Uses

As of 2024, here is my current desk setup.

Hardware

  • 14" M2 MacBook Pro
  • 34" Dell 4k monitor
  • Logi C920 webcam, although should start using my Sony A6300 at some point
  • Blue Yeti microphone
  • B&W P7 wireless headphones (to enjoy music)
  • Apple AirPods Pro for calls
  • Apple iPad and pencil
  • Apple wireless keyboard
  • Apple wireless trackpad

Furniture

  • Okoform heated, sit/stand desk
  • Herman Miller Aeron chair

Software

  • PHPStorm (coupled with plugins for Tailwind CSS, Laravel, Statamic & Vue.js) as my IDE and dive into VS Code for "throwaway" tasks
  • Chrome as my development browser
  • Safari for general browsing
  • Sequel Ace for local MySQL databases
  • TablePlus for everything else
  • Raycast for a bunch of productivity wins
  • Droplr for screenshots and things
  • Tower for a nicer Git experience, particularly merge conflicts (although I do dive into the command line regularly)
  • Homebrew for installing dev packages and any other apps from the command line
  • Laravel Herd for managing local projects
  • 1Password for managing passwords

Tools of my trade

In no particular order, here are some of the tools in my toolbox:

  • Laravel: the world's most popular PHP framework with a vibrant community and ecosystem of associated tools. I've yet to have a project it can't handle.
  • Statamic CMS: the world's best flat-file CMS that comes as a package for Laravel; great for building the marketing site of a project when needed.
  • Craft CMS.
  • Tailwind CSS: the best way for a team in 2022 to define styles for a web (and React Native) project. Has excellent documentation.
  • Vue.js: I originally got into Vue via Laravel and haven't looked back. Shares many similarities with React but is (IMHO) better suited for mixing traditional server rendered views with the JavaScript layer.
  • React - it's the most popular JavaScript library on the planet. I do prefer Vue.js but React has a much more evolved ecosystem because of the backing it has from Facebook.
  • Alpine.js: for when I need only a spattering of JavaScript.

Hosting

  • Laravel Forge for server provisioning & deployment
  • Digital Ocean and AWS connected to Forge to actual run the servers
  • Laravel Vapor for serverless Laravel projects
  • Postmark for 📧 deliverability
  • Cloudflare to help with site performance across the 🌍 and also now domain name registration
  • Algolia for when I need a world-class search experience

Business

  • Wise for international transfers