Posted by Shane Becker on
<p><a href="http://usesthis.com/" title="The Setup">The Setup</a> is a bunch of nerdy interviews about &rdqou;What do people use to get the job done?&ldqou;. They're all fairly high profile nerd folks. I've read this blog since the beginning and love it. There's next to no chance that <a href="http://twitter.com/waferbaby" title="@waferbaby on twitter">@waferbaby</a> would interview me, because honestly, who am I? So, I'm doing my own Setup interview.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/veganstraightedge/4977944191/" title="The Setup by veganstraightedge, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4147/4977944191_9211ac345c_b.jpg" alt="The Setup"></a></p>
<p>Some of my favorites are <a href="http://michael.lopp.usesthis.com/">Michael Lopp</a>, <a href="http://richard.stallman.usesthis.com/">Richard Stallman</a>, <a href="http://amy.hoy.usesthis.com/">Amy Hoy</a>, <a href="http://khoi.vinh.usesthis.com/">Khoi Vinh</a>, <a href="http://violet.blue.usesthis.com/">Violet Blue</a>, <a href="http://why.usesthis.com/">_why The Lucky Stiff</a> and <a href="http://john.gruber.usesthis.com/">John Gruber</a>. But really, they're all great. You should <a href="http://usesthis.com/feed/" title="The Setup">subscribe</a>.</p>
<p>Here goes.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/veganstraightedge/4770642690/" title="Me (doing something... who know?) at Runyon Canyon Park in Los Angeles, CA by veganstraightedge, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4075/4770642690_3dc64c3ba3_o.jpg" alt="Me (doing something... who know?) at Runyon Canyon Park in Los Angeles, CA"></a></p>
<dl>
<dt><h3>Who are you, and what do you do?</h3></dt>
<dd>
<p>My name is Shane Becker. I <a href="http://less.thanthree.com/" title="Less Than Three | We Solve Problems">make websites</a>. I first saw the web in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_(web_browser)" title="Mosaic (web browser) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia">Mosaic</a> on an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Graphics" title="Silicon Graphics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia">SGI</a> running some flavor of Unix when I was a <a href="http://freshmancampus.noblesvilleschools.org/" title="">freshman in high school</a> late one night at the <a href="http://www.lilly.com/" title="Eli Lilly and Company">Eli Lilly</a> headquarters in Indianapolis, IN. There was no looking back.</p>
<p>I currently work for The Man™ at a Fortune 10 company. It has its perks. I have lotsa (too many, really) side personal projects and I'm currently trying to cut down the list. I made <a href="http://zinedistro.org" title="Zine Distro : Download Print Read">Zine Distro</a> (with help from <a href="http://twitter.com/elisfanclub" title="@elisfanclub">Eli Duke</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/bookis" title="@bookis">Bookis</a>, Emily and Brooke), <a href="http://listyourlist.com" title="ListYourList : pointless list-making at its finest">ListYourList</a> (with <a href="http://twitter.com/elisfanclub" title="@elisfanclub">Eli</a>), <a href="http://theresistancearmy.com/" title="The Resistance Army Shirts : The Revolution Is Just a T-Shirt Away">The Resistance Army</a> (with <a href="http://twitter.com/bookis" title="@bookis">Bookis</a>), the <time datetime="Sun Sep 12 17:00:30 -0700 2010">current (as of 09/12/2010)</time> <a href="http://rubini.us/" title="Rubinius : Use Ruby">Rubinius</a> site, the <a href="http://www.seattlerb.org/" title="Seattle.rb | Seattle Ruby Brigade">Seattle.rb</a> site and co-founded <a href="http://rb.la/" title="Los Angeles Ruby Brigade : Weekly Hack Night">LA.rb</a> (with <a href="http://twitter.com/evanphx" title="@evanphx">Evan Phoenix</a>).</p>
<p>And one time I got a bit of attention for <a href="http://veganstraightedge.com/articles/2009/5/14/1/rei-atm-loomis-seattle-police-incident-the-cliff-notes" title="The Internet Home Site of Shane Becker">taking a photo of an ATM</a>.</p>
</dd>
<dt><h3>What hardware are you using?</h3></dt>
<dd>
<p> I have a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macbook_pro#Unibody_MacBook_Pro" title="MacBook Pro - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia">13" Unibody MacBook Pro</a>, probably the best laptop ever made. I expect I'll swap out the spinny hard drive with the non-spinny kind and bump the RAM to 8gb. I type on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Wireless_Keyboard" title="Apple Wireless Keyboard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia">Apple Wireless Keyboard</a> (which just eats through AA batteries) and scroll with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Mouse" title="Magic Mouse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia">Magic Mouse</a>. My desktop background says &ldqou;<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/veganstraightedge/4455776193/">Debt is slavery. Get free.</a>&rdqou; to keep me focused on my student loans (currently only $13,000 left).</p>
<p>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipad" title="iPad - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia">iPad</a> is thing a beauty. My iPad&rsqou;s name is &ldqou;Jet Pack&rdqou;. I read a lot more than I ever did before. Books, feeds, twitter and comics. Lotsa comics. (In the picture, I was reading <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eternals#Eternals_volume_2">The Eternals</a> by <a href="http://www.neilgaiman.com/" title="Neil Gaiman - Home">Neil Gaiman</a>) I use the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPad#Power_and_battery" title="iPad - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia">keyboard dock</a> with it for longer globs of text. My home screen is the last image from <em><a href="http://crimethinc.com/texts/recentfeatures/terrain.php" title="CWC Texts : Recent Features : Fighting in the New Terrain">Fighting in a New Terrain: What's Changed Since the 20th Century</a></em>.</p>
<p>I have an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_3GS" title="iPhone 3GS - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia">iPhone 3GS</a> as my pocket computer that makes phone calls. Its name is &ldqou;2001&rdqou;. It's also my only camera. I used to have a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricoh_GR_Digital" title="Ricoh GR Digital - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia">Ricoh GRD</a> which took the best pictures I've seen, but decided on the <em>camera that was with me</em> over the <em>better</em> camera.</p>
<p>Sound plays out of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harman_Kardon#SoundSticks" title="Harman Kardon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia">Harman Kardon Sound Sticks and iSub</a>. Pages and old negatives are scanned with a <a href="http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/scanners/film_negative_scanners/canoscan_lide_700f" title="Canon U.S.A. : Consumer & Home Office : CanoScan LiDE 700F">Canoscan LiDE 700f</a>.</p>
<p>My desk is pink and too low. It also is an inbox for physical tasks (currently: get drivers license renewed, develop super 8 film). My chair is black, grey and adequate. My dry erase board is ceramic, within arm's reach and still leaves hints of erased notes.</p>
</dd>
<dt><h3>And what software?</h3></dt>
<dd>
<h4>OS X</h4>
<p><a href="http://macromates.com/" title="TextMate — The Missing Editor for Mac OS X">TextMate</a>, lots and lots of TextMate. Sure do wish version 2 would ship. <a href="http://peepcode.com/products/peepopen" title="PeepOpen Application | PeepCode Screencasts for Web Developers and Alpha Geeks">PeepOpen</a>. <a href="http://www.apple.com/safari/" title="Apple - Safari - Browse the web in smarter, more powerful ways.">Safari</a>. Mail.app (backed by gmail). <a href="http://adium.im/" title="Adium - Download">Adium</a>. <a href="http://www.videolan.org/vlc/" title="VideoLAN - VLC media player - Open Source Multimedia Framework and Player">VLC</a>. <a href="http://www.atebits.com/tweetie-mac/" title="atebits - Tweetie for Mac">Tweetie</a>, but I wish it'd get updated to work with natives retweets, geo stuff and annotations. Terminal. <a href="http://flyingmeat.com/acorn/" title="Acorn, the image editor for humans.">Acorn</a>. <a href="http://manytricks.com/namemangler/" title="Name Mangler · Many Tricks">Name Mangler</a>. <a href="http://www.xtorrentp2p.com/" title="Xtorrent P2P (for Mac OS X)">Xtorrent</a>. <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator/" title="graphic design software | Adobe Illustrator CS5">Adobe Illustrator</a>. <a href="http://itunes.com" title="Apple - iTunes - Everything you need to be entertained">iTunes</a>. <a href="http://culturedcode.com/things/" title="Things - task management on the Mac">Things</a>. <span style="text-decoration:line-through">QuickSilver</span> <a href="http://code.google.com/p/qsb-mac/" title="qsb-mac -
Project Hosting on Google Code">Quick Search Box</a>. <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/">Dropbox</a>. <a href="http://skitch.com/" title="Skitch.com + Skitch = fast and fun screen capture and image sharing.">Skitch</a>. <a href="http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/cinch/" title="Irradiated Software - Cinch">Cinch</a>. <a href="http://www.objectpark.org/FuzzyClock.html" title="Objectpark's FuzzyClock">Fuzzy Clock</a>. <a href="http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/quickcursor" title="QuickCursor — Your favorite text editor anywhere for Mac.">QuickCursor</a>. iCal. <a href="http://ruby-lang.org/" title="Ruby Programming Language">Ruby</a>. <a href="http://rubyonrails.org/" title="Ruby on Rails">Ruby on Rails</a>. <a href="http://git-scm.com/" title="Git - Fast Version Control System">git</a>.</p>
<h4>Web</h4>
<p><a href="http://gmail.com">GMail</a>. <a href="http://tadalist.com/" title="To do list, simple, easy, fast, sharable: Ta-da List">Ta-da List</a>. <a href="http://www.wikipedia.org/" title="Wikipedia">Wikipedia</a>. <a href="http://www.google.com/" title="Google">Google</a>. <a href="http://github.com/" title="Secure source code hosting and collaborative development - GitHub">Github</a>. <a href="http://reader.google.com/">Google Reader</a>. <a href="http://twitter.com/" title="">Twitter</a>. Heroku. <a href="http://www.last.fm/" title="Last.fm - Listen to free music with internet radio and the largest music catalogue online">Last.fm</a>.</p>
<h4>iPhone</h4>
<p>Maps. Messages. Camera. Phone. Mail. Safari. iPod. <a href="http://culturedcode.com/things/iphone/" title="Things for iPhone and iPod touch | Cultured Code">Things</a>. <span style="text-decoration:line-through">Tweetie</span> <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/app/twitter/id333903271?mt=8" title="">Twitter for iPhone</a>. <a href="http://foursquare.com/" title="foursquare">Foursquare</a>. <a href="http://gowalla.com/" title="Gowalla">Gowalla</a>. Both via <a href="http://check.in/" title="check.in - one checkin to rule them all">Check.in</a>. <a href="http://nezumiapp.com/" title="Nezumi">Nezumi</a>. <a href="http://www.secondgearsoftware.com/elements/" title="Elements — Dropbox powered text editor for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch from Second Gear">Elements</a>. <a href="http://reederapp.com/2/" title="Reeder">Reeder</a>.</p>
<h4>iPad</h4>
<p><a href="http://www.comixology.com/iphoneapp/" title="comiXology + iPhone, Wednesdays just got better - comiXology">Comixology</a>. <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id350027738?mt=8" title="">Marvel Comics</a>. <a href="http://graphic.ly/" title="Graphic.ly - Comics and Friends Get Connected - Digital Comics and Community - Now on Windows 7">Graphic.ly</a>. I wish there was a standard e-comic format and purchases could be read in any app. <a href="http://appoftheday.com/ipad/cloudreader" title="CloudReaders">CloudReaders</a>. <a href="http://reederapp.com/ipad/" title="Reeder">Reeder</a>. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/kindle/ipad" title="Amazon Kindle for iPad">Kindle</a>. <a href="http://www.wikipanion.net/wikipanionplus_features.html?ipad" title="The Wikipanion Experience: Plus Features">Wikipanion</a>. <a href="http://www.instapaper.com/iphone" title="Instapaper">Instapaper</a>. <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/twitter/id333903271?mt=8" title="">Twitter for iPad</a>. <a href="http://culturedcode.com/things/ipad/" title="Things for iPad | Cultured Code">Things</a>. <a href="http://www.secondgearsoftware.com/elements/" title="Elements — Dropbox powered text editor for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch from Second Gear">Elements</a>. <a href="http://37signals.com/draft" title="37signals Draft for iPad: Simple sketching and sharing">Draft</a>.</p>
</dd>
<dt><h3>What would be your dream setup?</h3></dt>
<dd>
Somewhere between <a href="http://www.starwars.com/databank/location/ewokvillage/index.html" title="StarWars.com | Ewok Village">Ewok Village</a> and
the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherwood_Forest" title="Sherwood Forest - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia">Sherwood Forest</a> from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Thieves" title="Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia">Prince of Thieves</a>. Sincerely.
</dd>
</dl>