The C5 Programmers guide to gear

I sometimes get asked what my setup looks like, and what I have found to an be effective landscape. Firstly let me toss a disclaimer out there, this is MY preferences and by no means the best options or way of doing things.  But in the interest of full disclosure, I think it will be fun to compare notes.

Hardware

Mac's - I use Mac's.  I was a PC user for years and years and loathed the idea that Mac's cost so much for what you get.  I couldn't understand it.  To me, paying that much was lacking in good sensibilities.

But in my early twenties, I started recording larger scale music sessions and found several dozen to many blue screen of deaths, lost corrupted files, and viral attacks to call the platform "stable".  I lost collectively hundreds of hours to restoring data, re-recording tracks...ect.  And these were issues were with $2,000 PC machines at the time.

I finally had enough, and switched to Mac.  Where I have recorded live recording sessions with 16 tracks piping in at one time, and have not have even one 8th the issues I ever had with PC's. That's not to say that for programming a pc won't suffice.  But  I just happen to have other more processor intensive hobbies that require rock solid performance.

Not to mention Steve Jobs was awesome. And then there's Johny Ives.  His outtake on design fundementals is incredibly maticulous.  I love the guy.  I love Mac's.

to each their own.

iMac, 2x Macbook Pro's, Macbook Air, 2x iPhone, 2x iPad

TimeMachine - This thing blows me away!  a 2TB external drive with printer port. All my Mac's back up to this bad boy in the background.  I would never go without it now.

Hosting - I use MediaTemple.  Their support is amazing.  And they are very stable.  But most of all, scalable.  I can scale any server in minutes.  That's nice to know.  I also recommend http://c5spot.com .  They are MediaTemple based.

Software

Panic Coda - IDE's , for me, are like guitar tone.  You never really "get there", and from time to time you try different things.  But there's always a standout that is faithfully you to a larger degree.

I've tried nearly every editor out there. And Coda just has the UI, the FTP, the SSH, Subversion, and the simplicity that I like to stare at every day.

Google Chrome - My browser of choice. the debugging is better than Firebug imo.

IE7,8,&9 - I use parallels to windows7 for testing IE789.  The fact that this is even necessary is enough for me to boycott Microsoft for eternity.

Screenflow - screenflow is pricey..but it works fantastic for screencasting. 

Dreamweaver - I go to dreamweaver for my phonegap testing.  It's just easier.  One of the FEW things Adobe has done right.

Fireworks - The shinning gem of Adobe!  (a Macromedia product in the day) The way Fireworks approaches things like gradients is FAR more intuitive than Photoshop.  In the context of web-design, you would kick yourself for not trying it sooner.

xCode - once I am happy with what Dreamweaver is showing me with my HTML5 CSS3 Phonegap apps, I go ahead and start over with a new Phonegap project in xCode, and migrate the files over to the projects www folder.  Why?  because at this point I can deploy to my devices.  Can't do that from Dreamweaver.  

Skype - Sadly, this is now a Microsoft product.  So it's only a matter of time until they ruin it.  But it does amaze me how many dev's don't even have it.  I couldn't live without it.  All my clients are easily reachable and can ping me anytime.  Having the phone app helps as well.  From a support standpoint.  Skype is awesome.

GitHub - the GitHub app on the Mac is awesome.  very nice and easy to use

dropbox - the drobbox app on the Mac makes working with my drop files and client files a breeze.

Office Space

I sometime go out and work at coffee shops just to change the scenery up.  But all and all, I have a really cool office right here at the homestead.