Elizabeth LawleyInterview
Professor, School of Interactive Games and Media (RIT)
Adapted from Elizabeth Lawley's interview on Uses This, published 12 June 2014. 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 Mac user since I got my first computer -- a 128K original Mac when I graduated from college in 1984.
These days I'm carrying a 13" Retina MacBook Pro, with a 2.8ghz i7, 16GB RAM, and 1TB flash drive; by maxing out the specs, I can keep my laptops for about three years without running into problems with the software I need to use.
I've got a 64GB iPad 2 with 3G that I use primarily for watching TV and movies at the gym, or as my portable stereo system at home.
I also use it occasionally as a laptop replacement when traveling so I have a wonderful Logitech keyboard case to enable production as well as consumption.
In my office, I have an Alienware M17x that claims to be a laptop, but at almost 10 pounds I'm happier having it simulate a desktop.
Adjustable Vented Laptop Table
I keep it on an inexpensive adjustable stand, to create a standing desk environment in my office.
This fall, I bought an HP Chromebook 14 with 4G, and I'm much more impressed with it than I expected to be.
I pulled the plug on cable TV three years ago, and use a Roku 2 HD for my occasional television binges.
I have a Jabra Tour Bluetooth speakerphone in my car that I use for reading and responding to texts when I'm driving.
Communication
Productivity
On my Mac, I primarily use Microsoft Office for productivity software; I find Apple's suite to be underpowered and poorly designed for serious writers (or number crunchers).
Notes
I'm heavily dependent on Evernote, for everything from photos of whiteboards to lists of frequent flyer numbers to page grabs of grant solicitations.
Security
When my kids and I were living in Dubrovnik (Croatia) last year, we relied heavily on Unblock-Us to mask our IP addresses so that we could still watch the services that we were paying for.
Coding & Development
My go-to text editor for everything from note-taking to code-writing is BBEdit, and has been for a very long time.
I've tried switching over to Sublime Text, but familiarity keeps drawing me back to BBEdit.
Media
For music I've become dependent on Spotify, because I'm sick of having to copy libraries of music across devices.
For video, I pay for Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu Plus.
I use the camera on my phone and Instagram every day to post a gratitude photo (#365grateful), and I save those photos in Flickr, as well -- I've been using Flickr since before it was actually released, so it's the obvious place for me to archive images.
Storage
My other can't-live-without-it cloud/desktop software is Dropbox.
Other
I'm increasingly impressed with Siri's skill at taking dictation (or maybe I'm just getting better at talking to her).
I was a hardcore WoW player for a long time, but that install sits neglected on my computers these days, as my guild (of other game studies professors) has long since scattered out to other games and pursuits.
On my phone, besides the standard email/social apps, I absolutely love TripIt -- it's a lifesaver for easily collecting, accessing, and sharing trip information.