Uses This

Who are you, and what do you do?

Hey! I'm Adit Gupta and I'm currently the founder & CEO of Function Space, which is a new social learning network for science. Previously, I've worked as lead interaction designer, Python lead and technology evangelist. Although I graduated as a petroleum engineer, I've always had an interest in science, programming and designing that ultimately led to the formation of Function Space. :)

What hardware do you use?

I usually work on my Mac Mini that runs with 8 GB RAM. Along with that I use an Apple Thunderbolt Display and Apple Wireless keyboard. I also have an old Sony Vaio E-Series laptop that tri-boots into Ubuntu 12.10, Fedora 19 and Windows 7. As crazy as it may sound, I really love to work on different operating systems throughout the day.

For my designing work, I use a Wacom Intuos tablet along with a Moleskine for quickly sketching out wireframes. I have Moleskines of every size and shape and they accompany me wherever I go. I also have a second generation iPad that I mostly use for consuming news and watching movies. I heavily rely on my iPhone 4S for messaging, Skype calls, meeting reminders and for checking the vital stats of my startup on the go. I read on my Kindle Paperwhite, and it's my best companion while I'm travelling.

I'm also an amateur astronomer and use a Celestron Astromaster 76 EQ for stargazing that is supported by an eyepiece and filter kit. Believe me, there is nothing as satisfying as watching the stars after a stressful day! Whenever I get time, I also play with my Arduino board which is usually connected to a WiFi or a motor shield.

And what software?

For development, I usually work with Vim with a highly customized .vimrc file. I have also tried a range of other editors like Emacs, Sublime Text and Brackets. I use Git as a version control system and either GitHub or BitBucket for my online repositories. For performance monitoring, I use New Relic and Pingdom and collaborate with my team using HipChat and Basecamp.

For designing, I use Moqups for wireframing. I prefer designing in the browser as it gives you a better idea of site responsiveness and performance. However, I am looking forward to using Macaw, which seems to be a friendly tool for today's web designers. I use CloudApp for sharing design work with my coworkers and peers. For deciding on color schemes, I use ColorSnapper and Adobe Kuler. I prefer Type Cast for deciding on web typography and TypeKit for rendering beautiful fonts on the web.

On the iPhone, I use iMessage, Fantastical, Prismatic, Alien Blue and native apps for Pingdom and New Relic. I use Sky Guide as my stargazing assistant, Duolingo for learning new languages and ARGUS to stay fit! I also use Gmail, Dropbox, Skype, MindNode and iA Writer on a daily basis.

What would be your dream setup?

I would love to have a multi-monitor setup running on high-end GPUs and GBs of RAM. For portability, I would love to have a MacBook Air with more memory and a Retina screen. To be honest, I would be more than eager to get my hands on anything that provides better computational power with an equally impressive user experience.