The Setup

Gerard Holzmann

2013-06-18T00:00:00-07:00

Who are you, and what do you do?

I’m Gerard Holzmann, a software researcher. I’m probably best known for developing the Spin tool for verifying multi-threaded code. Spin is based on logic model checking algorithms, but nicely tries to hide that from the user. We’ve applied the tool to lots of cool applications, and not just to analyze the flight software of interplanetary spacecraft. We used it, for instance, in the analysis of Toyota’s engine control software as part of NASA’s investigation of the possible causes for unintended acceleration.

What hardware do you use?

At home I have a 32-core machine with 64 GB of memory, running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, and a more standard 4-core 3.3 GHz 64-bit Windows 7 PC with a measly 8 GB of memory. I have two levels of backup for my system. The first level has four 1 TB disks for nightly backups. The second layer has two 3 TB backup disks in a different part of the house for some extra protection (they backup the backups: yes, I know).

At JPL I have a 64-core machine (4x16 AMD Opteron running at 2.2GHz) with 128 GB of memory, running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, for the bigger crunch jobs.

My laptop is a small Toshiba Portege Z930-S9301 Ultrabook running Windows 7. I use this mostly for travel and for giving presentations, but it is wonderful. I do a lot of photography, mostly portraits, and I’ve accumulated almost as many cameras as laptops and PCs. My first PC was a TRS-80 Model II that I bought in 1981. My largest camera is a traditional Cambo studio camera that can take negatives up to 8x10”. The camera I currently use most, though, is a Canon 5D Mark II.

And what software?

I write most of my code in C, using the standard Unix development tools (bash, make, grep, sed, awk, etc.). I for instance wrote some digital darkroom software at Bell Labs in 1983 called pico. For text editing I use Rob Pike’s sam screen editor - an old-time favorite of the former Center 1127 gang from Bell Labs. For presentations I admit to using PowerPoint, although I wish that the OpenOffice tools would become good enough to surpass it. And then of course I use Photoshop and Adobe Bridge for photography.

What would be your dream setup?

I’d love to have unlimited access to a Google-sized network of CPUs to run jobs on. It would have to be a couple of thousand always available computers that are as simple to invoke as the cores in my work and home machines. It would be incredibly empowering. We also still do not have very good visualization tools for studying software systems. There is, for instance, no default method for looking at executing code, so that one can hunt for patterns and spot the unpredictable small anomalies in an execution.

Theresa Couchman

2013-06-13T00:00:00-07:00

Who are you, and what do you do?

I’m Theresa Couchman, sporadic blogger, wannabe health nut, and author of The Unmapped Lands, a contemporary fantasy novel. I make bad jokes on Twitter, read everything I can get my hands on, and post too many pictures of barns on Instagram. I’m currently working on my second novel.

What hardware do you use?

Right now, I switch between my iPad 3 and an Asus Eee netbook. I’ve needed a new laptop for the longest time, but I’m a terrible cheapskate and tend to put off buying new gadgets until the ones I already have disintegrate. I did just order – and I do mean “just,” it hasn’t arrived yet – a Samsung Chromebook. Based on all the reviews I’ve read, it’ll suit my needs perfectly, and I’m curious to use a browser-based operating system.

And what software?

My primary word processing program used to be OpenOffice, which I still highly recommend. I also find ZenWriter useful when I have a hard time concentrating, because it blocks out all distractions. More and more, though, I rely on Google Drive. Auto-save is a godsend, and while security concerns are always an issue with online accounts, I can’t say I’m too worried about anyone accessing all my half-finished stories and incomprehensible notes.

I publish through Kindle Direct Publishing and Createspace, which are very easy to use, as well as Smashwords, which is… less so, but provides wider distribution to non-Amazon outlets, like the iBookstore and Barnes & Noble.

My newest obsession is Songza. They have so many playlists; it’s easy to find one that will help me focus. I don’t always listen to music when I write, but I like having some sort of background noise, even if it’s just nature sounds.

What would be your dream setup?

Well, I’d love to have a proper home office. Right now, I do most of my typing while sitting on my bed, propped up by pillows, which isn’t good for my productivity or my back. I’d like an adjustable desk like the UpDesk so I could sit or stand. Having both a desktop and laptop would be ideal, and the iMac and Macbook Air are permanent fixtures on my wishlist.

I’d need a ready supply of blank notebooks and fine-tipped pens so I could scribble down ideas, as well –I’m not too picky, but I like plain old Mead Five-Stars and Sharpie Pens. I’d also probably keep my little Asus around for sentimental value. It’s served me well.

Paul Tweedy

2013-06-11T00:00:00-07:00

Who are you, and what do you do?

I’m Paul Tweedy, and I’m a Senior Technical Architect at the BBC. I work within the Future Media division, helping to define & develop the BBC’s online platform to keep it up and running, performant, and fit for the future. In my time at the BBC I’ve worked as a software engineer, product manager and technical lead across several products and services, so I’ve seen things from a few angles.

Outside of work I’m principally a commuter, husband, father (to a wonderful one-year-old) and occasional musician. Throw in the need for a bit of sleep, and that’s the week sewn up!

What hardware do you use?

Somewhat predictably, I rely on a Macbook Pro for work and play. I did Linux-on-the-desktop for years and years, before I finally got bored of the constant round of customisation, kernel recompilation, drivers and things just-not-quite-working, and made the shift to OS X. I’ve never regretted it! Virtualisation takes care of the need to run Linux occasionally.

I did have a stand-alone camera at one point - but the fact I don’t know where it is tells you how much I use it now. The camera in my phone is miles better anyway for all my point-and-shoot needs. I have a Sony HDR-CX730E camcorder for capturing video, which just seems to accumulate without the time to edit any of it down.

My phone is an iPhone 4S. I’m a current affairs junkie, and since becoming a dad there’s no time to sit down with a laptop at home, so I rely on it to keep up to date with the world. It’s nearly 18 months old now and I could upgrade it, but I don’t see any need - and the bigger phones seem to get, the less I want to carry round a huge pane of glass that still won’t hold a charge.

For the very rare times I get to sit down and dabble with music, I use an Edirol UA-25 audio interface and a M-Audio Axiom 61 MIDI controller. My Beyerdynamic DT-250 headphones mean I can work in relative silence, which is important when you’ve got a delicately-sleeping baby in the next room! I also have a rather crappy Asus 19” monitor that I’d love to replace with something bigger and sexier, but can never quite justify the cost!

And what software?

As a Technical Architect within a large team I don’t get to do serious coding any more - my time is variously split between meetings with engineers & product people, email generation, IRC (irssi) and working up specifications and approaches for things, which can then be iterated on. But I do keep my hand in, mainly working up small prototypes or proof-of-concepts to prove or disprove one theory or another. I’m kind of old-school, so I reach for Emacs to do all my non-trivial editing. The reason is simple - using and learning it since 1997 or so, I know it better than any other editor and my muscle memory does half of the work for me. My .emacs file is a carefully-curated history of customisations, workarounds, hacks and blatant bad habits that I’ve grown to depend on over the years. I’ve tried other editors (BBEdit back in the old Mac OS days, TextMate on OS X) but nothing can seem to wean me off Emacs. I’m happy using vim for most quick editing tasks, though.

Taking notes quickly and being able to find them again is important, and Notational Velocity has served me well for years. It’s an elegant piece of software that does one job well. There are plenty of web equivalents out there but offline is important too. Fewer things annoy me in software more than the assumption that everyone’s always connected to the Internet. Often I’m on strange corporate networks behind a HTTP proxy as well - imagine that? Few people seem to.

For diagramming and communicating visually, Omnigraffle Pro is king. For a while (when I didn’t have a Macbook at work), I had to use an awful piece of Windows bloatware called Enterprise Architect - never again!

Aside from that, just about everything else I do is achievable in the browser these days. I resisted Chrome for years because I don’t auto-subscribe to Google hype, but I’ve somewhat grudgingly moved towards it (from years of Firefox and Safari) because the dev tools are so good - the Postman REST client alone sells it for me, it makes driving APIs a doddle.

For music, Logic Studio 9 is my workstation, Propellerheads’ Reason for all my squelchy synth needs, with Toontrack’s EZdrummer as the basis for any live-sounding rhythm tracks. I love Toontrack’s software as they take away a lot of the faff of drum programming, and go with sensible defaults and musician-intuitive UIs that just work. When you’ve got an idea you want to capture but not a lot of time, you start to really appreciate that.

To keep everything manageable across different locations, I rely on Dropbox to backup and sync all my important stuff.

What would be your dream setup?

As I get older, I get less bothered about having the latest, greatest shiny hardware - there’s nothing I can’t accomplish with the tools I already have, the limiting factor is nearly always time. It’s great that software in general is so much easier to update these days, and that most applications (and even your OS) self-update from the Internet - gone are the days of having to carve out your weekend to update things from several hundred floppy disks. So as long as I’m running the current versions of the software I need, I’m happy.

That said, I’d love a phone that lasts a week between charges, just like they did in the 90s.. Oh, and a flying car, and a pint of McEwan’s 80 Shilling. :)

Brian Kernighan

2013-06-06T00:00:00-07:00

Who are you, and what do you do?

I’m Brian Kernighan. I spent 30-plus years at Bell Labs in the group that produced Unix, C, C++ and other odds and ends of useful software. While there I wrote a few books with some super co-authors. Since 2000, I’ve been teaching in the computer science department at Princeton University. If you’re going to have a second childhood, a good university is a great place to have it. I manage to get some writing done here too, most recently a text for non-CS types called D is for Digital. This is based on a course that I usually teach in the fall; in the spring, I teach an upper-level programming / software engineering course.

What hardware do you use?

Mostly Macs at this point. I have a 27-inch iMac at work (big screen) but with the tiny wireless keyboard; I long ago got tired of keyboards that, with wheels, could double as skateboards, so it’s nice to have a little one made by a reliable manufacturer. At home I have several elderly 13 or 15 inch Macbook Pros, and an 11 inch Air. That’s the computer I carry when I need to carry one. I took it around Europe for much of last summer, and now I carry it back and forth between work and home, and hardly notice its presence. Would that all computers were as small and light.

I have an old Lenovo Thinkpad with XP but never take it anywhere, though for some things it’s actually way faster than newer computers. And there’s a non-trivial pile of dead Windows laptops that I keep thinking about refurbishing as Linux boxes, but I never get around to it and probably never will.

A couple of Kindles for my wife; I don’t care to read on them, so they’re not much used. An iPad, unused. A 7 inch Android tablet, ditto. Several cell phones, none turned on; the one that I actually use (about once a month) is a Samsung feature phone from 5 or 6 years ago. It’s odd that “feature” means “doesn’t have any features”, except that it can make phone calls.

And what software?

The Macs are almost exclusively used as terminals to the Linux servers provided by the CS department. Of course I run Firefox and Chrome locally, and I use Word, Excel and Powerpoint for the obvious tasks, because in spite of minor annoyances, they work and are compatible with what everyone else uses.

As the last representative of the dinosaur era, I read mail mostly with Alpine, which is faster and easier than any web-based system I know, and does a nice job of storing my mail locally. It also keeps me pretty much immune to HTML-based attacks and irritants.

I use Rob Pike’s Sam editor most of the time – that’s what I’m using right now – and vi the rest of the time, because I know it well enough that there’s no need to think. Every once in a while I try emacs but have never gotten fluent enough to make it worth switching.

I don’t write as much code as I would like, and much of it is short examples for teaching; that means breadth over depth – lots of small programs in lots of languages – and often they are little more than sleazy hacks just to get something working. I write really short things in Awk, and use Python for longer text processing applications. Some day I ought to learn [long list of languages] better.

What would be your dream setup?

I’m so tired of wires running all over the place and little add-on gadgets that clutter the environment. Every day I have to be sure I’ve packed the charger for my otherwise lovely Air, and have remembered to take the VGA adapter so I can use it in class. Every room in the house that has a computer also has some kind of charger, and of course that’s different from the chargers for phones. All of them have incompatible connectors. Printers need cables; scanners need cables and adapters. And don’t get me started on the rat’s nest of cables for the TV. One could dream of not having to put up with any of this, but it’s likely to stay just a dream.

Samuel Arbesman

2013-06-04T00:00:00-07:00

Who are you, and what do you do?

I’m Sam Arbesman and I’m a complexity scientist and writer. I’m currently a senior scholar at the Kauffman Foundation and a fellow at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science. I conduct research related to computational social science, such as how scientific discovery works and the nature of cities, and I also do a whole lot of popular writing, which appears in such places as Wired and The Atlantic. My first book The Half-Life of Facts was published last year.

What hardware do you use?

My hardware is a reasonably straightforward setup. My primary computer is an 11-inch MacBook Air with 4 gigs of RAM. In my office I have a 28-inch Apple Monitor, a Bluetooth Apple Keyboard, and a Magic Mouse. I also have a 13-inch MacBook from 2007 that is nearly decommissioned, but aside for a battery that’s dead, works well.

And I have an iPhone 4S. I was an extremely late adopter of a smart phone, and only got one in late 2011, after my colleagues poked fun at my basic flip phone, which was overly simple and out-of-date even four years earlier when I first got it. This late adoption is prevalent in most of my technological life when it comes to hardware: I got a Kindle five years after its release and only got a DVD player when it was given to me for free.

And what software?

For my research and programming, most of my work is done in the language of Python, supplemented by scipy, numpy, and networkx packages. I use a combination of the Terminal and TextWrangler for this. Also R. I was recently introduced to Sublime Text 2, which is supposed to be amazing, though I haven’t yet gotten the hang of it.

For my writing, I use several tools, depending on the project. For scientific papers, I use TeXShop, which is a great implementation of LaTeX. For shorter popular writing, I use Microsoft Word. And for longer writing projects, such as books, I use Scrivener. Scrivener is an incredible writing tool and I cannot recommend it highly enough. It allows me to chunk up my ideas, rearrange them, throw huge amounts of notes and other background material into a single file (and organize it well), and compile this whole mess into a document my editors find acceptable. For my management of citations and bibliography, I use Mendeley, which is a really good free program that can work with both Word and LaTeX.

For data visualization, I use gephi for networks, an amazingly powerful tool which many describe as “Photoshop for networks.” For graphs and data plots, I use a somewhat unwieldy and defunct undiscovered gem called Plot 0.997.

For social media, my Twitter life occurs in YoruFukurou on my desktop and, secondarily, in Echofon on my iPhone. YoruFukurou (which apparently means “Night Owl” in Japanese) is extremely powerful for filtering and reading tweets, but doesn’t overwhelm me with information. I use NetNewsWire for the rapidly dwindling number of RSS feeds that I still follow (fewer than ten), as Twitter has supplanted my webpage discovery process.

What would be your dream setup?

I’m pretty happy with what I have. But I do know that any setup I choose would not involve holding my hands out in front of me, like in Minority Report. This seems exhausting.

Matt Gemmell

2013-05-30T00:00:00-07:00

Who are you, and what do you do?

I’m Matt Gemmell, and I design and create software (for myself, and for others). I help companies to make their apps easy to use, and as simple as possible. My clients include everyone from independent developers, to major corporations including Apple. I speak about designing software at various industry conferences, and I write for various tech magazines (including a monthly column in Tap! magazine for iOS).

My blog is at http://mattgemmell.com and I’m mattgemmell on both Twitter and App.Net.

What hardware do you use?

Almost anything with an Apple logo. My main machine is a 27” iMac, which I renew every two years at the maximum available spec. I use an external display as a second screen; my current one is a 24” Samsung SyncMaster.

My usual input device is a Wacom Intuos5 (pen and touch) tablet, which I use as a full-time multi-touch trackpad, and for pen input in Photoshop and Illustrator. My keyboard of choice is an Apple Wireless, and I have several spares. I also have a number of Apple Magic Trackpads, which are great but which have been replaced by the Intuos5. I’ve never liked Apple’s mice, and the Magic Mouse is no exception. When I do need a mouse, I use a Logitech Performance Mouse MX, of which I have at least two generations.

We have something of a MacBook museum in the house, but my favourite is the 11” MacBook Air. It’s the perfect satellite and travel machine, and ideal for conferences. I’ll keep buying them as long as Apple keeps making them. The screen on the Retina MacBook Pro is of course wonderful too. I have a mount that lets me use the MacBooks when I’m on the exercise bike in my office.

As an iOS developer, I have an assortment of iPads and iPhones. My carry-at-all-times phone is whatever the latest iPhone is at the time, currently a black iPhone 5 (and there’s a white one here too, if you prefer).

My most important “hardware”, though, is my stationery. I use large softcover squared-paper Moleskines, and Staedtler fineliners, and you should too.

And what software?

I code for Mac and iOS in Xcode, I write (notes, plans, blog posts and scripts) in BBEdit, and I design in Photoshop (and very occasionally Illustrator, for the vector tools). I also write long-form fiction in my spare time, for which there’s no better tool in the world than Scrivener.

On the Mac, my Twitter client is Tweetbot, and my App.Net client is Kiwi. I also sit on a private IRC channel throughout each working day with some of my closest friends from my university days, and I use Linkinus as my IRC client. Other than that, my choices are the defaults: Safari, Mail, Messages, Terminal, and Calendar. I use iTunes under continuous protest. My feed-reader at the moment is Feedly, via Safari.

I speak at a number of conferences and events each year, and I always use Keynote (on all three platforms). Life’s too short for PowerPoint.

On the iPhone, I also use Tweetbot for Twitter, and I use Felix for App.Net. I love Drafts for jotting quick notes, and I have the Feedly app for my news. I also keep the Kindle app handy (at the moment, I’m re-reading 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, for probably the twentieth time). ReaddleDocs is also a great all-in-one utility for local and remote file access and reading.

On iPad, I again use Tweetbot for Twitter, and Netbot for App.Net. I really like Elements for writing, and I keep Drafts around too. When I need to get into my servers, I use Prompt. I sometimes use an iPad as an input device for Photoshop, via Adobe Nav, alongside my Wacom. I also sketch in Paper sometimes, using a Jot Pro stylus. I subscribe to a few Newsstand publications, and also keep the Kindle app and the Marvel Comics app handy.

What would be your dream setup?

I’d love a 27” Retina iMac, and an external Apple display of the same type, but I think that’s a year or two away. I expect Retina versions of the 11” and 13” MacBook Air this year, which I will eagerly buy. Other than that, just the usual request: make regular-sized iPads thinner and lighter, but no less rigid. The iPad mini is a good start.

Oh, and I’d love to own a Wacom Cintiq (at least 21”, I suppose), but I know I’d rarely use it.

Sarah Northway

2013-05-28T00:00:00-07:00

Who are you, and what do you do?

I’m Sarah Northway, travelling indie game developer and creator of the Rebuild series.

What hardware do you use?

I’ve got a maxed out Alienware M11x, one of the smallest gaming laptops out there. I love this computer; it’s one of the only things I own that matters. To be honest it’s one of the only things I own, period. My husband and I have been travelling perpetually for the last 3 years while we write our games, and have to fit just about everything we own into two backpacks. Secret: if you think an 11 inch screen is too small, try holding it closer to your face.

Between my husband and I we also carry a Nexus One, iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and BlackBerry PlayBook - a decent range of low to high end devices for testing mobile games. By weight we own more electronics than anything else; I know because they all go in my backpack and it’s heavy as hell!

And what software?

I seem to get use out of just about every Adobe product in CS6. I bought it for Flash Pro, Photoshop and good karma, but regularly use Premiere, Illustrator, Audition and Bridge as well. But for AS3 development I prefer FlashDevelop (vs Adobe’s Flash Builder) which is fast, reliable, and free.

Although I develop games for iOS, I am solidly Windows folk, or at least anti-Mac. Three years of using Mac OS in a previous job has at given me an increased appreciation for Linux as I did everything I could in the terminal, but Apple’s design methodology of focusing on an average usage behavior and obscuring advanced functions regularly infuriates me. I now run Lion in a VM (shhhh) because although I do my entire development process in Windows, Apple requires developers to use Mac OS to submit binaries to the iTunes app store.

I rely pretty heavily on remote storage software like Dropbox, SVN and Google Docs, at least when I’ve got the bandwidth to use them.

What would be your dream setup?

An even smaller, lighter, cooler, brighter laptop. Being able to profile AS3 without the serially unstable Flash Builder. And XCode or Apple’s Application Loader for Windows or Linux.

Nicholas Rezabek

2013-05-23T00:00:00-07:00

Who are you, and what do you do?

My name is Nicholas Rezabek, but people typically call me Rez. I am a designer/illustrator and I am 1/2 of The Bubble Process.

What hardware do you use?

Typically I am using my two hands, two arms and two eyes and then some paper and some pens. I’m drawing with either a Pilot G2, Micron pens, sometimes some scratch board, various paint brushes and Windsor & Newton Ink - typically colored - blue, red, etc. The black just kinda bums me out.

Then the drawings are scanned into the computer. After a rough outline is made, or our initial sketch is scanned in, we cut it out using a couple of different filters and our handy friend the Magic Wand tool in Photoshop. This is then placed into a PSD and saved out. Once the general idea is in a good enough spot, the file is sent to my pal Sean Higgins (the other 1/2 of The Bubble Process) and he does the same. He will print out what I sent to him, or visa versa, and draw on top, add to, fill in, etc. and send back to me when he is ready. Then repeat, repeat and repeat. We typically play tag with files for a while, ‘til we are done.

After this the client approves and we move towards silk-screen process. Sean takes care of all this in Cleveland.

And what software?

First of all, we would be nothing without instant messenger. We tend to chat all day. Lots of gifs, YouTube, image finds, jokes, etc. Some work here and there. Then, after our hands, it is any sort of scanner software to get our ideas into the computer. A Wacom tablet (which is new for us this year… previously we have been using the ol’ trackball, but have since upgraded!) and then Photoshop. Sean silk-screens everything in Cleveland, so I’m out of luck on that. I used to burn screens and blast them out in my bathtub, but that got old real quick with the wife. He has a pretty awesome setup in Cleveland. A bunch of custom items that him and his old man put together. Really awesome. We both have some flat-files to keep all our goods nice and ordered, but they fill up fast.

And lastly, our biggest asset would probably be our website and PayPal. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to sell our goods 24/7. It is always amazing to wake up to an inbox of posters that are getting a new home.

What would be your dream setup?

A double-sided washbasin, with a car-wash rig for a screen blaster. Also a big studio, light room, flat-files from floor to ceiling - for each of us. We like the long distance. We tend to have more fun doing what we like on the side, and bringing all our stories and adventures to the table.

This is pretty much if we won the lotto though. Until then, we’ll keep it simple and keep dreaming.

Ashley Davis

2013-05-21T00:00:00-07:00

Who are you, and what do you do?

I’m Ashley Davis, a freelance cartoonist and webcomic artist! My work has been featured in dozens of books, gallery shows and pieces of merchandise. I even do a little acting and animating!

My webcomic, Jailbird, has been running since July 2012.

What hardware do you use?

Most of my work revolves around a PC that I built myself a few years back. Every so often, I’ll just put in some new parts here and there; as of now it’s got an AMD Phenom II X4 processor (just recently unlocked its fourth core for some free extra power), 8GB RAM, an a graphics card not worth mentioning by name because it’s a few years overdue for an upgrade. It’s not the most powerful machine, but it suits my simple needs pretty well!

I have a dual monitor setup with a 23 inch Samsung LED and a Cintiq 12WX. All of this rests on a standing desk that I cobbled together to try to make my job a little healthier (it has!). When I need to write scripts on the go, I use my iPad 3. And if it counts as hardware, I’ll use pretty much any paper I can get my hands on and a pen to do my sketching and comic thumbnailing.

And what software?

After a concept sketch is done, I usually go to Corel Painter X to do all of my inking and coloring. Sometimes I’ll go to Flash CS3 for inks (especially if I’m doing a shirt design), Photoshop CS3 for color correction (Painter doesn’t deal with CMYK very well), and a really old version of Jasc Animation Shop for pixel art, but for me, nothing beats Painter’s brushes!

For writing, I use combinations of OpenOffice.org Writer and Notepad. Again, nothing fancy!

Recently, I’ve been using a program called Workrave to help me time work breaks, which has helped me a lot with staying productive! It also gives you stretches to do while on your breaks, which is a great bonus.

What would be your dream setup?

My current setup is actually pretty close to my dream! All I’d want to add is a better graphics card (and a better PSU so it’ll work), maybe that new Cintiq 13HD, and a comfortable drafting chair for when I need to sit down. Maybe a plusher carpet for my feet when I’m standing too!

Leigh Alexander

2013-05-16T00:00:00-07:00

Who are you, and what do you do?

I’m Leigh Alexander, a journalist and critic of video games and their surrounding business and culture. I write about interactive entertainment and social media and the people who create and participate within that space. I’m editor at large at Gamasutra, I’m a columnist in Edge magazine, Kotaku and at Vice’s Creators Project, and I write at Boing Boing and Thought Catalog and anywhere else if I can find the time.

What hardware do you use?

It’s an entirely unscientific setup. I have two netbooks – an Eee PC that I take to events and an Acer Aspire One that I use for slightly more things. My entire livelihood depends on being able to create and publish text immediately from anywhere, so that’s all I really have the time and energy to care about.

But I suppose video game consoles, being essential to my work, count: I have an Xbox 360, a PlayStation 3, a PlayStation 2 and a Vita; a Wii and a 3DS, and I don’t think my iPhone ever leaves my hand for more than a minute.

Um, except for yesterday, when it got lost. Luckily someone found it and it got returned!

And what software?

All I really require is a web browser, a word processor and some kind of image software – that’s Chrome, Word and IrfanView for me. I’ve been offloading more and more of my content creation and storage onto Google Drive; I don’t even generally worry about where I store anything because if it matters whatsoever, it’ll be an attachment in my Gmail archive somewhere.

I can’t actually overstate the role Twitter plays in my life - Twitter’s basically taken the role of my web presence. I use it to keep up on and comment on current events in my field, to broadcast the things I write, and to engage with my readers. I’m obsessed with Twitter; sometimes I use it as a giant chat room. I tweet to excess, I think. The pull-and-pop of refreshing the app on my phone is like my rosary. Freelance writing and having a career that basically lives on the Internet can be very isolating, and it keeps me company.

What would be your dream setup?

Only when you asked me this did I notice it’s been forever since I had a proper PC with proper software licenses, instead of this scrappy little piecemeal stitched-together infrastructure I’ve built for myself that depends on netbooks and mobile stuff and things living forever on the Internet.

I wonder if I even remember how to do anything in Photoshop, for example. I grew up so attached to computing that I’d pet a PC tower the way one would a dog, but I find it very alleviating to think of the tech I use as lightweight, and not necessarily disposable, but certainly replaceable, since the important things are tangible.

Being a writer online I’ve had to learn to love how the content that’s important to me isn’t this essential, obsessively-protected save file I need to keep on a zip drive, but is fleeting; I can write something in a web backend, hit publish, let it go like a little leaf on a river, and yet it will probably live forever in some incarnation. Even losing my iPhone yesterday, of course I’d have been irritated about the replacement cost if I hadn’t found it, but with the exception maybe of some of my photos, everything that lives on there is still alive, could appear on a new phone.

I guess what I’m driving at is I’ve stopped meaningfully desiring hardware anymore; I’ve become indifferent to it. I do wish I could afford some kind of tablet; I love how iOS games can feel so much more intimate, tactile and immersive on an iPad. If I could really have anything I wanted, I’d want, like, a Mac Quadra running System 6 or something so I could play ancient discs full of black-and-white HyperCard stacks.

If I lust after anything, it’s the nostalgia of when my relationship to computing and gaming was weighty and tactile and puzzling, black screens winking serenely at me in luminescent green. I would love a working TurboGrafx-16 and an Apple IIe; I miss the particular texture of black, wiggly floppies. I have outlived the objects that raised me, and I feel very romantic about their physicality and their frailty and obsolescence.

But really, my ideal setup is pretty close to how it presently is: tiny little keyboard on my knee, and probably some kind of whiskey within reach. Simple stuff.