Uses This

1276 interviews since 2009

A picture of Alex Kohlhofer

Alex Kohlhofer

Web developer (Weewar, Spreedly, No Kahuna)

in developer, mac

Who are you, and what do you do?

My name is Alexander Kohlhofer and I do fun stuff with the internet. I work from home but more often than not I am someplace else. When I am not helping others with their projects, I (and some really clever people) make and run things like Weewar, Spreedly, No Kahuna, Permatime, ...

Then there is this whole other line of talking, teaching, consulting ...

What hardware do you use?

I do everything serious on my trusted white MacBook. It has some cool Aiko stickers on the lid and is still just about fast enough to get the job done. If it was not for the artificial 2GB memory limit and that crappy on board graphics it would almost be decent. At home I connect it to a 20inch Wide Screen from Dell (which it shares with a Wii and a 360 to keep productivity on a constant high). I also have that tiny Bluetooth keyboard from Apple and a not so nice cable bound Microsoft mouse (#cheap, #sturdy, #works) on my desk.

If work allows I prefer travelling light and only bring my net book - but then I am limited to whatever I can achieve within the browser because Windows does not do it for me.

And what software?

My browser of choice would be Google Chrome but since that is Windows only I happily settle for the new Safari 4.

For coding and designing the web I love CSSEdit + Textmate (they totally kick Coda's ass). Then there is Photoshop of course, but I try to not open it too often. For sketches and conceptual work I use paper (made from trees), a white board, OmniGraffle and TextEdit. The latter is also my word processer of choice.

For version control I use Git and GitHub (and I flat out refuse to work with you if you are not willing to use some form of version control).

To collaborate I use my own No Kahuna (and I flat out refuse to work with you if you are not willing to use something like it to structure team work).

Then there are Gmail, Google Reader, FriendFeed (me), Flickr (me), Twitter (me), Tumblr (me), iChat and Skype to keep up with the peeps and the internets.

Newcomer Things keeps me sane.

What would be your dream setup?

All I want is a tiny MacBook with a nice 10 or 12 inch internal screen but powerful enough to drive a 30 inch screen when at home.

Additionally I want the current iPhone but without the total knee jerk 24 month contracts that do not work when you live and work internationally.