The people who use our boards.

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

I’m Charles Heaman. I’m a self-employed software engineer. I predominantly operate alone, designing bespoke in-house operations software to help improve businesses' productivity.

My girlfriend, Melissa, is an impressively strong indoor climber. She is an absolute joy to watch climb. We spend the majority of our time outside work at our local climbing centre.

If we are not working or climbing, we are likely walking our dog, Augustus.

A friend recently introduced me to the ancient board game Go. It is proving to be quite the time sink.

What hardware do you use?

I’ve been lucky enough to have been gifted my three monitors. This resulted in there being three different brands and sizes.

My PC is fairly modest and was built from various parts I have acquired over recent years.

I use an Anker vertical ergonomic mouse.

I use a standing desk, beneath which Augustus can often be found sleeping.

And what software?

I spend the vast majority of my time writing code in Visual Studio Code. With the easily customisable keyboard shortcuts, I’ve been able to make efficient use of the Moonlander’s thumb clusters.

I use MySQL Workbench as a database administration GUI. I don’t think there is anything interesting to say about MySQL Workbench. It works.

I currently don’t make use of any AI agents at work. I’ve tried, but I’ve been unable to realise the benefits.

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

I’m currently running the Cherry MX Browns. Though I am keen to experiment with some different switches for the thumb clusters. I love the look and feel of the blank keycaps. I see no reason to swap these out.

I’m working towards minimising mouse usage, so I’m forever tweaking my keyboard layout to reduce travel for more awkward shortcuts.

What would be your dream setup?

I’d like to start by having three monitors that actually match. It’s definitely the next thing that I’m looking to upgrade. My current monitor layout is certainly far from optimal. I could definitely benefit from some monitor support arms.

My current PC is more than performant enough for my work. So I have no complaints there. I plan to just slowly upgrade components as they fail.

I should probably invest in a more supportive chair, and Jimmy McGill makes a cocobolo desk sound pretty cool.