A working inventory

Workshop

The tools, languages, and environment I work in. The page exists because the tools are part of the work.

This is what's actually on the desk. The page exists because I'd rather you judge the work than the slide deck — but the tools are part of the work.

Daily

  • Editor: Neovim, with a config I've pruned for two years. LSP, treesitter, Telescope, a small set of keybindings I'm protective of.
  • Terminal: Ghostty on macOS, foot on Linux. Both configured to behave.
  • Shell: Fish, with a few custom completions. I stopped fighting it.
  • OS: macOS for daily work and Apple Silicon build targets. Linux (Debian / Arch) for anything that runs at the edge.

Languages, by affection

  1. Rust — first language I reach for when something has to last. Memory model, type system, ecosystem. The cost is real; the payoff compounds.
  2. Common Lisp — re-reads as a language that figured out things the industry is still circling. SBCL + SLIME is still the most honest development loop I've used.
  3. Scala 3 — quietly elegant. The "scalable language" claim is honest if you treat it seriously.
  4. Python — for glue, prototyping, and anything where the data is the point.
  5. TypeScript / JavaScript — when the browser demands it, and not a line more.
  6. C / C++ — when there's no choice, which is rarer than people think.

What I run

  • Slatron — distributed signage + AI DJ orchestration, Rust, Rhai scripting, ONNX-based local TTS. The thing that lets me ship systems work alongside research.
  • Lorefire — local-first transcription + LLM pipeline. Encrypted. Sovereign. Mine.
  • Capibara — Rust tooling for C ecosystem documentation.
  • Qubit Simulator — three.js Bloch-sphere visualizer for teaching.
  • Autopilotv (in progress) — orchestration primitives for autonomous software production pipelines.

Hardware

  • MacBook Pro (Apple Silicon) as the daily driver.
  • A Raspberry Pi cluster for running orchestration targets at the edge — real distributed-systems testing without the cloud bill.
  • A bench PSU, a logic analyzer, and a soldering iron, because the work occasionally demands the literal electrons.

What I've stopped using

  • Heavyweight IDEs. The terminal is the IDE.
  • Browser-based AI assistants as a default. Useful in narrow cases; corrupting as a habit.
  • Notifications. Most of them are an attack on attention.

Influence, broadly

  • Capability-based security (KeyKOS, E, Capsicum).
  • The Unix tradition. Small tools, sharp composition.
  • Japanese aesthetics — wabi-sabi (beauty in the unfinished), ma (the meaningful pause), shu-ha-ri (master, break, transcend).
  • Long-distance runners and martial artists. Anyone who treats their craft as a practice.

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