Note-taking

• Obsidian: I use Obsidian as my PKM (Personal Knowledge Management) tool. In fact, I’m writing these sentences in Obsidian right now. Since the beta, I’m completely hooked and will not change to another tool in the near future. My workflow is quite sophisticated and modified to my needs. I will also post quite a lot of stuff about it here in my blog. Besides being an Insider, I am also a Sync user and I highly recommend it. Their mindset on being a malleable software <p>I use Obsidian extensively for my note taking and I have modified it to such an extent that every time I sit in front of my computer to write something, I appreciate their manifesto. Especially <a href="https://obsidian.md/about#:~:text=Malleable,your%20unique%C2%A0needs." class="external-link" rel="noopener" target="_blank">this</a> part:</p> <blockquote> <h3 id="malleable">Malleable</h3> <p>We believe that tools should adapt to your way of thinking, not the other way around. That’s why we design our tools to be highly customizable and extensible, so you can shape them ... is also my main attraction.

• GoodNotes: Well designed note-taking tool for iPad. I use pretty much only for meeting notes and quick sketches during meetings.

Browsing

• Arc Browser: Arc is my browser of choice on desktop since the beta has been released. I quickly got used to the vertical tabs and other tiny bits of it. Being a Chromium based browser also allows me to use my favorite extensions, such as Vimium, WhatFont, Zotero Connector and so on.

• Vivaldi: Vivaldi is another nice Chromium based browser which I currently use at work, since we are on Windows. It is quite customisable, therefore I like to use it as my daily-driver at work.

• As of June 2024, I have stopped using Chromium based browsers and fully switched to hardened Firefox.

Design

This is a little complicated since I also use some software for my work which mainly includes drawing schematics and diagrams for electronic circuits.

• Figma: I use Figma since couple of years but I am not an expert of it. Only use-case for me is to quickly sketch some ideas about websites or logos and some typography stuff as well as some color palette generating.

  • As of June 2024, I stopped using Figma and switched to Penpot.

• Monodraw: Monodraw is very interesting Plain Text based art creation tool which lets you virtually draw anything from layouts to flow charts and diagrams. I use it to quickly sketch some connection diagrams since I like the vector output option which I use in couple of places.

• SPlan: This is a very old software which lets you draw electronic schematics in a quite straightforward way. What I like about it is the fact that you can create your own library of symbols and use it directly without any hassle of Library Management. Plus it is quite cheap for such well-designed software.

• Excalidraw: Almost 0% of the time I open the Excalidraw website and draw something. My main use case is the Obsidian Plugin which I extensively use.

Utility

• Raycast: Alfred on steroids. It was time anyway for Alfred to retire on my Mac, so I’m happy with Raycast since their launch. And they keep delivering constantly!

• BetterTouchTool: I recently started using the trackpad and BTT is a must for custom gestures.

• MonitorControl: Amazing small utility for controlling external monitors on MacOS. I can change volume, brightness and even contrast using keyboard, instead of monitor’s on-screen controls.

• Dropover: Making file copy/cut/paste intuitively easier using small boxes as some kind of staging area.

• Cleanshot X: My tool of choice for screenshots. I think I use it, just because it is a well designed and an extensive piece of software. Otherwise there are dozens of screenshot apps out there.

• Karabiner Elements: One and only reason I use Karabiner is to assign my Caps Lock key as my Hyper Key.

Coding

• Neovim: I have recently started using it again for creating a basic Rust development environment for learning purposes, which I mentioned here <p><em>The time has come. Yes, I am jumping on that train too. I’m learning <a href="https://www.rust-lang.org" class="external-link" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Rust</a>.</em></p> <p>It’s been a while since I last learned a new programming language, aside from some <a href="https://www.lua.org" class="external-link" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Lua</a> programming related to my <a href="https://neovim.io" class="external-link" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Neovim</a> setup (which I eventually abandoned), but other than that, it’s been a while. More interestingly, I’v... . LazyVim is my distribution of choice currently.

• iTerm2: I use iTerm mainly for my nvim instances.

  • Using Warp since August 2024.
  • Using Wezterm since Nov 2024, because Warp kept asking me to login constantly. Why the heck I would need an account for a terminal emulator?!

• tmux: tmux is my terminal multiplexer and I use it extensively together with iTerm2 during my neovim coding sessions.

  • stopped using tmux. I guess I don’t need this level of complexity.

Organisational

• Zotero: Academic reference manager. I use it together with Obsidian, mainly managing papers, application notes and technical documents in an academic sort of way. For bridging to Obsidian, I use the ZotLit plugin which is amazing. I will explain the Zotero-Obsidian combo later in the blog.

• Things: Todo app. I used TickTick for years, but recently switched to Things.

  • As of July 2024 I am using the default Reminder App in Apple ecosystem.

• Fantastical: Using the free version and happy about since such a long time.

• Reeder: Straightforward and simple RSS Reader

  • switched to NetNewsWire on desktop and mobile. Reeder was fine though.