melkat.blog

I often recommend a lot of apps for different platforms to people, so I decided to catalogue them recently. I admins, it is a little much, lol, and I don’t know how I’m going to keep it updated. I might not, but a lot of these apps have been with me for a long time.

I do want to comment on how I listed the prices: the cost to avoid subscriptions is what I listed. Some of these apps are free, and you may not need to pay for them, or you could pay less, but I thought it was important to set expectations up front.

Inspired by uses.tech, I have written up my current setup. I will try to keep this post updated as things change.

Hardware

The Bedrock

• Bamboo Motion-X Board by UPLIFT Desk
• Blue Steelcase Gesture Office Chair
• Everlasting Comfort Office Foot Rest
• Office Owl Caster Wheels for Desk Chairs
• Supercope Cup Holder Clip
• UPLIFT Bamboo Standing Desk
• UPLIFT Big Standard Keyboard Tray - Bamboo with Quick Adjust Mechanism

Computers

• iPad Pro - This is my main machine, to be honest. I use it for everything, yes even coding.
• Custom PC - This is my default desk experience when I am not working. I enjoy the new Windows 11.
• MacBook Pro - I basically just use this for work, building the iOS/macOS builds of my apps, or Facetime.
• Surface Pro 6 - I picked up the Surface a while back and it still runs great and is a quick portable way to bring a Windows machine with me. It’s great for low spec gaming too.

The Input Club

• Blue Portico75 Keyboard - A 75% keyboard with a knob and a USB-C port.
  • Drop + Mito Keysterine Cyanide Keycap Set - Translucent keycaps that match the blue Portico75.
  • SP-Star Marble Soda Original switches Blue linear switches that are quiet enough and match the translucent blue of the Portico75 and Keysterine keycaps.
• Kensington VeriMark USB Fingerprint Key - This is finicky but when it works it’s pretty cool.
• Kone XP - I wanted to try out a gaming mouse and this seemed like the perfect place to start. It’s light and has automatic profile switching between apps and games.
• Logitech MX Ergo - I learned during quarantine that my hand starts to hurt after long periods of using a regular mouse. The MX Vertical is great but I’ve wanted to try a trackball mouse for a while.
• Stream Deck - The answer to the question, “omg where is the hang up button on Zoom?!” It’s right there, on a physical button.

The Audio Video Club

• Alienware 34” 120Hz Ultrawide Monitor - AW3420DW - Not a fan of Alienware, but I fell in love with the ultrawide form factor and wanted something that could handle high framerates.
• Audio-Technica AT2020 XLR Microphone
• Behringer UMC204HD Audio Interface
• FiiO BTR5 Bluetooth and USB-C DAC - No headphone jack on the iOS devices anymore, so lets add it back through Bluetooth.
• Hatsune Miku Edition TASCAM VL-S3BT Speakers
• Opal C1 - This camera is pretty slick and in early beta. I hope to one day use it with Windows as well as Mac. As of this writing it runs 105°F when it’s not in use, the software is lacking, and it only works in Zoom and Chrome.
• Pokémon Center × Grado Labs Pikachu Headphones - Thic cable, amazing sound, wearing all day leads to them getting a little uncomfortable, but they have a Pikachu on them so it’s five stars all around. And hey, approved by DankPods.
• RAZER Kiyo Camera w/ Ring Light - Not a fan of Razer, but it solved a lighting issue for me. Where I cannot use the Opal C1, I will use this camera.
• Samson SR850 Headphones with Brainwavz Cooling Gel Earpads - Long cable, amazing sound, and with the replacement earpads they are the most comfortable headphones I own. Great for all day wear. Also recommended by DankPods!

Software

Multiplatform

• 1Password - Use a password manager. Use unique passwords. Use two-factor auth. Just do it, already.
• Affinity Designer - A full Illustrator experience on all of my devices, even iPad. No subscription fees.
• Affinity Photo - A full Photoshop experience on all of my devices, even iPad. No subscription fees.
• Fantastical - Not available on Windows. Fantastical merges a variety of calendars and todo lists together with custom views and natural language processing.
• Microsoft Edge - Another Chromium based browser but without all the Google stuff. Tab napping to save resources on tabs you aren’t using is a huge plus.
• Obsidian - A customizable library of Markdown files you can optionally apply end-to-end encryption to and sync.
• VS Code - A fast and reliable code editor that is extendible. Runs on any platform either natively or in the web browser.

iOS

• Blink Shell - SSH and Mosh support, now with the ability to mount SSH connections to the Files app, and the ability to launch VS Code.
• Day One - Keeping a journal is a rewarding way to see how far you’ve come and remember important events in your life.
• Inspect Browser - Inspect Element for iOS, not as full featured but the best and most reliable I’ve found.
• Textastic - Old reliable code editor. It’s no VS Code, but it’s pretty good for prototyping HTML or JavaScript.
• Working Copy - Git on iOS and it works with other apps.

Windows 11

• PowerToys - There are so many features in here I love but I use FancyZones the most to move windows around in predetermined positions on my screen.
• Velocity - This is like Dash for Mac but on Windows. It stores a variety of documentation for programming offline where you can easily search it for what you’re looking for.

macOS

• Alfred - Quickly perform tasks, find apps and files, and manage your clipboard history.
• Bartender - Everyone wants to be in the macOS menu bar. Hide those distractions.
• Dash - Stores coding documentation offline where you can search it for what you’re looking for.
• Hazel - Monitors files and performs actions when certain conditions are met. For example, I have a folder of Markdown files that will automatically commit itself to a Git repository when there are changes.
• ImageOptim - Please don’t throw images up online without making sure their file size is as small as it can be without reducing image quality.
• iStat Menus - What company spyware is causing my Mac to be so slow? Oh it’s probably just Docker. I hate it when Docker eats all available resources when it’s idle.
• iTerm - A terminal that I can split the views in half vertically or horizontally. I swear I don’t use most of what this offers.
• Keyboard Maestro - Set up custom actions on your Mac. I use it to extend what my Steam Deck can do.
• Loopback - This is also primarily for the Steam Deck so I can play my annoying soundboard during work meetings.
• Shush - This app hasn’t been updated in sooooo long and I fear for the day it stops working. It’s a great way to toggle the mute on your microphone or have a cough button.

Customizations

• Color scheme: Dracula Pro
• Font: Cartograph
• My dotfiles are available on Github

VS Code Extensions

• change-case - There is nothing like a handy way to convert which case your text or variables are.
• Code Spell Checker - Never spend another hour trying to debug code that would work if didn’t make that typo.
• GitHub Copilot - This pair programmer’s inteligence is like magic, but it does pay to keep an eye on it so it stays on track.
• GitHub Pull Requests and Issues - Create and review PRs without having to find what your looking for in GitHub.
• Live Share - Invite someone you trust to code along side you each from the comfort of each other’s own VS Code.
• Remote Development - I use this for connecting to a Windows Subsystem for Linux quite often, but it’s also great for working over SSH.
• Sort lines - Like casing, there’s nothing like a quick way to remove duplicates from a list and sort it at the same time.
• Turbo Console Log - Highlight text and press a keyboard shortcut to have your own easy to find console log. Each log is easily identifiable with an emoji, file name, and line number.

Browser Extensions

Multiplatform

• Dark Reader - Outside of Safari, I use this to manually make bright websites that are hurting my eyes dark.
• DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials - no Mobile Safari support
• Magnet Links - Makes Magnet Links work with Put.io. I made this!
• React Developer Tools - No Safari support. This is for debugging React.
• Refined GitHub - Various customizations for GitHub to fill some gaps.
• Tabby Cat - No Safari support. Random cute cats in every tab.
• uBlock Origin - No Safari support. Blocks ads and trackers for your security.
• X to Y - Replace words in text or links with other text. I made this too!

Safari

• 1Blocker - Blocks ads and trackers for your security, even inside apps.
• Baking Soda - Replaces all video players (except YouTube, see Vinegar below) with a native video player where you can choose to have picture-in-picture or stop that annoying auto-play
• Noir - My preferred extension for applying dark mode to websites that haven’t implemented their own dark modes yet.
• Vinegar - Replaces YouTube video players with one that supports picture-in-picture and stops that annoying auto-play. (use with Baking Soda to make all video players play nice)

Ever think it would be funny to replace a word with another? Sick and tired of a website deadnaming you? You are going to enjoy X to Y! X to Y supports plain text, regex, and urls.

Tired of seeing “Safari cannot open the page because the address is invalid.” alerts when you try to open a magnet link? This Safari extension helps by adjusting the links to go through Put.io

This is pretty cool, I will definitely be writing some custom scripts for it. During my time as an engineer I’ve always thought the best way to steal company secrets is to make a JSON formatter website or something. I love their headline, “Stop pasting company secrets into random websites.”

Translations with DeepL feels more accurate and more natural. I am looking forward to a browser extension.

Sometimes you need to help your family out from miles away. I had no idea this feature was in Windows, for free. Oh, and did I mention it just works?

I’ve been looking at this app for a while, but it really feels like the closest thing to Final Cut Pro on the iPad (or iPhone?) I was able to take a hour long video and chop it up almost instantly.

A new plugin from Microsoft for their code editor allows people to collaborate in real time on projects. This looks so fun.