Uses
The hardware and software I use
Hardware
(image coming soon™)
Laptop
My personal laptop is a Dell XPS 9370 from 2018.
- CPU
- Intel® Core™ i7-8550U Processor @ 1.8 - 4.0GHz
- GPU
- Intel® UHD Graphics 620
- RAM
- 16GB RAM
- Storage
- 512GB SSD
- Display
- 13.3", 1080p
- Weight
- 1.27kg
Desk and accessories
🇸🇪 My desk and chair are both from IKEA.
🖥️ I currently only have one monitor (ASUS VC239H 24", 1080p). It does the job but it's not the best quality. At some point, I plan to get a docking station, two new high-quality monitors, and a monitor stand to replace it. My current monitor stand is a copy of The Lord of the Rings!
🖱️ My mouse is a Logitech MX Master 3S.
⌨️ I have a Keychron K8 Pro with Gateron G Pro Brown switches.
🔊 I have a JBL Flip 3 speaker and Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones.
🎙️ I have a Yeti Snowball microphone. I've used it to narrate (unreleased) videos in the past, but it's just sitting in a drawer currently.
🪴 The plant sitting on my desk is a Zanzibar Gem. I bought it from an independent plant place in Bristol. The lady told me that "this plant thrives on neglect" and I thought "Finally, a plant I can handle!".
Gaming
I play games on my Steam Deck, usually connected to my TV. I wrote a blog post with my opinions on it.
I prefer to use either an Xbox 360 controller or a Steam Controller to play games. Except for strategy games, of course.
Servers
I use a Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS) from netcup (RS 2000 G9.5, 6-core 3.35GHz, 16GB RAM). This is used to host rubenwardy.com, Renewed Tab, and ContentDB.
I have a Raspberry Pi 3B+ in the corner of my living room, which does automatic daily backups of ContentDB.
Workshop and Electronics Lab
My 3D printer is a Prusa MINI+. I wanted something that just worked and worked well, so I could focus on my own projects.
I use a Hakko FX-888D soldering station. It's so much nicer to use than the cheap one I was using previously. It's definitely worth investing in good tools.
Software
Linux
I use Linux as my daily driver. I'm currently using EndeavourOS with XFCE, but I have been known to distro-hop in the past.
- DE
- XFCE
- GTK Theme
- Ark-Dark
- Icons
- Qogir-Dark
- Font
- Noto Sans Regular
- Apps
- Firefox, Quassel, Albert, VSCode, CLion, PyCharm, Insomnia
I use Albert as a launcher to open applications, run calculations, and open Google searches in my browser.
Firefox
One reason I use Firefox is to support the open web and open standards. Chrome/ium having a monopoly bothers me. But the most important reason is that Firefox has the extensions I want:
- The Tree Style Tab extension shows tabs on the left as a hierarchical list. It's great for researching as you get a logical tree structure for your deep dives. You can collapse nodes and bookmark entire trees.
- The Containers extension allows you to open tabs in different containers, each with its own cookies and sessions. This allows you to log into a website multiple times, with different accounts. It's useful for keeping something separate from the rest of your browsing data, like work.
Development Environment
I use CLion for C++ and Rust, Android Studio for Android, PyCharm for Python, and VSCode for everything else.
My favourite VSCode plugins are:
- Markdown All in One: for editing markdown, can generate a table of contents.
- PlatformIO IDE: for electronics projects.
- Rewrap: I use this constantly, to make sure lines are within the column limit.
- GitLens: super useful - shows when a lint was last changed, and more.