Just in case you’re curious, here’s a description of the various hardware and software I use to work and play.

This is a work in progress, but over time should reflect the entirety of my toolset. My hope is to keep this up-to-date because things change regularly. If there’s something you’d like to know and you don’t see it here ask in the comments at the bottom of the page!

I realize that the following is an absurd menagerie of gear. I consider it my job to keep up on what’s happening in tech. In fact, it’s probably the main reason I started covering tech in the first place: I always wanted to own the latest and greatest stuff.

One small point, I almost always buy all the tools I use. I generally don’t ask for or use review units or loaners. I think it gives me a more realistic idea of what owning this gear is like, and this way I’m not beholden to anyone. Any exceptions are indicated below.

Home Studio

I have a ~400 sq ft office in the attic of our house with several book shelves two huge desks – one for personal stuff and one Corsair Platform 6 Creator Desk for streaming. Attached to the Corsair are three Sony FX-30 cameras, two Elgato Duo Key Lights, a KinoFlo Diva-Lite 41 LED key light. I have two M1 Mac minis and a M2 MacBook Air on the desk for streaming. The cameras are connected to a BlackMagic ATEM Mini Extreme 8-port video switcher. I use the surprisingly excellent RodeCaster Duo mixer for audio mixing. The Aphex effects on the Rode do a great job of noise reduction and processing. During shows I sit on a Herman Miller Embody gaming chair. The microphone is a Heil PR-40, of course.

My home studio setup

When I’m not working, I relax in a comfy armchair I’ve had for years. There’s also a a massive couch and coffee table and a home theater setup. Including a 65" LG OLED TV connected to Denon AVR S910W A/V receiver which feeds it signals from an Nvidia Shield 2, an Xbox One S, and an Apple TV. We don’t have cable TV - everything is over-the-top. I use Elac Debut 2.0 bookshelf speakers here in a 3.1 system.

I have Apple’s AirPods Pro and Max but my preferred headphones to use with this system are the wired HiFiMan HE-560s.

Computers

Sitting on my personal desk in the office are:

  • 2024 Mac mini with M4 Pro, 64GB RAM, and a 2TB internal drive connected to a 4TB OWC Express 4M2 Thunderbolt 3 external drive
  • Framework Desktop with an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 CPU, 128GB RAM, and 8TB storage. It’s running CachyOS Linux. It’s my home server, local AI box, and best buddy.

I use a Synology 5-bay DiskStation DS1522+ NAS for backup.

Both desktops are connected to a very nice 55" Alienware OLED 120Hz 4K gaming monitor. I switch devices using the remote control that came with the monitor.

Audio goes to a pair of Audioengine 2 wired speakers with an Audioengine S8 subwoofer beneath the desk. I use (and love) a Wooting 80HE keyboard with Hall Effect switches and a Logitech MX Anywhere mouse. The mouse is capable of controlling multiple machines via Bluetooth.

My extremely messy personal desk

When I’m not sitting at my desk, I primarily use one of my more portable devices:

  • 2023 M4 iPad Pro 12.9" with Magic Keyboard. It’s increasingly my go to device, especially great for news gathering with Tapestry and notetaking with Obsidian.
  • 2023 M3 Max MacBook Pro 14" with 64 GB RAM and a 2 TB SSD
  • 2024 A17 iPad mini (mostly bedside)
  • 2023 Kobo Libra Colour e-reader
  • 2025 Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon 13th Gen with OLED screen, Core Ultra 7 258v, 32GB RAM - my newest baby, weighs less than 2lbs and with an amazing 120hz OLED display. I’m using CachyOS with Sway on it and it’s close to perfect. It’s my constant companion these days.

All my systems have synced Document, Source Code, and dotfile directories using the excellent and free open-source SyncThing. I use Synology Drive for backup.

After a long journey with multiple PKMS tools (Roam, Logseq, Joplin, org-mode, org-roam, Notion, Scrivener, Zotero, Notability, Apple Notes, etc etc) I have moved everything to Obsidian and I’m very happy. At some point I’ll do a show about Obsidian and how I use it. It’s markdown based, stores all content locally (but with a paid sync feature that works well), supports all my platforms, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux (Windows, too, if you must). It’s not open-source but the content is all fully portable, so that’s ok. There’s also a very active eco-system of more than 2,500 plug-ins which do anything I could possibly want. I’m a fan.

Smartphones

My daily carry is a T-Mobile iPhone 17 Pro Max in a Nomad Goods Modern Leather Folio case. I also own a Fi-based Google Pixel 9 Pro Android phone to keep up with Android developments. I’m wearing a Apple Watch Ultra 3 which I love.

Cameras

I’ve gone through a lot of cameras. I started in my 20s shooting and processing Tri-X with a beloved Nikon FM film camera. Once digital became a thing I shot with Olympus, then Canon, then Sony bodies. I gave the 5D Mark IV to my son to start his TikTok career (a good investment) and I still use the Sony glass for streaming.

Now at the end of my photography journey I’ve settled on two cameras: the Leica Q2 with a fixed 28mm f1.7 lens, and a Leica M11-P rangefinder with a 50mm f0.95 Noctilux lens.

My beautiful Q2 in a Pelle case

I carry the Leicas in beautiful cases and straps from Angelo Pelle.

A/V

For Zoom calls and audio recording on the Mac mini, I use a Heil PR-40 mic. It’s connected via USB using a SoundDevices MixPre-3. As I do in the studio, I use custom-molded in-ear monitors from JH Audio or AKG K240 headphones.

Internet

I recently upgraded my home network to Ubiquiti gear including the Ubiquiti UDM Pro Max 10 Gbps Cloud Gateway, a Ubiquiti USW-Pro-Max 48-port PoE switch, and four Ubiquiti U6 Enterprise wireless access points connected to Comcast 1400/40 Business Internet. All the various media centers and computer workstations are hardwired with Ubiquiti PoE managed switches. I also have Ubiquiti cameras and a Ring doorbell outside the house, mostly to keep an eye on package deliveries.

Now that we’re streaming from home I have a redundant Internet connection via Starlink. The UDM-Pro-Max fails over automatically within a few seconds should Comcast drop out.

My Ubiquiti rack

AI

I subscribe to most of the big name AI tools: ChatGPT, Anthropic Claude, and Google’s Gemini.

All of my web searching is via Kagi, not Google. And I use the Kagi Assistant AI almost every day for research.

For vibe coding I’ve used Claude Code, but I’m a hobbyist coder so I kind of prefer the do-it-yourself route. Lately though, Claude Code has proven invaluable for fine tuning my system, including emacs, linux, sway wm, etc. It’s kind of amazing.

For creating imagery Google’s Nano Banana on Gemini 3 has pretty much eclipsed everything else. For AI music nothing beats Suno.

Transport

When the weather’s nice, I ride around on a Radpower electric bike, the Rad City Step Thru.

I drive a leased 2023 BMW i5 E40 and love it. Lisa has a 2022 electric Mini Cooper. We really like electric vehicles.