My Setup

The desk setup of a web developer can be super fun to behold. I especially enjoy seeing what other developers use in their daily work so I am always checking out setup sites. I figured it was about time to share mine, and perhaps my own dev setup will inspire someone else out there. Enjoy!

Hardware

At the root of all this is my mid-2013 MacBook Air, rocking a Core i7 processor, 8 GB of ram and sitting in a Twelve South BookArc. Thus begins the daisy chain into two 27″ Thunderbolt Displays. Yeah, I could get away with one, but I tend to use the straigt ahead display as primary while the off-to-the-side one gets all my secondary tabs and running services. Helps me not have to wear my glasses at the desk to see the tiny 13″ screen of the Air at a distance. The primary monitor sits on a Twelve South HiRise, which is sweet as it also provides a little compartment under/inside where I house my Elgato Thunderbolt Dock. To the left is the matching HiRise for iPhone. Pretty nice, very sturdy, me likes.

I am currently typing on a Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard and moving the cursor with the awesome Logitech Performance MX mouse. I do go back and forth between this keyboard/mouse setup and just typing directly onto my laptop, I feel I am more efficient with the trackpad, but I am giving this a go for now. They both rest on a large Gaming Mouse Pad, comfy and roomy.

To the right is a Blue Yeti microphone, works awesome for recording screencasts and giving my voice clarity on calls.

Software

Browser is Google Chrome, DevTools rocks. All my codes get written in Sublime Text 3, I really love this editor. Very fast and a keyboard lovers dream with all the bindings.

For command line I am currently using the default Terminal app and zsh with Pure theme by @sindresorhus, it is sexy. Helping out in the CLI are Z and git friendly.

I use Git for version control of any of my projects and all work related stuff as well.

I use Mou App for all my markdown needs and Tweetbot for the Twitters. MAMP Pro runs my local dev servers and I use VMware Fusion in conjunction with Modern.IE virtual machines for IE testing.

Finally I use SizeUp for window location management, and Glui for screenshots.

Music

Believe it or not, there was a time when I could not work with music. What? I know. Then it evolved into whatever I had in iTunes. Then I heard music through good speakers and a quality track. click. Since then sounds are a must, and I love being able to hear all the nuances that went into the recording, you really only get this with both a quality source track and equipment that can handle it.

This begins with my Focusrite Scarlett audio interface. It is a USB connection to the computer and bypasses the internal DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) of the MacBook Air and gives a much higher quality sound. The extra benefit of this interface is that it also has an amplified headphone output that runs of the same converter.

During the day, (or when I cannot bother anyone) music is pumped through two Presonus Eris E5 studio monitors. These sit atop IsoAcoustics stands that both raise the tweeters to ear level and provide isolation from the desk. These are not super high dollar monitors, but much better than computer speakers and the clarity is great. Enough low-end to know that a bass drum was kicked and not annoying to hear. When it is quiet time, I plug in my Sennheiser Momentum headphones. These things are freaking awesome, incredibly comfortable, minimal sound leakage and superb clarity.

My current source of music is primarily Rdio, though I am giving Spotify a trial run. I am debating on going back to buying and ripping CD’s…

Online Services

Big ones here are Dropbox for storage and some backup tasks and Rdio Spotify for tunes. Also use GitHub for code sharing and work.

Furniture

Desk is an Ikea Galant, I was hesitant at first but very impressed. Seems to be good quality, very sturdy and lots of space. Can’t beat the cheap price either 😉 Chair is a Herman Miller Embody, this thing is rad. Very comfortable, very conforming to all my body curves, I highly recommend. When the sun goes down I light my area with a Verilux Natural Spectrum lamp, the light is great and unobtrusive.

Fun Times

I enjoy video games (console variety) as well. I have both the Xbox One and PS4, though the PS4 gets the most playing time nowadays, the Xbox I am keeping around because of the exclusives. I enjoy playing Forza on Xbox and Halo of course, still waiting on the new one. Playstation lately is still dominated by Call of Duty: Ghosts, I am having fun in multiplayer, though I am not that great at it 😉 Still trying to finish Assassins Creed Black Flag, very fun game.

Feel free to hit me up on either service if you’d like to play, Xbox: thatryan1 & Playstation: thatryan.