Who are you, and what do you do? What do you like to do outside of work?

Howdy! My name is Alex Oladele, and I am a site reliability engineer at IBM! I’ve lived in Ohio for most of my life, growing up in Columbus, Ohio, then getting my Bachelors of Science in Software Engineering at Miami University of Ohio. After graduating, I moved to Raleigh, North Carolina for my job here at IBM.

The work I do on a daily basis consists of managing the GitHub Enterprise platform and infrastructure and of interfacing with our users to help them figure out problems they are experiencing.

I consider myself a very big techie, so outside of work I tend to collect legacy technology and read up on the latest tech news via a variety of podcasts. I also enjoy building Discord bots, playing Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), and reading science fiction and fantasy novels.

What hardware do you use?

I own several laptops (mostly because I like to run different OSs and experimental software on them). For work, I use a 2019 MacBook Pro, while my personal machine is a Framework laptop, both of which stand on a laptop stand. The goal I had for myself when building out my desk setup was that I only ever wanted to manage one cable to my laptop, so that I could quickly and easily dock or disconnect whenever I needed to. With this in mind, each of the following devices on the desk connects to either of my laptops through my CalDigit TS3 Plus Thunderbolt dock:

• ZSA Moonlander Mark I (keyboard of choice)
• Logitech MX Vertical Mouse
• Logitech MX Master 3 (backup mouse)
• Elgato Stream Deck MK.2
• ACASIS 16 Ports 90W USB Hub (where all of the USB devices plug into)
• TP-Link TL-SG108 Ethernet switch
• Razer Kiyo Pro webcam
• Blue Yeti USB mic
• Anker Soundcore Life Q20 Bluetooth Headphones
• Samsung 28-inch 4K (U28R55) monitor
• ThinkVision T24m-20 monitor

All of this sits upon my 48-inch SHW Electric Standing Desk. Finally, when I stand up at my desk, I stand on a StrongTek Anti Fatigue Balance Board. You might be able to tell that my setup is very Thunderbolt-centric.

And what software?

On my MacBook, a majority of the work I do happens in my browser, my terminal (iTerm2), and VS Code.

On my Framework, I run Ubuntu and generally have much more freedom to install things. For personal projects, I use Alacritty for my terminal, Jetbrains IDEs (IntelliJ, PyCharm, etc.) for coding, Discord for communication with friends, and Notion for planning my D&D campaign.

What’s your keyboard setup like? Do you use a custom layout or custom keycaps?

I got the black Moonlander Mark I with the Kailh Brown switches. I loved the keycaps that came with the keyboard, so I haven’t bothered to change them at all.

In terms of my layout, I’d say that my layer 0 started fairly close to the default layout, but as I started using Linux more, I made some layout updates that felt natural in both MacOS and Ubuntu. My Linux layer is an exact clone of my Default layer 0 with two or three changes that I felt would make more sense.

Prior to buying the Moonlander, I was sort of a touch typist, but never really kept my hands on the home row. My friend and coworker (who convinced me to buy the Moonlander) showed me his layout in which he changed the ‘F’ and ‘J’ keys to be a different color so that even at night, he’d be good about using the home row more. I’ve gotta say that that trick has really been working for me!

What would be your dream setup?

It feels kinda cliché to say, but I feel like my current setup is pretty close to my dream setup. To get to my dream setup I would likely get a 60-inch black laminate Jarvis standing desk because I definitely feel like I could do with more desk space. I’d also upgrade my CalDigit TS3-Plus to a CalDigit TS4 dock. Furthermore, while I love my Blue Yeti mic, I’ve been wanting to pick up a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 audio interface so that I could make the switch to a Shure SM7B XLR microphone. Last, I’d somehow have the neatest and most organized cable management system in existence that is also very easily configurable (but this seems like a BIG dream).