My Setup (because I'm not cool enough to be on Uses This)
I adore the wonderful Uses This (formerly The Setup) series, which has been "[asking] a random selection of people all about the tools and techniques they're using to get things done" since 2009. I'm never going to be cool enough to actually be interviewed there. But I can still answer the questions and share them with the world.
Who are you, and what do you do?
I'm Darren P. Meyer, and I try to make software safer. For the past couple of decades, that has meant a surprising mix of developer education, software engineering work with a security emphasis, research on the intersection of software engineering and application security, running software product security teams, and helping to build software security platforms (which I've done so far with Veracode and Endor Labs, and advised on a bunch of others).
I'm also a big believer in the power of play—it fills the wellspring of creativity, and it's just plain good for us. I play by reading and learning interesting things; roasting, brewing, and having opinions about coffee; riding my e-bike for "wind therapy", when weather permits; and playing video games, board games, or D&D with my kids.
What hardware do you use?
It's a lot, if I'm honest. Probably the most important kit is the stuff I spend my time touching and looking at—I learned long ago never to skimp on anything I spend time interacting with. I sit in a SecretLab Titan chair (probably the most comfortable office chair I've ever had, and it's built like a tank), unless I'm putting my Uplift electric sit-stand desk into a standing position. I use a hi-DPI, high-refrseh-rate Acer XV282K KV monitor to relax my eyes, mounted on a floating arm that lets me adjust its height, and has a companion arm with a laptop tray so I can use my laptop monitor as a second screen. I have a Ducky One tenkeyless mechanical keyboard with MX Brown switches, and a Logitech G502 mouse—both chosen after years of experimenting to find something that fits and feels right for me. And I use smart lighting (Zigbee stuff with Hubitat, and a custom monitor backlight from a WS2812 LED strip and a DFRobot Beetle ATmega32u4 microcontroller) so I can adjust lighting for comfort by purpose and conditions.
All this is connected to three different machines via a decent DisplayPort KVM switch so I can easily swap:
- A custom-built desktop that I upgrade something on every six months or so
- A Framework 13 DIY edition laptop, which is delightful in almost every way except that it has absolutely terrible speakers
- Whatever work buys for me – currently a MacBook Pro 13" with as much RAM as I could convince them to spring for
I highly value being able to upgrade and repair my computers, which often surprises my peers. But I've never once regretted building my own computers, for those reasons and because I get exactly what I want: which is fast OS disk, lots of RAM, and a 10GbE wired network connection to my 31TB RAID5+1 custom-built NAS.
Audio matters a lot to me—I don't consider myself an "audiophile", but I spend so much time listening (to podcasts, recorded calls, live web calls, music) that I highly value that experience being pleasant. Without breaking the bank. When docked, all my devices connect through a 3-source stereo mixer to my PreSonus Eris speakers. These have bluetooth as well, which I mostly use when I want to listen to a record on my Audio-Technica turntable that sits in my living room. If I need to tune out the world, I use a pair of Momentum 4 headphones; I'll use them wired if I'm sitting or wireless if I'm standing (or walking on my under-desk treadmill).
Because I present on web calls a fair bit (and make video recordings for instruction), I spent a bit on my conferencing setup, including an adjustable Litra Glow that helps me be properly lit, a Yeti microphone on a boom arm that helps me be heard clearly, and a now-old-but-still-great Logitech C920 HD webcam (protip: almost everyone looks better at 720p when your viewers are going to have you in a tiny window).
I have a cheap iPhone, too; I don't care much about it, and I basically use whatever my family does for convenience's sake.
And what software?
Most of my life is lived on Manjaro Linux—it's Arch for the impatient—under KDE Plasma. I used to spend a lot of time using minimal window managers and such, but the older I get, the more I value things just working with minimal fuss. I still really want to customize things when they annoy me or get in my way, though. And KDE Plasma hits that sweet spot for me.
I use Firefox for my main browser, because it's the least-bad option at the moment; the browser ecosystem is kind of a trash fire these days. I end up in Chrome a lot for work for various reasons (including testing), but I do not understand what people like about it, frankly.
Beyond that, I spend a lot of time in Emacs, vim, or VSCodium (the open-source version of VSCode without all the tracking stuff)—my research notes are in Dendron, a VSCode extension, and so I stay there for research code projects as well. I use Day One (mostly the web version, though I do use the iOS app too) as a replacement for the Big Notebook of Doom I used to carry everywhere – it's a pretty great, low-friction tool for capturing and reviewing my thoughts, moods, ideas, etc.; and the iOS app is one of the most pleasant mobile apps I've ever used. I can capture things quickly and get on with my life with minimal fuss. Nearly all my document production is done in LibreOffice by default; but I also use a lot of Google Docs and friends because that's what work expects. I use Dropbox to share things outside of work, and Google Drive to share things at work.
I use every popular web conferencing platform imaginable, and they're all terrible. But I have a special hatred for Teams.
I could not live without 1Password at this point. Everyone needs a password manager, and I'm nearly a fanboy when it comes to 1Password—like any software, it's imperfect, but the level to which they've made it dead easy to use for everything from websites to ssh keys, and across every OS I use, is genuinely a source of delight. And this is coming from someone who usually hates "software as a service".
I recently started using Ghostty to have a more consistent terminal experience between Mac and Linux. Previously I used konsole on Linux and iTerm2 on Mac. For how much time I spend in shells, I'm surprisingly unpicky about the terminal I use: as long as it lets me have a hotkey window, pick my font (Hack, the Nerd Font variant, thanks), and has a reasonable option for a color scheme, I'm happy.
On the work Mac, I end up using a lot of little apps to solve annoyances that I can fix with settings or scripts on Linux. Homebrew is a lifesaver; the "app store" is not a suitable alternative to a package manager. I use Rectangle to give me some nice window-tiling shortcuts, KeepingYouAwake to make it easy to toggle "prevent sleep", MicDrop to globally mute microphones, Meeting Bar because it gives me a full-screen alert when a meeting is about to start (otherwise I miss the stupidly quiet alerts that Calendar sends), Little Snitch as an application firewall, and Display Menu for easier screen resolution switching (essential when doing screencasts). I've invested a lot of configuration time into Alfred, which I use as a launcher and quick automation entry point.
Alfred and Little Snitch are the two things I miss when I'm sitting on Linux; they're the rare example of utilities that are just incredibly well-thought-out and capable.
I end up listening to audio via Spotify; I'm not a fan, but all my friends are there and that makes it easy to share playlists and song suggestions.
What would be your dream setup?
I want my technology to be as invisible as possible, while being instantly available when I need it. A calm, beautiful, well-lit, library-like space to sit in, with no obvious "modern tech", would be perfect. Especially when an ergonomic and considered workstation would just appear whenever I needed to use it.
The closest I get to this today is taking my laptop out of my office, whether that's heading to a coffee shop, library, or just my living room sofa. So if I'm being more realistic, my wishlist would be a 15" Linux on arm64 laptop that weighs as little as possible, with a keyboard from that period in the mid-2010s where Mac Laptops had inexplicably good keys, a monitor I could slide up to a more reasonable height, and a low-latency+high quality audio connection to implanted noise-cancelling headphones (so I could never forget them, and wear them comfortably for hours).
