Obligatory desk setup post.
I recently updated my office tech setup so I thought I'd write down a few notes about it.
I have been searching for the perfect office setup for me for years and never quite achieved it. I think for the moment I am the closest I have ever been in terms of function and comfort. Nothing that I am doing is particularly smart or out of the ordinary but with what I have, I am reasonably productive and comfortable enough that I can sit for long periods of time comfortably (with adequate breaks of course).
This post was prompted by my my latest Facebook Marketplace purchase. I managed to pick up a Dell Ultrasharp, U2715H 27" monitor for what can only be described as a "bargain". For the last few years I have been a dual monitor user. One in portrait orientation and one in landscape. Despite the abysmal resolution of my old monitors, this has for the most part worked for me, but recently I have been finding myself mainly using the single landscape screen and using multiple desktops to switch between groups of applications. I've been focusing on using more keyboard shortcuts to make myself more productive and have the shortcuts for switching between apps etc burnt into my memory now. This has been inspired in part by some of the OMAKUB ethos by DHH The news of Apple's new window management features in macOS Sequoia and my son needing a monitor to use with his school laptop clinched the deal for me to move to a single monitor setup. I've only had it for a few hours but so far I'm really impressed. I've use Dell monitors at various customer offices and always thought them to be very reasonable, especially in many cases for the price (some are still pretty expensive).
My Mac is a M1 Mac Studio. it is without a doubt the best computer I have ever owned. I love it. Ironically, it's also now the lowest power CPU I have in my collection. I have a M2 Macbook Pro that I use when I am out and about and also for video conferencing and a M4 iPad Pro. Literally every time that I pick up the iPad I have a little chuckle about how my most powerful processor is trapped inside it. That said, the new iPad Pro and the Apple Stylus Pro have revolutionised my note taking. I do all my writing on the iPad now. To make this comfortable I use a PaperLike screen protector. It still feels a lot like writing on glass as you would expect but it does make quite a bit of difference to writing comfort. I had to customise my PaperLike protector because my local store miss-sold me one for the older 11"iPad Pro with the camera at the top rather than on the side. Some scissors and nerve later and it works just fine.
The clock on the desk is a Levono Smart Clock. It's not smart, it has Alexa in it which I mostly have on mute and I can't figure out how to set the temperature unit of measurement to Celsius. However it tells me the time ok so I use it old-school for that.
I'll save some of my favourite apps for another post