Software I use, gadgets I love, and other things I recommend.
I get asked a lot about the things I use to build software, stay productive, or buy to fool myself into thinking I’m being productive when I’m really just procrastinating. Here’s a big list of all of my favorite stuff.
Manufacturing
3D Printing: Bambu Labs
My first 3d printer was made out of wood on my kitchen table in 2014. I've churned through many models and brands, currently leveraging the Bambu Labs P1P.
Laser Cutting - Wood
Been leveraging an xTool with conveyor system for wood projects.
Laser Cutting & 2D CNC - Metal/Carbon Fiber
For little one-off metal and carbon-fiber parts, I leverage SendCutSent extensively. For scale up projects, I have a partner here in Richmond that facilitates assembly.
Multi-Axis CNC
Lots of online vendors in this space, by Richmond scale up partner has a fleet of new HAAS CNC's.
Sheet Metal Bending
Many of the laser cut parts I prototype end up getting bent on our Eastwood Electomagnetic Brake.
Software, Cloud
Ruby, Python, Javascript/Node
Lots of the LLM tools are enabling picking the right tool for the job based on who you are working with on a project.
AWS, GCP, Azure, Digital Ocean, Netlify
I've architected and led a 40+ Petabyte migration into AWS, you can see my talk at AWS re:Invent 2023.
TablePlus
Great software for working with databases. Has saved me from building about a thousand admin interfaces for my various projects over the years.
Productivity
Alfred
It’s not the newest kid on the block but it’s still the fastest. The Sublime Text of the application launcher world.
Cal.com
Great tool for scheduling meetings while protecting my calendar and making sure I still have lots of time for deep work during the week.
Focus
Simple tool for blocking distracting websites when I need to just do the work and get some momentum going.