Uses

I got inspired by all the uses pages on uses.tech.
Going to join the community 🙂

🛠️ Hardware

MacBook Pro 14"

With 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD.
Man, this thing is a monster. I've had an Intel i9 before. But it broke, and I quickly had to get a new one. Now I'm happy it broke 😅.

I would have gotten 32GB if I had the chance, but it wasn't available.
16GB seems to be enough for most tasks.

Logitech MX Master 3

Happy with it. I wouldn't want to switch at the moment.

Logitech MX Keys

This keyboard is better than the original Apple one at a better price.
Both devices can connect to 3 different devices.
It's possible to hop between MacBook, iPad, and Raspberry Pi.

iPhone 13 Pro Max

I have to say the camera is impressive!
I use this to take photos of my children all the time.

LG 27UD88-W 4K-UHD Screen

27" 4k UHD IPS LED Screen. I have USB, power, and a screen connection to my mac using a single USB-C cable. My keyboard, webcam, and a few other things are connected to the screen and will be available to the mac once I plug in the USB-C cable.
The only annoying downside is that it doesn't deliver enough power for CPU-intensive tasks like having a Google Meet and exporting videos. The Macbook has to use the battery to make up for what's missing from the USB-C cable.

11" iPad Pro 2018 Cellular

with Smart Keyboard Folio and Apple Pencil (2. Generation).

1 Password

Organizes passwords
Website: https://1password.com/

Affinity Suite

Adobe replacement
Website: https://affinity.serif.com/

Raycast

I use it for all kinds of things. Everyday use cases are converting timezones, putting the mac to sleep, finding files, Pastebin history, etc.

Link: https://www.raycast.com/

KeyCastr

Shows the pressed keys on the screen. Good for Screen recording.
Website: https://github.com/keycastr/keycastr

Monosnap

Super quick screen-recording to demo issues.
Website: https://monosnap.com/

Notion

Currently trying out Notion for notes and research.
Website: https://www.notion.so/

Overkill

It kills the Music.app (or any other) as soon as it starts. For some reason, my Music.app always starts after hanging up a call on the iPhone. It prevents it from happening.
Website: https://github.com/KrauseFx/overkill-for-mac

Pixel Perfect

To lay over designs with transparency. It helps when working on CSS adjustments.
Website: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pixel-perfect/id916097243

ScreenFlow

Screen recording for more extended demos and tutorials.
Website: https://www.telestream.net/screenflow/overview.htm

Tower

GUI client for git. Doing all complicated things with it. I like the visuals.
Website: https://git-tower.com/

xScope

Helpful for design work. It is a collection of tools to get.
Website: https://xscopeapp.com/

💻 Terminal

Dotfiles

A while ago, I managed to get some dotfiles in place.
Check them out on GitHub.

iTerm 2

Currently my favorite Terminal. I haven't tried many others.
Website: https://iterm2.com/

zprezto

Pretty minimal but still powerful. You can see my exact settings in my dotfiles. Repo: https://github.com/sorin-ionescu/prezto

📝 VS Code

Apollo GraphQL

Tooling and Syntax Highlighting for GraphQL.

Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=apollographql.vscode-apollo

carbon-now-sh

To create those code screenshots:

Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ericadamski.carbon-now-sh

change case

Quickly change the case (camelCase, CONSTANT_CASE, snake_case, etc.) of the current selection or current word.

Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=wmaurer.change-case

Encode Decode

Primarily being used for encoding and decoding base64 strings

Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=mitchdenny.ecdc

ESLint

For code formatting

Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=dbaeumer.vscode-eslint

Firebase

Adds syntax highlighting and snippets for firebase security rules

Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=dbaeumer.vscode-eslint

Fix VSCode Checksums

Sometimes I had cases where specific extensions couldn't be loaded. It fixed it.

Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=lehni.vscode-fix-checksums

GitLens

I use it primarily to see the last time a line of code has changed.

Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=eamodio.gitlens

indent-rainbow

It makes it way easier to get an idea of how far you have indented.

Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=oderwat.indent-rainbow

JSON Tools

Quickly prettify and minify JSON.

Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=eriklynd.json-tools

Live Server

Starts an HTTP server for your current folder. For quick tests on simple websites.

Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ritwickdey.LiveServer

Invite other people into your workspace and collaborate.

Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=MS-vsliveshare.vsliveshare

Local History

Makes a copy of the file's content you edit after every save. The copies will have timestamps. This is just an extra security layer that prevents me from messing up.

Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=xyz.local-history

Markdown All in One

It makes using Markdown a joy.

Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=yzhang.markdown-all-in-one

Material Icon Theme

Cool icons for VS Code.

Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=PKief.material-icon-theme

Path Autocomplete

Very helpful when importing files or referencing images, etc.

Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ionutvmi.path-autocomplete

REST Client

Excellent replacement for Postman, Insomnia, and co.
It uses *.http files that live within your app repo. They can be versioned, and it supports environments.

Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=humao.rest-client

Settings Sync

It syncs your VS Code settings to a Github Gist so you can restore your setup on a freshly installed system.

Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=humao.rest-client

SynthWave '84

Awesome theme. I've turned off the custom CSS. The glow is just too much 😅

Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=RobbOwen.synthwave-vscode

Tailwind CSS IntelliSense

Excellent integration for Tailwind in VS Code.

Toggle Quotes

Place your cursor between quotes and hit cmd + shift + #, and it will cycle through double quotes, single quotes, and backticks. Use it all day!

Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=BriteSnow.vscode-toggle-quotes

TS Lint

Linting for Typescript

Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-vscode.vscode-typescript-tslint-plugin

Vetur

Helps writing Vue apps

Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=octref.vetur

Wrap Console Log

Creates a console.log entry based on a selection. I use this a couple of times every day!
I've mapped `console.log.wrap.down.prefix` to ctrl + option + l (for "log").

Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=midnightsyntax.vscode-wrap-console-log

🕸️ Website

Ghost 5

I used to run my blog on Gridsome. I still like the idea of having a static website on a CDN.
Unfortunately, I decided to give it up because of two reasons.

Gridsome doesn't seem to be maintained anymore, really
I have not enjoyed writing in VS Code

I've decided to give Ghost CMS a try. The theme is a slightly customized version of the Dawn theme. The editor looks fantastic so far.
It is running on a tiny €4 server and is being proxied by Cloudflare DNS.
Two-page rules make the blog still serviced and cached using Cloudflare's CDN.

🥁 Beats

Bleeps and Bloops (REMASTERED)

It's a pretty funny music genre and doesn't have any vocals or lyrics. It's very easy to listen to it while focusing.

Link: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1653n56qDwweY9RSc3rnAp?si=sZm6AG4AR2iLafrWQlqXJw

lofi.cafe

Very good free music to focus on. No need for an account or app.

Link: https://www.lofi.cafe/

Ratatat

Fantastic music without many lyrics or vocals. One of my all-time favorites.

Link: https://open.spotify.com/artist/57dN52uHvrHOxijzpIgu3E?si=QDKaEqd1Ryav9ZAAg4Lrow

Chilly Gonzales

One of my favorite artists. The concerts are different than the piano albums. The piano albums are great for coding.

Link: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0qudezVgvl4Chd9BgNFB83?si=ZKW7Gu3mR9OWmiBRaxJ1Ng

GTA Radio Stations

I always loved to play GTA. It has some excellent radio stations, and you can find them on YouTube and SoundCloud. Here are a few fun stations:

🗣️ Podcasts

Syntax.fm

Wes Bos and Scott Tolinski talk about cool new web-development trends.

Link: https://syntax.fm/

Serverless Chats

Serverless Chats is very helpful as I learn more about serverless on AWS.

Link: https://www.serverlesschats.com/

Freakonomics Radio

Fun Ecomonics Podcast

Link: https://freakonomics.com/

Indie Hackers

Stories about people bootstrapping companies.

Link: https://www.indiehackers.com/

Noah Kagen Presents

Marketing Podcast with Noah Kagen, who loves tacos 🌮

iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1187402810

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4TsA4xH3Cj9H01PQ01sVs8?si=G3lu7jzdSvqLWAQGfMxHww

James Altucher

Great businessman. He has great guests and goes deep.

Link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-james-altucher-show/id794030859

Ologies

Alie Ward talks to scientists who are specialized in a field like (Chronobi)ology.

Link: https://www.alieward.com/ologies

Reply All

PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman research obscure things that happen on the internet / in the world.

Link: https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all

Some of my favorite episodes: