#057: State of My Setup
I like documenting the tools that I rely on. There's just something so lovely about our relationship with our tools, that's something that I try to think about now and then. In this post, I thought I'll write down what I use. Hardware Computers 1) Personal: MacBook Pro M4 14" (12-Core CPU, 16-Core GPU, 48GB Unified Memory, 512GB SSD):
Me making a list of things to set up when I got the machine
It just works, very well. This is my first time using a Mac as a daily driver and frankly, the transition from Windows wasn't as bad as I'd thought it would be. I would still prefer a much more stable version of Windows on a laptop with good power efficiency that just works any day. I was very keen on not getting locked in on a Mac, but there's simply just no better alternative to it. Plus: - Generous amount of time on battery. All of my Windows laptops- even the office issued high-end Dell Precision's all lacked on this. Apple cooked something incredible with the M series chips. - Excellent thermals (There does seem to be an issue where new devices heat up quite a bit during the initial couple of weeks because of file indexing). - Stable and reliable OS. It starts up quickly, and you don't even have to bother to shut it down. - Again, it just works, very well. Minus: - Apple tax: I would have loved to have gotten the 14 Core CPU variant with 64 GB Unified Memory. Upgrading from the standard 24 GB Unified Memory variant to the 64 GB one costs an extra INR 60,000. - Window management sucks. I had to install a bunch of third-party apps to do things that Windows did out of the box. At the moment, I have Rectangle, Snap and Maccy installed. The first thing I did was to try and make the laptop feel as close to Windows as possible. - Coding on a 14" screen feels restricted. I'm used to a minimum of 16" thanks to my previous work machines. That said, the form factor seems near-perfect for traveling and doing whatever on the go. 2) Work: Dell Precision 5690 at Omnissa (VMware EUC) which replaced the Precision 5570 I had at Zoho. (Both 32 GB RAM. 5570 had 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12800H and the 5690 has Intel Core Ultra 7 165H w/ 16 cores)
Precision 5690 docked with the rest of my home setup
Both laptops have good chassis build quality. They work well for .NET development, which is what I did/do in both roles. I enjoyed using the 5570 due to its lighter profile. However, after 2-3 years of use, it became extremely laggy and unusable on battery power. This was a significant problem, but I never took the time to have the IT "Pitstop" folks look into it. Instead, I just learned to live with the issue. The 5570 is an important laptop to me because it saw me transition from a juvenile, fresh-out-of-college glue-things-together programmer to a mid-level engineer. 3) Gaming: MSI GF 7RE (Intel i7 8th Gen, 16 GB RAM after an upgrade, Nvidia GTX 1050)
Playing Rocket League
I've been using this laptop since 2020, and it was my primary personal machine for 5 years until I decided to upgrade. It's now almost unusable, but I plan to wipe and reinstall the OS when I find the time. This laptop could run Witcher 3, Rocket League, and It Takes Two at medium settings without much trouble. I have many fond memories with it.
I'm still deciding whether to repurpose it or give it away. For now, I'll use it strictly for gaming until I get a decent alternative. After that, I'll either recommission it or give it away.
My brother recently did something thoughtful by giving his old gaming laptop (a Dell G7) to someone who'd never owned a personal computer before. He was impressed by a colleague from a humble background who excels as an R&D Mechanical Engineer and now supports his family. This inspired me to consider doing something similar. 4) Honorable mention (I no longer use/own this): HP ProBook 440 G4 (i5-7200U, 512 GB SSD and 16 GB RAM)
From 2018, when I was cramming the night before an exam
I used this laptop throughout most of my college life from 2017 to 2020. It was lightweight and basic, but it served its purpose when it worked properly. I used it for various tasks- embedded systems programming at Project Manas, took it with me to the US for IGVC, the rare times I did some studying, whatever movies and TV shows I watched then. Eventually, it became very slow and struggled to run Windows 10 without lag. As a "solution", I switched to using only Ubuntu for about a year. Before that, I had set up Grub for dual booting. Good times. Homeserver ThinkCentre MQ910 (Intel Core i5 7500T, 4 cores, 16 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD)
Author was too lazy to get up and click a photo of it now- here's one from Google
My dad bought this for me from the refurbished computer market in Sharjah, UAE. I was originally considering a Raspberry Pi for hosting, but this ThinkCentre was a steal for what it offers.
I've been using it to run multiple Docker containers for personal projects, including Open Web UI (an LLM client), Memos, and Uptime Kuma (monitoring software).
Future plans include setting up Immich to reduce my Google Cloud usage, self-hosting various personal projects, and possibly adding a project management tool.
You can read more about my homeserver setup here (which will get served to you from the home server, assuming that there's no power cut in our apartment). I should probably purchase a UPS for this and the router at some point.
Phone I use a Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. It's a great phone with 12 GB of RAM, an excellent camera for daylight shots, and a high-quality display. I got the Korean version for about INR 40,000, which was good value for money. This pinkish gold one replaced my previous black Note 20 Ultra, which I accidentally damaged.
Clicked with the Note 20 Ultra at Thansing
The camera is starting to have some issues now. I'm unsure whether to go for a smaller phone next time or stick with a larger display. I'm very clumsy and careless with my phones. Most of my phones reach their end-of-life not because they're no longer usable, but because they end up getting damaged. This is probably why I don't/won't shell out a huge amount on phones ever. I prefer to spend more on computers and less on phones. Coming to think of it, his reflects my usage habits. For computers, I aim for the best that I can afford, and for phone, I will try to stick to the cheapest option that meets my basic needs. Watch
The trusty Eco-Drive with its clear numbers
I love my super reliable Citizen Eco-Drive Chandler/Garrison BM8478-01L. I've been using it regularly since around 2019. I also used a Galaxy Watch 5 for six months, which I liked for tracking my activity. However, I didn't enjoy the frequent charging routine, so I switched back to the Eco-Drive. It now has a different NATO-like nylon strap. Software I'm a bit short of time, I'll just make this a list: - Firefox is my browser of choice. I sometimes use Chrome for debugging. - Joplin* is where I take and store all my notes. I pay 5 USD a month for syncing. I love this tool and have been using it for about 5 years now. - Google Calendar - Cursor* has replaced VS Code as the default code editor. - Visual Studio, dotMemory, dotTrace for all .NET programming. - Spotify* for all the music. - Stremio + RealDebrid* for streaming needs. - Gravl* for AI powered workouts and tracking progress. (Mobile) - Loop habit tracker- Excellent open-source tool (Mobile) - Truecaller*- I hate having to share my data, but it helps keep away the spam (Mobile) - Alarmy: I usually struggle to wake up with regular alarms. The math problems in the morning work for me. - Proxmox as the hypervisor for the home-server - Open Web UI is the LLM client I most use and have it self-hosted. I top-up my wallets in Anthropic/OpenAI/Google as needed for the APIs I use. - Bitwarden is my password manager of choice (I pay for the ones that have an * next to them.)