Josh MyerInterview
Analytics hacker (BitTorrent, Applied Platonics)
Adapted from Josh Myer's interview on Uses This, published 6 June 2011. 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
The monitor lives on an Ergotron LCD Arm, making collaborative analysis of graphs easier.
Adafruit's USBTinyISP is a great little programmer (so nice, in fact, that I'm designing an ATTiny devboard around it).
I use a Weller WES51 for hand-soldering, and a scavenged toaster oven for garlic-scented reflow.
When doing embedded development work, I hit "Upload" in the Arduino IDE.
Productivity
For all the unsexy business stuff, I use OpenOffice's spreadsheet program, Calc.
The recent Oracle debacle may make me switch back to Gnumeric.
Browser
I do a lot of note-taking by hand here, too, with a Lamy Safari EF (the non-pretentious fountain pen: it's meant for students, so it's "cheap and cheerful").
Coding & Development
Though, because I spend a lot of time on remote machines, I also use a lot of vim.
Design
For designing electronics, I use EAGLECad, for both schematic capture and board layout.
For autorouting, I like FreeRouting, which does a good job once you get your net classes right.
Media
Focus enabler one: I always have Rdio open, the native app on OS X and the web version on Linux.
Storage
By day, I analyze data at BitTorrent; by evening, I'm dad to @CalvinChaos; by night, I design electronic kits as Applied Platonics; by morning, I'm sleep deprived and grumpy.
Other
Focus enabler two: Pinboard.in and a pinboard.in Chrome extension.
On OS X, I absolutely adore Aquamacs, on Linux I use GNU Emacs.
To relax, I let myself play Simon Tatham's Puzzle Collection.