Stuff I use

    For the curious, here’s the hardware, software, and gear that I use for work and for fun. It’s not an exhaustive list but it covers the stuff that matters to me and that you might like to know about. I try to keep a lot of this as reproducible as possible in my Nix based config. This mostly covers software. I don’t think that Nix is super accessible for most people but you should be able to read the code and get an idea of how I configure certain things.

    Computers

    Desktop: This is my primary workstation. I use this to work on personal projects, for gaming, and to browse the web. I’ve been upgrading this desktop for years now. I don’t remember what it originally was anymore. Is it even the same computer? Who knows?

    The coolest thing I can say about this is that I’ve been carrying over the same installation of Arch Linux for years now (I forget how many). It even survived a few disk migrations through the power of LVM.

    Laptop: This is the computer that I carry around with me. I use it to work on personal projects and to browse the web. While it can do some gaming, I don’t use it for that. I originally bought this because I was getting sick of only having my phone as a portable computing device. It was a great decision. If you can afford it, I recommend getting a laptop, it’s wonderful.

    I usually bring my laptop when I visit friends and family. When things quiet down and we run out of things to talk about, I can pull out my laptop and do a little work. It lets me hang out with people even when we don’t have an activity or things to talk about. It also lets us take a break and get back to hanging out.

    My laptop’s configuration is managed through NixOS and Home Manager. If you want to see exactly how things are set up, check the files on GitHub. The Nix syntax and modules might not be accessible to everyone but you can get a good idea of how I’ve set things up.

    Home Server: This is an old computer that I use to host services that I find useful. See the self-hosted services section below to get an idea of which services I run. This is an ancient media center PC that my buddy gave me. I bought a new power supply and gave it a new life. Despite its ancient and underpowered hardware, it does the job quite well.

    The server’s full configuration is managed through NixOS and configuration as code. See the repo on GitHub for the gory details.

    Software

    Self-hosted services

    I host a bunch of services on my home server. This lets me escape the clutches of big tech and lets me control my data. As big tech has been trying more and more to push junk down our throats and milk us for every penny, it’s nice to have this oasis of freedom. When I’m at home, I can connect to the server directly. When I’m on the go (laptop, phone, tablet), I use Tailscale for remote access.

    This server’s configuration is all managed as code through NixOS. You can see the details in the repo on GitHub. Here are the different services / features that I host on my home server:

    For those curious about the inner workings, here are some of the behind-the-scenes pieces: