Hardware and software tools I use and recommend.

Workstations

• Intel NUC Desktop

  My favourite workstation is my Intel NUC Desktop with dual screens. I live in Tamboerskloof in Cape Town and I have a lovely home setup created to inspire maximum productivity. The NUC is dead quiet and perfectly stable as it runs Linux Mint.

• HP EliteBook Laptop

  When I`m out and about I use an HP EliteBook Laptop. My preferred operating system is any Linux desktop version the laptop does not have to very powerful to do the job.

• Spare NUC

  NUCs are great little machines. I have a spare one that I use when my primary machines aren`t active or available. Since most of my software lives in the cloud I can do a quick `git pull` and get back to work.

• Dell Keyboard & Mouse

  I probably don`t need a wireless keyboard and mouse but to tidy up my workspace I use a wireless keyboard and mouse from Dell.

Development Tools

• PhpStorm

  PhpStorm is my preferred IDE for debugging PHP applications. Its ability to refactor PHP is amazing but its quite resource intensive.

• Visual Studio Code

  Visual Studio Code has an extremely low overhead so I love the speed. It`s also free so easy to understand if I`m having to help someone else with their workflow.

• TablePlus

  Great software for working with databases. Also seems to be a tool preferred by the Laravel Community.

Other Stack

• Livewire

  Laravel Livewire allows me maximum productivity when building certain types of back office / fronted applications. Livewire is now a first class citizen of the Laravel ecosystem.

Home Automation

• Amazon Alexa

  Amazon Alexa is not localised for South Africa yet I still use an Echo Dot extensively. I use it to control my lights, play music, and even turn on the TV. The mic pickup is incredible!

• Google Home

  I also use a Google Home speaker, a greylisted import. The Google Home speaker knows about the same home devices as Alexa, and I mostly use it when doing home gym.