As a vivid and passionate security researcher and reverse engineer, I use my macOS day to day, and this page shows core toolkit which helps me be productive and creative in my profession.
Obviously Apple macOS Operating System.
My laptop is a MacBook Pro (Retina, 14-Inch, Late ‘21) with Apple M1 CPU and 16GB of RAM.
My setup contains dualscreen (2x) Lenovo-p27h External 2K Displays that I usually replace with my 12.9’ iPad Pro (5th Gen) when I’m on the move.
For keyboard I use White Glorious GMMK 60%, although its not strange to find me using other mechanical keyboards that I own; sometimes I opt for my 84-keys Satechi SM3 keyboard in a light gray/white variant, while other times I prefer Redragon or even Razor Blackwidow v3 which I prefer while gaming. During the office work, I love my Logitech MX Masters 3 and its best purchase choice I’ve made. Still, I do prefer using my Logitech G502 Hero wired mouse when I play games or do in-office/lab work.
My daily laptop is a MacBook Pro (Retina, 14’ inch), late ‘21 model with Apple M1 CPU, 16GB of RAM and 1TB of solid storage. I vividly work on my electric desk setup I’ve assembled and constructed myself, and usually have AirPods Pro 3 with me.
Besides, I daily use my beloved Thinkpad T430 running Microsoft Windows 10 x64 especially when doing any automotive hacking research or I have to delve into electronics and specific software available only on WindowsNT. I also love using my older machine; my Apple Macbook Air (13’ inch), late ‘15 model - running Linux CachyOS, allowing me to streamline any GNU/Linux bare-metal required work or project.
When I’m on the move, I prefer using my 12.9 iPad Pro (5th Gen) with Magic Keyboard Folio, in combination with my iPhone 16 Pro, alongside my Apple Watch Ultra which I absolutely love to bring during my holiday trips and other business travels.
I’m not a fan of default macOS Terminal app therefore I switch to iTerm on each macOS instance. I’m using my custom color scheme, as well as custom zsh prompt, with my very own startup ascii/tty graphics.
This is literally the best tool ever. It allows you to create terminal sessions, windows, panes all within single tty. I can easily switch between each and also detach from specific sessions which may contain long running tasks.
Usually I prefer NeoVim but lately I’ve been using Nova from Panic as my main IDE and development editor of choice. It is quite robust and works natively on MacOS, plus you get handy of extensions that you may use for different type of projects and specificiations. Unlike other similar alternative, Nova is not too expensive (100$ USD) and it works out of the box for most projects.
Using NeoVim as my secondary editor, integrated with iTerm and my tmux environment. I have custom color scheme that looks beautiful and matches my iTerm theme. I’m sucker for LunarVim, which I used extensively to configure my NeoVim instance. I rarely use NeoVim nowadays, except to quickly edit some files. Lately, I’ve been forcing myself to use hx which I’m still trying to map exactly to my NeoVim kb configs.
I’m using Safari to browse interenet websites, research new topics, develop my frontend activities and do other web related work.
I’ve been using Airmail Business for a long time, but have once again switched back to default Apple’s Mail. For some reason, I figured out it works wonders once it’s been correctly setup with multiple eMail addresses, relevant mailboxes, signatures, and so on.
Sequel Ace, AppCleaner, Tangent Notes, Sleeve 2, …
The only UI editing software that I trust, and have been using for years. Highly recommended for all UI/UX designers.
I rarely design anything in 3D, but when I do, I’m opting out for Shapr3D which is also available on iPad. It allows me to quickly three-dimensionaly design any kind of projection I’ve imagined. It’s a bit pricey and subscription based, but it’s well worth the price.
Nothing for now.
The default macOS Notes app. is really good to take quick notes in a workspace-oriented collections. Here I paste my todos, URLs, random notes and ideas, and so on.
It’s not strange to catch me using SnippetsLab which usually contains temporary trash notes that I might need for future reference, depending what my workflow is. I rarely use it to actually store long-term snippets for the development stuff.
I use Rayon to manage and organise my Virtual Private Servers, Nodes, Controllers, and other network devices through multiple datacenters and providers. It’s quite simple to configure and use, and you can sync your settings to iCloud. Since I have a [consulting agency], we try to self-host most of the platforms in our DC’s Office and lab.
Cute and small calendar living in your macOS menubar, good for glancing over your meetings and events.
I’ve just started using this utility but I absolutely love the way it works. It allows you to sync all of your macOS applications to your iCloud, and use the synced configuration on all your other Macs.
Keeps your MacOS awake, even if lid is closed. Quite configurable and also free.
Tries to bring WindowsOS Ctrl+X shortcut on your macOS. Basically does what it says it does, have it set up to run on login and you are good to go.
I highly recommend 2FAS Auth which is defacto open-source two-factor authenticator mobile app, easy to use, works offline, private, secure and with system extensions available for all major browsers. Truly, one of a kind privacy-oriented 2FA that totally sets it apart from other alternatives (ie. ~Google Authenticator~, etc …)
A multi-platform and OS-wide support crypto wallet for buying, staking & swapping cryptocurrency, open-source, secure, decentralized, and also anonymous, making it a great alternative to Trust Wallet and similar. There is also Wasabi Wallet but it supports Bitcoin wallet only.
@see .dotfilesHackerNews is a social news website that showcases user-submitted technology-related news and discussions. I use it daily to discover new tech-related releases and latest information.
Lobste.rs is a technology-focused link aggregator that curates and shares user-submitted stories and discussions about programming, technology, and related topics. Quite similar to previous, but requires user-invitation to be able to submit and comment. Mostly focused on FreeBSD and other *BSD distributions.
Hackaday serves up fresh hacks every day from around the Internet. It mostly writes and publishes stories about Electronics, Electrical Engineering, and Hacking creativity & thinkering, mostly specific to hardware.