My passion for the internet and computers began on my second cellular phone. We did not have a computer at home, when I grew up. I worked and bought my first cellular phone when I was in primary school. Soon after this, WAP became a trend and I got myself a Nokia 6210 which was one of the first WAP-Enabled phones available in South Africa. WAP opened up my world to search and the concept of the internet. I was in love.
I bought my first computer, a single core Acer laptop, when I was 19. During the 5 years I actively used it, I wrote multiple business proposals and tenders and also learned the basics of web development. I did not have a high income job, so I relied mostly on free and open source software, my second love affair begins.
I developed, earned an income and started my business using open source technology; Inkscape, NotePad++ and FileZilla. I tried numerous other text editors and design tools, but ended up sticking to some of the simple ones. As my company grew, I was afforded the opportunity to invest in other software and newer technology.
I “grew up” on Windows, but have since migrated to Mac. I love the simplicity and elegance of Apple products.
Hardware
- MacBook Pro 15″
- 2.0 Ghz i7
- 4 Gb memory
- 500GB HDD
- iMac 27″
- i3
- 4GB memory
- 1TB HDD
- iPad2
- 64 GB
- Wifi + 3G
- iPhone4
- 32 GB
- Google Nexus S
- 16 GB
- Custom Rig
- 3.4 Ghz i7 2600k CPU
- 8 GB OCZ 1600 Dual Channel Memory
- 60 GB OCZ Vertex 2 SSD – Operating System
- 150 GB Western Digital Velociraptor – Scratch Disk
- 2 x 500 GB Seagate 7200 RPM HDD, RAID1 – Primary Storage
- 1 x 2 TB, Seagate 5600 RPM HDD – Media Storage
- ATI 5770 Graphics Card
- 2 x Samsung BX2460 24″ LED displays
- CM Storm Sentinel Advance mouse
- Razor Lycos Mirror keyboard
- APC 650 UPS
- Cooler Master Hyper 212 CPU Cooler
- Cooler Master Elite 310 Case
- Cooler Master 750W modular power supply
- Headphones – Yes, I like sound.
- Stanton Dj Pro 3000
- Behring HPX4000
- Aerial7 Tank
- Skull Candy Ink’d – Black
- Skull Candy Ink’d – White
Software
- Windows System
- Windows 7 Ultimate
- Microsoft Office 2010 Pro Plus
- NotePad++
- Tweet Deck
- Avast Professional
- Apple Macs Systems
- OS X Lion
- iWork
- Adobe CS5 Master Collection
- TextMate
- Twitter App
- iPad
- iOS 5
- iWork
- Garage Band
- Korg
- iPhone
- iOS 5
- iWork
- Garage Band
- iMaschine
- Adobe Ideas
- Qlock Two
- Nexus S
- Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
- WhatsApp for messaging those who don’t have iMessage
- Foursquare
- Google+
- Mashable for social news
- Fancy for interesting finds
- Skitch for drawing random things
- Rackspace Cloud for managing Rackspace virtual machines
- Speed Test
- Cross Platform Apps
- FileZilla for managing hosted storage
- Inkscape for quick SVG mockups
- Cloud Services
- Evernote for drafting documents and synchronizing notes
- DropBox for off site backup and multi-device synchronization
- Wunderlist for general task management
- Picasa for photo sharing and backups
- Gmail for searchable, multi-device mail management
- SoundCloud for social music sharing