Posted By Steve Zazeski —

Tools

I always find it interesting to see what people use to get things done day to day. It is so easy to find the first thing that works and never ask is there something better. This is an in-progress list of what I use:

Hardware

Apple iMac 15,1 (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014)
– 3.5 GHz Quad Core Intel Core i5-4690K 88W 22nm (geekbench4 11,468)
– AMD Radeon R9 M290X 2GB 5120 x 2880
– 16GB DDR3-1600 RAM (11.3GB/sec)
– 1TB Fusion HD (write 305 MB/s – read 598 MB/s)

HPE ML10 Gen9 Tower Server

  • Intel i3-6100 3.7 GHz x 2 core
  • 48GB DDR4-2133 Unbuffered ECC RAM (14.0 GB/sec)
    • CAS 17-17-17
  • 128GB SATA3 ADATA SSD (write ? MB/s – read 553 MB/s)
  • 3x3TB ZFS array (write ? MB/s – read ? MB/s)
    • Fast Ethernet – write 11MB/s – read 11MB/s
    • Gigabit Ethernet – write 103MB/s – read 76MB/s
    • 10G Ethernet – write ?MB/s – read ?MB/s

(I want to upgrade to the Xeon E3-1225v5 which should boost the benchmark to ~12k)

Microsoft Wireless Keyboard 2000 – $30
An affordable keyboard with volume and media keys not overriding Function keys, builtin palm rest and unnoticeable wireless connectivity.

Autonomous SmartDesk (sit/stand desk)

LG105R – 360 degree camera (16MP)

Rigol DS1054Z – 4 channel 50Mhz oscilloscope

Printrbot Simple 2014 – 3D Printer

USCutter MH721-MK2 – 28″ vinyl cutter

 

—

ASUS VivoBook S400C – 14″ touchscreen laptop
– 1.7 GHz Dual Core Intel Core i5-3317U (passmark 3089)
– Intel HD Graphics 4000 (passmark 452) 1366×768
– 8GB DDR3-1600 RAM
– 500/24GB Hybrid SHDD

Nikon D3200 – DSLR camera (24MP)

 

CODING

xCode (mac) –

Android Studio

Arduino IDE

JetBrains IDE

Sourcetree (each new release has been getting worse/buggier) (mac/win)

Unity

Sublime Text –

Visual Studio Code

jadx (win/linux/mac)- DEX to Java Android Decompiler

Counterparts Lite (mac only) – if you do iOS localization, this tool is a must have.

Hex Fiend (mac only)

GRAPHICS

Pixelmator Pro – photoshop style editor (mac only)

Sketch – great replacement for Adobe Illustrator and even better at UX/UI design (mac only)

Figma– maybe a great replacement for sketch above. (web app)

Blender – open-source 3D modeling tool

OpenSCAD –

SketchUp –

 

BIOTECHNOLOGY

Genome Compiler – free

SnapGene Viewer – free plasmid mapping, primer designer

UTILITIES

Etcher – writes img/iso/zip images to sd/flash drives

Blackmagic Disk Speed Test – tests read/write speed of disk drives

Magnet – divides your screen into grid zones, great for 4K screens

Cyberduck

Mac Fan Control

Fritzing – open-source circuit diagramming tool

Stockfolio –

Packet Peeper – easier to install alternative to wireshark for mac

Vector 3 – sound editor

Audio Hijack – can capture sound from individual app and do realtime DSP sound processing

Lenovo M700 Tiny

These are great macmini-sized windows machines that are ultra low power but still pack serious punch

Dell 3040 Touchscreen

Ultra thin touchscreen all in one that has been around for much longer than you would expect. A little under powered.

  • 2.16Ghz Dual Intel Celeron N3530 (geekbench4 3,195)
    • 7W 22nm
  • 8GB DDR3-1333 RAM (6.5 GB/sec)
  • 256GB SATA3 ADATA SSD (write 86 MB/s – read 82 MB/s)

I'm a 31 year old UIUC Computer Engineer building mobile apps, websites and hardware integrations with an interest in 3D printing, biotechnology and Arduinos.