The people who use our boards.

325 interviews since 2018

Chao Peng

Software Developer

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

I am Chao, a software developer at Google in Waterloo, Ontario. I mostly work on open source. I used to work on Chromium—if you remember a version of Chrome that supported Windows Precision Touchpad gestures, I did that.

We love pets. We have two pets, ChiChi (dog) and Snow White (bunny).

What hardware do you use?

I use a 2018 15-inch MacBook for work, but most my development work is on Linux in the cloud.

Chao Peng's setup
A place for everything and everything in its place

My 2020 home office setup for COVID:

I have a custom keycap set I designed myself for ErgoDox EZ, ChaosEZ: Dye PBT XDA keycap set for ErgoDox EZ.

Chao Peng's keycap set
Sometimes you have to design it yourself to get what you want

I designed the keycap set based on my layout and made it compatible with some popular layouts on the ErgoDox EZ website. I am collecting feedback now and may start a group buy later.

Chao Peng's keyboard
QWERTY with a twist

The design:

  • Keys are light in color for less distraction
  • All keys have a plain color option to make them easily compatible with different layouts
  • Some keys have colorful options for good looks
  • Some unprinted keys for compatibility with keys I did not cover

Chao Peng's keycaps installed, plus extras
He designed extra keycaps in case someone else needed them

And what software?

I am mostly developing on Go now. My daily development software is IntelliJ Idea. Other than that I use G Suite for work and personal.

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

My layout is a little weird. I place only left brackets on layer 0, as my IDE can complete the right brackets in most cases.

Chao Peng's keyboard layout
A layout that works the way he does

What would be your dream setup?

I actually want to use a lightweight setup and do the heavy computing in the cloud, eg. phone or Chromebook as terminal device. Currently, a Chromebook may be more like what I want, but it is still not easy for switching between work and personal accounts.

Chao Peng's pets
Who could *not* love these pets? Thank you, ChiChi and Snow White!

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