Tools
Software, hardware, machines, and other tools. Annotated honestly — what it does, what it doesn't, and whether I'd buy it again.
25 of 25 tools
| Tool | Category | Status | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bear Shiny Frog | Notes | retired | Beautifully designed. Lost to Obsidian on the lock-in question; nothing against the typography. |
| Brother HL-L2360D Brother | Printer | active | This printer just works. |
| Google Analytics Google | Analytics | active | |
| Moccamaster KBGT Moccamaster | Coffee Maker | active | |
| Neutrogena Hydro Boost Night Pressed Serum Neutrogena | Face Lotion | active | |
| Neutrogena Hydro Boost Water Gel Broad Spectrum SPF 25 Neutrogena | Face Sunscreen | active | |
| Notion Notion Labs | Notes | retired | Tried twice. Beautiful empty database. The blank-page problem won every time. |
| Peak Design Everyday 30L Peak Design | Backpack | active | Phenomenal for office work and camera or electronic traveling. |
| Peak Design Everyday 6L Peak Design | Sling | active | A great sling for a light camera carry. |
| Rite in the Rain Rite in the Rain | Notetaking | active | I bought ~20 different types of pocketable notebooks over a the past 5 years. |
| Rize Rize | Timetracking | active | If you are a professional who tracks their time for billable work (lawyer, marketer, consultant, etc. |
| Roam Research Roam | Notes | retired | The transitive backlinks taught me something. The pricing and the lock-in eventually un-taught me. |
| SELPHY CP1500 Wireless Compact Photo Printer Canon | Printer | active | The paper isn't cheap, but that's to be expected with this quick-print, polaroid-novelty type device. |
| The Baltimore Banner The Baltimore Banner | Newspaper | active | Pulitzer-prize-winning journalism from a nonprofit that rebuilt from the talent that was at the Baltimore Sun. |
| Tonal Tonal | Exercise | active | Invest in your health. |
| Zebra F701 Zebra | Pen | active | Any pen from the Zebra family will do, but this is my favorite. |
| iA Writer Information Architects | Writing | active | The plain-Markdown editor I draft essays in. The font is the feature. Syntax mode catches half my bad habits before the second pass. |
| Obsidian Obsidian | Notes | active | Where the commonplace book lives. Local Markdown, no lock-in, fast. The graph view is mostly a toy; the search is the thing. |
| VS Code Microsoft | Software | active | The editor I keep open. Astro extension, GitHub Copilot, vim mode. Less religious about it than I used to be. |
| Things 3 Cultured Code | Productivity | active | Stayed loyal through three Notion experiments. The keyboard shortcuts, the typography, the not-trying-to-be-everything-else. |
| Kindle Oasis Amazon | Reading | active | Page-turn buttons earn the upcharge. Send to Kindle from the browser is the workflow that makes it worth keeping. |
| Moleskine Cahier (large, plain) Moleskine | Stationery | active | Plain pages only. Three at a time. They live in a stack on the desk; the current one in the jacket pocket. |
| Field Notes Field Notes | Stationery | active | Pocketable, no precious. The quarterly editions are mostly an excuse to keep the subscription. |
| Logitech MX Master 3S Logitech | Input | active | Quiet click. Horizontal scroll on the side wheel earns it. Pairs with three machines; switches with the button on the bottom. |
| Granola Granola | Notes | evaluating | On trial. The post-meeting summary is genuinely good; the question is whether the value survives a thousand calls. |