Uses This

A collection of nerdy interviews asking people from all walks of life what they use to get the job done.

A picture of Craig Mod

Craig Mod

Writer, designer, publisher, developer

Posted in designer, mac, writer

Who are you, and what do you do?

Craig Mod.

Live and 'work' in Tokyo. Eat great 'food.'

Writer, designer, publisher and developer concerned with the future of publishing & storytelling. Co-author and designer (and now also publisher) of Art Space Tokyo. Also co-founding editor and engineer behind TPUTH. Better known as 'the guy who wrote that iPad article' or, 'the guy who wrote that GF1 article'.

What hardware do you use?

  • 2.53GHZ 13" MacBook Pro w/ 300GB 7200 RPM HDD, 8GB RAM.
  • 32gb iPad.
  • 20" old 'plasticy' Cinema Display at the office
  • 24" LED Cinema Display at home
  • 500GB Time Capsule for constant backup
  • 1TB mirrored RAID setup for media storage + additional backup
  • Apple wireless Magic Mouse
  • First generation iPod Touch for my rough 'travel' computer (i.e., computing in Kathmandu, Lhasa or the mountains).
  • 32gb iPhone 3GS as my 'tweet machine' and 'Hitotoki' input implement
  • Panasonic Lumix GF1 as my primary camera. Despite popular misconception, Panasonic does not pay me to say this.
  • An MD notebook from Midori Paper Tokyo (with leather cover).
  • Pilot HI-TEC C Cavalier Pen

And what software?

Google stuff:

(Yes, Google has won the war for my online soul.)

General:

  • Tweetie for Tweeting (iPhone and desktop versions)
  • Pages in full-screen mode (CMD-OPT-U) for writing (with Fedra Serif B @ 12pt from Typotheque)
  • Things for to-doing (can't wait for it to cloud-sync with the iPhone)
  • Instapaper Pro (iPhone) for reading the long-stuff (iPhone/iPad + Instapaper = renaissance of long-form journalism)
  • Simplenote for note syncing
  • TextExpander for fast typing

Techy:

Creative:

InDesign and Lightroom are probably two of my favorite Adobe's products. Although InDesign is feeling more and more bloated. Lightroom is 'dreamy.' I'm hoping Adobe keeps Lightroom as lean and mean as possible moving forward. (Dear Adobe, tip: all us creatives really want now is faster more stable software.)

I use Code Igniter because it's what I know and can go from idea to working prototype in a matter of hours / days. It's light and nice.

I've come to know the quirks of Coda (and I know I am losing so much programmer street cred. by revealing I use such a 'dainty' editor). Although I wish they would release an even daintier version. 70% of the program I don't use. The core 30% is wonderful though.

Try and try as I might, I simply haven't been able to fall in love with BBEdit. I have owned and upgraded my copy for the last decade though.

I would use Textmate but need real Japanese language support. Also, I like my software to be updated ... ever.

What would be your dream setup?

An iPad with: more internal storage; a higher density (300ppi+) screen; wireless cellular worldwide broadband 4G/5G/10G/etc; battery that lasts a month on one charge; real cloud storage for everything, always synced and always replicated around the world; an ebooks app that truly embraces the advantages of digital for the reader.

Leica M9 with 50mm f/0.95 Noctilux + 35mm f/1.4 Summilux-m + bodyguard to protect me as I carry around close to $20,000 in camera equipment.

A 'creation' computer with the same specs as my 13" MacBook Pro plus a huge SSD drive (1TB+) all in the form factor of a MacBook Air.