Uses This

Who are you, and what do you do?

I'm Suz Hinton. I was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, where I slowly learned to embrace the nerd that I am. I moved to the USA 7 years ago, and am currently based in New York City. I work as a software developer in developer relations at Microsoft.

I partner with both companies and communities to help them make the most of Azure Cloud Services and other Microsoft tools. It's a combination of pair programming, public speaking, documentation writing, and building interesting prototypes. It's fast paced learning and teaching; I never run out of projects that I want to do.

Off duty, I maintain several well loved JavaScript hardware libraries, and build electronic contraptions to delight others with. I really like reading technical papers, and geeking out about frontend performance and accessibility. I also live code on Twitch most weekends, with a quickly growing audience tuning in to watch.

What hardware do you use?

I work from home, from my study. I have a cheap IKEA "desk" that I bought over 5 years ago. I sit on a half price refurbed Aeron Chair which supports my back really well during many hours of working. I stare at an Acer K272 27" monitor all day. I use a Perixx PERMICE-712 wireless mouse], and a much beloved Leopold 660M mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX brown switches. I currently have lavender keycaps installed. This keyboard is my pride and joy for writing software.

I use two different computers. My work computer is a Microsoft Surface Book, and my personal computer is a 13" 2016 Apple MacBook Pro.

For streaming, I use a Blue Yeti microphone, two Logitech C920 Pro webcams, and OBS Studio streaming software.

My 3D printer is a Printrbot Plus Metal with dual extrusion and a heated bed. I run it wirelessly using OctoPrint running on a Raspberry Pi. My soldering iron is a Hakko FX-888D.

My coffee grinder is a Bodum BISTRO, and the coffee making process is done with an Aeropress. I import Bonsoy soy milk because I am a weirdo about the taste of soy milk in coffee. It's my one food extravagance, because outside of coffee I'm mostly disinterested in food.

And what software?

I use vim as a code editor. On my MacBook, iTerm is my terminal of choice. On my Surface Book, I live in Bash on Ubuntu running within ConEmu. I use mostly Chrome and Edge as my browsers. OneNote contains my entire life. In there I store my daily task lists, blog post ideas, long term projects, career goals, and almost everything else you can imagine. I also can't live without my Outlook calendar, so I know where I need to be at all times. I listen to music daily with the Spotify app. My favorite headphones to listen with are Sennheiser PX200 IIs.

My favorite software languages to code in are JavaScript and Python.

What would be your dream setup?

Ideally I'd like to work from a room with very large windows and trees outside. I love watching birds and other animals while I'm thinking. I would love a minimalist, white desk (a real one). An additional, separate work desk for soldering and making messy things would be so amazing. I currently program and solder on the same desk, so it's not very roomy or practical. I really like the idea of having multiple screens, like in a clichéd hollywood hacker movie. Right now I don't have the space for many screens. I would fill the rest of the space with plants and the art of my friends. Most of all, I relish a quiet environment. I have adapted to noisy New York City, but love and miss true silence all the same!