Here's a quick list of the tools I use and generally recommend. Subject to change at any time. Some links are affiliate links – using them helps to support this site. Thanks!

Last updated: 19 October 2022

Blog (this site)

Currently, I'm hosting this site using Netlify. The site is built as a static site using Gatsby. The source is on GitHub. If you find any problems with the content, you can add an issue to the repository. If you're looking to create a similar setup for your blog, check out this article on creating a Gatsby blog with Netlify. The rate is roughly $19/mo which is WAY less than I was paying for my previous WordPress hosting.

Previous versions

These links all go to the Wayback Machine internet archive.

This site has been around since 2004. In the past it's been hosted as armysteve.com (when I was deployed to Iraq) and stevesmithblog.com. Before that, my "blog" was on aspalliance.com as far back as 1998 and my first online "home page" was my University of Chicago student page circa 1992-94 or so.

Chocolatey

I've really started to get into using chocolatey to easily manage and install tools on my systems. When I get a new system, it's a simple matter to reinstall anything I've used Chocolatey to install previously. Here's my current list of installed packages, which I get by running the choco list -lo command:

7zip 19.0
7zip.install 19.0
adobereader 2020.006.20042
amazon-music 7.13.0.2210
anki 2.1.43
anydvd 8.4.9.0
autohotkey 1.1.33.09
autohotkey.install 1.1.33.09
audacity 2.3.2
chocolatey 0.10.15
chocolatey-core.extension 1.3.3
chocolatey-dotnetfx.extension 1.0.1
chocolatey-misc-helpers.extension 0.0.4
chocolatey-windowsupdate.extension 1.0.4
Cmder 1.3.11
curl 7.65.0
discord 0.0.307
discord.install 0.0.307
docker-cli 18.09.0
docker-compose 1.29.2
docker-desktop 2.0.0.3
DotNet4.6.1 4.6.01055.20170308
dotnetfx 4.8.0.20190930
Everything 1.4.11015
fiddler 5.0.20182.28034
gh 2.4.0
git 2.21.0
git-credential-manager-for-windows 1.19.0
git.install 2.21.0
greenshot 1.2.10.6
handbrake 1.3.3
handbrake.install 1.3.3
licecap 1.28
microsoft-windows-terminal 1.12.10393.0
nodejs 14.4.0
nodejs.install 14.4.0
NugetPackageExplorer 5.5.64
obs-studio 24.0.3
obs-studio.install 24.0.3
openssh 8.0.0.1
pandoc 2.7.2
papercut 5.1.44
poshgit 0.7.3.1
postman 7.0.9
powertoys 0.29.0
python 3.8.3
python3 3.8.3
slack 4.2.0
smtp4dev 2.0.10
skype 8.45.0.41
snagit 2020.1.0
sql-server-management-studio 15.0.18333.0
SQLite 3.38.2
treesizefree 4.3.1.2
vcredist140 14.31.31103
vcredist2010 10.0.40219.2
vs-code 1.40.2
winamp 5.666
winmerge 2.16.4.20191007
wsl 1.0.1
wsl-ubuntu-1804 18.04.1.020181923
zoom 4.8.5336.0932

Code Editor

I mainly work in Visual Studio Enterprise 2022, but I also regularly use Visual Studio Code.

Visual Studio Extensions/AddIns

Below is a list of some of the extensions I'm using (or have used previously) with Visual Studio:

• Add New File by Mads Kristensen
• Blazor by Microsoft
• BuildVision by Stefan Kert
• Clean Architecture by Greg Trevellick (works with my Clean Architecture solution template)
• Cloud Explorer for VS 2019 Preview by Microsoft
• EditorConfig Language Service by Mads Kristensen
• File Icons by Mads Kristensen
• File Nesting by Mads Kristensen
• Format on Save by Winston Feng
• Image Optimizer by Mads Kristensen
• JavaScript Transpiler by Mads Kristensen
• Live Share by Microsoft
• Markdown Editor by Mads Kristensen
• Microsoft Library Manager by Microsoft
• NDepend by NDepend
• NuGetRecommender (preview) by Microsoft
• Rainbow Braces by Mads Kristensen
• Razor Language Services
• Roslynator 2017 by Josef Pihrt
• SQLite/SQL Server Compact Toolbox by ErikEJ
• Tweaks by Mads Kristensen
• Visual Studio IntelliCode by Microsoft
• Visual Studio Rich Navigation by Microsoft
• Visual Studio Snapshot Debugger by Microsoft
• Web Compiler by Mads Kristensen
• Web Essentials 2017 by Mads Kristensen
• Winter is Coming Theme by John Papa

Visual Studio Code Extensions

I don't necessarily have all of these installed everywhere (I work on a home desktop, an office desktop, and a laptop), but here's an aggregate list of my VS Code extensions:

• .NET Core Test Explorer by Jun Han
• .NET Install Tool for Extension Authors by Microsoft
• Angular Essentials by John Papa
• Angular Language Service by Angular
• Angular Schematics by Cyrille Tuzi
• Angular Snippets by John Papa
• ARM Template Viewer by Ben Coleman
• Azure Account by Microsoft
• Azure App Service by Microsoft
• Azure CLI Tools by Microsoft
• Azure Databases by Microsoft
• Azure Functions by Microsoft
• Azure Resource Manager (ARM) by Microsoft
• Azure Resources by Microsoft
• Azure Storage by Microsoft
• Azure Tools by Microsoft
• Azure Virtual Machines by Microsoft
• Beautify by HookyQR
• C# by Microsoft
• Code Spell Checker by Street Side Software
• Data Workspace by Microsoft
• Debugger for Chrome by Microsoft
• Debugger for Microsoft Edge by Microsoft
• Docker by Microsoft
• Docker Explorer by Jun Han
• Docker Linter by Henrik Sjooh
• Docs Authoring Pack by Microsoft (and associated extensions)
• EditorConfig for VS Code by EditorConfig
• ESLint by Dirk Baeumer
• GitGraph – View branches in graph view – by mhutchie
• GitLens – Git supercharged by Eric Amodio
• GitHub Pull Requests and Issues by GitHub
• HTTP/s and relative link checker by Larry Franks
• IIS Express by Warren Buckley
• JS-CSS-HTML Formatter by lonefy
• Kubernetes by Microsoft
• Live Share by Microsoft
• Markdown All in One by Yu Zhang
• Markdown Preview Enhanced by Yiyi Wang
• markdownlint by David Anson
• Material Icon Theme by Philipp Keif
• npm by egamma
• Nx Console by nrwl
• Partial Diff by Ryuichi Inagaki
• Path Intellisense by Christian Kohler
• Peacock by John Papa
• PlantUML by jebbs
• PowerShell by Microsoft
• Prettier – Code Formatter by Esben Petersen
• Preview on Web Server by YuichiNukiyama
• Remote - Containers by Microsoft
• Remote - WSL by Microsoft
• REST Client by Huachao Mao
• SQL Database Projects by Microsoft
• SQL Server (mssql) by Microsoft
• SQLite by alexcvzz
• Stream Deck for Visual Studio Code by Nicollas R.
• TSLint (deprecated) by egamma
• Typescript Hero by Christoph Bueler (great for organizing imports in Angular apps)
• VS Live Share (see me using it here)
• vscode-icons by Roberto Huertas
• Window Colors by Stuart Robinson
• Winter is Coming Theme by John Papa
• YAML by Red Hat

My custom user settings vary from machine to machine and whether I'm presenting or recording content, but here's an example:

{     
    "editor.fontSize": 14,
    "editor.wordWrap": "on",
    "window.zoomLevel": 1,
    "workbench.colorTheme": "Default Light+",
    "editor.formatOnSave": true
}

Source Control

I'm a huge fan of Git and GitHub. I use VS Code or the CLI for most of my git needs. I have a bunch of articles and tips related to git if you're looking for more info.

Screencasting

I record online courses for Pluralsight and occasional screencasts on YouTube and for NimblePros. I use TechSmith Camtasia to record and produce my screencasts and TechSmith SnagIt for screenshots. I also use LiceCAP for animated screen captures, which are useful for tweets and emailed tips. I'm trying out TechSmith Audiate to help with captions and editing out ums and other vocal pauses.

Streaming

I'm currently streaming on Twitch most Fridays, discussing developer topics. The streams are archived on YouTube. My setup uses OBS Studio. There's enough complexity there that I'll probably create a separate article just for the rest of the details, including how I've configured an Elgato Stream Deck. I haven't gotten too fancy with my stream's interactivity - I mostly just focus on building open source tools with .NET, including my various NuGet packages.

Note (October 2022): It's been a while since I've found time to stream, but I may start it back up again at some point.

Site Monitoring

I get notified within 5 minutes when sites I manage go down. I'm a fan of Uptime Robot as a free tool to provide simple monitoring. I wrote up how I use Uptime Robot for monitoring my websites in January 2023.

Laptop (2019 or so)

In December 2019 I finally broke down and bought a new laptop. It's a 15″ Dell XPS 15" 7590 with 1TB of storage and 32GB of RAM. So far it has only a few stickers:

!Dell XPS 15 Laptop circa 2019

The MBP (below) is still going strong but will mainly stay at home now (it hasn't been used much since early 2020). Its MacOS calendar printing capabilities are worth keeping it around, if nothing else (we use many different Google calendars to manage our family of 6 and nothing else we've found can print out decent looking weekly/monthly calendars).

The Macbook is a Pro Retina 15″ circa 2013 (I purchased it in June 2014). It's running 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 and has 16GB 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM and an Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB graphics card. I run Parallels to run Windows on it and I switch back and forth between MacOS and Windows when developing. It's accumulated a few stickers over the years – here's a pic from September 2018:

Desktop (2019 or so)

I recently built a new Ultimate Developer Rig, which I wrote about with benchmarks here. You can view just the parts here. Here's a short summary:

• Core i9-9900K 3.6GHz 8-Core Processor
• Gigabyte Z390 AORUS MASTER ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
• 32 GB DDR4-3866 Memory
• 1TB M.2 SSD
• GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB Video Card

It's a beast I named NightKing. As I look at it in 2022 it's less of a beast (time flies quickly for computer hardware); I have upgraded the RAM to 64GB.

I'm still running it as my main dev/game rig. I have essentially a clone of it for my office machine as well. Other than adding some new storage space and RAM and video card it's still the same in 2022.

Avatar

Custom avatar by Nate Lovett

My avatar was created by Nate Lovett. I'm on the Stir Trek conference board and in 2016 we had Nate produce avatars for all of our speakers and board members. He did a great job, and if you'd like him to create one for you, contact him via twitter. I'm currently using this avatar on most of my social media and Slack channels, as well as the basis for my Weekly Dev Tips podcast logo.

David Neal (@reverentgeek) also does some great custom-drawn avatars.

Drawing

Speaking of David Neal, he turned me on to the great Sketches Pro app for iOS. I'm using that along with an Apple Pencil and a relatively new iPad to create drawings for my blog posts, newsletters, and presentations. My drawing abilities are still pretty weak, but the app is very powerful and it's quite pleasant to use the combination. In the past, I'd tried drawing pads for the PC, but it's much easier to draw directly on the (portable) surface you're working with than to draw on the desk while looking at the screen, I found.

A few of my articles, including one of my most popular ones about The More You Know, The More You Realize You Don't Know, use drawings I made using this setup.

Podcast

My podcast, Weekly Dev Tips, is hosted by Simplecast. I use a Rode Podcaster microphone to record, with PSM 1 Shockmount and PSA1 Swivel Boom Arm. I use Audacity for both recording and editing. I try to script the shows as markdown which I edit using Visual Studio Code and then upload to Simplecast to act as the show notes. You can see my podcasting checklist here.

The WeeklyDevTips podcast episodes are also published to YouTube and occasionally include video with guests or screencasts from my machine.

XBox

I'm on XBox live as 'ardalis' but haven't had much time to play since late 2020, and before that I'd mainly switched to PC gaming. My go-to game was PUBG (see one of my better engagements here). I take breaks from gaming from time to time so I can keep up with all my work and family commitments.

Steam

You may also find me on Steam as 'ardalis' or 'ardalis1'.

Summary

Have a question about any of the above, or want to know something else about the products I use? Let me know.