Matthew Lang avatar

Matthew Lang

Family guy and web developer

Uses

For what I’m currently trying and what I’ve dropped, see my Learning Log.

Hardware

  • Apple iPhone 16 Pro - The black mirror in my pocket. The screen might be a bit small for me now. I’m getting to that age where reading on small screens is not what I want to be doing.
  • Apple MacBook Pro (work) - Lucky enough to have used a MacBook at work for over two years. No grumbling from me, except in the case of my first laptop, which was like a jet engine when I booted my development environment. On my second now. The smaller 14” suits me to carry about and is a lot quieter, too.
  • Apple MacBook (personal): I replaced my old Pro with a MacBook last year. My only gripe is that the keyboard often marks the screen when closed.
  • Dell monitor - Switched from two 24” monitors to one 28” monitor. In time I may upgrade to a full 4k
  • Logitech M720 - Apple’s strong point isn’t its mouse products, so I opted for this multi-device mouse from Logitech.
  • Anker Soundcore Life 2 - My second pair of these after my first died after seven years of use. Great headphones.
  • Apple AirPods Pro - Soundcore’s are great all day at my desk for work, but I use this 1st generation AirPods Pro for out and about. Still, get a good charge of them too.
  • Kobo Clara BW - My e-reader since July 2025. After more than a decade with a Kindle Paperwhite, I switched to move out of the Amazon ecosystem.

Software

Everday essentials

  • Fastmail - My email since January 2026, after moving away from Hey.
  • Obsidian - Central to everything: notes, my LLM wiki, compass points and project tracking. Plain Markdown files in a vault are exactly what I need.
  • Firefox - Because in the world of the open web, we should be able to use different browsers and not be forced to use Google Chrome.
  • Micro.blog - Blog host and first point of call for my social media needs.

Media

  • Feedbin - Since its launch, I have used Feedbin to manage my RSS and some newsletter subscriptions.
  • NetNewsWire - My RSS reader on my iPhone since October 2025, replacing Reeder.
  • QuickReads - My read-it-later app since July 2026. I replaced Instapaper with it to support an indie developer.
  • Spotify - I tried Apple Music a few years back, but the UI was too cumbersome. Spotify’s family plan and availability on the web make it my preferred music streaming platform.
  • Overcast - My podcast player since 2014, apart from a spell with Pocket Casts between 2022 and 2024. Overcast is the better podcast player in my eyes.

Development

  • Zed - My main editor, set up with local LLMs for commit messages. Fast and opinionated in ways I like.
  • Ghostty - My terminal at home and at work.
  • Claude Code - For agentic coding and managing my wiki. It has its friction, but it’s genuinely different from chat-based AI.
  • GitLab - My code forge since September 2026, after many years on GitHub and a spell on SourceHut.
  • Docker - Very late to the Docker game, but now I use it daily.
  • Ruby VIPS - Generating images with Ruby for the last few years.
  • DigitalOcean - Droplets, managed databases and Spaces for my side projects.
  • Hatchbox - Rails hosting made simple.
  • DNSimple - My choice of DNS manager for many years.
  • 1Password - I’ve been a 1Password customer for at least 15 years.

Languages & frameworks

  • Ruby - My go-to language for most things.
  • Ruby on Rails - Few frameworks give you so much out of the box. Dailymuse and most of my projects are built on it.
  • Jekyll - Powers this site with very little maintenance.
  • Tailwind CSS - Replaced hand-rolled CSS on most of my projects.

Ways of working

  • Shape Up - Built for teams, but with a few tweaks it works for my own projects.
  • Test-driven development - It took a long time to get into the right cycle, but I’m doing it and seeing the benefits.
  • AI pair coding - Claude and Copilot as daily collaborators, most useful in unfamiliar territory and for rapid prototyping.
  • LLM wiki pattern - The LLM handles organisation, indexing and summaries of my notes; I just provide the information.
  • Bullet journaling - My daily system for tasks and notes, on paper. It took over from Todoist.
  • Dash/Plus logging - Patrick Rhone’s system, extended with my own symbols for wins, blockers, interruptions and incidents.

Manualware (analog)

  • Atoms to Astronauts - These notebooks are a joy to use and the different covers give it a nice way of seperating notes.
  • Field Notes - I’ve been a subscriber for 10 years now. Hard to give up the subscription now, when I use these notebooks every day.
  • Lamy - My choice of fountain pen. Sure, not the most expensive, but they suit me just fine.
  • Baron Fig Squire - I love these pens. Ideal for bullet journalling, sketching and notes.