Uses This Silicon Prairie edition

A bunch of nerdy interviews of people from the Silicon Prairie. This is what they use to get stuff done A community offshoot of The Setup

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Andrew Kirpalani (aka Kirps)

Sr. Applications Engineer, Bunchball

Who are you, and what do you do?

Developer by day, Startup Weekend Facilitator and Organizer by night, Full-time Facial Hair Enthusiast.

What hardware are you using?

I have two 15" MacBook Pros, one personal and one provided by the company I'm working for. The company provided one has a 256GB SSD and 16GB of RAM which makes is lightning fast. My personal machine is slightly slower but also has a bootcamp partition for Windows 7 for those times I get sucked back into the Windows world. I use a Thunderbolt Display, Magic Mouse and Apple Wireless Keyboard at home and just the laptops themselves when I'm out and about. I have an iPhone 4S and don't currently use a tablet.

And what software?

I run all my files through a paid Dropbox Plan and that's been the best choice I've ever made. I can pick up either my personal machine or work machine and immediately be productive. I use identical toolsets on each machine. I primarily write client-side JavaScript these days so Sublime Text 2 is my editor of choice. I use the Package Control package manager and the JSHint and SublimeCodeIntel packages. Firefox with Firebug and Firebug Autocompleter is my primary development browser. I also use the Web Developer Extension and User Agent Switcher Add-on extensively. The Charles Web Proxy is invaluable for modifying and recording web traffic.

I also use a number of sites like jsbeautifier.org, regexpal.com, quirksmode.org, pastie.org and stackoverflow.com for sundry tasks.

Finally, I use Chrome for general browsing, Evernote for note taking, Toggl for time tracking, Git (Github and BitBucket) for version control and Spotify for music.

What would be your dream setup?

This. Just kidding. I'd like a second Thunderbolt display to do the daisy-chaining and get two 27in. monitors driven of my MacBook. I like my Apple peripherals but I'd like to try out the Das Keyboard, maybe even the blank version. I don't have another mouse on my mind right now, but I'd like a Leap. I'd like the biggest SSD I could get along with my maxed out RAM. On top of that I'd like a couple of these for media storage and possibly backups. Finally, I want a ridiculous number of Sonos speakers along with everything else they've made.

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Rachel McClung

Design Lead, Goodsmiths

Who are you, and what do you do?

I’m a designer. My job is to synthesize various kinds of information into one cohesive visual form. It’s not all pretty pictures and games, though — I put logic behind every design decision.

What hardware are you using?

I have a 17" MacBook Pro from 2009. Last fall, I upgraded to a solid state drive, and it's like having a new computer (can’t recommend SSDs enough). I like to keep up on the latest Apple products, but since models change all the time, I try to make the most of what I have while the AppleCare lasts.

When working at a desk, I use a Magic Trackpad to keep my wrist neutral. To keep tabs on everything else, I use my iPhone 4. It’s my first smartphone, and the ability to look up anything almost anywhere still amazes me.

I like to use unlined paper for notes and sketching. Sharpie recently came out with a line of pens that I’ve been experimenting with, but I’m still hunting for the perfect writing utensil.

And what software?

As a designer, I’m tied to the Adobe Creative Suite for design work. Overall, CS5 is a relatively stable product and doesn’t crash much, but some of the inconsistencies between programs for shortcut keys and other tasks bother me.

Chrome is the browser I use the most, followed by Firefox. I find Safari’s approach to be more dated, as I have a habit of typing search queries into the address bar.

Other go-to programs include TextEdit and Focus Booster. TextEdit is nice and light for saving short notes or removing formatting from text. Focus Booster is a free timer app based on the Pomodoro Method. I use it as a tool to get me started on those tough to tackle projects. It’s also handy for keeping small tasks from taking longer than they need to...

What would be your dream setup?

I’d like to pay once for the internet and be able to use it everywhere — on my phone, in the car, at home. At a super high speed, of course.

For software, I'm waiting for that magical web design program that will combine the pixel-precision of Photoshop with the organizational power of InDesign. Ideally, it would have the ability to manage copy globally with styles that could export into a CSS file.

Also, looking forward to an OS (Mac OS XI maybe?) that is built around a web-based workflow. The downloads folder is a major component of my day, so I suspect that ways to organize and structure files coming from the web will be continue to grow in importance in the future.

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Jason Nissen

Co-Founder, Far Reach

Who are you, and what do you do?

I’m Jason, and I’m a partner and co-founder of Far Reach, a custom software and web consulting company in Cedar Falls, Iowa. I’m also a developer. I started Far Reach with four friends almost five years ago. We were tired of the corporate, cubicle life and wanted to start a company that focused on doing great work while offering a creative and flexible environment for our employees. We’ve stayed good friends through the process, and are really proud of what we’ve built.

I live in the “big town” of Fairbank with my amazing wife, two great kids, and an annoying pug.

What hardware are you using?

For my work, I’m running an early-2011 15” MacBook Pro (2.3 GHz Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM, SSD drive) hooked up to a 27” Apple Thunderbolt display. The Thunderbolt display is at home, and at the office I’m reduced to using a 24” Apple LED.

For listening to music, reading books, and playing games I use an iPad (when I can pry it out of my children’s hands). I just upgraded from an iPhone 3 to an iPhone 4S. I’ve only offended Siri once so far, but I’ll keep working at it.

And what software?

After that list of hardware, you’d think I’d qualify as an Apple fanboy, but I run Parallels with Windows 7 on my MacBook.

I use Visual Studio 2010 to develop applications for the Web (ASP.NET, Silverlight) and Windows (WPF). I do some occasional iPhone development and use XCode for those projects. Once in a while when I feel like being creative, I will open up Photoshop.

For my own productivity, I’m a fan of SimplyFile for Outlook and Dropbox. Snagit is a great screen capture app that I use quite a bit. I manage my dual monitor workstation with Display Fusion. I’m not hugely into social media, but I do think Flud has an amazing UI and use it to keep up with news and to share what I think is relevant.

And then there’s my music obsession – specifically alt/indie music —my wife constantly tells me I spend way too much money on music. I use Spotify, Zoom, iTunes, Shazam and the SiriusXM app, all on a daily basis.

As a consulting company and services provider, Far Reach uses Basecamp for project management and team communication. Our development team uses Telerik’s TeamPulse. We track our work time and billable hours with Harvest, and use Highrise for Customer Relationship Management.

What would be your dream setup?

I have to say, I’m pretty happy with what I’ve got. Since I don’t always need the portability of a MacBook Pro, I’ve considered making the switch to a Mac Pro, which would then tempt me to further indulge in dual 27” Thunderbolt displays. If I were to really go for it and humor my introverted ways, I’d mount it to a Stressless recliner and work far, far away from distractions on a secluded beach in Molokai. Hey, you asked for my dream setup, right?

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photo credit: Eric Rowley/Juice

Jake Kerber

CEO, Locusic

President, KerberTech

Who are you, and what do you do?

I'm Jake and I'm the founder and CEO of Locusic, a local music streaming service. Our purpose is to give free exposure to local bands, encourage attendance at live shows, and support local businesses. You open the app, pick a genre, it detects your location, and music plays from the local scene.

I'm also the president of KerberTech, a custom software development company - focused on B2B. I design and build web-based (and other) applications to solve complex problems.

I live in Ankeny with my wife and our twin baby girl and boy.

What hardware are you using?

For most tech work, I use an HP Pavilion dv7 laptop with a huge screen.

When working at a client's site, I use whatever hardware they have for me to use.

I have a Mac Pro that I got a couple years back. It was pretty high-end at the time (dual quad core Xeons if I remember right). I was going to use it for a lot of audio and video production, but that never really happened. Now I just use it as a test machine and to play movies during late night coding sessions.

For a mobile phone, I'm using my original Motorola Droid. I'll probably upgrade soon.

For mobile entertainment, I use a Zune. I also have an iPod touch, but I mainly just use that for testing.

I also use a ton of paper (sorry trees). I take a bunch of notes and do a lot of thinking and design on paper. I'll use about any non-spiral 8.5x11 notebook that's available. I think I've filled up about 6 while working on Locusic so far. I use mechanical pencils. I can't stand using pens. Lately I really like the Pentel Forte .5 mm - they're cheap so I can keep several at my desk at home and a few in my Targus laptop bag that I take with me everywhere.

And what software?

I use Google apps pretty heavily - specifically gmail.

Chrome is my browser of choice.

I use an old version of Photoshop for image editing.

I mainly develop with the Microsoft stack, so when writing code, my Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. I use SQL Server Management Studio for database work.

I use the standard MS Office suite for docs and spreadsheets. For shared documents that other members of my team are collaborating on I use Google docs.

What would be your dream setup?

My dream setup would be more about people than devices. I'd love a PA that could file all my paperwork and keep my office de-cluttered. And I'd love more smart people who are passionate about local music (and tech) to join the Locusic team.

For tech, I guess in a dream world, I'd like everything to be always on, always connected, with super fast access, and no concerns about privacy or malware.

Also, I wish the iTunes interface was more like the old Musicmatch. I don't like the UI of iTunes so I don't use it. And I know I'm missing out on all kinds of inter-connected-ness because of it. I also wish mainstream portable entertainment devices would just let you drag/drop files to them just like any other external hard drive - like I used to do with my ancient Archos Jukebox - circa 2001. Geez, I sound like a grumpy old man! "I don't like things now compared to the way they used to be!" So my dream setup would perhaps include more open standards and platforms.

I'd also like more time. Lot's more time - to do all the projects I'd like to get to "some day".

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photo credit: Joe Pyle Photography

Josh Cramer

CEO, Cramer Dev

Who are you, and what do you do?

Hi, I'm Josh Cramer and I am an Internet Entrepreneur. I lead a team of designers, software engineers, and product managers that help startups launch software based apps and ventures. My role is urging and demanding quality from the team through design, product, and architecture reviews. I am also pretty involved with scaling our team and getting the right people on the bus. I work with a lot of startups in the ideation phase and help through an Ideation Process that allows us to discover the customers and products that we build.

I love what I get to do every day and am thankful for the opportunity to work with an incredibly talented team.

What hardware are you using?

I run a Core i7 15" Macbook Pro with a high-res screen and 8 GB of memory. I also have dual Ergotron desk mount arms that support my laptop and a 23" external LCD. I also have an iPhone 4 and iPad 2. My desk is made from a custom cut and stained solid core door that sports Ikea legs.

Since the team I work with is distributed across the US, I've been on a quest to find the ultimate headset / mic combo. I've burned through many different sets and have ended up on the Bose In Ear Mobile headset and a Sennheiser PC 151 with noise canceling mic and a Headset Buddy adapter.

For video conferencing, I have managed to hook up a GoPro HD Hero 2 camera to use as a webcam through an analog to firewire adapter. Audio comes through a Audio-Technica side address cardioid condenser mic that comes in through a Blue Icicle audio adapter.

Each day, I ride one of two bikes to the office: (1) A BMC Racemaster SLX 01 road bike with an SRAM Rival full group; or (2) A Niner One 9 custom built single speed mountain bike with a 180mm crank arm and rigid front fork.

And what software?

My iPhone apps are too numerous to mention. On the mac, I dump almost everything into Evernote for safe keeping. I usually take notes at every meeting and also push thoughts and ideas into notebooks as well. Evernote remembers all of the details of things that I can't on my own.

Recently, I've been using Wunderlist for task management. The seamless syncing between desktop, web, iPhone, iPad is great.

If I code, which is rarely these days, I do it in TextMate with the Pengwynn Menlo theme. I'm a power Skype user, although our team just switched our group chat from Skype to Flow Dock.

I used to use Exchange for email, but maxed out the number of rules you could make for incoming messages. We then migrated to Google Apps and I haven't hit the max yet, although I'm sure I'm in the upper 1% for number of filter rules on an email account.

What would be your dream setup?

I like the bikes I have, but wouldn't mind a Mission Bicycle Company Custom Fixie and a cyclocross bike if space, budget, and practicality wasn't a concern.

I'm holding out for the 15" Macbook Air. I almost bought the new 13" Air, but decided it didn't have enough memory capability for my needs. I am also looking to get all of my externals hooked up through just one single Thunderbolt port.

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Tyler Bell

Founder, Made by Bell

Who are you, and what do you do?

I’m Tyler Bell, 19 years old, and I started Made by Bell. Whether I’m attending Iowa State University fulltime as a computer science student or I’m developing a new mobile app, I strive to be on the cutting edge of innovation. Being a student in this technological era and the limitless possibilities that come along with it excite and motivate me.

What hardware are you using?

Apple devices are my devices of choice. My computer is a mid 2010 15” i7 MacBook Pro with the high-resolution screen and 8GB of RAM. When I am able to actually work at my desk, a second monitor is used to extend my screen real estate.

Some of the other devices that I use are a 16GB White iPad 2 and my roommate’s old Android powered HTC Desire for testing purposes.

My phone is a 32GB white iPhone 4S.

When not working on one of my devices, my glass-topped desk serves as a handy dry-erase surface for crunching numbers and for problem solving.

And what software?

My operating system is Lion. After several switches back and forth, Safari has finally beaten out Chrome as my web browser of choice. For email, Sparrow is a beautifully designed client that makes email decently tolerable again.

I use the Adobe CS5 suite for designing the interface for my apps. Xcode (iOS) and Eclipse (Android) are used to piece them all together.

The Microsoft Office 2011 suite is used to compose a document or to create a presentation, as that is what I have grown up using. If given the chance, I wouldn’t mind trying out Apple’s own iWork suite.

For task management, I’ll use Wunderlist and Evernote as both applications sync my data seamlessly across all of my devices.

What would be your dream setup?

My dream setup wouldn’t deviate much from what I currently have on the software side of things, but my hardware could use some work in the aspect of screen real estate. My dual-monitor setup is nice, but I’ve always dreamed of having at least three monitors. Having three identical monitors excluding my MacBook’s would really make my day.

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photo credit: Anna Jones

Brian Hemesath

CEO, Catchwind

Co-Founder, VolunteerLocal

CTO, Tikly

Minority shareholder, NotifyWorks

Who are you, and what do you do?

I'm Brian Hemesath, a self-taught developer who enjoys sales and business development. Can't really say if I like any one thing more than the other. I love being busy and having more on my plate than I should. I've been called a serial entrepreneur, but I'd call myself more of an accidental entrepreneur. I see opportunities and leverage them to build cool stuff and bring people together.

What hardware are you using?

I'm overdue for new hardware. I have a 5 year old Dell XPS at home with 2x 23" monitors. My buddy was the CEO of BFG, so I got a kick-ass deal on 2 8800 GTS graphics cards, which I can run in SLI mode to play games when I procrastinate. At the office I'm on a 4 year old Dell Vostro laptop, running Windows Vista. I believe I am the only person who actually liked Vista. I have a Lenovo U400 all picked out as soon as I can convince myself I need the upgrade. I bought a Galaxy Tab 10.1 the day they came out and absolutely love it. I have a rooted Samsung Conquer on Sprint.

And what software?

I'm pretty old school about my software. I hand code in a program called EditPad Pro, which is Notepad on steriods. I use 3D-FTP for file transfers, but recently tried FileZilla. I do a lot of command line stuff for both the OS and database, so AbsoluteTelnet is an important part of my day. I don't do much with graphics, but I use a 13-year old version of Paint Shop Pro for basic slicing and editing. It works great, but I do break out Photoshop for more serious stuff. This isn't software, but Stack Overflow is my go-to for JQuery questions. I develop on the LAMP stack.

What would be your dream setup?

It is hard to call this a "dream" setup, but I suppose that Lenovo U400 with a device to support dual monitors. We're talking less than $1K, here, so I realize I'm dreaming pretty small. If I had money to burn, I'd like to have a tablet that ran on 3G/4G vs. just WiFi. I like to keep things simple.

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Jesse VanDerPol

Web Designer, SmartyPig

Who are you, and what do you do?

My name is Jesse VanDerPol and I am Web Designer for SmartyPig. I like shiny new hardware, video games, beautiful design, and having a few too many toys on my desk to be taken seriously. My number one goal is to make things pleasing to the eye while keeping them easy to use. I am currently working on SmartyPig's PhilanthroPig project, which is a payment engine & web app CMS for non-profits. I handle the web site design and front-end development.

What hardware are you using?

I am typing this at work on an 21" iMac (3GHz Core2Duo, 8GB RAM) connected to a 25" display. I also have a Quad-Core HP (3Ghz AMD X4, 6GB RAM) which I remote into for source control and testing.

I have a computer hoarding problem. Much to my wife's dismay, I own a 15" MacBook Pro (2GHz CoreDuo, 2GB RAM) from 2006 & in need of replacement, a PowerMac G5 (2.5GHz Quadcore PowerPC, 4GB RAM) from 2005, a personally built game PC (3GHz AMD X4, 8GB RAM), 13" MacBook (2.2GHz Core2Duo, 2GB RAM) and two older AMD custom boxes. I no longer turn on the PowerBook or iBook that sit on a storage shelf.

I spend most of my computing time on one of the Macs, my iPhone4 or most recently the iPad2.

For virtual sketching I use my Intuos4 Medium or if traveling a Bamboo Pen&Touch.

For physical sketching and note taking I use a Uniball Vision .07mm, which are wonderful pens with great flow for an affordable price (and spin-able!). Moleskins are what I primarily do my chicken scratching on.

And what software?

As funny as this would sound to my past self, I primarily use Adobe CS5 Illustrator for web mockups. Adobe has made real strides in making Illustrator a solid web mockup tool. I fall back to Photoshop and more recently Pixelmator for the really detailed pixel pushing. While for sketching I use Autodesk SketchBook.

When it comes to front end development I am constantly bouncing around to different editors, most recently sticking with TextMate 2's alpha release. If I had to say what I spend most of my time in, it is Coda or Espresso.

I use iA Writer for MarkDown creation, Chrome for browsing, Google for email/calendars/photos/documents, Transmit for FTP, Trillian for IM, Rdio for music and 1Password/Dropbox for keeping track of the important stuff.

My web servers are LAMP stacks on Amazon or Rackspace.

What would be your dream setup?

I am dreaming the new 15" MacBook Pro will be in the MacBook Air form. I would output the video onto two 27" Thunderbolt displays. Panic would release Coda2.

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John Henry Müller

Founder / Creative Lead, What Cheer

Who are you, and what do you do?

My name is John Henry Müller. I spend my days making fancy websites at What Cheer. I focus on user experience and visual design.

What hardware are you using?

I keep notes and doodles in composition notebooks with a Pentel Twist-Erase 0.7mm mechanical pencil. We just installed 6' x 4' porcelain whiteboard for collaboration.

I am on my third 17" MacBook Pro in a little over a year. Thanks, Apple Care! At the studio I plug it into a Thunderbolt Display, keyboard and Magic Mouse. I read on an iPad 2. I use an iPhone 4 for an alarm clock and endangering other drivers.

And what software?

Things by Cultured Code helps me organize my day. Gmail (Google Apps for Business) is my next stop to collect, read and send email.

For graphic work I use Adobe Fireworks. Fireworks is the best piece of software for designing and optimizing graphics for the screen. Photoshop works just fine for editing pictures.

For HTML/CSS development, I use Coda. I run MAMP for a local web server and Tower to help me push stuff in the right direction for Git. I like Google Chrome Inspect Element for debugging.

We use Freshbooks for time tracking and invoicing. For collaboration, we use Google Docs and Campfire with Hubot to keep the jokes coming.

Instapaper helps corral articles found via Twitter or Hacker News.

What would be your dream setup?

For making fancy websites I have a nearly ideal setup. If I follow my dreams to become a lumber jack, an ax and more flannel shirts would be useful.

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Scott Rocketship

Digital copywriter, UX consultant, and independent broadcaster. I work for myself.

Who are you, and what do you do?

I'm Scott Rocketship. I help people make things. I am a newly independent copywriter, broadcaster, and event organizer with extensive web and mobile experience. I love to talk, think, write, and consult about user experience and working creatively. My favorite recent project was producing over 30 episodes of The Flyover Effect, a weekly podcast about startups, design, and all things internet with the team at Bitmethod. I've focused my survey responses on the broadcasting side of what I do.

What hardware are you using?

The rig I used to produce The Flyover Effect was a very DIY-affair pieced together with a lot of equipment I already owned for other reasons. I ran a couple of inexpensive dynamic stick mics and my pride and joy Electro Voice RE320 broadcast microphone into a barebones four-channel Shure mixer. That mixer kicked a one-track mixdown into an M-Audio FastTrack USB audio interface, which was then fed into my 13" MacBook Air.

I had some $30 stands and $15 pop filters, and cables from Monoprice. It was not ideal but good mic technique and patient editing can take you a long way. I used a MiniDisc deck of all things to record a backup for the first dozen or so episodes, but the Air has been so rock solid I stopped bothering with it.

Moving forward with some new podcasting projects, I'm upgrading to a Mackie Onyx 1220i mixer/interface, some Rode Procaster mic kits with boom arms and shockmounts, and a threeQ mic preamp for my personal mic based on recommendations from Dan Benjamin of 5by5.tv on his Hive Logic blog. I'm switching to a 21" iMac for recording and editing as the Air doesn't have Firewire or ethernet. I'm hoping the stock iMac will work but if the drive is noisy I might have to pop in a silent SSD -- that was a nice benefit of using the Air.

I'm all iPhone all the way. I hope they keep getting better and better and I am still using one when I am old. Best device I've ever owned, it converted me from being a PC user to a Mac user.

And what software?

I've been using the free Audacity program to record podcasts locally, and Skype + Audio Hijack Pro for episodes with remote guests. Skype is nice for its ubiquity (haven't found a guest yet that didn't have an account), but it does take a little finagling to make sure it works well. I also use Audacity for editing. Given the less-than-ideal gear I've been working with, I usually run a combination of noise removal, normalization, and compression filters with custom settings to punch things up a bit. Moving forward, I'm probably going to pick up Logic Pro 9 for multi-track recording and editing.

Productivity-wise, my most used apps are TextMate, Wunderlist, Tweetdeck, Gmail (web), Google Calendar (web), Chrome, iChat, 1Password, and Day One (a journaling app). I've also recently sworn off of paper notebooks and started carrying a notecard-based Hipster PDA and a Fisher Space Pen. I've captured more notes and ideas in a week of using my Hipster PDA than three years of carting around legal pads and notebooks.

What would be your dream setup?

I miss the well-engineered rooms and gear in the Des Moines Radio Group building when I worked for Lazer 103.3. My dream setup is more about the space than the equipment -- a high counter, nice chairs, and a soundproofed room with nice acoustics would do a lot more for my productions at this point than any equipment. Making your guests and co-hosts comfortable is an important part of the process. My dream setup also includes an administrative assistant.

As long as I'm dreaming, I'd also love for all of my guests to have custom-fit, in-ear, flesh-colored earphones like the Ryan Seacrests of the world use on radio programs that are also video recorded.

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Fredrick Galoso

Co-founder, Stackd

Who are you, and what do you do?

Hi, I'm Fred, Co-founder of Stackd, a web services company. We help everyday individuals and businesses collaborate and run their web infrastructure on what the big guys are using, but without the learning curve or hassle. We also use and write a lot of open source software. I wear many hats including polyglot developer, operations engineer, salesman, statistician, and guitarist.

I also work part time at Bridgestone where I'm a developer and system administrator. I'm currently working on QA, analytics, Big data and geolocation projects.

Finally, I'm currently a University of Iowa student, double majoring in Management Information Systems and Computer Science.

What hardware are you using?

I have a Late 2008 (unibody) 15" MacBook Pro as my primary computer. I'm a feverish multitasker so a 27" Samsung external monitor is usually attached to it when I'm at home and a 19" Samsung at work. A Mighty Mouse helps with the pointing and clicking.

For more intensive computing tasks I have a white box quad core server that I fire up from time to time; particularly useful for testing, continuous integration, number crunching, and virtually modeling our infrastructure at Stackd. We use Amazon Web Services (EC2, S3, SES) for our production stack.

An iPhone 3G, soon to be 4S, helps me keep on top of email and work on the go.

Photography and video is with a Canon EOS 7D, 28-135mm USM lens, Azden SMX-10 Stereo Condenser Microphone.

Primary musical setup consists of a Fender '65 Mustang Reissue electric guitar, Ovation CC44 Acoustic-Electric guitar, Vox AC15C1 tube amp, Dr. Z Brake Lite Attenuator, TC Electronic G-Sharp preamp & effects processor, various pedals.

Uni-ball Roller pens, Quad Ruled Notebooks.

And what software?

Mac OS X Lion is my day to day OS and I use VirtualBox to run Ubuntu LTS Server, and occasionally Windows for testing or .NET development. Upgrading VirtualBox can be a little monotonous (and those annoying prompts) so I use a handy install/update script.

Adobe Creative Suite 5 is more than enough for everything design related, Adobe Lightroom for processing RAW, Final Cut Pro for video editing, Magic Bullet Looks for color grading.

Text editing is with Sublime Text 2 and Vim; I use the alloy/MacVim fork which bundles a polished native file browser for OS X with the excellent Janus Vim distro as my base configuration.

Code management is with git, GitNub to visualize commits and contributors.

Programming (language) toolkit:

Python 2.7.x with a constant eye towards 3.x; PyPy is my runtime of choice, it's insanely fast and has reached a level of maturity that I can use it for most things. In general, Python is my *nix systems programming language of choice; it allows for rapid development, wraps POSIX, and has a large stdlib + community, all without having to touch C.

RVM to install and manage Ruby versions, Bundler for dependency management, Rails for general purpose web development.

As of late I've been using Node.JS a lot and it has given me a new found appreciation for JavaScript. It's my go to for middleware development and even data analysis. All my data visualization is with JavaScript browser libraries dygraphs and D3, so number crunching with Node is a natural fit and quite fast.

Scala is the new comer of the bunch; if I need to target the JVM it's great. It has a beautiful syntax and elegantly combines many paradigms including scratching my functional programming itch. Working with Spark, a UC Berkley/Apache Incubator project is a "lightning fast [...] open source cluster computing system", is built on Scala and is my latest data analytics experiment.

For other statistical computing I use R, but lately my data sets have been far too large. It's still great for most things and RStudio helps me get the most out of R.

What would be your dream setup?

For computing, an iPad with proper multitasking, greater performance, infinite battery life, and Terminal. A full frame Canon SLR with a ton of L lenses would round out my photography needs. My dream axe, a Gibson Custom Les Paul, with all the tone, sans the 10+ lb. weight.

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Amanda Morrow

Interactive Designer, BitMethod

Who are you, and what do you do?

I'm the Interactive Designer at BitMethod. We build web and mobile apps for clients as well as ourselves.

My job is to map out and design each of our projects with an emphasis on user experience and simplicity. This usually entails capturing ideas and suggestions floating about in our conversations and making them visual using sketches, wireframes or mockups.

What hardware are you using?

At the office, I push pixels on a 27" iMac accompanied by an Apple Magic Mouse and Wireless Keyboard. At home, I just recently switched from a 15" MacBook Pro to a 13" MacBook Air running OS X Lion.

This may come as a surprise, but I do not own an iPhone. I'm the only Android user at BitMethod, but I very much enjoy my Samsung Epic 4G. As for sketching, the coffee cup on my desk is never low on black Paper Mate Flair Felt-Tip Marker Pens and dry-erase markers. So, if you’re looking to get me something for Christmas (Hint, hint . . . markers!).

And what software?

I have a love/hate relationship with Adobe CS5. It's wonderful software but sometimes I push it too hard and it fights back. I spend most of my time using Illustrator for mockups and all other design projects. I tend to only use Photoshop for editing photos but occasionally will use it to apply effects and filters not found in Illustrator. For wireframing, I use InDesign. Master pages and the ability to create interactive .pdf’s comes in handy for rough prototyping.

Typically, I have two browsers running, Chrome and Safari. My email, calendar, chat and documents are all run through Google. Everyone at BitMethod saves their files to Dropbox and we just recently started using Trello to manage all our projects. It’s a great, simple scrum board-type web app. Also, don’t forget to backup, kids! I use BackBlaze for that.

What would be your dream setup?

I’m pretty happy with my current set-up. I went a long time without nice things so I’m incredibly grateful to have all the hardware and software I need. But if I absolutely had to choose, I could always use more cupcakes and kittens on my desk.

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Albert Tong

Developer, OneLouder Apps

Owner, Altomode LLC

Who are you, and what do you do?

I am Albert Tong, Senior iOS Developer at OneLouder Apps, a subsidiary of Handmark. We make socially-powered apps.

I code and help design apps for the iPhone and iPad. Some past projects have involved weather, news, movies, and sports apps. My current project is ChannelCaster for iOS. It's an app with a community to discover, mash, and share news and entertainment.

I'm also owner of Altomode, LLC, a photography and mobile consulting business. My photography is focused primarily on weddings, candid shooting, outdoor scenery, benefit events, and food.

What hardware are you using?

My desktop machine is a 27-inch iMac (2.93 GHz, Intel Core i7, 12GB ram, 250GB SSD) with a bluetooth keyboard and Magic Mouse. I like to use this machine the primarily because of the solid-state drive which allows for extremely fast code compiling and overall performance. It's where I do most of my programming, designing, and photo management.

My other work machine is a 15-inch Macbook Pro ( 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5, 4GB ram, 320GB HD). Hope to upgrade to the latest version or a Macbook Air soon.

In both cases, I usually have a secondary 20" monitor for more workspace. I also have a 2TB Apple Time Capsule as one of my backup drives and wifi router.

My mobile hardware is an iPhone 4, iPhone 3G (for testing), iPad, and a Mophie Juice Pack Plus Case (mobile charging case)

For photography I have a Canon EOS Rebel T2i with several lenses (Great for HD videos too) and the Tamrac 5788 Evolution 8 Photo/Laptop Backpack. It holds the macbook, mobile devices and several lenses very well.

And what software?

This could be a very long list but I'll limit it to most frequently used items.

Development: Xcode IDE, Instruments, iOS Simulator, Terminal, Mogenerator, Versions (SVN Client), Tower (Github client), HTTP Client, TextWrangler

Design: Omnigraffle for Mac, MindNode, Camera to capture real life inspiration

Photography: iPhoto 2011, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3, Facebook Exporter for iPhoto, Picasa Web Albums Uploader

Productivity: Evernote Google Apps(Calendar, Docs etc.), Skitch, CloudApp, Quicksilver, Spotlight, Default Folder X

Other/Services: Chrome, Safari, Mail.app, iTunes, Adium, Skype, Twitter, TextWrangler, Dropbox, SugarSync, Spotify, Grooveshark, Google Reader

Frequently used iOS apps: Camera, Evernote, Google Apps (maps, calendar, reader, etc.), Instapaper, SportsCaster, TweetCaster, Evernote, ChannelCaster(soon to be released), Foursquare, Facebook, Google+, Yelp, Netflix, Kindle, Google Voice (use this as my public number, great for screening calls, routing calls, free texting workaround, international calls, and transcribing voicemails)

What would be your dream setup?

We're headed toward this direction but I'd like infinite storage space on the cloud with local storage access speeds that's sync'ed across all my devices. All the cloud data would have to be redundantly and securely backed up so I'd never have to worry about backing up my photos, videos, and other media or software.

Something along the lines of a15-inch Macbook *Air* that's as powerful as the top-end Macbook Pro with a 2TB SSD, 12GB of ram and 4G LTE or wifi access at all times anywhere.

I'd would like a vivid color screen technology that's eliminates any bad eye strain effects during long uses.

A compact camera or an iPhone with the capability of Canon 5D Mark II and all the possible lenses.

Slightly off topic but I'd like a fully mature mobile digital wallet solution (along the lines of what Google Wallet and Square are trying to do) where payments, drivers licenses, health, insurance and other cards can just be usable on a mobile phone)

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Andy Peters

Founder, Ninth Division

Who are you, and what do you do?

I'm Andy Peters and I am founder of Ninth Division, a mobile applications company. In the last two years we've made our mark on this earth by doing iPhone and iPad applications for great clients; you may have seen the BigOmaha iOS app. That's us. I also organize a monthly event for programmers to get together, code, socialize and have a good beer: Beer && Code. On the weekends I also double as a photographer; doing weddings, seniors, kids, and just taking shots of the beautiful world we live in.

What hardware are you using?

We are a Mac shop. Doing iOS and Mac application development requires a Mac. Any additional Mobile development (Android for instance) can be done on the Mac as well. This is good news because I prefer doing all my work on a Mac anyway. The team has been growing and others have event older hardware. That'll change soon; as hardware for us is usually updated every two years.

Mac Pro from 2008 w/ 10GB RAM and my 30" Cinema Display. I'm anxious for a new Mac Pro or Mac Mini; because this 30" Display is brilliant and the Mac Pro is getting long in the teeth

MacBook Pro 15" from 2009. With proper sticker tattoos and the ever popular slim grey/green Incase bag

Mac Mini for continuous integration

iPhone 4 (32GB), soon to be iPhone 4S (32GB). ... I'm on AT&T. I'll likely stay.

iPad 2 and iPad 1.

Nikon D300/D200 and a handful of lenses.

Whiteboards.

Index cards and notebooks for design.

Red Bull, Tea, Coke, and water.

And what software?

I have to say, I didn't realize the large amount of software I rely on daily until I wrote this up. Daily I am running a business, doing design, being a programmer and a photographer... you can image I use a lot of software.

Programming: Xcode, Instruments, filediff, Terminal, git, Sublime Text 2, vim.

Photography: Lightroom 3 for all processing, then publish to iPhoto for sharing and cataloging

Ninth Division group toolset: Github, Campfire (Propane and/or Briquette), Teambox, Freshbooks

Everything else: Mail.app, Rdio, iTunes, Soma.FM, Safari, Omnifocus, Evernote, Photoshop and Illustrator, iChat, Skype

On my iPad and iPhone: Omnifocus, Omnioutliner, Evernote, Instapaper, FaceTime, iBooks, DC Comics ... lots others I guess.

Special Notes:

Omnifocus is my personal assistant. Its fantastic. I have it sync across all my devices and it tells me everything I need to do during the day and when it needs to be done. I even have it tell me to take a break.

Soma.fm is the greatest radio stations on earth. Find them. Listen. Give them money. Keep them on air.

Apple is integrating git into Xcode more with every release, so its an easy choice if you are an apple platform developer. Generally though I use the git command line for most things. Others really like the Mac apps for git.

I use VMWare and a Windows 7 instance for the times when I need Internet Explorer.

I use Source Tree if I get in trouble with git and don't know what I did. It helps visualize it. But as I become more efficient with the command line that is less of a need for me.

Being an iOS Developer usually I juggle two separate installations of Xcode (iOS SDK): current stable version and future beta. Up to iOS 5 that has been a fun juggling match, but looks to be changing now. ... here is to hoping.

What would be your dream setup?

I want a computer with no wires, unlimited power, always connected to the internet for storage, internet speeds that are faster than any hard drive or memory chip, nothing ever goes wrong with it, it is always on, no boot up, no restarts, and the hardware looks so good you'd take it on a date. ... but i'll take a new Mac Pro, keep my 30" Display and a lighter/smaller/faster 15" MacbookPro. instead.

Being a photographer using Nikon I'd like every lens from Nikon and the soon to be released (we think) D4 camera body.

Still talking dream hardware? Then a Porsche GT3 RS, Porsche 977 (track only), another Subaru WRX STI to be used in rally racing, a daily driving BMW M3, and a Nissan GTR, a Corvette Z06 track car, I'd like some kind of kit car too for show and fun. I'd need of course a great truck and trailer to move things around. As well a great house with a large garage.

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Shane Neuerburg

CTO, Dwolla

Who are you, and what do you do?

I'm the CTO over at Dwolla. We facilitate the transfer of money between two arbitrary parties online. Our talented developers use me as an idea bouncing board and get some general direction from me. The rest of my time is spent designing and developing features for both our customers as well as our internal use.

What hardware are you using?

I work from my home office, where I have a basic DIY desktop with a couple 22" monitors sitting on a 100 year old desk. When I'm travelling, I work from my 15" MacBook Pro (running Windows 7 via Boot Camp). I usually have Sennheiser headphones on at any given moment. They are massive, but extremely comfortable and block out almost all background noise.

As far as mobile devices go, I've got a Droid Bionic that recently replaced my original Droid after the right side of the screen would not longer receive input. For iOS development, I have an iPod Touch.

And what software?

Dwolla is unique start-up in the sense that we rely heavily on Microsoft's .NET offerings. With that said, I have Visual Studio 2010 open all day long as well as SQL Server Management Studio. I use ReSharper and dotCover heavily in Visual Studio.

Chrome is my browser of choice, although I tend to have 3 or 4 different browsers open at any given time.

What would be your dream setup?

Other than having slightly larger monitors, I'm really happy with my overall electronic setup. However, I wouldn't mind replacing my ten year old, $50 office chair at some point.

While not necessary at this point for my job, I'd love to have a couple tablets to tinker on in my spare time.

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Luke Amdor

Developer, T8 Webware

Who are you, and what do you do?

I'm Luke Amdor and I code a lot.

My work is as a developer at T8 Webware. I'm mainly involved with the backend platform that powers the magic behind our newest product Grip and much more to come. We're very cross-functional developers at T8, involved with everything from architecture, to coding, to deployment and more. T8 Webware is based out of Cedar Falls, but a Des Moines office is in the works.

What hardware are you using?

My main workhorse is a System76 Gazelle Professional beast of a laptop. It's pretty loaded with a quad core i7, 16 gigs of RAM, and a hybrid SSD. It's definitely the fastest machine I've developed on, but isn't one of the most mobile laptops I've used. It's usually relegated to be docked on my desk. The battery life and weight aren't as good as I'd like. I use a single 24" HP monitor as I'm not a big fan of the multi-monitor setups. I get distracted easily so I feel having only one thing in front of me allows me to focus on just that. Also in use is an external Apple keyboard with an old school Logitech mouse. I love the feel and action of Apple's chiclet keyboards.

All of this sits on top of a poor man's standing desk. I've basically put an IKEA coffee table on my regular desk to get everything to a height of 4 feet, which is perfect for me. The standing experiment started back in May of this year and I have been loving it. I no longer feel like I have any energy lows. Very recommended. I'm currently thinking of ways to add a treadmill to the mix, but have to figure out the logistics first.

For my mobile coding needs on the couch or the patio, I use a trusty 2009ish Macbook Pro. It has served me quite well over the years.

I use an iPhone 4 on the go and an iPad 2 to read news, RSS feeds, books, comics and pretty much consume all types of media.

And what software?

I've been a Mac user for about the last 7 or so years up until earlier this year when I finally switched over to Ubuntu. I have been becoming more disenfranchised with OS X's developer package support and general bloat (Yes, I know about homebrew. I've actually contributed some formula to it. It's just not quite comparable to other package managers. Don't even get me started on macports.) I've flirted with Linux distros in the past. I was even a hardcore gentoo user at one time. So in a quest for greater minimalism and power, I've fallen into Ubuntu. I use it both on my system76 laptop and Macbook.

Emacs is pretty much my one and only workbench. I'd estimate I spend about 80% of my coding time in it. I believe it's the programmer's text editor as almost everything is written in and extendable using Emacs Lisp. There's so much that one can do in Emacs. The tar pit of Emacs configuration that I use is up at Github.

The other time is split between Chrome, the terminal using zsh, and Spotify. I use xmonad for window management. My Swiss army knife for scripting is Ruby.

Being the GTD nerd that I am, I need a reliable system of trust for keeping things out of my mind. I've used OmniFocus on the Mac in the past, but moved over to using the awesome org-mode in Emacs and Evernote for keeping track of things. That's worked pretty well so far. However, lately, I've been feeling that as my number of inboxes grows and my dependence on mobile devices grows, my current system isn't growing with me. So being the hacker I am, I've been slowly developing my own opinionated system at my own pace. Sorta like a ifttt for task collection into a single inbox. We'll see how that goes. Hopefully I'll be able to open it up more later.

At T8 we use a ton of open source: Scala, Akka, Unfiltered, Lift, Hadoop, HBase, Solr, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, and more. Chef and Vagrant make our deployments sane. For team/project communication we're currently using Campfire, Trello, Github, Skype, and the usual Google apps. We're hoping to get a engineering blog set up sometime in the near future so we can tell more of our technical story. There's some really cool stuff that we have going on.

Other stuff I'm currently hacking with are Haskell, Clojure, and the very promising ClojureScript. I also have a neglected hobby with music generation and music as code. So playing around with extempore and overtone are interesting right now.

The essential backup apps I use are Dropbox and Crashplan.

What would be your dream setup?

Tools and machines that grow with you and don't limit you.

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Jeremy Harrington

User Experience Lead, Voce Communications

Who are you, and what do you do?

I'm Jeremy and I'm the user experience & creative lead for Voce Communications, a Porter Novelli Company. We design and develop a robust platform for enterprise and high-end media companies to share and connect with the world. I have a fantastic job overseeing product experience and creative direction for our clients, all the while relying on our insanely talented development and operations teams. My work day is mix of user experience design, research, product planning and managing visual design communication with clients.

What hardware are you using?

For brainstorming and sketching I use UXSketchbooks, Whitelines Squared notebooks, Pentel pencils and Copic cool grey markers. Occasionally and when I travel I will use my iPad for quick sketches using Penultimate and a stash of Boxwave styli I keep handy since the kids love to draw on the iPad as well.

If I'm not sketching I'm working on my MacBook Pro, 15" with 8GB of RAM, all pushing to an external 23" Apple Cinema display. I've never had much luck managing multiple machines, so this is really all I use. I'm a big fan of my Logitech MX mouse, worth it to grab a few extra USB dongles since it's not bluetooth.

I also have an iPhone 4 and an original iPad in my bag as well. I usually carry a Belkin mini surge protector as well, these are great for over-taxed airport power outlets and power-stingy hotel rooms.

And the most important hardware of all, my chair. You can count me among the throngs of fans of the Herman Miller Aeron chair. Mine was a gift from my wife a few years ago, it's worth every cent.

And what software?

Mac Lion is now my OS, mostly by accident and the high cost of rolling back. It's grown on me, but there are a few bugs I hope get worked out sooner rather than later. Much of my day is split between Adobe Creative Suite, either Photoshop or Illustrator, and OmniGraffle. When I'm prototyping I'll write front-end code in TextMate or work directly within Terminal. I'm a big fan of web apps on both mobile and desktop, so I use Fluid to 'wrap' apps like Basecamp and Google Calendar for quick access. Currently I'm struggling to find a solid, Lion-friendly solution for font management, FontCase is the best I've found so far.

What would be your dream setup?

This is a tough question, in so many ways I have what I need. My only 'dream' would be smaller, faster computers powering larger, higher-definition displays. Since I'm a remote guy I long for the interaction of being co-located with other creative/tech folks. I'm a fan of great workspaces so I'd love to be working from a really inspiring space with lots of light and filled to the brim with great minds.