Uses This

Who are you, and what do you do?

I'm Katy Goodman. I'm a musician, and also a junior web developer. I went to Rutgers and studied physics and education, but then decided to pursue music instead of becoming a teacher. I've been playing in 2 bands for the last 8 years (Vivian Girls, La Sera), and travel the world playing shows and having fun and loving it. But when I'm not on tour, I love learning to code and developing websites. I just started working for CASH Music, where I'm training to do backend development. In my spare time, I'm going to college full time studying Computer Science, I have 2 cats and a dog who I hang out with a lot, and I go hiking sporadically.

What hardware do you use?

I use a MacBook Pro from 2011 for both of my jobs. I actually just got a second Macbook this week, a 13" Air, so that I can use that one strictly for coding, and the other older one for music and games and streaming TV. For music, I play a Fender Musicmaster bass from 1978. I think it's Japanese. I usually play out of a cheap Ampeg combo amp, the kind with 2 10 inch speakers. Now that I think of it, I think it's discontinued. It's been my only amp for basically the entire time I've been playing! Good job, amp.

And what software?

I make all of my song demos with GarageBand. I will plug an electric guitar (there are a variety of them laying around the house) into a tiny Orange practice amp and point it at the computer, set my input volume down to about 1%, and record with the built-in mic. Works wonderfully! Sometimes I'll also use an acoustic guitar instead of electric. I actually put up a lot of the demos I make this way on my SoundCloud

I code most stuff using TextWrangler. I love Terminal. I design iPhone apps using Xcode, although I'm definitely still a beginner. This week, I'm working on database stuff using Sequel Pro, and using MAMP to test my PHP! I also always run f.lux, the program that changes the brightness of your screen depending on the time of day. Apparently it helps your body produce melatonin to fall asleep even if you're coding late at night, so you're not just staring at a bright blue-ish screen.

What would be your dream setup?

I would have a sweet desk that has like, 3 monitors, 2 of which are always streaming "The Matrix" (the movie, not just the falling numbers). My chair would be a cloud and my light source calm, indirect sunlight. Plants everywhere. Including a giant vine I would have to climb to ascend to my treehouse computer lab.