Skip to content Alan Greene

/uses

productivity, tips, tools Updated

This page serves as a living document describing some of the hardware and software I use day-to-day and how I have it set up. I try to keep this updated as I make changes.

This is inspired by Wes Bos, check out uses.tech for hundreds of /uses pages from other folks.

Home Office Setup Jump to heading

I've been working from home full time since March 2020 and hope to continue working from home the majority of the time for the forseeable future. My setup isn't quite where I'd like it to be so let's record where it's at now and see how it evolves. I'm aiming for as close to a one cable setup as I can get.

  • The desk is a Fully Jarvis sit/stand frame with an IKEA Gerton solid wood top (now discontinued, think I got one of the last ones). I spend most of the day standing which is far more than I expected. One noticeable difference this has made is that I now make much more use of my whiteboard. While standing at the desk I can just turn around, take the one or two steps over to the whiteboard, scribble or sketch something quick, and easily return to the desk without really breaking my flow.
  • My chair is an IKEA MARKUS (or very similar) that I've had for 10+ years. It's reasonably comfortable, has good lumbar support, is OK-ish for sitting cross-legged for short periods thanks to its wide seat, but I wish the arms were adjustable or easily removable.
  • MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021) - this is my work machine, provided by my employer. Specs:
    • Chip: M1 Max, 10-core CPU, 32-core GPU
    • Memory: 32 GB
    • Storage: 1 TB SSD
  • iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2019) - this is my main personal machine. I treated myself a few years ago, and I love the screen on this thing. Specs:
    • Processor: 3.6 GHz 8-core Intel Core i9
    • Memory: 40 GB 2667 MHz DDR4
    • Graphics: Radeon Pro 580X 8GB
    • Storage: 500 GB SSD
  • Display: LG 34WN780-B 34-inch UltraWide Ergo. I was expecting an improvement compared to my old 24-inch display but I have to admit I was surprised at just how big a difference it's made to my workflow. The 3440x1440 resolution gives plenty of screen real estate to have my editor, browser, and a few other things all visible at once, significantly reducing the need to tab switch and go hunting for that one window I need. The anti-glare finish is excellent even with a window right beside my desk perpendicular to the display. I'm also loving the included Ergo stand which clamps to the edge of the desk, keeping the monitor at the perfect height and saving precious desk space.
  • Apple Magic Keyboard - I've tried a few mechanical keyboards, but couldn't justify the purchase when this works so well for me.
  • Apple Magic Trackpad 2 - not a mouse in sight for 10+ years.
  • Sony WH-1000XM3 wireless noise cancelling headphones. Great sound quality, noise cancellation, and comfort. Highly recommend!
  • One of my favourite things in the office is a large dry erase / whiteboard made using a high-gloss white glass IKEA table top (about €100 in 2014) and a picture ledge, neither of which appear to be available anymore. Much cheaper than the €500+ actual whiteboards of the same size / quality. I use this daily: for reminders and to-do lists, to sketch out design ideas, work through complex flows, etc. Even at €500 it would still be worth it, but I'm glad I could do it at a fraction of the price for no real additional effort.

Mobile / Personal Jump to heading

  • Samsung Galaxy A56 5G - this is a solid phone. I bought it in January 2026 to replace my previous phone, a One Plus 6 I bought in 2018 which was finally starting to struggle, and it's been great so far. There are some things I miss from the One Plus but no show stoppers. I may consider One Plus again in future if they're still around and as long as their prices don't keep going the way they have for the past few years. Get a $10 voucher for your next purchase of OnePlus gear and accesories.
  • iPad Pro (11-inch, 64 GB) - I use this for sketching in Procreate, light photo editing (still use the Mac for heavier Lightroom work), and for reading on the couch.
  • Fitbit Charge 6 - for notifications from my phone, heart rate and activity tracking, but not so special really. This replaced a Fitbit Charge 3 Special Edition, the only notable difference is the 3 had Fitbit Pay (contactless payment support) but I never used it as the experience was incredibly clunky; taking out my wallet and grabbing my card or unlocking my phone was significantly faster every time. I also had two warranty replacements in under two years on the 3 due to failing screens, none so far in 18 months with the 6… I'm definitely a fan of the sleeker design compared to many of the alternative activity trackers and smart watches on the market.

Network and Home Stuff Jump to heading

My network setup is most definitely overkill but I like it. I segregate traffic based on use so my IoT stuff only has the access it needs, guests can queue up tracks on the playlist and access the internet but can't access other internal systems, etc. I also like the UniFi interface (for the most part) and how easy it makes it to keep an eye on things.

The core of my network is comprised of:

  • Ubiquiti UniFi Dream Machine Pro (UDM-Pro)
  • Ubiquiti UniFi Switch Pro 24 POE (USW-Pro-24-POE)
  • Ubiquiti UniFi Access Point nanoHD (UAP-nanoHD)
  • all housed in an 18U ZPAS SJB 19" network cabinet

The single UAP-nanoHD provides coverage with decent speed to the whole house and both gardens, although a second AP would probably help boost signal in a few slightly weaker areas.

The POE switch powers the AP as well as a number of cameras around the exterior of the property.

I've been a Mac user since 2005 but also have a few Linux boxes around for home automation (mostly Home Assistant) and other stuff. These are a mixture of single board computers such as the Raspberry Pi, and other small form factor machines like the Intel NUC. Apart from a couple of the Raspberry Pis which run Raspbian they all run Ubuntu Server. I run Pi-hole for ad blocking and local DNS.

Backup Strategy Jump to heading

  • I backup most of the content on my personal machine to Backblaze. They provide unlimited storage for a very reasonable price, and the recovery options are great. Download content directly from the website, or for larger recoveries they'll ship you a USB flash drive (up to 256 GB) or a hard drive (up to 8 TB) via FedEx, with a full refund if you return it to them within 30 days. Sign up and get a month free.
  • I sync photos from my phone to Dropbox, and from there to my NAS. I have some other content on Dropbox too, but mainly because I've been too lazy to move it elsewhere yet. Sign up and get 500 MB of bonus space.
  • I have a Synology DS918+ 4-bay NAS with 4x Seagate IronWolf 4 TB hard drives in SHR-2 (2-drive redundancy). Expensive but solid, would buy again. It's near capacity and not as fast as it once was (seemed?), however I've since added a companion:
  • an Asustor Flashstor FS6712X all-SSD NAS I managed to nab on sale, currently half-populated with 6x Crucial P3 4 TB in RAID 5 for just over 18 TB usable storage. The P3 may not be the fastest drives on the planet but they're plenty good for my needs so far. With the price of storage these days I hope they'll last…

Software Jump to heading

Editor Jump to heading

Visual Studio Code is my main editor since about 2022, replacing Sublime Text after 10 years of service.

Here are some of the extensions I use:

  • Dev Containers
  • EditorConfig
  • GitLens
  • Kubernetes
  • markdownlint
  • Playwright Test for VSCode
  • Auto Close Tag
  • Auto Rename Tag

I use the default Dark Modern theme and colour scheme; I've tried others but this is fine. I previously used Monokai in Sublime Text, but found it slightly "off" in VS Code. I use the default font too, I'm not a fan of many of the coding fonts that make heavy use of ligatures but I do think I'll be trying out some new fonts soon.

Every so often I'll try another editor for a while, since they all have particular strengths that make them stand out. I used to always find myself going back to Sublime, due to its speed, stability, features, and plugins, but VS Code finally convinced me to switch after numerous attempts, each time being surprised at how much it had improved.

The usability issues and quirks that got in the way of my flow and previously prevented me from switching have long since been addressed. It has a lot going for it and has come a long way since its initial release. A lot of the features that require plugins in Sublime are built in to VS Code, and the extension ecosystem seems more vibrant, covering many additional use cases I simply hadn't considered with Sublime.

Terminal Jump to heading

  • iTerm2 - I almost exclusively use the hotkey window with my tmux sessions loaded so my terminal is never far away.
  • bash 5 (macOS comes with bash 3…)

Since I spend a fair amount of time on the command line I've put some effort into making it work better for me. See my dotfiles for details of how I've set up my prompt, aliases, etc. Beware, what works for me may not work for you.

I recently switched from a home-rolled prompt to using Starship and apart from a few minor nits it's been great; super fast, easily configurable, and comes with lots of useful features built in.

I'll probably write a separate post going into more detail about my terminal setup.

Browser Jump to heading

My main browser for development and general use is Google Chrome.

I also regularly use Firefox and Safari for testing.

Chrome extensions:

Other Desktop Apps Jump to heading

You can find details of all the other apps I auto-install on a new Mac in my starter repo's Brewfile. Here are a few highlights:

  • 1Password - for managing all my passwords, having this on my phone too makes it so easy to be more secure
  • Backblaze - for backup
  • Docker Desktop Colima - for "container stuff"
  • Insomnia - for testing REST APIs
  • Keybase - you can contact me securely at alangreene
  • Spotify - usually have this open while I'm working, listening to some instrumental music or occasionally ambient noise. My non-work playlists are quite eclectic.
  • VLC - my go-to media player for video

CLIs Jump to heading

As with the desktop apps, you can find details of everything I auto-install in my starter repo and its Brewfile. Some highlights:

  • GitHub CLI - so I don't have to switch to the browser as often
  • Homebrew - if I can install it via Homebrew, I do.
  • jq - for processing JSON data
  • kind - great for Kubernetes-based development and testing
  • thefuck - to quickly recover from typos or after using the wrong flags, e.g. git branch -D vs. git branch -d
  • tmuxinator - so I can ensure consistency in my tmux sessions across machines

Productivity Jump to heading

  • Trello - for planning home improvement projects, tracking longer term to-do lists, etc.
  • I also always keep paper and pens/pencils handy. I received a nice leather cover a few years ago which is always found on my current notebook.
  • Rectangle - an open source app for moving and resizing windows on macOS with keyboard shortcuts.
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