Joshua Nguyen

Taking a page from waferbaby’s The Set Up, here’s what I use almost daily:

Hardware: I only have one laptop, a 2008 15 in. Macbook Pro hooked up to a 24” HP monitor at work.  It’s enough of a workhorse for me and although I should know better, I hate switching contexts between home and work (music, photos, etc.). I’m trying a Magic Mouse which is hugely useful for gestures, but I’m finding that it hurts my hand because it’s so thin.  I also always have my iPhone 3G, waiting for an upgrade in June 2010.   I also have a pair Sony noise canceling headphones at work.

I play around with a couple of cameras: a Canon G9, mostly for video stuff or when I am going out without my messenger bag, a Canon Rebel Ti with the kit lens, a 50 mm 2F/1.8 lens for portraits and a Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8 lens as a default for general city walkabouts.  Also in heavy rotation is the Lomo wide angle Jelly camera and my Polaroid (Business edition) and of course, the iPhone.

At home, I have a Dell 22” monitor next to a JBL On Stage micro speaker where I dock my iPhone.  Mostly I watch TV on my laptop, but the 32” Samsung is good enough for my small living room.  I don’t have a DVD player since I can hook up my laptop to the TV.  I do have a SlingBox to watch my shows while I travel overseas. Rounding out my domestic activities is a Roomba to help me clean.

Software: There’s the stuff I”m learning — Adobe Fireworks, Dreamweaver and Photoshop for all the ideas in my head that needs design and prototyping.  Aperture is used a bunch for photo-editing, but I may switch back to Photoshop again.  I also love iMovie, having not learned Final Cut yet.  Tweetdeck has given way to Tweetie on the iphone.   Word and Powerpoint have given ways to Google Docs and Keynote.  I still use Excel for project management and the occasional spreadsheet.  Twiki is huge.  Entourage is mandatory for work, and I sync it up to my iPhone.  PandoraBoy gives me access to one of my favorite web services and Skitch is the one product management tool I can’t function without.  iTunes, of course, but I dabble with the Amazon mp3 downloader from time to  time.  I upload images using the Flickr Uploadr and dabble in Final Draft occasionally.  I truly love Adium for its synthesis, and I’ve finally settled on Firefox as my default browser.

Web Services: I use a lot but here are the things I love.  Tumblr for self-expression, Flickr for most of the underlying media to other services, Facebook for socializing, Twitter for broadcasting, Dropbox for file storage, Gmail/Gchat for communicating, Flavors.me for branding, Google Reader to keep up, LinkedIn for career, Google Docs for planning and semi-work, Foursquare for location play, Yelp for restaurant reviews, Animoto for slideshows, Vimeo for video, Mint for personal finance, eTrade for brokerage services, CityCar Share for transportation, Tripit for travel planning, Paypal for payment, Amazon for retail, Zappos for shoes, Pandora for music inspiration, Lala for another listen and Netflix for movies.

iPhone apps: I have 137 apps and counting.  I used to purchase a bunch of games, but now I’ve transitioned towards a few content creation/consumption apps. Here are some that are on constant rotation: CameraKit, Hipstamatic, Pano, Quad Camera and Camera Bag for processing photos; Tweetie, Facebook, Foursquare, Pandora, and Flickit are my main web services apps; iFitness and Lose It are for the gym.  NextBus for public transport and TaxiMagic for weekends.  I use Shazam from time to time when I’m driving with the radio on, and Fring for emergencies that need instant messaging. Then there are a bunch of Lonely Planet city guides and language apps.  Games include Table Tennis, HoldEm, Tap Tap, Madden NFL, RSoccer10 and TS Tennis.  Yelp and MenuPages are also useful most days.

Things I subscribe to: Lots. Mainly around tech, travel, local events and civic news.

Things I used a lot in 2008 but not so much any more: Flock, Safari, Chrome, Microsoft Office, Delicious, Upcoming, Skype, Tweetdeck, uTorrent, Hulu, iPhoto, Dopplr, Wordpress, Typepad, last.fm, Facebook apps and Facebook pages.