ANDY & SHAYA

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my setup

(inspired by the setup: a bunch of nerdy interviews)

What hardware do you use?

I’m currently using a 17″ MacBook Pro Unibody with the glossy screen. It’s a 2.66 GHz model with 4GB RAM. I removed the SuperDrive and put an MCE OptiBay in its place, with an 80GB 2nd Gen Intel SSD as my boot drive. I also upgraded the stock hard drive to a 500GB Seagate Momentus so I can carry around more HD movies and TV shows.

At home I use an mStand to elevate the display to eye level. I type on a wired Apple Keyboard, the thin aluminum one. I use a Logitech VX Nano wireless mouse on a Ratpadz GS mousepad. Before that I had an original Ratpad. Since my machine has no optical drive, I use a MacBook Air SuperDrive that I’ve modified to work with any Mac or PC. I have a Griffin Simplifi iPod dock/card reader/USB hub which I modified with white LED’s instead of the stock blue. For headphones I use a set of Sony MDR-V300’s which I’ve had for over a decade!

I hate seeing keyboard marks on the screen so I use a ShaggyMac Screen Protector. Since I’m mildly obsessive about scratches I carry my machine around in an InCase sleeve. And I just started using a PowerCurl to keep my power adapter organized.

I also typically carry a Kanex Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter so I can connect my machine to an HDTV and use it as a media center. For that I use Boxee and their iPhone remote app.

I have a 3G iPhone with a set of V-Moda Vibe II’s. I used to have the 2G model, which I purchased on the day it was released in 2007, but the home button stopped working after the warranty expired so I upgraded. It’s been jailbroken for about a year now, even though it can be kind of slow. I tried going back but just couldn’t handle it; SBSettings and Music Controls are just too useful to me.

My camera is a Canon PowerShot SD800 IS, which takes excellent shots for a point-and-shoot and suits my needs perfectly. I also recently jumped on the pocket video bandwagon with a Kodak Zi6 that I picked up on clearance.

For networking I use a Linksys WRT54G-TM running the open source DD-WRT firmware as my primary router. It has a bunch of cool features like built-in OpenVPN and PPTP, QoS, bandwidth monitoring, and secure remote management. I have it running my 802.11g network. On the same subnet I have an Airport Extreme Base Station running my 5 GHz 802.11n wireless network for tasty 300Mbps transfer speeds. I prefer the AEBS because it enables Snow Leopard’s wake-on-wireless feature.

I also have a “Hack Pro” storage server. It’s a hackintosh, meaning it is composed of PC hardware but runs Snow Leopard, that I’ve custom mounted in a G5 Power Mac case. It’s currently serving double duty as my home media center while connected to a Sony KD-34XS955 34″ Trinitron Wega HDTV with matching stand.

And what software?

I’m still shuffling between Safari, Firefox and Chrome. At the moment I’m using the latest Chrome dev release, with the Xmarks alpha extension for bookmark syncing and FlashBlock. Google Reader is still my RSS reader of choice since it’s simple and has consistency between the desktop and iPhone. I just switched from Gmail Tasks to Things for Mac and iPhone and haven’t looked back. I’ve recently started using Coda and find it pretty transformational. I’ve been using Unison for years and it’s still the best NNTP client out there. Dropbox is indispensable. Growl is handy. Tweetie is great and the Facebook Desktop Notifications app is very convenient. VLC and HandBrake, of course. And VirtualBox for Windows emulation.

What would be your dream setup?

A faster iPhone on Verizon. An inexpensive, reliable router that runs DD-WRT and has gigabit ethernet. I’d like to try out the Magic Mouse. The momentum scrolling is really nice. I’ve always liked the look of the Harman/Kardon Soundsticks but don’t really need a set of desktop speakers. I’d love to upgrade my MacBook Pro to 8GB RAM but just don’t think it’s worth the cost. I’m still looking for a nice large desk made of glass and aluminum. Ideally, Apple would release an updated version of the 30″ Cinema Display that is LED backlit and has a webcam, USB hub, MagSafe connector and speakers. Oh and I suppose I’d eventually let go of my CRT for a 50″ 1080p LED backlit LCD TV.