Tools
The right tooling is essential to work effectively and can make life much easier. Unfortunately, finding good tools can be a hustle. So many times I stumbled upon a new tool through a friend, a blog post or a YouTube video and thought to myself: I wish I knew about this earlier...
Thus I'd like to introduce you to some of the tools I use daily. I'm trying to frequently update this list and keep it growing. If you have any tools you think I might be interested in write me a line.
MacOS
I've been a Mac user since I first touched a computer. Here are some tools and tips that make my life easier
Homebrew
Homebrew is not a secret, but did you know that one may backup their packages in a lean and easy way?
The following command creates a so-called Brewfile (or overwrites an existing one). It contains all taps, brews, casks or even mas (if you have the MacOS App Store extension installed) in a simple text format.
brew bundle dump --forceSave and version the Brewfile in a remote Git Repository. If you switch to another device and would like to install your basic software and tools without restoring a full data backup, just use the following command and Brew will install all the listed packages according to your Brewfile.
brew bundle installRectangles
Rectangle adds window snapping to MacOS. If you use it once, life without it becomes unimaginable. What I like most about Rectangle is its adaptability to different screen forms and sizes.
AWS
My favorite tools when it comes to everything AWS
AWS-Vault
Whenever possible, I try to use AWS SSO to log into my or any AWS account. But sometimes customers provide you with nothing else than old-school credentials to work with. One should not save those keys nakedly and unencrypted on the hard drive. That's where AWS-Vault comes in. AWS-Vault lets you store credentials in different backends like the MacBook keychain or an encrypted file. Even tho there's not a lot of movement going on in the GitHub repository, the tool is simple, it works and fulfills its purpose.
99designsVisual-Subnet-Calc
IP addresses are hard to read. But there's help. The visual subnet calculator does exactly what it promises. Visualising networks and subnets.
Coding
Writing code is a big part of everyday life. Here are the tools I recommend.
Zed
I'm a huge fan of Zed. At first it was just the speed that amazed me. Written in Rust, there's no comparison in speed to bulky editors like VSCode or heavy IDEs like IntelliJ. Although I've worked with both before and I think they're both great in their own way, my personal choice is Zed. But Zed isn't just blazingly fast. Zed offers features that make it stand out. The remote development feature makes it easy to connect to development servers (e.g. a simple EC2 instance) and the AI capabilities are just on point. With their assistant features, LLMs facilitate your work exactly how and where you would expect it.
