Our daily lives hum and buzz from the WiFi and batteries surrounding us in the age of technology. It seems that in every turn some portion of a wall in the developed world has a screen or a speaker.
They say work harder, not smarter, but are these tools really making us smarter? I put together a list of the day-to-day applications and software I used over the last year to cover this concept of picking well, in the pool of many.
All advice is temporal, the year had many different moments where these tools changed their pattern for work and the how of work. When an approach changes, so does the tooling.
As note taking goes, I never feel like I can absorb enough information, somehow typing the words and jotting the lines of a conversation or to-dos, adds to my working memory.
When considering an application to absorb your thoughts, others words, and sometimes sensitive information, it is important to acknowledge security posture. This is the overarching consideration I start with.
Thinking about the next part is sort of more obvious, how accessible is this note taking across all of my devices? Can I scribble from my phone, something in the middle of the night, to remember tomorrow? Will this capture the information of a series of research throughout the day?
Almost exclusively throughout this past year I have been using Standard Notes, an end-to-end encrypted application which is accessible across multiple devices and types in markdown.
When I browse the internet, I try to disassociate the data I am creating from my metadata profile, that has most likely been bought and sold over the years, to sell me more goods online. Looking through the troves of the internet, researching architectural patterns, or reading about code, I do not want to see the latest ads from the most aligned brand to my recent search query.
For a leap ahead on browsing, I often clear my cache when exiting the browser, and Microsoft Edge allows me to do that without blinking an eye. The edge add-on marketplace supports many extensions like the EFF: Privacy Badger and AdBlock which together pack a powerful start towards privacy.
As a layer, and ‘security works in layers’ I typically connect to the internet, almost exclusively through a VPN, Proton VPN, unless for some reason the website was built long ago and everything registers as a pop-up.
You can achieve all of this through a routed USA connection with a good setup for privacy, tracker reduction, and metadata clearing to keep searching the internet with everyday tools.
We all have passwords and although it seems that we are moving towards a more independent future without them; as we build the password-less future, storing, encrypting, and generating unique passwords is a plan to make overtaking an account from a login more expensive and difficult.
You can add on dark-web detection, repetition scanning, and rotation reminders to streamline your ability to shroud the digital world from your basic credentials. These tools are quite common across products now, offering insurance and detection to help you keep up with the not so favorable entities across the cyberspace.
As a good first step, I went with Keeper Security to handle all things passwords, as time went on, it became even more of a software protected vault, with its own security focused infrastructure.
There are many routes to MFA, from Face ID to temporary codes, mobile, and email. I prefer Face ID when possible and then the temporary codes above anything that goes to a more enterprise focused Software as a Service (SaaS) product like iMessage or Outlook.
For codes, Authy is good option when you plan on keeping your devices for awhile, with a bit of a rough user experience otherwise, despite the cloud restore. Microsoft Authenticator is a great tool for storing, recovering, deleting, and protecting enterprise ids from Entra ID IdP (Identity Platform).
There are many choices in cloud storage and ranges of security as well. As many product choices I have always preferred knowing the standing reputation of the company that is storing my information, from photos to documents.
Ease-of-use and access, even access control, are second to overall security, but provide an additional layer as well. If typing in codes, saving extra passwords, or opening documents is difficult to do privately in public, it may expose your accounts and information in a way you never expected.
As for my choice, iCloud was my go to for that very purpose, as Apple’s focus on security has increased over the years, accessing my often working information across devices become an agile experience.
As a developer, architect, and cloud professional I spend a lot of time in the IDE and terminal. Finding the right set of tools has been an ongoing experience, switching every few years with the new open source editor as time has gone on.
Visual Studio Code is my most frequent text editor, with thousands of hours spent typing away at JavaScript and Python, the many extensions and IntelliSense features have only enabled my work. For C#/.NET switching to Visual Studio is an obvious choice, with a lot of similarities to the more polyglot focused version. When working in Java, I always prefer IntelliJ, as it stands as a clear winner above the rest for its pure focus on tooling and JDK management.
There is a blossoming quantity of terminal applications that are becoming quite popular with folder intelligence and auto-complete. Hyper has been my go to since the first installation, as it covers the aesthetic and configuration I look for while, not outweighing the benefit that modern technology often employees, with control over the user.
Sharing files across devices in a manner more secure than SMS and email should be everyone’s consideration. Looking at the daily news it seems like the lack of care and human error have lead to a continuous sacrifice of privacy.
As a Meta fan and encryption supporter, I began using WhatsApp earlier this year to see how well the platform aligned with the Messenger and Instagram messaging feature that I find quite excellent.
From the QR code based syncing features to the connectivity between devices and user adoption among peers, it was quite easy to understand why this is such a popular product.
Substitutions of this list happened over the year: Standard Notes → Obsidian, Microsoft Edge → Brave, Proton VPN → Aura, WhatsApp → Signal — Follow along on X, Warpcast, GitHub, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Collect this post as an NFT.
