/uses · updated July 2026
What I Use
The gear, software, and AI stack behind my work, in the spirit of uses.tech. Nothing here is sponsored; everything here survived actual daily use, which is a higher bar than any review.
Workstation
| Laptop | Dell Latitude 14", Core i7-1370P — corporate-fleet hardware, which is the point: I run what my clients run. |
|---|---|
| Main monitor | Samsung 49" ultrawide (DQHD) — one screen that replaces two, with no bezel splitting the Entra portal from the terminal. |
| Second monitor | Samsung ViewFinity 34" ultra-WQHD — because the 49 fills up anyway. |
| Keyboard | Logitech G413 mechanical — years old, still perfect. Boring and reliable wins. |
| Mouse | Nulea M501 wireless trackball — thumb trackball, three-device pairing, and your wrist stops complaining. |
| Microphone | Razer Seiren X — a real mic changes how meetings hear you more than any camera upgrade. |
| Focus | Loop Switch earplugs — three noise modes on a slider. Deep-work mode is a hardware setting now. |
| Desk power | 12-outlet USB-C surge strip and a wireless charger stand — the phone charges standing up where MFA prompts are visible. |
Field Kit
The bag that comes along when the problem is on-site.
| Console access | Sabrent USB-to-serial (DB9 RS232) adapter — because the switch that is down does not care that it is not 1998 anymore. |
|---|---|
| Video out | QGeeM USB-C to HDMI 4K adapter — for the conference room or the server-closet crash cart. |
| Driver | Vessel 15-piece ratcheting screwdriver — one handle, every rack screw. |
| Storage | Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB NVMe — the upgrade that revives more machines than any other single part. |
Software I Live In
| Editor | VS Code with the PowerShell extension |
|---|---|
| AI | Claude on the Max plan — the seat that pays for itself. Details in the AI stack below. |
| Browser | Microsoft Edge with the DuckDuckGo extension — the browser that lives where my clients live, with tracking protection bolted on. |
| Passwords | Bitwarden — open source, audited, cross-platform. The password manager argument ended years ago. |
| Writing | Grammarly — catches what the fourth reread misses. |
| Notes | Obsidian for the knowledge vault; Notion for pipeline data |
| Admin consoles | Microsoft 365 admin, Entra, Intune, Azure portal, Defender. The usual tabs that never close. |
| Cert prep | MeasureUp — the practice exams behind the AZ certs on this site. |
| Naming | NameTune for Intune object naming and the Azure Resource Namer — consistent names are documentation you get for free. |
| Mail relay | SMTP2GO — for the devices and apps that need to send mail without the fight against modern auth. |
AI Stack
| Daily driver | Claude Code, running against custom MCP servers that connect it to the platforms MSPs live in: ticketing, RMM, documentation, networking, licensing. |
|---|---|
| Automation | Rewst for client-facing workflow automation; GitHub Actions for pipelines, including the one that mirrors my LinkedIn posts to this blog. |
| Prompts | Maintained in the open at prompt-library. |
| Rule of use | AI output is a draft, not a decision. Everything security-relevant gets human review, and every claim needs an observable source. |
How I Pick Tools
Boring and reliable beats novel and shiny. If it cannot be scripted or automated, it is a liability waiting for a bad week. And vendor slides are marketing: run the eval yourself, on your own workload, before anything earns a spot on this page.