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

I’m Notch Rhino. Professionally, I am a software consultant for a large consultant firm and have worked with more tech stacks than I can remember. I’ve worked on projects from government work to companies with only a handful of employees and projects that used CSS to SQL and every step in between.

Outside of work, I have more hobbies that any reasonable person should have. I’m an audiophile with a good hi-fi setup, a photographer, a mechanic, a Twitch streamer, a convention-goer who travels to conventions several times a year to see friends, and I am most proud of the hardware electronic work that I do. I’ve 3D-printed and soldered up macro pads and keyboards and kept everything running.

What hardware do you use?

My main personal computer is an AMD build with a 3700X, 32 gigs of RAM, and a 3070 TI I was able to get about a year ago. I needed an upgrade for streaming, as my 1070 TI wasn’t really able to keep up with streaming full HD and trying to play AAA titles. I also use a VTuber avatar, which adds some stress to the system as well. I think I have every USB port on my computer populated right now. I even made sure my motherboard had more USB ports than normal, and it is barely enough.

I stream any and everything so I hooked up an NES, a PlayStation 2, and a Wii to a RadioShack A/V switcher and hooked those up to an HDMI switcher that also has a PlayStation 3 hooked up so I can stream games from any of those consoles. I have a Leap motion controller to keep track of my hands and a RØDE NT1-A microphone and a pair of Sennheiser HD 6XX Pro headphones. For monitors, I have an ASUS VG34VQL1B monitor, a Dell S3220DGF monitor, and some other monitors that I’ve had for so long I don’t even know where they came from.

For input I have my ErgoDox Planck EZ Glow, a Stream Deck, a Thrustmaster T248 steering wheel, and a Corsair M65 mouse, as well as various controllers to use with my consoles. I also have various keyboards around that I’ve acquired or 3D printed and handbuilt. I’ve ventured into soldering up some Gherkin keyboards and used a Raspberry Pi Pico for a macropad.

And what software?

Chrome and Steam are the daily heavy hitters, but I feel like that’s most people for their personal PC—at least, I hope I’m not alone on that one. OBS is instrumental to me being able to stream. Additional applications I use for stream are VTuber Plus and VSeeFace, which does the face tracking for my avatar. Discord is also very important for my day-to-day. It allows me to have an easy way to do voice chat, but lets me keep up with my community.

Lightroom and Photoshop are really useful when I go out for a photography session. DaVinci Resolve has been my go-to for video editing; I like to use public domain movie clips during stream for fun when I can. I use Audacity to record vinyl records on my PC and set up sound clips for stream. I have the Elgato Stream Deck app to help me maintain my Stream Deck selections.

I programmed my own Twitch chat bot and host that run on a Pi 3 with an LED matrix, and VS Code has been crucial for the development of that, as well as Notepad++ for daily tasks. I have used Thonny and Arduino to develop software for microcontrollers. For work, I use VS Code and Visual Studio 2022, as well as SQL Server Management Studio.

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

I first saw the Planck ortholinear setup a couple of years ago and decided I wanted one for myself, but at the time didn’t know if I would like it long term or not. So I built my own Planck keyboard and did some research into what the current layout was and made a few minor alterations. I moved couple of keys, added a layer, had to manually program my own custom pin settings in the firmware and then make my own layout.

Once that was done I had printed blank key caps so on my at-the-time daily keyboard I made those all blank, except the home row, which read “GOOD LUCK.” I carried the key layout over to the Planck EZ Glow when I finally got one and had to keep the GOOD LUCK home row.

None of the changes are a major overhauul, but the small adjustments just made sense at the time and still work well for me.

Long-term plans: I will probably do some resin 3D prints for custom keycaps. Having different profile keys on the same row is a bit weird at times. I also need to configure a few more keys; the layout shifts as my needs shift.

What would be your dream setup?

My dream setup would be to have everything I need to make custom cables for everything so I can finally do some proper cable management and clean my desk up. I’d love a bigger garage to work on my cars and motorcycles, though. My projects need some attention, and it’s tough living in the city with limited space.