticed that the more time I spend focused on work the more out of date I get with the cutting edge.
I'm on a 3 or 4 year old thinkpad (love the keyboard!) running gentoo linux. I use fvwm, xterm, gnu screen, chromium, firefox, ruby, rails, postgresql, mysql... Blah, blah, blah depending on the project.
But, please, don't copy me unless you want to be sofour years ago! : )
xterm is 'so four years ago?' I don't remember a time when xterm was 'sexy' and I've running Linux since 2000.
I'd be interested in good resources on fvwm though. I know that you can do a lot to customize it, but whenever I tried looking into it, I never knew where to start. fvwm? fvwm95? fvwm-crystal? Are they forks? Add-ons on top of fvwm? Which are/aren't maintained anymore?
My use of fvwm has become so minimal that I'd probably be better off switching to one of the tiling window managers.
I have chromium occupying an entire page of my virtual desktop with no window decorations. On another I have firefox (mostly for development with firebug). On the others I have 2 xterms side by side running screen.
For every project, I create a new screen config which defaults to opening / launching whatever I need for that project. For example, a rails project might have several zsh's already cd'ed to the models, views, and controllers directories (and probably the public javascripts and stylesheets directories). I'll also have script/console and either mysql or psql running.
In fvwm, I have a menu with an entry for each project that launches xterm and starts / reconnects to the right gnu screen session.
I have a bunch of keyboard shortcuts for navigating my virtual desktops and moving xterms around, etc. I only really use the mouse when I'm working with one of the browsers. Another reason I'd probably be better off switching to a tiling manager.
The nice thing about fvwm is that you can arrive at something that's highly personalized. I'm really efficient / comfortable with fvwm now, but it took a long time to get here. I'm not sure I'd start over with it.
So far, only three people are using Windows (all 7) as their main OS. About 7-9 were using some flavor of Linux/BSD as their main OS, with the rest (all 10-12 using Mac OSX.
Undergrad in CS at Florida Institute of Technology.
What Hardware am I Using?
13" MacBook Pro, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB HDD.
IBM Thinkpad x40 running FreeBSD
IBM (technically lenovo, but branded IBM) Thinkpad x41 tablet, running FreeBSD
And what software?
On the mac: Browser: Safari; Feed Reader: NewsFire; Music: iTunes;
Android programming: Eclipse; Mac programming: xcode;
Everything else: terminal.app
On the bsd boxes: Browser: midori; music/movies: mplayer;
Window Manager: awesome; everything else: xterm;
On both: irssi for irc, ssh for doing a lot of work. vim for text editing,
git for version control
What is my dream setup?
I want to have a room-sized setup. I would like a mac
pro, with two (or three, but that's pushing it) projectors
as monitors. Aimed and positioned in such a way that
there is no space nor overlap between either, and they both
project vertically from the ceiling to the floor. A wiimote
for the mouse, and (I'm still dreaming here, so why not?)
voice recognition for the keyboard.
2 pairs of rayban titanium glasses with anti-reflective coating for computer screens (or that's what they told me). worth the investment. i can't wear contacts for more than a few hours without pissing off my eyes. curious about trying "gunnar" glasses though. anyone have them?
timbuk2 commute 2.0 (tsa approved) messenger bag but I find it too wide with my big 17" and I often bump into things/people so I just ordered an incase backpack
Chrome is default but I have 3 versions of Firefox (4 beta, 3.6 stable, 3.0 stable) each with their own profiles so I can run them simultaneously if I need to catch some stupid bug
Charles.app for misc HTTP lurking and easily repeating HTTP posts (naughty confession: used it to opt-out of AmEx publishing's online form 3,000 times. they had been filling my physical mailbox with sweepstakes offers several times per week. needless to say, got a personal reply by a higher-up saying they would make sure my address was correctly opt-ed out as my previous 2 opt-outs did nothing)
Lightroom + Aperture. Lightroom replaced Aperture for me (seems faster)
dropbox with grabbox for sharing screenshots easily
Propane.app for Notifo company campfire
TextExpander -- MUST HAVE
TextMate with Ack in Project, PeepOpen
iWork (keynote!)
iStat Menus for looking at how much ram redis is eating and how much CPU chrome is using
Samsung wireless B&W laser printer for printing out convertible notes (was $149 at officemax)
Mint.com for reminding myself how I still owe 6 figures for out-of-state georgia tech tuition loans
a custom apple script (saved as a .app by automator) that runs at boot to launch 4 terminal tabs with things like compass for sass, redis-server, redis-cli, git status and the like https://gist.github.com/627190 then I discovered some other github project that did pretty much this but much better. forgot the name of it
Sony NEX-5 pseudo-DSLR "EVIL/SLD" (sold my big Nikon D90 SLR and canon P&S, & kodak Zi8) this can do all and is much smaller. used it to record this notifo app tour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW5hp3aoF9M
Adobe CS5 Suite + Fontcase for managing lots of fonts (but recently it keeps crashing on me.. any ideas? I have ~1500 fonts loaded in it)
Skype phone number tied to Google Voice. Handy for taking business calls on my laptop next to my cofounder so we don't have to take turns yelling into iPhone 4 speakerphone
Spotify for listening to music my friends favorite because I hate searching for music
Hype Machine in Fluid.app
smcFanControl for cooling down/manually adjusting fan speed when necessary
diffy () {
for file in $*; do
git diff $file | mate
done
}
dream setup? a lighter 17-inch macbook pro with 2560x1440 res that could morph into 13-inch form factor when on flights. this thing hits both the damn armrests in economy. grr
oh and a secret stash of chocolate-covered espresso beans in my desk drawer..
Multiple studies [1][2] have shown that Gunnar Optiks are at best a placebo. As you might have guessed, Gunnar released test results [3] contradicting these assessments.
Why did you go for the mass market headphones when you could get high-end audiophile headphones for the same price? (Sennheiser HD650, Beyerdynamic DT880, etc.)
Also, Easynews is a lot easier than Giganews. Visit web page, type name of TV show, download. Very easy. If you are willing to deal with NNTP, then you have unlimited bandwidth. Great service :)
To be honest: I bought them to review on my blog. Reviewing the "hot item" of the month gets more traffic (and some bump in affiliate sales [1]) than some audiophile headphones by a company none of my readers have heard of.
If I was solely buying for myself and no one else, I would have gone a different route. something like a FiiO E5 paired with Grados. When I lived in Atlanta I had a nice combo of Rokits + PreSonus: http://paulstamatiou.com/how-to-upgrade-to-studio-monitor-sp...
[1] for a long time my blog paid my rent exclusively (but just barely), allowing me to do full-time startup stuff for the last 2+ years. only just recently started getting a small stipend at work
Yeah I need to do that. it was last updated a few months ago. mostly, I sold a lot of my stuff when I moved to SF. I only have my laptop now. Before I had a desktop Win7 Core i7 machine and a linux htpc hooked up to a 50-inch plasma, ps3, etc. I own practically no gadgets now except for what can fit in my backpack. I kinda like it this way.
You can save those terminal things as a Terminal window set (and make it the default on launch) If you set the right terminal profiles with the right start commands then open them in a window, hen you go into Window -> create window group...
I tried that a bunch but couldn't get it to work the way I wanted for some reason. Then I tinkered with iTerm scripting, but I prefer Terminal so I ended up with my current AS + Automator combo.
I've been mobile for the past year, so just a 17" MBP (mid-2010), 8/500. I'm going to upgrade it to 512GB SSD + 1TB rotating HD soon. Right now I carry 5 x 500GB hard drives for photos (and backup), music, and 2 x data backups. The critical component: UltimateEars 10vi headphones (upgrade from Etymotics ER4S).
I usually have a high-spec Linux desktop with 3 x 24" portrait-mode U2410 IPS panels, and a 24-30" second monitor for the laptop, at my desk. I'll probably try some combination of Mac Pro and iMac (at home or office) next, but I think I'll keep the linux desktop too. Critical component: Beyerdynamic DT770pro sealed headphones (office), Sennheiser HD650 open headphones (home). May upgrade to HD800 at some point, or speakers.
I need to be able to do office automation and image editing (and maybe now iPhone dev?) (mac), lots of sysadmin/text editing/dev (mac or linux), and to also have a way to keep "work" and "fun" stuff on separate machines at the same desk. I also often need to have "machine under test" (embedded, server prototype, etc.) separate, and also sometimes need to run one or more machines on an airgapped network.
This leads to wanting 2 x 20A power feeds to my desk, and a good air conditioner. A noise-isolated enclosure would be an awesome upgrade (or a nearby office with some long DVI/keyboard/USB cables and a remote power cycler...)
$250 armless "size C" Aeron at home; probably will get an Embody or something for the office.
Also need to get an office: planning to use a shared office space in Mountain View for Q1-Q2 2011.
* Company-issued HP "elitebook" that used to be faster than it is now. Runs Win7, which I quite like.
* Anonymous LG 24" LCD
* I'm a loyal user of microsoft... peripherals. Natural Keyboard Elite, plus an Arc mouse when I'm on the go. I can't say enough good things about that mouse... even the little felt bag it comes in is useful.
* About half and half emacs and vim for general editing. Trying to be more competent at vim, for wrist reasons. (Not trying to start anything here) But I'm not very good at it yet and it doesn't have org-mode.
* Visual Studio 2008 / C# 3 for most programming (corporate coder here), plus a mix of Java, Ruby, Python, and whatever else will get the job done.
* (guitar) Ibanez SV5470, Fender Japan Standard Tele, Boss ME-70 for effects. The latter is competent and relatively portable, but I may do a real pedalboard someday. I practice into Guitar Rig 3 on my mac, through an Echo Audiofire4, and heard through a pair of Sennheiser HD280 earphones. The Echo unit has great preamps but has issues with the mac firewire implementation.
I have a beefy workstation at home with 24" + 22" screens that I now
primarily use for resource intensive gaming that require a good GPU,
or ASM reverse engineering. The extra pixels really help keep
different aspects of the ASM available for a quick reference when
looking around.
Linux Server & NAS
Next to that workstation, I have a dual quad core Xeon PowerEdge
server with Debian for serving up my side projects, and experimenting
with new languages & various web, load balancing, and DB servers. The
Linux server is connected to a 4TB RAID5 NAS for backups of the
server, my workstation, and my media files. I also have torrentflux
setup on Debian to download torrents to the NAS. All of this is
connected to a 30/30 FiOS connection with a gigabit switch for the
internal network so its a decent setup for production side projects
and backups.
Day-to-day
Until last month I was using a 15" i5 MBPro with 6GB of ram, and an
SSD for my day-to-day needs and development, but the weight was
starting to get to me. So following the recommendations a few weeks
ago in a HN thread about development laptops, I purchased a Lenovo
X201 for my day-to-day needs. I dual-boot between Windows 7 (for ASM
work, and other work that I need Windows for) and Ubuntu 10.10 (main
OS, sysadmin work, development work). For anyone else considering a
X201, do it! It's a great setup, the screen resolution is not a
problem at all (coming from someone who went to a hi-res 15" MBP from
a 13" for the screen resolution upgrade) and 10.10 worked flawlessly
out of the box.
Software
On Windows, I use InType for my texteditor, combined with ExpanDrive
for remote editing.
On Ubuntu, I use Scribes as my primary texteditor, vim when working
in command line. No need for ExpanDrive in Ubuntu as Nautilus
supports SSH bookmarks. Tilda is a great utility if you need to be
able to pull up a Terminal window quickly, similar to Visor in OS X.
"Gnome Do" to replace Spotlight from OS X
I'm an SVP at a music company, running our Emerging Technology group. It means I'm half CTO and half business development.
What Hardware I use:
Work Primary:
- Mac Pro, 8 core, 3.03 ghz with 16 gigs of RAM. 4 TB of hard drive space, and dual Nvidia something or others.
This drives two Dell U2711 27" displays and 2 23" Samsungs with those ultra high res PPI.
Hooked to this machine I have an external BluRay, Drobo Elite with 8 TB for offline, a 2TB time machine drive, an Apogee Maestro hooked to two Rokit 6 studio monitors from KRK and a Magic Touch Pad. I also have a Kinesis freestyle split keyboard, which I have spaced about 10" apart. My iPad goes between the two halves of the keyboard.
My Laptop is a 17" I5 Mac Book Pro.
I also have a iPad, iPhone, and a few Android phones for testing.
HOME:
We have a Mac Mini server in a closet with a 4TB RAID off it and an iMac quad core i5 for my wife. She has an iPad and iPhone.
I use the left screen for iTunes, Pivotal Tracker and a VNC console to a screen of "tops" running on all our servers. We call it the War Games Console.
Left screen is email and "communications/information" including NetNewsWire, some other feeds, etc.
Middle right is my primary display for browsers and coding.
Far right is where I keep rememberthemilk.com, Gabble (a Yammer client), Echofon (twitter client) and IM/Skype.
On my Ipad I usually have SkyGrid running, which is a realtime news client. My laptop on the left is just so I have it available.
The other thing about my home setup is the MacMini server controls our lighting and thermostat and other systems in the house. I designed the house infrastructure to be computer-like, including states and conditional actions.
Who I am: owner of small open-source focused VoIP engineering consultancy trying to morph into a product company.
Hardware:
- Main office desktop machine: Quad-core Core 2 Duo @ 2.33 GHz (64-bit) with 8 GB of RAM, nVidia GT240, 30" HP display (DVI), dual 500 GB
SATA HDs.
- Laptop: Sony/Vaio VGN-NS328J, Dual Core (2.0 GHz/64-bit) with 3 GB of RAM, some sort of mediocre ATI video.
- Netbook, on which I do a fair bit of my remote hacking: 10.1" Asus EeePC 1015PE (dual-core 1.66 GHz Intel Atom) w/2 GB RAM upgrade, 802.11x, Bluetooth. Great battery life on these things!
Software:
- OS: Debian Linux - mostly unstable/sid for workstations, testing/squeeze for servers.
- Window manager: For about a decade I used FVWM2, but recently gave up and switched to GNOME + Compiz, given the amount of GTK apps out there. Plus, taking advantage of the now-ubiquitous 3D accelerator actually gives much better windowing performance than a 2D window manager.
What I do: all form of web devel.. 40% 'building' 60% 'maintaining'.
Desktop: generic dell dual 2.66ghz 4gig ram, dual 22in wide screen displays. I do most of my 'work work' here.
I use a kensington 'expert mouse' in lieu of a real mouse.
Laptop: Lenovo T410.. never use a mouse for this. i turn off the touch pad and use the little nib.
Software: (not much compared to most people)
Ubuntu for my linux distro ,
xmonad for window placement ,
vim for coding ,
git for source control ,
ff/chromium for browsing. ,
grooveshark for listening,
I use a couple vim plugins, mainly nerdtree. My vim is heavily customized.
My ff is heavily customized with vimperator, i also use firebug, measureit, and adblock
I have a nice pair of pass-through headphones, I don't remember the make or model.
I have a crappy razr-era cell phone and a couple old digital cameras.
I am pretty happy with my setup, I don't do too much cranking and neither of my systems really lag unless there is some serious javascript going on in FF.
I do virtually all of my work through a shell and spend more time in vim than anywhere.
I occasionally run windows inside a virtual machine to hack on flash.
I'd like to move my OS to a SSD. I also wouldn't mind a headless badass private server.
Vimperator and learning to customize vim have been the best things I have ever done for my computing environment.
A pretty ordinary HP 15" laptop (6730b) is my main machine currently. It runs Windows 7 64 bit and the occasional Ubuntu VM where required. Currently open are:
* Visual Studio 2010 (twice)
* SQL Management Studio
* Firefox (twice)
* .Net Reflector
* Git Bash prompt
* Skype
I have a stock mac mini sitting in the back for tinkering with iPhones etc and a couple of 19" monitors to plug in as needed. Misc other things I can see from here:
* iPod Touch
* HTC Desire (Android phone)
* Annoying Japanese printer with hard to find ink.
* Digital drum kit.
* Several notepads covered in scribble by either myself or my son.
Desktop - Unknown ABS model. AMD Phenom 9500 quad-core, 2.0GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 3850, crummy old IDE HD. I found this computer half destroyed at a junk sale and spent a few hours and about $50 refurbishing it to usable condition. Wouldn't have been able to afford it otherwise. The HD was missing, so I threw in an old one.
Laptop - Asus 8JS. Geforce 7700 graphics, 2Ghz Intel Core Duo, 2GB RAM, 120GB HD. 14" screen with 1440x900 resolution (looks photorealistic on some games).
OS - Ubuntu 10.10 as primary. Standard low-maintenance Linux, though occasionally I have to custom install something that has gone stale in the repositories. I also have mostly unused Windows XP and Vista boots.
Code editing - Eclipse or Gedit. I have rudimentary knowledge of VIM and painful memories of Emacs. I code in a whole slew of languages and generally find that I'm either okay with the really simple text editor (Gedit) or want code completion and automated testing (Eclipse). I also like to put SVN repos into a Dropbox. It's a free way to keep my code private but still have it backed up and synchronized between computers. I've used Git and Bazaar, never in a way that convinced me they were truly more advanced than SVN.
Web Browsing - Firefox. Tried Chrome and Opera, and I think I'm just more used to Firefox now and can understand its quirks. I was using Phoenix 0.4 back in high school, and people thought I was crazy.
Phone - was pretty uninterested in phones until Android came out. Now I have an HD2 (that's a WinMo phone) that I'm hacking to run Android.
Sound - anything I can salvage. People throw away tons of audio equipment. I have a huge pair of Tannoy speakers that look like they could power a rock concert. I think I have a usable amp for these, but I'm still figuring out how to wire everything.
My rig is here: http://jseliger.com/2010/05/02/writing-space-2010/ . 24" iMac with an external monitor; will probably be replaced by a 27" iMac with an SSD in the coming months. Expanding screen real estate / secondary monitors are probably the two greatest productivity enhancements I've seen in the last ten years.
Software:
1) Mostly Word, Textmate, and Mellel. The first for documents I have to send to others; the second for blog posts and the like; and the third for longer documents like novels.
2 Dell 20 inch monitors plus the laptop screen
Single mouse and keyboard - both plain Logitech models.
Software I'm regularly using:
Outlook, our internal ticketing system, Visual Studio 2008, Eclipse, Notepad++, Cygwin, Baretail, Baregrep, IE, Firefox, the products we support, various other internal tools.
At home:
I primarily use a Core i7 - quad core + hyperthreading, 6GB RAM, 120GB SSD, runs Windows 7 Ultimate.
I use a 1st gen Macbook Air for music and light web browsing, and I have an older desktop that I use as a media PC. Also a Dell laptop - 1 year old that was mostly replaced by the Core i7 desktop. I also have an Acer netbook that I use when traveling.
Finally, I also have a hosted server running CENT OS - quad core Xeon w/ 8GB RAM for hosting various sites and personal projects.
American salaryman by day, wantrepreneur by night.
What Hardware am I Using?
Just a lenovo T500 w/ windows 7 (and ubuntu virtualbox),
and an iphone 3G (soon to be a nexus one).
The iphone is jailbroken on tmobile, and I'm not a fan of how
there's no springboard widget support, nor the pains of trying to
maintain a jailbroken iphone.
I use a pair of Meelectronics M6(?) earbuds which are a steal.
At work i use a Desktop running windows xp and 2 24" monitors.
And what software?
real apps: Virtuawin, enso, chrome dev builds, Visual studio, vim, picasa,
and itunes (more of a winamp guy though), and sumatra pdf for reading books.
f.lux is awesome, and seems to work better than redshift
cloud apps: picasa web, irccloud, and countless other google apps
What is my dream setup?
I want a laptop the size of a macbook air, but with a desktop-fast processor
that is largely disabled on battery, but fires up when docked at home.
It must also be dead silent, and seamlessly dock to a desktop graphics card.
I used to only use a desktop machine 5-6 years ago. and I'm coming to
realize doing everything on one big honking laptop sucks. Laptops are
terrible ergonomically. Part of me still wants to travel
and work though. So I also want a big display that I can roll up in my backpack,
and an ergonomic chair i can pack easily too.
Lastly, I want a cheap offsite backup setup that let's me upload/backup tons
of stuff without much thought. I also want ZFS/Freenas to be more drobo-like.
I'd buy a drobo in a heartbeat if they said it just used ZFS and I never heard
horror stories about them.
Realistically, I'm likely going to get either a desktop or x201s+dock or
hp envy 14, notion ink tablet, and a quiet low power freenas system.
Notebook:
- 15" Macbook Pro, 8GB ram, hybrid HDD, antiglare (matte) display.
- Quicksilver
- MacVim
- SMCFanControl to control MBP Fan speed and cool it down.
- gfxCardStatus to force use of Intel GPU (increases battery life to 10hr max)
- Lastpass & Xmarks for cross browser sharing of passwords & bookmarks.
- iTerm, gnu screen, irssi, zsh with a 500 LOC .zshrc, macports, VMWare
- Time machine for backups
Server:
- Colocated Sun x4100, 16GB ram, runs 8 VMs using Xen
- Costs $40/month: 500GB/month bandwith, remote shutdown/reboot via LOM
- Duplicity + S3 for backing up each individual VM
Others:
- Stand Up Desk (at work)
- Airport Extreme + attached usb printer for network printing.
- No external keyboards or displays to streamline work process.
I'm a college student who's also a blogger, software reviewer, aspiring writer:
-2007-era home-built desktop running Windows 7 Professional x64 - AMD 64 x2, 3Gb Ram, 1Tb HD, 20" Acer monitor that I wish had higher resolution - dual-boots Ubuntu 10.10 and runs VMware Workstation for more OSes/testing
-Samsung N150 Netbook - Intel Atom N450, 1Gb Ram, 250Gb HD, Windows 7 Home Premium
-3rd Gen iPod Touch 32Gb, T-Mobile Dash from 2007 for phone calls :)
Software:
WordPress - most important tool :)
Office 2010
Windows Live Writer
Google Chrome
Photoshop Elements
Snagit + Camtasia
Evernote
Kindle for PC
Dropbox for almost everything
windroplr
dozens of other apps that I use less than the above
Dream Setup:
A faster version of my netbook with an external monitor/keyboard/mouse at my desk. The size is great, but 3Gb of Ram and a core i7 in the same package would be awesome...
Also, Things on Windows ( or another app that worked as good ) would complete my setup. I still don't have a great to-do list / GTD app for PC, so any suggestions would be great. Right now, I'm using Things on my iTouch and 37signals Backpack + Satchel for to-dos :)
For everyday computing and development, I use my HP Pavilion 14" laptop with Sony MDR-7506 headphones. I dual-boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu 10.04, but I tend to spend 90% of my time on the Windows side using PuTTY sessions as necessary to SSH to Linux machines. For coding, I split about 50/50 between Notepad++ and Vim. I browse primarily in Chrome.
For relaxing, I have my aging gaming desktop: Intel Core 2 Duo, GeForce 8800 GTS, dual 22.5" Samsung LCDs, Velociraptor primary HD, and a cheap (but good) Logitech USB headset with mic. I have both Windows 7 and Fedora 13 here. The Linux side is generally used as a test area, and I often try new distros there. I was pleasantly surprised by Fedora, and sometime soon I will try Fedora 14.
For a home web and file server, I use Debian / Apache / Samba.
Hardware: I alternate between a Dell 14" XPS Laptop and a home-built desktop. The laptop is run-of-the-mill, and the desktop is a dual Q6600 with 8GB Corsair and a couple 2Tb WD drives, housed in a gorgeous Lian-Li brushed aluminum 12-bay case and 3 24" Acer monitors (cheap). Keyboard is a Logitech G19, Mouse is a Logitech MX-9000. Speakers are the little volume icon speakers from art.lebedev (they were a gift, but they're cool, and don't sound bad at all). I've also got an 8GB Dell Optiplex that I use as a sandbox. It's running ESXi with a single Ubuntu guest.
Looking around my office, I've also got some Linksys Powerline adapters (faster than WiFi), another Dell Studio 14" with 4GB ram running Windows 7.
Software: All three boxes are running Ubuntu 10.something, the desktop and laptop are running 10.10, while the Optiplex is on 10.04(LTS).
Servers: I've got a colo'd VM with 8GB RAM, dual Xeon 1.8Ghz and 200Gb disk running Ubuntu 10.04 with GoNexTek (http://gonextek.com) for some older sites of mine, as well as 2 512Mb slicehost instances for staging (haven't migrated them to Linode yet), and a Linode 512 Slice.
Hosted platforms: I mentioned Slicehost and Linode, but I have a couple of tentative apps on AppEngine.
Servers: I've got some (what I consider legacy) sites running PHP-based code -- mostly forums and the like. Newer stuff is mostly either Django behind either Apache or Nginx or, more recently, most of my stuff is with Tornado/Twister/Nginx (Twister is my management framework).
Databases: MySQL, MongoDB
The newest project I'm working on (Plum) is using the following: Nginx, Tornado, Python, Celery, RabbitMQ and MySQL & MongoDB and Memcache. Steve built a beautiful MySQL / Memcache abstraction layer he calls BPEngine that acts as our ORM, but in addition that, it also populates / expires / manages keeping memcache seeded & updated, as well as kicking off requisite tasks into celery for some of the backend work.
I’m just a simple jack-of-all-trades web designer trying to make sense of this crazy, often unnecessarily confusing world.
What hardware am I using?
My nomadic work rig is a 15" MacBook Pro – late-2007 model with the stock hard drive replaced with a SSD – pox on black bezels and glass screens! When at home it is hooked up to a 24" Samsung monitor that I don’t really take advantage of (I usually keep my windows sized to 1400x900 max), a wired Apple keyboard, an Alienware TactX mouse, Logitech Z-5 Speakers and Sony MDR-XD200 headphones. I also have a PC rig that I built in 2008, but I use that strictly for PC gaming now.
I draw my thumbnails and sketches in a large, grided Moleskine notebook with a Lamy Noto ballpoint pen. As for miscellaneous items, Post-It notes act as my todolist, the Kindle is my reading device of choice and I carry a Canon XSi with me every now and then.
And what software?
I guess Photoshop is a given. I use both TextMate and Emacs for churning markup and code. Firefox is what I develop with first because of Firebug and the fact that I don’t use it for browsing otherwise (keeps the history of my real browser clean). I use Slammer for measuring and laying stuff on my screen in a nice and tight grid.
I use Git for version control. I used to use Emacs + Magit for this but have gone back to a forked version of GitX after simplifying my branching model. Forklift is used for quick SFTP work or when I want to browse my local files with a program that doesn’t suck. I use SizeUp to quickly center windows or to place windows in panes when I’m coding.
I work while listening to music, so iTunes + Last.fm is usually always up playing songs I’ve rated four stars or higher.
What would be my dream setup?
I’d love to get rid of this stupidly-large PC tower I have, but I still need my PC gaming fix. Would be if nice laptop tech. eventually caught up to desktop and kept in line so I could have a MacBook that could run Shattered Horizon as well as it can run Photoshop.
Notebook:
15" Macbook Pro, 8Gb mem, Hybrid HDD, Antiglare (matte) display.
- Quicksilver, with lots of other custom scripts
- SMCFanControl to control MBP Fan speed &
- gfxCardStatus to force use of Intel GPU (increases battery life to a 10hr maximum)
- iTerm, zsh with a 500 loc .zshrc, gnu screen (religiously) & VMWare running a Windows VM
- MacVim
- Lastpass & Xmarks for cross browser sharing of Password & Bookmarks.
Server:
- Colocated Sun x4100, 16Gb mem, runs 8 VMs using OracleVM (Xen + pretty web based UI)
- Colo costs $40/month, I get 500GB of monthly bandwith, includes a second
Others:
- STAND UP DESK (at work)
- Airport Extreme + attached usb printer for network printing.
* 17.5" HP pavilion 3GB RAM. Fairly slick but air vents are in an awkward position, and I should have picked a smaller screen size
* OS: Gentoo 2010 hardened. Browser: FF/Chrome. Editor: Vim/Redcar. DVCS: Git. TM: Tmux. File sync: Dropbox. IMP: GIMP, sometimes PS but I'm a beginner. Media: VLC. Shell: Zsh
* Pretty much every interpreter/compiler under the sun.
* Secondary Mac mini utilizing 4GB Ram but unfortunately it's external peripherals suck.. yes, all of them. It's there for nothing more than iOS development.
* Networking: Anything Netgear, it's never let me down
* Headphones: Sennheiser HD 800
* Ext HDD: Western Digital 500GB book
* iPhone 4 for iOS development, HTC Magic for Android development
At work I have an HP xw-series workstation sporting two quad core Xeons and 12gb of RAM. I have a 24" main display and a 19" secondary, both Dells, hooked up to a fantastically terrible Quadro NVS290 video card. It runs Windows 7 and my primary code editor is Vim. I have development kits for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Wii attached. I use Perforce for SCM at work and a mishmash of NAnt, Visual Studio, and XGE for builds.
I also have a secondary Core 2 Quad machine I use for PC games development as the video card is actually usable, also running Windows 7.
A Dell Inspiron 560S desktop (700$-ish, few months old, 6 Gigs ram) with Windows 7 (which I love I really do, it just screams and works great), with 2 Viewsonic monitors (http://amzn.to/dqRAN1 very good, and I much prefer the more traditional aspect ratio, especially for dual monitors.).
Software-wise, it's Chrome + assorted browsers for testing, Notepad++ for editing code, Visio 2003 for wires. Paint.net for simple image stuff. Dropbox. Skype. That's about it.
15" year-old Unibody Macbook Pro. 6 months ago I replaced the SuperDrive with an SSD - love it. 2 months ago, I picked up a refurb 24" Cinema display (~$649CAD, awesome price). I never realized what an impact that display would have on my desk, but I have far less crap on my desk now because of it.
TextMate, Versions, Terminal, Photoshop for Dev & Design work.
Nikon D90 - Usually my 12-24 f4 or 50 1.8 are on it. It's a great creative outlet that gets me away from my desk.
iPhone 3GS - Trying hard to wait till the next iPhone to upgrade.
Hardware: used Dell Optiplex 745, old 17" LCD, Unicomp clicky keyboard. Kensington trackball, HP GPIB card, Grado SR-125 headphones. Sun Ultra 60 and a Soekris in the closet. Several classic Tektronix oscilloscopes and plugins, assorted HP frequency counters, generators, and meters. Trimble Thunderbolt GPS disciplined oscillator as my 10MHz house reference. (My Rb atomic clock is currently powered down.)
Software: WinXP, VirtualBox, OpenBSD, Cygwin, Codewright, Opera, and lots of weird embedded tools.
Pretty happy with what I have, sometimes wish for more pixel density (won't someone make a 2560x1440 24" display??), ergonomics are also a concern (love my chair, hate my desk)
I'm really interested in how he Macbook Air goes for you, as a programmer. I've been eying that exact same one, but I'm not sure I can validate the price since most of my life and work resides on a Linux server somewhere in the "cloud". If you want my email is in my profile. Thanks.
Acer Aspire 5670 (4+ years old), Windows 7 Ultimate from Bizsparks.
I used to use Visual Studio 2008 for Outlook plugin development but now I pretty much always SSH into a remote Linux server to work. I use vim and git. Sometimes I run my stuff on Virtual Box with Ubuntu but that only works well enough on my i7 6GB desktop.
I program primarily in Python and Java and use Django for web app development.
Code monkey that runs a modest software sweatshop in Orange County, CA
and is constantly scheming startups.
What Hardware Am I Using?
27" iMac i7 w/ 16GB ram
- Best Mac I've ever owned, hands down.
2.66GHz Quad-core Mac Pro w/ 8GB ram w/ 20" Cinema Display
- Surprisingly don't use this much
ever since I got my iMac. Mostly for testing third party hardware
like videos cards, etc with what I'm working on.
Dell Precision T3500 Xeon 2.4 GHz w/ 4GB ram
- My guinea pig machine for random shit
- Various Linux distros (FreeBSD, Ubuntu, and testing of new
builds of various)
Asus Rampage Gene III 3.06GHz i7 w/ 6GB ram & AMD Radeon HD5830
- Prototype hardware for a project I'm working on, picked for it's
north/south bridges and socket.
And what software?
Tons...On Mac-native I use a ton of terminal/vi, Smultron, Xcode suite,
CS5 suite, and various others. VMWare and Parallels both...Some projects
only work in either/or, plus I just genuinely can't make up my mind.
Cyberduck for ftp. I use MAMP Pro to control a self-updated version of
my web services (apache, php, etc)
Don't know if you care, but of course I use all the normal command line
programs any nerd does...and for repos I prefer SVN only cause I used
CVS (don't hate on me yo) but I use git, hg, etc daily and love them
as well. Ultimately I'd be happy if everyone would just pick ONE.
I wouldn't care which cause they all have their strengths..
Browser I use Safari for casual, Firefox for primary development
(Firebug > Webkit Inspector) and I've got a verion of Chromium that
a buddy of mine and I made some cool changes to, but I haven't used it
recently cause it was forked from such an old trunk.
Web apps I use gmail (for all my mail), google docs, and mobileme.
Probably some various others from time to time.
What Is My Dream Setup?
I used to have a Macbook Pro that got ruined in an apartment flood
6 months ago, so I've been thinking about replacing it with one of
those new 11" Macbook Airs. So sexy.
I'm actually working on my true dream setup as a startup. We've
only recently begun so it's a little self-absorbed to report much
more then that: http://mythologylabs.com
Like jesusabdullah said, almost limitless internet would be great
for a bajillion reasons.
1. A Lenovo IdeaPad S10 running Ubuntu 10.10.
2. A Dell Dimension e520n which boots Arch Linux and OpenBSD (and sometimes Windows 7).
I am considering moving to a regular laptop (14" or 15" screen) and getting rid of both of my current computers. I find that I don't enjoy having multiple computers as much as I used to.
Kubuntu 10.10 64 running on a custom PC with 8G of RAM, Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 670 @ 3.47GHz, 24" LG LED with DVI connected to my modest Radeon HD 4350.
13" Macbook Pro connected to a new 27" cinema display.
Xcode, emacs, python, gcc, clisp, TeX. SSH to some GNU/Linux machines. Mackie Tracktion and Sibelius for music production stuff. Cultured Code "Things". Dropbox. iWork for when TeX doesn't feel like the right solution.
It's an idea for startup! WhatYouUse? or WhatOneUses? User registers on a site, then a special agent collects info from his computer. Thus, you can see most used hardware and software, compare, rate, find potential friends (VIM lovers), etc...
My main computer is a desktop that hit a year old last month. It contains an AMD Phenom X4 @ 3.6GHz, 4GB RAM, and an SSD (60GB, one of the OCZ ones - I wasn't picky) for the OS and programs. I've started to use VMs more often, so I'm starting to hit the memory limit, but the overclocking needs a bigger fan, which I had to install over half the RAM slots. No, really. Compile times are through the floor, though, and I might go hexa-core in the near future, depending how much the quad-cores go for on eBay.
Recently I was doing some research work with graphics cards, so I had high-end Nvidia and ATi cards in both the PCI slots, and no way to link them. It would make gamers cry. Although I downgraded one of the cards, I still get to have three monitors: an Acer 24-inch monitor in the middle, and two 19-inch Dell ones in portrait mode on the side, along with an Ergotron for the middle one that keeps my desk clutter-free. I find it easier to tell things apart by confining them to a separate screen rather than a workspace - the left one always has a shell, the right one always has compilation info and help, the middle one usually has my open files or a web browser. I don't run IM while working, because having it permanently visible would probably be a productivity nightmare!
I type dvorak on a Kinesis Advantage (the black one). It's like headphones - if you switch from the pair you got with your iPod to a high-grade audiophile set for several months, you won't notice the difference until you switch back. Typing on the Kinesis feels great now I'm used to it, and the dvorak doesn't make it any faster, only more comfortable. The mapping is done in hardware, so I don't have to go back to hunt-and-pecking qwerty when typing on a computer I've just built. I also use a Logitech Performance MX mouse that I'm ambivalent about.
Software: The machine runs Windows 7 for general use, alongside an Arch Linux VirtualBox VM that houses my development tools. I've tried setting up Windows the way I like it, but when Linux is available it doesn't seem worth it. Even if you can, I honestly recommend virtualising your development environment, especially if you use Unix-friendly tools such as Emacs or Vim - I had a bug report of my program working in 32-bit Linux but not 64-bit, and setting up the 32-bit environment took five minutes (four to install the tools and one to let Dropbox sync the files over)
I use emacs for editing. My config (there's always config) is spread over seven different files, although only a few lines are actually important: a few adjustments for dvorak, keybindings, and working with various modes. Every source file I touch on the VM gets put in a shared folder which is linked to my Dropbox account, so my files are always accessible, even when the machine isn't turned on. Dropbox is also my primary backup method - not every file I have is irreplacable, but those that are fit on my share. My secondary backup method is some DVDs I burn once a month, then store away from my house. When I'm away from home, I fire up a Medium-sized Amazon EC2 server which has most of the same programs on it.
After listing Emacs and Dropbox, I can't think of anything else that I'd call significant. I use Firefox with the Tree Style Tabs extension, which works wonders with a widescreen monitor. DisplayFusion is a wonderful little tool that gives you a taskbar on each monitor. I ran TrueCrypt over all my drives, and it's been completely transparent. Gmail holds my mail - it's the one utility I'm willing to keep on the cloud, rather than just have it there as a backup. Other than that, it's mainly programming languages and too many Unix shell utilities to list.
Before I tell you my dream setup, usesthis.com-style, let me ask you a question: Do you know of an editor or IDE that allows you to seamlessly work with files in the cloud? I'm not talking about working on a webapp, which practially requires a remote machine to work on, but one that allows you to offload any hard work (compilation or computation) somewhere else while you're working on a netbook.
It's all well and good to ask for infinite amounts of CPU and RAM, and another thing to try to get that. I dream about having twelve cores available, but as that requires both money and replacing half the parts, I stick with four, and only boot up an EC2 server when I know I'm going to have to compute something for an hour, or want to be in full-on programming mode.
Once you have enough processing power available, not every processor cycle needs to be necessary. I have an emacs hook that compiles and tests my code in the background every now and then, on the off-chance that I wanted to do it. A while back I started relying on emacs to save my files for me, too, since I realised I was saving after every line, and if I wanted to make destructive changes then I'd be in a new branch in version control. Sure, my disk activity and CPU usage are through the roof, but I've stopped waiting for things, and it's pretty damn good. Anyway, that's my dream setup: seamlessly scalable.
Regarding your question: IIRC, when you use tramp on emacs, commands executed on remote files are executed remotely as well (for example, a vc-checkin is not executed locally but on the origin-host of the file/buffer you're editing). Though I am sure that this worked on version control commands, I am not sure whether it works on compile commands per default, but a little emacs lisp surely solves this problem...
slick setup. I used to have a 30-inch Dell monitor way back when ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/pauls/642309070/ ). ended up selling it to ryan block because I thought it was too big and always had to move my head around to look at the screen. in hindsight I think it was just because my desk wasn't deep enough. ryan ended up selling it to someone else not more than a month later as he thought it was too big too haha.
I have yet to play with the ACD 27" but I think that might be the sweet spot for me.
I'll start. Sorry if I don't make much sense--I'm coming down with a fever. :(
Who am I?: I'm a mechanical engineering grad student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. My most interesting projects to-date are probably my thesis and an IRC bot that runs on node.js.
What Hardware Am I Using?: At home, I use a used Dell Mini 9. I really like it, though it chokes on some Java apps (minecraft) and some visually intensive stuff. It also only has about 6 GB of SSD, so space often becomes an issue. Awesome battery life, though!
I used to have a desktop, but it recently died and I'm not really willing to spend the money to fix it yet. At work, I have an older Dell Dimension with dual 19" (or so) screens.
I also just recently bought a Linode instance. I've found having a server accessible over ssh is really really handy.
And what software?: I'm running Fedora 12 on both my work computer and my laptop. I previously ran Ubuntu, but my boss gave me a Fedora disk and I decided to give it a shot. It's alright, though I've decided that I like apt-get better. Long ago, I used to dual boot windows on my old desktop, but I found that I hate having to reboot, and most of the time there isn't really anything on the windows computer that I want, excepting for the odd game or two. But Linux is getting better for games anyway, especially the casual types that I tend to play these days.
For browsing, I use Google Chrome (v8 <3), and for text editing, I tend to use either vim or gedit depending on my mood and the context. I prefer writing papers using LaTeX, and I actually adore Gnumeric for spreadsheets. I tend to use python/numpy for data crunching (and ipython for testing out ideas and as a calculator), and node.js for my side-projects. I haven't really used node.js for any serious projects yet, but as a toy I really like it. On the netbook I use xmonad for window management (netbooks and xmonad make a great combination), but on my "workstation" I've stuck with metacity. For image editing, I tend to use Gimp, though I've been trying to get into Inkscape lately. I've also considered PGF/Tikz but haven't gotten around to it.
What Is My Dream Setup?
If my netbook had like three times the storage, I'd be pretty happy with it. In an ideal world, I'd have a workstation and a massive desk (similar to what I have at work but with more ponies) as well. I also wish I had my own scanner again.
When it comes to software, I'd wish apps came with defaults that suited my workflow. For example, vim's defaults (on Fedora) don't really do it for me, but I've been too lazy to change them myself. I know, I know. I also wish there wasn't such a delineation between operating system-based software ecosystems. While I love the Linux ecosystem, there's some stuff on the Mac side of things (and on Windows too--for example, Irfanview), and it's a shame that you have to pick your programs based on your OS (or whatever virtualization you decide to run).
When it comes to UI, I wish there wasn't such a fine line between the Real World and the Computer World. The reason I wish I had a huge desk is because I tend to work in piles and scraps of paper. I'm really messy in the Real World, but it works for me. While I'm not terribly disappointed in computing these days, it'd be really awesome if computer use and desk use somehow mashed together a bit better.
Finally, I want really fast internet. While "cloud" is definitely a buzzword, I'm really liking the idea of having my computers being this sort of abstract thing, where I don't have to consider there being an actual box in my house somewhere, and the lower latency is between you and your servers, the better integration can be between The Cloud and your "thin clients" (such as my netbook).
When I try to do something like that the second display just demands attention and I end up less productive than using something like Spaces. Also, a second monitor makes my eyes tired faster, even when I'm not looking at it (just the brightness bugging me).
Who I am: I co-run Mandalorian.com, we break stuff and keep hackers out.
I use pretty much everything. In terms of hardware, I mostly use:
Dell XPS M1530 for day to day work. Possibly the best laptop I've ever had.
Sony SRX 51-P/B (with a Mighty 128mb of Ram and a P3-850 CPU) for home stuff. I'm hoping to move to an MBA after Lion is released and the bugs are worked out.
Mac Mini in the living room for Music, video and photo editing, playing media and browsing HN. This is plugged into a 32" Dell LCD and a Samsung HT C5500 home theatre system.
An iPhone 4 for music/everything on the go. I prefer the stability of my 3G, but it's just too slow these days so iPhone 4 it is. To make matters worse I'm mostly ambidextrous but switch between left and right hand on a phone, so I had to get a mophun pack so I could hold it in my left hand.
I use a Samsonite backback for lugging things around. I don't go to the US so I don't need to worry about TSA searches.
I also have a set of sony iphone headphones that do the job well. They're not quite sennheisers but they have an inline volume control.
I've been using a moleskin notebook for writing things down (instead of a cheap pad). It's not worth the extra to be honest but I got them on a deal. I do seem to take more care of it so I don't lose my notes.
For work, software-wise I use:
Ollydbg, IDA Pro, Immunity Debugger and HBGary Responder Pro for reverse engineering, incident response and the odd bit of vuln dev.
Nessus, Nmap, Hping, Unicornscan, Nikto, Metasploit, CANVAS, Burp Suite Pro and countless smaller tools for penetration testing.
Countless VMs with various OSes on them ranging from Linux to Windows to AROS for various purposes. As the laptop is my main system I also use f.lux. I also have Evernote and dropbox.
On my Sony laptop, I run Arch Linux with Awesome, various zenburn-type hacks and SSH. It's mainly used as an X/SSH terminal, but I also have mutt, irssi, raggle and some other console tools. I use Chromium as my main browser.
On the Mac Mini I use Aperture (although I'm probably going to switch back to Lightroom), VLC, Boxee, Safari, Chrome, GLTerminal, Handbrake, Little Snitch, iTunes (reluctantly), Dropbox and Last.fm.
On the iPhone I mainly use Mail and the built in apps, Salesforce for when I want to check up on sales, IM+ for IM, Backgammon NJ or Game Dev Story when I have a minute, 1Password, AnalyticsPro, Softphone, Facebook, Twittelator pro (for personal) and Tweetdeck (for work), Facebook, FourSquare, Sickipedia, Notifo, Prowl (with some scripts to notify me when certain things finish), Colloquy and TouchTerm, Evernote, MyFitnessPal, Train Times and Tube Deluxe.
The host machine for the directory I am distributing and syncing does not belong to me and cannot be dropbox'd.
It's contract work, we don't always get to decide on our toys of choice.
I need the explicit merge awareness anyway, not blind single-source propagation.
When I say that I need a replacement for Unison, I mean that I've already searched exhaustively and found nothing beyond slapping one together with a script. I'm probably going to have to make something myself.
