Antony JohnstonInterview
Writer (Wasteland, Dead Space)
Adapted from Antony Johnston's interview on Uses This, published 13 April 2012. The kit is drawn from their answers and each reason is an excerpt, lightly edited. Shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the full interview ↗
Is this you? Claim this kit →Hardware
I've been a Machead since 1988, when my high school got a Mac Plus, and I fell in love.
I have a Logitech Laser mouse, also wired.
I use a 1TB Western Digital Elements drive for Time Machine backup, and a Trust 10-port powered USB hub to connect everything to everything else.
When travelling for work I take a 13" MacBook Air (late 2010).
Wireless Presenter with Laser Pointer
For talks and lectures, I use a Kensington remote + laser pointer -- one of the models where the USB receiver tucks away inside the remote itself when not in use.
My chair, by contrast, is a lovely Humanscale Liberty.
An iPad 2, which I use everywhere I don't need to actually write; on the couch, on vacation, at conventions.
I also have an iPhone 4, for similar usage (sometimes even phone calls).
I also make music, but that's an incredibly cheap, bare bones setup; a Gibson Epiphone Special guitar, Boss HM-2 and Washburn Bad Dog distortion pedals, and budget Sennheiser headphones.
Communication
Productivity
I love Things for its simplicity; I'm a long-time devotee of Merlin and 43Folders, but OmniFocus is simply way too much for me.
Browser
Notes
Security
Coding & Development
My main writing tool is Scrivener.
For design I use Adobe CS3 -- much like Word, I hate it, and wish I could get rid of it entirely, which is why I'm still stubbornly on CS3 -- and then for the web I do everything in Coda, from the lovely geniuses at Panic.
Media
I mentioned music, and that's all GarageBand.
Storage
All my work goes in Dropbox, in addition to the external backup and the copy actually on my iMac.
Other
I'm best known for the epic post-apocalyptic comic series Wasteland, and the Dead Space videogame and comics.