What I use: February 2014
Yes, I stole the idea for this post from Paul Thurrott’s Super Site for Windows. I will approach this from a bit of a different angle than Paul, but the idea is his.
I am an IT consultant. I assume that most people reading this will know that, but I figure it’s best to make that clear off the top. I travel a lot, and when I am not traveling I work from my home office. For this blog post, I am going to go over the products and services that I use professionally.
Computers
I have recently switched my full time computer to a Surface Pro 2. I have the 128 GB version with 4 GB of RAM. I put a 64GB memory card into it just to ensure I have enough space for local files, but I don’t think I need it. I have tons of space on OneDrive, so I keep all my files there.
I am now using this both at home and on the road as my laptop. At home I am using a Surface docking station connected to a 23 inch ASUS monitor. I have a USB keyboard (Microsoft wired keyboard), external camera (Microsoft Life Cam), and a Surface Arc mouse connected to my Surface docking station.
When not in the docking station I use a Surface Touch 2 keyboard and Surface Arc mouse.
I also have a Surface 2 (the RT version), but I really don’t use it much anymore. Since I have switched to my Surface Pro 2, I don’t really have much I need my Surface 2 for.
Phone
My primary land line is on Lync. I use a Plantronics Savi 400 as my primary headset while my Surface is docked. I also use a Plantronics Voyager Legend Bluetooth ear piece when I am not at home with my docking station. The Savi 400 does have a really nice travel case, so sometimes that gets into my bag while on the road but I don’t really need it when I have the Voyager Pro with me.
I carry a Plantronics 620 speaker phone with me. It is a great speaker phone, but I also use it to play music from my cell phone via Bluetooth and I also use it to record meetings into OneNote.
I also carry a Plantronics wired headset with me. It does not seem to work very well for phone calls, as people often say they have a hard time hearing me. I pretty much just use it for listening to podcasts or music on my phone.
The cell phone I use is a Lumia 1020. The camera is really good, and I love being able to take high quality pictures without having to keep a separate camera with me. I like Windows Phone a lot, despite its lack on apps. I’ve been able to find everything I need on there, but I can certainly understand people who prefer to use an Android or even an iPhone.
Lab Server
My lab server was put together from parts off the shelf. I went into Fry’s and asked the geekiest looking guy I could find to pull parts off the shelf, then had another geeky looking guy put it together. It has 96 GB of RAM, and 4 TB of hard drive space. I’m not sure what the CPU is, and I don’t really care. Whatever it is, it servers the purpose.
My internet service is fios, with just a basic home plan. You cannot get a static IP address unless you go with one of the business plans, so I use Dyn.org to do dynamic DNS for me.
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