rcmnd

John MacFarlane

Philosophy professor at UC Berkeley and creator of the pandoc document converter and the gitit wiki.

11 things

muttSoftware

loved

For email, I use mutt. It's slightly inconvenient for attachments and multimedia content, but for text-based emails it is incredibly fast and efficient.

The Setup (usesthis.com) interview: the writing and programming setup behind pandoc.

2012-05-25·usesthis.com ↗

Evil-modeSoftware

liked

I use Emacs for just a few things – browsing compressed archives, for example, and maintaining a todo list with org-mode. Evil-mode makes Emacs bearable.

The Setup (usesthis.com) interview: the writing and programming setup behind pandoc.

2012-05-25·usesthis.com ↗

ArqSoftware

liked

At home on the Mac, I use a nice program called Arq, which also backs up to S3. It is not open-source, but all of the data is stored on your own S3 buckets, and there is an open-source program for retrieving it, so you aren't locked in.

The Setup (usesthis.com) interview: the writing and programming setup behind pandoc.

2012-05-25·usesthis.com ↗

MendeleyService

liked

Before finding Mendeley, I used a home-made program to do the same thing, but Mendeley is better and worth the slightly higher cost.

The Setup (usesthis.com) interview: the writing and programming setup behind pandoc.

2012-05-25·usesthis.com ↗

VimSoftware

uses

I do all of my writing and programming with Vim in a terminal.

The Setup (usesthis.com) interview: the writing and programming setup behind pandoc.

2012-05-25·usesthis.com ↗

3M LX550 Vertical Notebook RiserHardware

uses

For ergonomics I have the laptop opened almost 180 degrees and propped up on a 3M LX550 Vertical Notebook Riser, so I'm looking directly at its beautiful 1600x1200 15" matte screen.

The Setup (usesthis.com) interview: the writing and programming setup behind pandoc.

2012-05-25·usesthis.com ↗

pandocSoftware

usestheir own

I use pandoc's extended markdown for lecture notes, letters, slide presentations, handouts, and short articles.

The Setup (usesthis.com) interview: the writing and programming setup behind pandoc.

2012-05-25·usesthis.com ↗

Ikea Utby bar tableOther

uses

I have a standing desk, an Ikea Utby bar table.

The Setup (usesthis.com) interview: the writing and programming setup behind pandoc.

2012-05-25·usesthis.com ↗

LinodeService

uses

I also have a Linode VPS that I use for my website and a few web applications.

The Setup (usesthis.com) interview: the writing and programming setup behind pandoc.

2012-05-25·usesthis.com ↗

XmonadSoftware

uses

I use Debian Squeeze with xmonad at work and OS X Lion at home.

The Setup (usesthis.com) interview: the writing and programming setup behind pandoc.

2012-05-25·usesthis.com ↗

Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.

The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.

A dashed affiliate link, sponsored or their own label means the post disclosed a relationship. It is shown, never hidden.

The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.

The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.

What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:

Stripes mean the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no shading.