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

My name is Amanjeev—Aman or AJ for short—and I am a software engineer, Rust programming language trainer, and a humble yak shaver by profession. I have been involved in computer programming since the early 2000s, and I have been a research programmer supporting the genomics areas for most of my career. Apart from that, I have done some freelance consulting and been involved in certain open source communities.

Outside of work, I like to do photography and poetry, listen to music, take long walks, and read.

What hardware do you use?

Computers

My work computer is a Lenovo T14s with AMD Ryzen and 32 gigs of memory. It has been okay. I also have a dev server next to me that is also AMD Ryzen, but with 64 gigs of memory, so that one is slightly better. I run a long compilation on that box when I need to.

For photography, I use a MacBook Pro (Apple silicon), which is blazing fast for photo editing of large RAW files. Also, I have bought into the Apple ecosystem so, well, it is hard to break away.

For reading, I own an iPad Air, which I also use for photo editing sometimes.

For embedded stuff I have started to play with a bunch of boards. I own STM boards, Espressif boards, and Nordic Semiconductor boards. I have just ordered a bunch of hardware to experiment with more embedded stuff, and I am very excited!

Cameras

I used to be a DSLR person a few years ago, with a Nikon D7000. Not being full frame was important to reduce the weight of the camera, but around 2019 I decided to go mirrorless. It helped reduce the footprint even further, and I do not miss DSLR anymore. I work with Fujifilm X-T3, and I can recommend this beautiful camera wholeheartedly. The dials and physical buttons for nearly everything I need to adjust while in the middle of a shot is something I cannot lose anymore. Compare that to the Nikon, where I had to fiddle with the menu more than often. Yes, good physical input ports on any device win!

Headphones and portable amp

I recently made the jump to high-impedance, amp-requiring headphones, and I settled on Drop+Sennheiser HD 6XX. They are not super expensive but are very comfortable, have an open back, and have the best quality I have ever seen on any pair I own. I also own Bowers and Wilkins P7s, but they are no match for the HD6XX, in my limited experience. I do use a portable amp called DragonFly Red.

I also use Apple AirPods and for workouts, a Shokz pair that are bone-conduction headphones and are comfortable for extended wear than anything else. Shout out to a good friend who gifted me theirs! They work surprisingly well, but do not expect good quality for music. I use them to listen to podcasts while working out, in case you want to understand my use case.

NAS

I use Synology 4bay as my network storage. It’s been headache-free for a few years now, so I cannot complain.

Pens and notebooks

I use fountain pens. Currently, my go-to pens are Kaweco AL Sport and Pilot Vanishing Point. I also love the Rotring 800 0.5mm pencil. Needless to say, I also invest in good quality paper for these fountain pens. I am a big fan of Japanese paper companies like Midori. My favorite diaries/notebooks are from Taroko Design in Taiwan.

And what software?

Code and writing

I cannot live without JetBrains’ IDEs. I use CLion heavily, although these days I am also using VS Code. For one-off editing, especially on remote machines, I use Emacs with Tramp mode. I primarily use Linux as my operating system and switch between NixOS and Ubuntu. Of course, I also use MacOS regularly. I use the Iosevka typeface across the board, and I love it a lot. I tend to stick to a font for a few years before I switch, if I switch at all.

These days, I deploy the topgrade tool to most UNIX-like operating systems to upgrade them (other Linux machines that are not NixOS). Not sure how I survived without such a tool for years.

Photography

I use the Adobe suite of products, mostly Lightroom, to manage my photography catalog. This is another one of those ecosystems that I cannot easily leave due to years of usage. However, it has worked well so far.

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

My keyboard setup is “custom,” but it depends on the definition of the word. I do not use custom keys, but I have moved the top row a bit inwards and I do have macros for copy, paste, open tab, close tab. The double tap on any of these works for the terminals, too! I have a dedicated layer for MacOS for when I switch to that.

What would be your dream setup?

Unfortunately, I would like a cleaner desk, so my dream setup has to do with more space or affordable storage. LOL!

I need to add a telescope and a microscope to my list of setups so that I can do some photography of the largest and the smallest. This plan is in the works, though!