Review

I’ve always been a hunt-and-peck typer. I started using computers as early as was physically possible. Sadly, no one ever taught me good habits around typing (let alone ergonomics). Having some small RSI issues in my right wrist, I decided to further go down the route of mechanical keyboards, which I previously discussed here. In October 2025, I purchased a ZSA Voyager mechanical keyboard. I should rewind a small bit - prior to the Voyager, I purchased a Kinesis Advantage 360 Pro (the wireless one), which is a great and supremely comfortable keyboard. One of the major downsides to the Advantage 360 is that it is uncomfortable for any sort of gaming. Also, there is a nice weight and robustness to the Advantage 360 which makes it unsuitable to travel in my opinion. ...

I last blogged about a “Tech Go Bag” in 2015, 11 years ago as I write this. A lot has changed so I thought it’s worth a re-review of my current setup. ...

About this time last year, I purchased 3 mini computers with the aim of making a Kubernetes cluster. I followed an excellent youtube video: This homelab setup is my favorite one yet - Dreams of Autonomy (Github Repository) which described the machines to buy (Beelink EQ 13 Mini), how to upgrade the SSD and RAM, how to provision them with NixOS, setup K3S, and connect using kubectl to manage the cluster. You will also have to modify your router’s DHCP settings so you can give the cluster static IP addresses. ...

Picade is an arcade machine you build yourself which uses a raspberry pi as the brains. It is available from Pimoroni. ...

I recently bought a Framework 13 laptop as a personal machine. If you are not aware - Framework makes build-it-yourself laptops. I wanted to review different parts of the process and give an overview of how it’s been from ordering to delivery. ...

I’m a big fan of the shell and the productivity it brings, you can have a text editor, command to run a server and more within easy reach. I use a shell at work, at home and on the go. On the go could be using my iPad or iPhone. One of the first SSH clients on iOS was iSSH, which I used many years ago. After this, Panic released a professional class application called Prompt. Prompt is what I’ve happily used for the last few years, but the 10 minute background process limit is a constant pain. Just a quick switch away for a few minutes, and you have to reconnect. That’s fine once or twice, but when it happens many times it seriously slows your productivity. ...

For the last few years, I’ve always wanted to budget properly and see where my money was going. But like all habits that are good for you, looking after your finances takes time, care and attention. I started off by researching the market for budgeting software. A lot of the prepackged software out there was very US-centric, including Quicken, Microsoft Money and Mint.com. I eventually settled on and bought a license for You Need a Budget, because: it had a budgeting methodology, very good Euro support and was cross platform with Adobe Air. YNAB lasted me well for a few years, with its pretty graphs and ease of expense entry. I even liked their much pared-down companion iOS app at the time. ...

After some thought initially on a new laptop, I decided to spring for an iPad Pro 12.9". So far I am really glad I did, the computer comes with me everywhere. I bring it to work, to visit family, on trips and everywhere in between. It’s the ultimate work computer in many ways, always with you, light enough and comfortable enough for real work™. The keyboard shortcuts in iOS have improved massively from iOS 8 to iOS 9 to the point of actually being useful and the split screen view is actually rather nice to use (I never “got” it on a Mac). ...

I recently read Remote: Office Not Required by David Heinemeier-Hansson (who created Ruby on Rails) and Jason Fried (who co-founded 37 Signals with Heinemeier-Hansson). This book is really a case study in why the future of work will be remote, of which the book did convince me (but I would say, I already believed). The book is really structured to convince those who do not believe in the premise of the title. It talks about many successful companies who have transformed themselves to work remotely fully and large corporations who save lots of money on office space (IBM, being one example). ...

Early last year, I purchased two Code Keyboards (one for work and one for home). The Code Keyboards are designed by Jeff Atwood (who founded Stack Overflow). Mechanical keyboards are “old style” in that the switches are from an era where everything was mechanical, unlike today where everything is glass. So mechanical keyboards have ardent fans and people who don’t really care for them. I did a lot of research before I purchased, talking to various people in work who are very knowledgeable about mechanical keyboards (The best community for advice, discussion and group buys is /r/mechanicalkeyboards on reddit.). The variety of hardware and opinions is positively mind melting. If you are doing your own research, you should definitely come across Cherry switches (a very established German brand). Switches are what sit between your key that you see (with the letter printed on top) and the electronic board that converts the key press to a signal the computer can understand. ...