Published on October 8, 2019.

It's been a very long time since I've written about my "setup." Not surprisingly, it has changed quite a bit over the past few years, especially because the work that I'm doing (which is primarily Web app, API, and middleware development with a heavy dose of integration thrown in) has changed so much.

One of my goals - in both my personal and professional life - is to be as minimalist as possible. It's not so much about seeing how few things I can get by with as it is deliberately living and working with only the things I absolutely need and/or love. I think you'll find that my setup meets those criteria.

Hardware

In terms of what I'd consider hardware, I use only a few things.

My primary computer - in fact, my only computer - is a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015). I feel lucky to have this MacBook, because it seems to be one of the last great MacBooks that Apple has manufactured. It's configured with a 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU, and only 8 GB of RAM. But that's really all I need. I'm not doing anything that would require or benefit much from a faster CPU or more memory.

My phone is an iPhone 6 Plus. In general, I dislike phones. Nearly all of my "calls" these days is done over Zoom. I find the quality, clarity, and reliability of Zoom is much better than what I get from my iPhone. So I'm in no big hurry to upgrade my iPhone.

For many years, I worked exclusively with my MacBook's display and trackpad - and when I'm traveling or working remotely, that's still my standard setup. But when I'm at home, I now use an external monitor (a Dell UltraSharp 25" Monitor) and a nice external mouse (an Amazon Basics USB mouse). With the work that I'm doing with RapidWeaver, I find that the extra screen real estate is very helpful.

Software

I am sometimes amazed at how little I need with regards to software.

I use BBEdit for just about all of my development work - from the PHP development that I do to the NetSuite / SuiteScript work that I do. I use it to take notes, to prepare drafts for proposals. If it involves working with text, I use BBedit.

While I very rarely develop new FileMaker databases for clients, I am still doing quite a bit of FileMaker integration work. So I have FileMaker Pro 17 installed.

I've been a fan of Apple's iWork (Keynote, Numbers, and Pages) since it was first released, and I continue to use it to this day. I use Keynote for presentations, Numbers for spreadsheets, and Pages for anything involving a formal document (contracts, statements of work, and so on). I have no Microsoft software on my MacBook. So instead of PowerPoint, I use Keynote. Instead of Excel, I use Numbers. And instead of Word, I use Pages. I've never run into any issues with file formats.

For the database work that I do - especially MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server database development - I use Navicat Premium Essentials. Navicat's UI took some getting used to, but it has really grown on me. I love that I can very easily work with multiple database types in one app. It's stable, reliable, and full featured. If you're looking for an affordable database development tool, I encourage you to check it out.

One of the things that hasn't changed with my setup is Paw. I use Paw for all of the API work that I do, whether I'm consuming other APIs, testing NetSuite Restlets or putting together SuiteTalk calls. I even use it to work with JSON. If you're using a Mac and need to develop against APIs, you should give Paw a try.

I've been using RapidWeaver for a long time, and I've always been a fan of it. But over the past year, my enthusiasm for it has grown considerably. That's partly due to two RapidWeaver add-ons that I'm using: Stacks and Foundry. Stacks is hard to describe, but you can think of it as being able to build Web sites using a modular approach, where each Stack is essentially a module. You combine stacks to design your site. But honestly, that description doesn't do it justice. Just check it out, and you'll see why it's a big deal. Foundry is a RapidWeaver framework based on Bootstrap. With it, you can easily build responsive sites that really work. My current site was designed using RapidWeaver, Stacks, and Foundry.

Transmit is another app that I've used for many years. It's an FTP program, but it allows you to transfer files to all sorts of things now - including Amazon S3 buckets.

Services

I host all of my Web sites, apps, and APIs on Amazon AWS - and on Amazon Lightsail servers in particular. I run them on Amazon Linux-based servers, and run everything behind nginx. My MySQL databases are also hosted on AWS using Amazon Aurora.

I mentioned earlier that I use Zoom for nearly all client calls and remote meetings. I've been using Zoom for several years now, and I love it. It's easy to use, reliable, and even my clients seem to love it.

When working remotely via public WiFi, I use Encrypt.me as my VPN. It's easy to use, affordable, and it works.

I manage all of my bookkeeping / accounting in FreshBooks. This is another service that I've been using for several years, and honestly, I don't know what I'd do without it. It makes tracking time, logging expenses, sending invoices - all of those things that I used to dread doing - a breeze. And with the nice reports that it provides, I now have a better sense of how my business is doing.

That's my (very) minimalist setup.