Tools I Use
People sometimes ask what tools or software I use. I don't think my setup is especially interesting, but I've seen other sites maintain a page like this and figured I might as well. Everything here is pretty unremarkable, which is kind of the point — I'd rather spend time on the work than on the tools.
Computer
An older ThinkPad I picked up refurbished a few years ago. I don't remember the exact model number offhand — it's one of the T-series, black and chunky, the kind that looks like it was designed to survive being dropped off a truck. The keyboard is good, which matters to me more than most specs. It does everything I need it to.
Operating system
Debian Linux, stable branch. I switched to it years ago and haven't had a compelling reason to switch to anything else. It's reliable, it stays out of my way, and it doesn't update itself at inconvenient times. I've used other distributions on and off, but I keep coming back to Debian.
Text editor
Vim, mostly out of habit. I learned it early enough that my fingers just know the commands at this point. I've tried other editors over the years but nothing stuck. For quick edits or short notes I'll sometimes use nano, which I think is underrated for what it is — it just works and you don't need to memorize anything.
Note-taking
Plain text files, organized in directories by topic and date. No special software, no syncing service. I keep everything in one folder tree and back it up periodically. It's not elegant, but I can read these files on any machine with any program, and they'll still be readable in thirty years. I wrote a bit more about this approach in the plain text blog post.
Scanner
I've gone through a few scanners over the years for various archival and digitization projects. I wrote up my thoughts on the ones I've used on the blog. The short version is that I currently use a decent sheet-fed document scanner for most things, and an older flatbed for anything that needs more care. Neither was expensive.
Desk setup
My desk is a solid wood desk I found at an estate sale — nothing fancy, but it's sturdy and has actual drawers, which most modern desks seem to have forgotten about. The lamp is the one I settled on after testing several — an adjustable LED with good color temperature. The chair took even more deliberation; I wrote about that whole process separately. It's a used ergonomic chair I found through a local office furniture reseller, and it's been worth every penny.
My desk faces the window — I can see the church steeple and a row of maples from here. In the fall the light is particularly good. In winter I mostly just see bare branches and gray sky, which has its own appeal.
Internet
Local ISP, nothing fancy — the connection is adequate for what I do. I don't stream much or do anything that requires serious bandwidth. Email, web browsing, the occasional large file transfer. It works.
Phone
An older Android phone I use mostly for calls and maps. I don't have many apps installed and I keep notifications to a minimum. It's a tool, not a lifestyle. I charge it at night and try not to look at it more than I need to during the day.
Everything else
I don't have strong opinions about most of the other things people put on pages like this. I use whatever web browser came with the system. My backup strategy involves a couple of external drives and a script I wrote that probably needs updating. I own a label maker, which sees more use than you'd think.
The general philosophy, if you can call it that, is to use simple, reliable tools that I understand well enough to fix when they break. Kevin Vadala's setup isn't going to impress anyone on a tech forum, and that's fine by me.
— K. Vadala