Alisdair MacLeod's Personal Site

The heart of my operation. I have run my own router, firewall, server, switch, type device for a while now. There are a couple of things I look for: 3-4 Ethernet ports, 2+ drive bays, HDMI output, and a couple of USB ports. The R2 Max does all of this and throws in 10G speeds, USB-C PD power, and fanless cooling.

Before this I have had a Fitlet3, MS-01, APU 6b4 and 4d4 and some custom mITX builds. This is by far the best hardware package for what I want to do with it out of everything I have used so far.

Crazy. I never thought I would find myself using or buying any Apple hardware yet here we are. I was finally forced to choose between macOS and Windows by an employer (which was a very easy choice to make) and found macOS fine. This unlocked an interesting new option for hardware, I had been considering a MacBook Pro as that is what I had been using (without a monitor), however the Apple Silicon chips are fast enough in a base configuration that I could go to an iMac, which has all the built in goodies of the MBP but with a bigger (although strictly worse) screen. The pleasant green colour matches my office nicely and given I never actually take a work laptop out of the house this seemed like a no-brainer to me.

We shall see how this extended Apple experiment plays out but I am unlikely to expand my iDevices much beyond this, the included keyboard is awful, the trackpad is acceptable but I still prefer a trackball. I wish it had a marginally better, hell even smaller, screen, and touchID on the back (although I am "holding it wrong" by not using the included keyboard I guess).

It wouldn't be a programmer list of stuff without a keyboard. Something about buckling springs just really takes me back to my childhood (no idea why because I was brought up on scratchy BBC Micro and Acorn Archimedes keyboards) and I find it much more comfortable and satisfying than any modern mechanical keyboard. I previously used a Kinesis Advantage which remains one of my favourite layouts, however did cause me to almost entirely lose the ability to type on a normal keyboard which was...not ideal. The current layout is the HHKB layout which I feel is the best standard keyboard layout I have used, however as good as Topre is, I don't find it as entertaining to type on as the Model F. Before that there was a Filco, Ergodox, GH60, and an Atreus.

That's right, a trackball. I think my first trackball was a LogiTech TrackMan Marble FX, from there I've been through a gamut of LogiTech trackballs and a CST L-Trac before coming to my current Slimblade. The only gripe here is that the buttons are a bit crap compared to other mice I've had and of course the Kensington software is absolute garbage, non-existent on Linux, non-functional on macOS, barely passable on Windows.

A neat solution to hot ears during days of back-to-back meetings (as my job seems to mostly be now), with the added advantage of staying on (rather than in) my ears for exercise, allows me to hear traffic whilst cycling or running. Battery life is so-so, but they get through a work day so not bad enough to cause me too many issues as long as I remember to charge them every day. Proprietary charger sucks too but at least it's a simple magnetic one so the lifespan should be fairly long, and you could likely rig one up in a pinch. Switching devices is not seamless and requires re-pairing to the new device.

These were a free replacement after my QC-35s suffered a random turning on issue. That is good enough for me to keep using them until they die. USB-C charging is nice and the noise-cancellation is great for travelling. I use it for work meetings, and they're very comfortable for long periods of time other than a fully stacked day during the summer where I get sweaty ears.

If I'm going to have a smart(ish) watch then it has to be able to keep up with my poor charging regimen. I can get a full walking weekend of GPS usage without a charge or about a month of normal watch usage before needing a charge, come at me with your fancy "Ultra" watch Apple. The proprietary charger is a hassle, so it's probably a good thing it doesn't need charging very often. The fitness tracking and training coaching is great. As is the OLED display enabling having proper maps for GPS. With the recent addition of several UK banks I can now use it to make contactless payments too. If I were to upgrade I would possibly look at the even larger models for a slightly bigger display for maps, but they are a little unwieldy on the wrist (maybe I just need to work out more).

I've always been a "physical books only" kind of chap, but there was that ever present niggle that I might really enjoy a Kindle. When the USB-C version of the Paperwhite came out I finally bit the bullet and ordered one. I must say it is pretty great for reading in all situations, better even than a physical book thanks to the backlight. What I hate about it is that, like so much technology these days, it is all locked into a single platform. I guess lets hope Amazon never remove any of the books I have purchased from my library, like they seem to do for TV/Films.

Ah yes, the smartphone. I wish I could never use it. I think my ideal device would be a smartwatch with the ability to link to a car to use Android Auto/CarPlay (because car manufacturers are objectively terrible at software), link to bluetooth headphones, stream music/podcasts over 4/5G, all with the same battery life I get from the Garmin. That way I could ditch the smartphone with its time sapping YouTube and Browser. I've trimmed the apps down to a bare minimum, but you can never escape having a browser available to waste your time with.

I'm about the right age for Game Boy, I remember friends at school having the OG and Pocket, my first was a Color. I had to wait quite a while for this to come in but the wait was worth it. It is pretty much a combination of all the modifications you would want to make to a Game Boy (USB-C rechargable, bright backlit IPS display, flash cartridge) all rolled into one really neat package. The screen and speakers are great and I love being able to play all the games from my childhood, no internet connection required.

For my server this was the only choice. Such a minimalist system, it's great. I make use of httpd, smtpd, dhcpd, unwind, unbound, acme-client, pf, fingerd, sshd. I only have to install a very minimal set of software on top to do other things like IMAP email access with dovecot.

Lets see: started out with notepad++, moved to vim, spent about 5 years using just vim, moved to VSCode (thanks JavaScript), tried emacs, used acme for 3 years, tried emacs again, started using Goland on a massive Go codebase, bought an IDEA Ultimate licence, now it has been many years of using a full-blown IDE. It gives me everything I want in one place, which was always the appeal of emacs for me, and what I managed to achieve in acme, and never got to in vim. To be honest I would still be using acme if it was possible to run it without needing to compile all the other plan9 tools at the same time and not have them live as part of your normal OS install.