--- layout: default title: Uses meta: site: name: 'Cory Dransfeldt' description: "I'm a software developer in Camarillo, California. I enjoy hanging out with my beautiful family and 4 rescue dogs, technology, automation, music, writing, reading and tv and movies." url: https://coryd.dev logo: src: https://coryd.dev/assets/img/logo.webp width: 2000 height: 2000 language: en-US title: 'Cory Dransfeldt • Uses' description: 'Software, tools and services that I use regularly.' url: https://coryd.dev/uses image: src: https://coryd.dev/assets/img/pages/uses.jpg ---

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Software and services that I use for work and my own enjoyment. {% image 'https://coryd.dev/assets/img/pages/uses.jpg', 'My desk', 'border border-blue-600 dark:border-blue-400 rounded-lg overflow-hidden [&>*]:w-full', 'eager' %}

Computer setup

- Midnight MacBook Air (2022 - M2) - 27" Dell Monitor - Apple Magic Keyboard with Touch ID + number pad - Apple Magic Trackpad - Homepod Mini for audio - Raspberry Pi for Homebridge

Desk and chair

- My desk is a custom made corner desk I bought on Etsy years ago. It's sturdy, has tons of storage and finally arrived with a chip on the surface to add some character after the first one got lost by the freight company on the journey from Michigan to Los Angeles. I probably _wouldn't_ repeat the experience, but I do love the desk. - [Herman Miller Aeron chair](https://www.hermanmiller.com/products/seating/office-chairs/aeron-chairs/): it's pretty comfortable and makes swiveling around my corner desk easy.

macOS + iOS

- [Mona](https://mastodon.social/@MonaApp): endlessly configurable and yet still easy to use I enjoy Mona's take on Mastodon and use it as my go-to client across all of my devices. - [NetNewsWire](https://netnewswire.com): I love the simplicity and stability of NetNewsWire as an RSS client. I use a handful of Keyboard Maestro macros on macOS to quickly mark items as read and clean up the today view and another to quickly save items out to Safari's Reading List. - [Parcel](https://parcelapp.net): it tracks deliveries and does so reliably.

iOS

- [FontCase](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fontcase-manage-your-type/id1205074470): for managing/installing fonts.

macOS

- [Dato](https://sindresorhus.com/dato): to show/reference my calendar in the menubar and quickly join upcoming meetings. - [Rectangle](https://rectangleapp.com): to quickly move around/organize/snap application windows. Using a Mac without it now feels like it's broken. - [Keyboard Maestro](https://www.keyboardmaestro.com): an endlessly flexible app that I underutilize for quick macros and keyboard shortcuts in a number of different apps. - [Bartender](https://www.macbartender.com): used to hide or conditionally show menubar items. - [AirBuddy](https://v2.airbuddy.app): finer-grained control over AirPods and other wireless devices. - [Meta](https://www.nightbirdsevolve.com/meta): the _best_ utility for tagging and organizing music files on macOS. - [Permute](https://software.charliemonroe.net/permute): a useful utility for quickly converting files to different formats. - [SoundSource](https://rogueamoeba.com/soundsource): a handy utility for better, more granular control on macOS.

Dev tools

- [Nova](https://nova.app): Panic's code editor has come a long way. It's stable, fully-featured and native (VS Code is an institution at this point, but monocultures are, well, bad). - [iTerm2](https://iterm2.com): a more configurable terminal than the one macOS ships with. I've used it for a long time now and it's still my go-to. - [Catppuccin](https://github.com/catppuccin): nearly as ubiquitous as Dracula but lighter and more playful, I've started using this theme wherever I'm looking at/reading/writing code. - [Mono Lisa](https://monolisa.dev): a relatively new find, I've been enjoying how pleasant and readable this font is (and have even gone so far as to install it on iOS via [FontCase](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fontcase-manage-your-type/id1205074470)).

Services

- NextDNS: a privacy-focused, set it and forget it DNS service. I use their security features on my home network and a profile with strict ad-blocking rules on all of my devices. - DNSimple: a robust, user-friendly DNS provider and registrar. I moved my domains here after my old provider was acquired. - Bunny.net: a powerful and affordable CDN. I use it to serve assets on my personal site (most notable my now page — raw assets are fetched by Eleventy and then optimized to webp). - Clicky: powerful and easy to understand analytics (if, perhaps, not the prettiest to look at). - Feedpress: they've been around for a while now and don't change much (nor do they need to), but look no further for reliable, helpful feed analytics. - [SavvyCal](https://savvycal.com): the most pleasant scheduling solution I've found to date. It offers a number of scheduling niceties and allows visitors to overlay their own calendars for a seamless booking experience. - [IVPN](https://www.ivpn.net): my VPN of choice for browsing outside of my home network. Privacy-focused and trustworthy. - [Kagi](https://kagi.com): search that's actually helpful and ad-free. It's lenses feature and the ability to up/downvote and block results from different sites are indispensable. - [Feedbin](https://feedbin.com): the best available modern RSS service. I use its actions to filter noise out of my feed as well as to star and surface my must-read feeds and newsletters. - [Pinboard](https://pinboard.in): an old, reliable and slow to change web service that does exactly what it sets out to — provide reliable bookmarking. - [forwardemail.net](https://forwardemail.net): a simple and reliable service for forwarding and routing emails from a few of the domains I own. - [Trakt](https://trakt.tv): my preferred TV and movie tracking service — it has a strong community (and isn't owned by a private equity firm). - [The Storygraph](https://thestorygraph.com): an excellent, focused and community driven book tracking app. All it needs is RSS/Atom feeds and/or an API. - [Slack](http://slack.com): I have a family Slack set up to avoid group text messages and am in a few other community Slacks. - [Discord](http://discord.com): I don't _like_ Discord but, for better or worse, it's where some communities I frequent are. - [Backblaze](https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup): a set it and forget it remote backup solution. I have it pointed at the external storage volume I have velcroed to the back of my monitor. - [Zoom](https://zoom.us): it works and it's ubiquitous. Check out [uses.tech](https://uses.tech) for more lists like this one.