Personal Toolkit (May 2022)

Preface

I’ve always been a tool enthusiast, firmly believing in the principle “to do a good job, one must first sharpen one’s tools.” I constantly tinker with and optimize my hardware and software, seeking the best solution for each specific need. Now, I’ve gradually found solutions that best suit my usage habits. Due to work, study, and personal interests, my devices have gone through many iterations. I’m making a record at this point in time, and will continue to update it in the future, hoping it can be a reference for others.

This article is only a compilation of hardware and software toolkits as of May 2022. For the latest version, please visit my personal toolkit project maintained on GitHub: “GitHub - pseudoyu/yu-tools”.

Note: All software services mentioned below are purchased/subscribed by me or educational licenses enjoyed through student status. Please support genuine versions!

Main Devices

💻 Computers and Accessories

• Apple Mac Studio (2022), M1 Max, 64GB RAM, 1T SSD, main computer at home, greatly enhances work and study satisfaction during the pandemic
• Apple MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019) Silver, 2.4 GHz 8-core Intel Core i9, 32GB RAM, 2T SSD, frequently used, basically carried everywhere, connected to an external monitor at the company
• BenQ EW3270U 4K Monitor, used with Mac Studio, very good in this price range for 4K
• BenQ ScreenBar Halo Monitor Light, haven’t turned on the main light at home since getting this, can be wirelessly controlled and adjusted, very atmospheric
• HHKB Professional Hybrid Type-S Silent Keyboard, White with Printed Keycaps, currently my favorite keyboard
• RealForce PFU Limited Edition 87 Keys, Black, backup keyboard, also a classic electrostatic capacitive, but not very used to it, might use it for gaming later, after all, HHKB has special key layout
• MM-Studio Class65 V2 Custom Dual-mode Mechanical Keyboard, Retro White (Originally wanted to enter the world of custom keyboards with this, but didn’t have the mood to tinker, waited three months for group buy, sold it at original price as soon as it arrived)
• Apple Magic Keyboard, White, basically not used since starting to use HHKB
• Logitech MX Master 3 Mouse, Gray, main mouse, great feel and side button functions, also great for video editing
• Apple Magic Mouse 2, White, not very comfortable, basically not used anymore
• Apple Magic Trackpad, White, used in combination with the mouse at home, good experience
• Flash 100W Pro GaN Charger, Yellow, carried when going out, finally got rid of Apple’s bulky 96w charger

📱 Phones and Tablets

• Apple iPhone 13 Blue, 256GB, main phone, works well with the Apple ecosystem, but I’ve basically quit using my phone, mainly used for communication and checking information, probably won’t change for a long time
• OnePlus 7 Pro, 6.67", Snapdragon 855, 256GB, previously rooted when I was in Hong Kong, works well with Google ecosystem for studying abroad, and the photo style is very natural, but rarely used now
• Apple iPad Air (3rd generation), 256GB, mainly used as an extended screen or for watching videos, rarely used as a productivity tool, most things that can be done on a computer won’t be done on the iPad

🎥 Cameras and Accessories

• Sony A7M3 Mirrorless Camera, Black, my first mirrorless camera that I saved up for a long time in college, very capable for both photography and video, has been with me for many years, still very sufficient now
• Sony 24-105mm F4 Camera Lens, bought with the camera, basically this one master lens is enough to handle most scenes when going out, although the aperture is only F4, the image quality is really high
• Sony 55mm F1.8 Zeiss Camera Lens, received as a gift, also my favorite prime lens, mainly used for portraits
• Rode Wireless Go Wireless Microphone, used more for video recording before, portable and easy to use, sound is also very good, will consider recording more videos later

🎧 Speakers and Headphones

• Apple Airpods Pro Noise-cancelling Headphones, originally not very used to in-ear style, but after experiencing noise cancellation, can’t live without it now
• Apple HomePod mini Speaker, main output device for home computer, the built-in audio quality of Mac Studio and monitor at home is not very good
• Divoom Ditoo Pixel Retro Speaker, received as a gift, now placed on the desk as decoration, basically haven’t played any music
• Xiaomi AI Speaker, linked with various smart home devices at home

📦 Storage Devices

• Samsung T5 SSD, 1TB, mainly used to store photography and video materials, very small, fast transfer speed
• Seagate Portable Hard Drive, 1TB, used for Time Machine backup with Mac Studio

🎮 Leisure and Entertainment

• Kindle Oasis 2 E-reader, used to read more before, now basically read physical books and on the phone’s Books app
• Nintendo Switch Console, Animal Crossing Special Edition, mainly used to play Pokemon, have bought quite a few games since 2018, many haven’t had time to play yet, game cartridge collector
• Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Special Edition, experience is much better than the included Joy-Con

Software Tools

🛠 System Extensions

• CleanMyMac X, computer manager, mainly used for clearing cache and uninstalling software
• AppCleaner, a very simple application uninstall tool
• One Switch, menu bar shortcut tool, mainly used to organize computer sleep
• Alfred 4, quick launch tool, very rich in functions with some Workflows, now mainly use its clipboard history function
• Hammperspoon, mainly used to compensate for HHKB’s lack of arrow keys in some scenarios through Option + hjkl combination keys
• Bartender 4, menu bar management tool, mainly hides some software service menu bar icons
• BetterTouchTool, touchpad and Touchbar management, mainly used to configure touchpad for Macbook Pro
• Magnet, split-screen tool
• iStat Menus, system status display, mainly displays CPU, memory, and network status
• AirBuddy, headphone management tool, feels smoother when connecting headphones
• HazeOver, desktop effect tool, very nice display effect
• Plash, dynamic desktop extension, put a minimalist dynamic time display on the main screen, also hardly consumes resources
• DaisyDisk, disk management, occasionally used to track large files
• Menubar X, menu bar web extension, used to hang some small tools before, now used less
• Logi Options+, Logitech configuration tool, used to configure mouse function buttons, but basically use default values

📁 File Management

• OneDrive, 5TB space, stores most personal data, synced through client mounting local directory, good speed
• iCloud, 200GB space, mainly used for photo backup and software data synchronization
• Dropbox, 2GB space, mainly used in combination with Cryptomator for encrypted backup of sensitive data
• Google Drive, 1TB space (abandoned as school switched from Google services to Microsoft services)
• Baidu Netdisk, used to store audio-visual and backup tools (used to store a large number of video editing files before, abandoned)

🔐 Security Tools

• ElPass, password management tool, love the interface, OTP and server management functions are very impressive, now manage all accounts, passwords, documents, and bank cards here, using iCloud and Dropbox for synchronization and backup
• GPG Keychain, macOS GPG encryption tool client, mainly used to sign Git commits
• Cryptomator, file directory encryption tool, used to encrypt and backup private documents and other sensitive data, used in combination with cloud storage
• DAMA, image privacy masking tool, tried the beta version through TestFlight

🌏 Network Tools

• Surge, network proxy and debugging tool, home Mac Studio uses Surge as the DHCP server for home Wifi, taking over the home network to achieve full network proxy, mainly used for iPad to access external networks and Switch to accelerate game downloads
• AdGuard Home, achieves ad-blocking through network traffic filtering and DNS, very powerful
• ClashX, network proxy tool, mainly used before buying Surge, now kept as a backup line
• OpenVPN Connect, openvpn client, used to connect to company internal network servers
• Tunnelblick, used in the previous project, but the interface is not as good as the above, abandoned
• Safari, main browser, synced across multiple devices through iCloud
  • AdGuard Home, ad-blocking plugin
  • Elpass, auto-fill passwords
  • Downie, download plugin, one-click media identification and download
  • NetNewsWire, automatically fetches website subscription links
  • Vinegar+Baking Soda, turns the video player of YouTube and some other video sites back to HTML5 player, minimalist, very nice experience
• Brave
  • MetaMask, wallet plugin
  • Elpass, auto-fill passwords
  • Douban Companion, backup and view Douban data
  • YouTube Dual Subtitles, supports multi-language subtitles
  • YouTubeEnhancer, enhances YouTube player functionality
• Chrome (migrated to Brave, abandoned)

🧰 Practical Tools

• Bob, word/screenshot translation tool, perfect experience with DeepL X extension plugin and DeepL Free Api Docker image released by zu1k, later updated with independent OCR function, more powerful
• Tern-Subtitle File Translator, I use it with the API provided by IBM for automatic Chinese-English translation of subtitles
• qBittorrent, use RSS manager to subscribe to specific PT site anime and other media resources, automatically update downloads
• Downie, video source download tool, download some videos from YouTube or Bilibili, used as editing materials
• PicGo, image bed management tool, mainly upload images to GitHub image bed and generate custom Markdown format when writing blogs, can be directly embedded in articles
• BetterZip, compression/decompression tool, basically a must-have for computer setup, currently supports all formats encountered
• PDF Expert, PDF viewing and editing tool, mainly used for some merging and editing, often still use the built-in Preview for viewing
• PDF Squeezer, PDF compression tool, very good compression effect, easy to use
• Image Smith, image compression tool, just tried a new tool, very good, will be the main compression tool later
• TinyPNG4Mac, previously used to compress blog images before uploading, very simple function, now used as a backup
• Rime Squirrel, customizable input method, good experience and data saved locally, safe and stable
• Time Machine, backup tool, mainly used for real-time backup of Mac Studio
• brew, Homebrew installation tool, basically all development-related things are installed with brew, convenient for management and upgrade
• TestFlight, used to try some beta software

📝 Recording Tools

• Logseq, now the main tool for life recording, task management and note-taking, built my own information management system based on bidirectional links, and recording in text entries through Journal has no mental burden, it’s recommended to watch Randy’s <How I Use Logseq to Manage My Life and Notes>, very inspiring
• Notion, originally used for note-taking and task management, later migrated to Logseq, so now only used as a tool for software subscription management, game recording, the database is still very powerful
• Hook, file resource bidirectional link tool, currently mainly used to track some local large files like videos, can be embedded in Logseq in the form of links
• Office 365, main document/PPT/spreadsheet processing tool, actually after work, it’s mainly Markdown writing, but in the end still need to use Word for layout
• iWork Suite, Apple’s built-in document processing tools
• Typora, main Markdown editor, the most perfect Markdown editor, occasionally when need to convert some text will also invoke it through Alfred
• MarginNote 3, used to read some papers, books, not used very much
• XMind8 Pro, main mind mapping tool, used more for note-taking when in school, after work, systematic learning and organizing has become less, need to maintain the habit

👨🏻‍💻 Development Tools

• Editors
  • JetBrains GoLand, main work Go development IDE, very powerful, currently subscribed to the whole family with Edu identity, hope to continue with open source projects later
    • Material Theme UI + Atom Material Icons, very beautiful theme
    • GitHub Copilot, code AI completion, very intelligent
    • GitToolBox, prompts some Git status information
    • IdeaVim, configure Vim key bindings
    • PlantUML Integration, used to draw UML diagrams, currently feel it’s the best platform for writing and previewing experience
    • WakaTime, used to record coding projects, languages and time spent
  • VS Code, code editing tool, auxiliary development
    • Serendipity, a newly tried and very liked theme
    • GitHub Copilot, code AI completion, heavily dependent
    • Beancount, used for double-entry bookkeeping, combined with fava tool for visualization
    • Markdown All in One, used to enhance support for Markdown, mainly used to write blogs
    • Rainbow Brackets, adds color to paired brackets
    • go, Go language environment support
    • solidity, smart contract writing support
    • WakaTime, used to record coding projects, languages and time spent
  • Atom
    • go-plus, Go language environment support
    • fabric-go, used to debug fabric 1.4 version chaincode, can automatically deploy through images, very convenient, this is also the only use of my Atom editor now
    • wakatime, used to record coding projects, languages and time spent
  • JetBrains PyCharm Professional Edition, Python editor
    • Material Theme UI + Atom Material Icons, very beautiful theme
    • GitHub Copilot, code AI completion, very intelligent
    • GitToolBox, prompts some Git status information
    • IdeaVim, configure Vim key bindings
    • WakaTime, used to record coding projects, languages and time spent
  • Xcode, macOS and iOS development IDE
• Terminal
  • Warp, newly tried terminal written in Rust, great experience, completely used as the main terminal
  • iTerm2, used for a long time before, now mainly used to switch multiple servers
• Server Management
  • ssh, used in combination with Warp and iTerm2’s Profile to connect to servers
  • Termius, server management tool, mainly can synchronize configurations in the cloud, don’t need to configure local environment when debugging and testing with company colleagues, quite convenient, and also use SFTP to transfer files
  • ServerCat, server status monitoring, very nice interface
  • Fetch, backup remote file transfer tool, very classic
• Database Management
  • Sequel Ace, main database management tool, a maintained version of the previous open source version Sequel Pro, simple interface but very powerful functions
  • JetBrains DataGrip, mainly used to automatically export database Markdown files through Groovy scripts, very convenient for writing documentation
• API Debugging
  • Paw, main API debugging tool, registered when it was free, very fast, powerful multi-environment and branch management
  • Postman, previously used API debugging tool, but the interface is too complex and a bit slow, abandoned
• Documentation Viewing: Dash, convenient to check documentation with Alfred
• Containers: Docker Desktop, although it occupies high resources, it is indeed convenient
• Drawing Tools
  • PlantUML, draw flowcharts through syntax in combination with GoLand plugin, convenient for modification and version maintenance
  • Draw.io, draw some complex architecture diagrams and deployment diagrams through this client, a bit crude but sufficient
• Version Control
  • git, version management tool
    • git-cz, interactive standardized commit messages
    • git-chglog, used to automatically generate formatted CHANGELOG
  • Fork, git client tool (abandoned, changed to command line with alias)
  • GitHub, manage my personal blog, image bed and development projects through GitHub
  • GitLab, manage work projects through company GitLab

📹 Video Editing

• Final Cut Pro X, bought the whole suite at a discounted price at the time, switched from PR to FCPX as the main editing tool, much better experience than PR on macOS
• Jianying Pro, the function of intelligent subtitle matching through speech recognition is very powerful, version 3.0 also supports exporting .srt format, then through an open source srt2fcpxml tool to convert back to FCPX compatible subtitle format and import back to FCPX, simplifying the subtitle production workflow, no need to manually adjust the timeline anymore
• Compressor, main compression tool, can conveniently link and export with some FCPX presets
• HandBrake, backup open source video compression tool, used for some simple compression and transcoding
• FCPX Assistant, used to clean up FCPX cache, also has some small tools for royalty-free music download and material management
• IINA, previous main video player, abandoned after subscribing to Infuse

📷 Image Processing

• Affinity Photo, Photoshop alternative for photo editing and color grading, I use it to process and apply LUTs after taking photos
• Pixelmator Pro, bought at half price on Black Friday, said to be very powerful, but haven’t used it much yet
• Luminar 4, more convenient than Affinity Photo and others for doing some simple effect processing

📮 Email Management

• Spark, email aggregation tool, multi-device synchronization is also very fast, now all mailboxes are managed through Spark
• Alimail, work email
• Outlook, mainly used to manage Office365 developer account
• Mail, Apple’s built-in email client

📨 Information Management

• NetNewsWire, RSS subscription tool, multi-device synchronization is very convenient, gradually turning to RSS as my main information input
• TweetBot, client used to post and browse Twitter on computer, mainly can be arranged by timeline
• Books, Apple’s built-in book application, can import epub or pdf files to read
• Domain and Personal Website
  • GitHub Pages, achieve automatic deployment with GitHub Action
  • Cloudflare, manage domain names and accelerate websites with CDN
  • Vercel, deployed the blog’s Cusdis comment system with Heroku’s database
• Douban, use GitHub Action to fetch RSS provided by Douban every day, count my audio-visual and books and update to GitHub homepage and personal website introduction page, also use a Brave plugin called “Douban Companion” to regularly backup and export

💬 Communication and Social

• WeChat, most of life and work communication is still through WeChat
• Tencent Meeting, used for work, main meeting tool
• Microsoft Teams, occasionally used to participate in some online seminars
• Gather, interesting online communication, recommending to friends around, like Pokemon, can reduce the sense of distance brought by the pandemic
• DingTalk, work communication and occasionally handle some information for my sister’s school
• Telegram, mainly joined some groups for technology news and software tips, occasionally check
• Discord, mainly used to participate in some projects to get information
• QQ, commonly used by school during university, abandoned

🎸 Audio-Visual Entertainment

• Infuse, video playback and media management tool, available on all platforms and supports many formats, can build your own local anime, movie and TV series library with media servers like Plex
• Plex Media Server, streaming media management server, can automatically obtain metadata for media library management by specifying local directories
• Apple Music, main music software, slowly building my own music library with Music Mate on iOS
• Apple Podcasts, mainly used to listen to some blogs
• iQIYI, given membership, occasionally used to follow some popular self-produced dramas
• Netflix, used to follow some latest series, Singapore subscription
• Disney+, used to watch some Disney animations, Marvel series and movies, but not used much now, also Singapore subscription

📲 Mobile Apps

• 🛠 System Extensions
  • Panda Eats SMS, filter spam messages, very useful
  • AdGuard, web browsing ad-blocking tool
  • AT, important date anniversary/countdown
  • OffScreen, track phone usage time
  • Puzzle Clock, personalized clock widget
  • Puzzle Vinyl, personalized music player widget
  • Puzzle Blank, set blank positions on the screen
  • Vinegar+Baking Soda, browser plugin for using HTML5 player to watch videos
• 📁 File Management
  • Files, Apple’s built-in local and iCloud file management
  • OneDrive, iOS version
• 🔐 Security Tools
  • Elpass, password management tool iOS version, supports two-factor authentication
  • Google Authenticator, Google two-factor authentication tool
  • Microsoft Authenticator, Microsoft two-factor authentication tool
  • DAMA, image privacy masking tool
• 🌏 Network Tools
  • Surge, Surge proxy tool iOS version
  • Shadowrocket, backup proxy tool
  • Speedtest, network speed test tool
  • Mi WiFi, manage home WiFi and devices
• 🧰 Practical Tools
  • Eudict, dictionary application, can import different sources
  • Translate, Apple’s built-in translation tool
  • ServerCat, server status detection tool mobile version
  • Shortcuts, perform various automated operations
  • TestFlight, try some beta applications
• 📝 Recording Tools
  • Logseq, iOS version, mainly used for viewing
  • Office 365, iOS version, synchronized through Office365 account and OneDrive
  • iWork Suite, iOS version
  • Notability, note-taking tool
• 🪙 Digital Assets
  • imToken, iOS digital wallet
  • TokenPocket, iOS digital wallet
  • Binance, Binance exchange iOS client
  • OKX, OKEX exchange iOS client
  • Huobi, Huobi exchange iOS client
• 🏚 Home Management
  • Home, Apple’s built-in home application, currently mainly used to manage HomePod mini
  • Mi Home, manage Xiaomi smart home devices
  • Xiao AI Speaker, connect and manage Xiao AI smart speaker, voice control smart home
  • Divoom, manage Divoom pixel speaker
  • Yeelight, control ambient light mode
  • Xiaopei Pet, control pet smart home
  • Health, Apple’s built-in health data recording application, mainly used to record sleep
  • Grow, linked with health application, generate health data
  • Zepp Life, linked with Xiaomi weight scale etc., record health data
• 📨 Information Management
  • Spark, iOS version
  • NetNewsWire, iOS version
  • Apple Books, e-book reader, mainly import epub format to read
  • Patreon, subscription and sponsorship platform to support some tech experts
  • Twitter, iOS version, main platform for obtaining and publishing foreign information
  • Instagram, iOS version, mainly used to publish photography and daily photos
  • Facebook, iOS version, personal status update platform, used less after leaving Hong Kong
  • Weibo, official client, main platform for obtaining and publishing stock internal information
  • Douban, iOS version
  • Sspai, used to read some tool-related information
  • Outlook, iOS version
  • Mail, Apple’s built-in mail application
• 👨🏻‍💻 Work and Job Hunting
  • LinkedIn, look for some foreign company opportunities
  • BOSS Direct Hiring, mainly used for job hunting in China
  • Maimai, used to query some company information
• 💰 Payment Tools
  • Alipay, main daily payment tool
  • China Merchants Bank, CMB card management
  • Life of CMB, CMB credit card management
  • ICBC, ICBC card management
  • AlipayHK, Hong Kong Alipay account
• 🚆 Transportation and Travel
  • Maps, Apple’s built-in map application, mainly used to search routes
  • Gaode Maps, company uses this for overtime taxis
  • Ctrip, used to book flights and hotels
  • 12306, used to book high-speed rail tickets, but later mostly booked directly in Ctrip
  • Umetrip Pro, used to check flight information, check-in and count my travels, very useful
• 🛍 Life Tools
  • Ele.me, order takeout and fruits
  • Taobao, buy some daily necessities
  • JD.com, mainly buy digital products and small appliances
  • Dianping, check reviews of some stores
  • Damai, check some performances and exhibitions
  • Xianyu, occasionally look at some second-hand goods
  • Dangdang, buy physical books, mostly technical
  • Personal Income Tax, used for annual settlement
• 💬 Communication and Social
  • WeChat, iOS version
  • Tencent Meeting, iOS version
  • DingTalk, iOS version
  • Telegram, iOS version
  • Discord, iOS version
  • Clubhouse, voice chat room tool, the heat has passed and now used less
  • QQ, iOS client, abandoned
• 🎸 Audio-Visual Entertainment
  • Infuse, iOS version, can connect to Mac Studio’s Plex media library server through local network
  • YouTube, used to watch various foreign bloggers and technical videos
  • Bilibili, mainly used to watch updates from various followed bloggers
  • iQIYI, iOS client
  • Apple Music, iOS version
  • Music Mate, explore new music, slowly build my own music library
  • Apple Podcasts, mainly listen to podcasts through iOS version
  • Pokémon Go, favorite game, left many memories in Hong Kong, pity can’t play after coming back

Conclusion

The above is my toolkit that I personally use in May 2022. I spent several days thoroughly organizing and categorizing the apps on my computer and phone. As the usage time gets longer, I’ve been constantly subtracting and continuously optimizing my usage. I hope this can be a reference for everyone.

References

1. Personal Toolkit (December 2021)
2. GitHub - pseudoyu/yu-tools