The people who use our boards.

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

My name is Jonathan Plaza, and I'm a systems engineer who manages the IT infrastructure for the company I work at. The infrastructure is comprised of VMware vSphere, Active Directory, Exchange, Azure, Microsoft 365 and other technologies. My day-to-day work is very standard, but it's when things break that the fun and stress begin! A service that everyone in the company relies on suddenly stops working. People start complaining and all eyes are on you to get it working again, but first you need to figure out what happened in the first place in order to fix it. Fun times.

Outside of work I mainly do a few things. I have a family, so I try to spend time with them like watching family movies, playing with my seven-year-old daughter and making up family games. I also like to play badminton, which is not a common sport in the USA. I've been playing for ten years, so I'm decent at it.

What hardware do you use?

I use an Intel NUC from 2019. It is getting long in the tooth, but it's still dependable for day-to-day activities. I also use a slightly modified Kensington Expert mouse. I added some foam pads to the buttons to make them easier to reach. Of course, I use the ErgoDox EZ keyboard. This has caused me many long nights because I keep finding ways to improve my layout. My monitor is a 27-inch Dell monitor, which is nothing to brag about.

For my desk, I use a standup desk from Uplift Desk. In hindsight, I should have bought a four-legged desk because all standup desks just seem to have some wobble to them. Live and learn.

And what software?

I'm a Windows guy, so I have Windows 11 as OS. I use Google Chrome with three extensions: uBlock Lite, Vimium, and Link Control. The uBlock Lite extension has changed over time whenever YouTube found a way to block the blocker. Vimium is a good extension to help navigate the web without too much mouse usage. Last extension is Link Control. I don't know about everyone else's color vision, but with default Chrome colors I can't tell if I clicked on a link. This lets me change the color of links that have been visited.

For screenshots, I use Greenshot because it's very simple and straightforward. Avast helps protect me from bad websites. My most favorite program is X-Mouse Button Control. It allows me to use “drag scroll,” which basically allows me to move the trackball for scrolling.

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

My keyboard setup is OEM. I haven't really felt the need to change switches or keycaps. I lose enough sleep modifying my keyboard layout that I would probably never sleep if I had to think about switches or keycaps.

What would be your dream setup?

My dream setup would be a brand-new mini computer that is way beefier than what I have. If I have a game and YouTube open, the CPU gets pegged at 100% for some seconds when switching between them. So a faster CPU and more RAM would be great because it would get rid of that issue and allow me to run more than one virtual server without making my computer cry!

I also wish I didn't have to use a mouse. I'm still hoping and waiting for a wearable mouse that would work like I want. My desk would be a four-legged standup desk to eliminate any possible wobble. I would probably also like a 32- to 36-inch monitor.

For a keyboard I would like a cross between the ErgoDox EZ, Moonlander, and Voyager. I like the thickness of the ErgoDox EZ case, the 1U keycaps for most of the keys of the Moonlander, and the accessories of the Voyager, with at least five thumb keys. That's the dream.