Ergodox intro
Open source developer
@brecke
My name is Miguel Laginha and I'm a generalist software engineer based in Brighton, UK. I'm originally from Coimbra, Portugal, where I spent most of my life and plan to go back someday. I currently work remotely as tech lead for Apereo, a US-based open-source foundation focused on Edtech, specifically on the Open Academic Environment (OAE). In previous jobs I have worked on transportation open data and open science research publishing.
Outside of work, I like to read non-fiction books (mostly behavioural economics and self-improvement) as well as spend time relaxing mounting legos (I'm especially fond of medieval castles from the 80s and the 90s and star wars spaceships). I also enjoy watching TV quite a bit. That includes popular tv shows and movies and English football.
I do most of my work on a Mac Mini on a furna electric E2 standing desk. I would have bought a MacBook Pro but they keyboard's reputation precedes it (until recently, that is). The Mac Mini is a very powerful machine and suits my kind of work very well.
I type on a black Ergodox (glow version) with an Apple trackpad in between the two splits and a Logitech MX Ergo mouse I bought recently. I have tried several vertical mouses and this is by far the best regarding wrist pain (I'm quite sensitive to) and overall ergonomics. I seat on a very unnoticeable chair which is neither bad nor extremely good.
On the desk, I use a Fleximount monitor arm to hold a hefty 34" Dell Curved Ultrawide monitor, which is great to have up to 4 side-by-side terminal/code panes.
I listen to music all day while I work either from Soma FM or brainFM, some of it on my Sony MDR-ZX770BN Wireless Noise-Canceling Headphones. I also make extensive use of a notebook and I have plenty of Tesla amazing magnetic notes on the wall.
Firefox is my default browser, mostly because I'm very aware of online privacy and supporter of the Open Web. All my connected devices are connected to ProtonVPN 24x7 and I've been a ProtonMail user for a couple of years now. All my backups are on Spideroak One. I use Alfred for pretty much everything, Pinboard for bookmarks and Myki for passwords and 2FA.
For programming, I either use tmux+nvim on Alacritty or VSCode with vim bindings. Also, I use the material Gruvbox theme wherever I can because I'm quite obsessed with appearance consistency.
Other apps include Tweetbot, Reeder, Divvy, GitUp and Amphetamine.
My keyboard setup is still a work in progress. I have tried to adapt it to my kind of work, namely javascript and vim, but I also do a lot of non-programming work, so I rolled back a bit towards more general use. The same applies to languages because it's probably 50-50 English and Portuguese, which makes it hard to settle on a specific layout (PT has a lot of accents like ´`~^). However, I am a maximizer and a perfectionist and therefore I'll keep making some changes for sure. I'm using QUERTY layout but I keep dreaming of trying out Colemak one day.
Regarding keycaps, I have the printed glow ones from Ergodox by default. I have purchased a set of rugged gaming keycaps just to replace the F and the 6 keys, as a way to help guide my fingers when needed. They're the grey ones on the picture.
I'm still using the Cherry Brown key switches, even though I think they're a bit too loud. I've tried Zilents V2 and loved how silent they are but then I started feeling pain because apparently, their actuation force (62g) is way too high for my hands (I've got long yet thin fingers). If I ever buy another Ergodox I'll probably go for a lighter and smoother linear key switch such as the silent red or the Kailh silver.
Something else I've found is that it's more comfortable for me to type with plenty of elbow room. I now push the keyboard a bit further towards the screen which forces me to deliberately reach it with elbows rested. For some reason, this position is less prone to feeling pain on the back of my hands.
I can't say I'm far from it. Although I like my monitor very much, I always feel envy of those 3 side-by-side monitor setups you get to see in movies. I'm not sure that actually works well in real life, looks like too much screen real estate for a confessed unitasker such as myself. In what comes to ergonomics, I intend to buy a kneeling chair as it helps me keep a good posture.