The people who use our boards.

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

Al salam alaykum. I’m Nizar Kabbani. At my core, I’m striving to be a better Muslim by living a just, good, humble, and generous life. I’m working on increasing my patience, discipline, commitment, compassion, and (Allah willing) my wisdom. May Allah guide us all.

I was born in Saudi Arabia and raised between Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. I earned my degree in civil and environmental Engineering in Boston, where I spent three years as a structural engineer designing, drafting, inspecting, and rating bridges and other horizontal infrastructure. After COVID, I moved back to Saudi Arabia to help restructure the family business, a fourth-generation confectionery manufacturer with a chain of pastry shops across Riyadh. The business had been run informally and lacked structure and reliable data across departments. Over three years, I worked across functions to improve processes, introduce SOPs, and implement a new ERP and management system. During that time, I also worked with my father and partners to open a few restaurants, where I set up technology solutions for daily operations, including POS and CRM systems.

I now work full-time as a project delivery coordinator at a large contracting firm in KSA, while remaining involved with the family businesses on a part-time, as-needed basis.

Outside of work, fitness and nutrition are a big part of my life. I enjoy tinkering with my diet and workout routines and occasionally helping friends and family with theirs.

I love spending time in nature, and when the weather allows, I go hiking or head somewhere remote for target practice, often with a friend or two. I’m also an avid traveler, especially when it involves exploring new cities and natural landscapes with my camera (Fujifilm X-T5) and diving into local food scenes.

I’m also a gamer. I primarily play League of Legends or Elden Ring Nightreign with friends, alongside all kinds of RPGs: Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Persona, Hades, Diablo, and Path of Exile. I’ve loved anime since I was a kid. Other hobbies include cooking, snowboarding and skiing, boxing, marksmanship, and, most recently, audiophile gear.

What hardware do you use?

I have two setups: a home desk setup and an on-the-go work setup.

The home desk has a PC running an i7-8700K and an RX 9070 XT GPU, with an MSI MPG 321URX QD-OLED 32″ monitor. It’s hooked up to a ZSA Moonlander with Cherry MX Silent Red switches, the Platform tenting system, and a Zip Kit to match the Voyager’s key layout (except for the thumb keys). I point with a Keychron M5 ergonomic mouse and a Wallhack SP-004 glass trackpad.

I’m a novice audiophile but I’m already really into it. Currently audio setup consists of a Schiit Mimir DAC and Apos Gremlin amp paired with the Audio-Technica ATH-R70x and Bose Companion 20 desktop speakers. It was a revelation. I didn’t realize how high the ceiling was and how much I was leaving on the table with my AirPods. I also have a desk mic and webcam.

My on-the-go/work computer is an Asus ProArt Studiobook, which I run with my ZSA Voyager and Navigator. I also installed the Shhhocs and noticed a clear improvement in feel and sound. I use the Sennheiser IE600s paired with the Cayin RU7 portable DAC/amp. The IE600s are also my preferred travel pair. ZSA Trypod Mounts and a pair of Manfrotto Pocket MP3-BK tripods keep things set up where I need them.

I’ve also picked up a pair of Moondrop Dusks, which I use at the gym and on the go since they come with a USB-C connector and mic.

And what software?

I use most of Microsoft Office: Excel, Word, Outlook, SharePoint, Project, etc. In Google Workspace, I use Sheets and Docs. Notion is my go-to for note-taking. Chrome is my browser, and Shortwave is my email client. My password manager is 1Password.

For specialized work, I use AutoCAD and Revel. Odoo, Primavera P6, and QuickBooks handle various business needs.

For images, I use Lightroom / Lightroom Classic and Photoshop. Classic Negative and Reala Ace are my most frequently used film simulations outside of custom recipes. I use Classic Negative mainly for street photography, and I like Reala Ace’s colors for nature photography. I shoot mainly in RAW, but my editing workflow is quite basic. I have Lightroom set to mirror camera settings, and I only go beyond exposure fixes to salvage noisy shots, fix out-of-focus subjects, or do the occasional pimple removal or dental whitening upon request.

I use Claude/Cowork for work and complex tasks, Gemini for day-to-day use. Plus all the games mentioned above.

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

I initially got the Moonlander after seeing it on YouTube. It looked cool, and I liked the idea of putting my coffee between the two halves. Since then, I’ve grown to love it for much deeper reasons.

Beyond the ergonomics, the split layout helped fix some bad typing habits I’d developed as a self-taught typist. I used to hit certain keys with the wrong fingers and relied far too heavily on my right hand. The split forced me to break those habits, which significantly increased my typing speed, and that improvement carried over to standard keyboards too.

I stuck with the default layout for a while before getting the itch to experiment. I was initially hesitant, worried I’d become less effective on standard keyboards, but I started with small adjustments and found myself enjoying the process. After a few months, I realized it hadn’t affected my ability to use normal gear at all.

The real breakthrough was discovering home row modifiers and layer toggles. I used to be a point-and-click person who only used shortcuts in software I knew very well. Now I reach for my mouse far less, and interestingly, I also got better with shortcuts on standard keyboards. It genuinely unlocked a whole new way of working for me.

At that point, I started to feel a little handicapped whenever I was at the office or away from my desk, so I got a Voyager and loved it. I’d even say I prefer it. I ended up getting the Zip Kit for the Moonlander to match the Voyager’s key layout, though I kept the extra thumb buttons for additional gaming layers. More recently, I’ve started setting up the Gallium layout to learn it.

What would be your dream setup?

My dream setup would be to merge both setups into a single dock at home, with an external GPU and a top-of-the-line ultralight laptop. I’m waiting on the hardware ecosystem to catch up, because I can’t accept losing GPU performance to bandwidth bottlenecks. I’m already itching to pull the trigger on the next addition to my audiophile collection: I have my eye on the Prisma Lumens. On the typing side, going fully wireless would be the final piece of the puzzle.