Things at home/work

Location: Jakarta, Indonesia
Profession: Financial Analyst / Investment professional / Occasional blogger / Terrible musician
Workstations: Work-issued Lenovo Thinkpad X201 (~2011); at home, a home-built Core2 Q6600 desktop (~2010) now running Windows 8
Blogs: the one you're reading, Hasna's Blog! (hope I can post more regularly)

Hardware that I use daily:

Lenovo X201 with Windows 7
I use a Macbook Air because I'm a professional blogger.Work issued laptop, not much to say. The built-in wifi no longer works (hence the TP-LINK USB adapter below).




Desktop
I built this one when I was still aspiring gamer, playing all of the Call of Duty and Medal of Honor series. Now with a one year old daughter and a more intense fill time job, it has turned into a work desktop. In addition to a 23”, I recently added a second 19" monitor that was sitting unused. My next desktop will have SSD on it.

LG Optimus G Pro
I don't have any reason for picking this model (image from Engadget) over Samsung, Sony, or HTC models, but I got this (at the time) flagship at a bargain that I could not pass up. It has bright huge screen and excellent battery life -- and the Snapdragon Battery Guru app extends the life even further.  It runs Android 4.1.2, if you care about that sort of thing.

BlackBerry Z10
I bought this one at its grand launching about one year ago. Although the app store is a far cry from Google Play, surprisingly you will find that all productivity apps and services are there.  Dropbox, Box, Evernote, Skype, Gmail apps, you name it (Skydrive and Google Maps are two that I miss).  I also loaded Tetris and Despicable Me Minion Rush for short gaming when I'm stuck in traffic. My only wish is for a better battery life (like the Z30) and a physical keyboard (like the Q5 or Q10).

Buffalo Air Station N600 dual band router
After my cheap N150 router bit the dust, I bought this one without much research. Turns out it's a pretty decent router, well-reviewed and has lasted 3 years and going. No complaints there.

TP-LINK TL-WDN3200 Wireless USB Adapter
Dual-band N600 USB adapter for $20? I'll take it.

Ipod mini nano 4GB (~2007)
It plays music and has *very* long battery life. It is the only Apple product I own, not to be smug or anything. I keep it for the long flights, using it with Shure SE215 earphones that sound great despite fit and comfort issues, although I wish they had included a mic for smartphone usage.

Brother MFC-7840N network multifunction printer and scanner
I print a lot and scan everything (receipts, bills, work stuff), but most of these are done at work at the Xerox printing station. At home I only print working papers and online course materials. This monochrome printer feeds scrap paper just fine, scans with a built in document feeder, and takes toners that are cheaper than comparable HP models.  This is an old model with only wired networking; the newer versions do wireless printing, which from I hear can be hit-or-miss.

Yamaha HS-8 Electone Organ (circa 1990)
Recently serviced back to life.  Here's to hoping that my child(-ren) will enjoy it as much as I did 25 years ago.

Software that I use daily/often:

Microsoft Office 2010
My industry requires heavy use of Office, especially Excel. I must have had all the Excel keyboard shortcuts memorized.  I also keep Libre Office (with its free dictionaries) for those rare times that I have to write long-form in Bahasa Indonesia.

Paint.net, Faststone Image Viewer
Most of my image editing only consists of resizing, levels and curves, and cropping, for which these freewares work fine and quickly.

Evernote
I created an account years ago but never found much use for it. Now with a multi computer, multi smartphone setup, it has found a new life. I use it to save useful articles, create to-do lists, and hopefully more uses I can discover. On the phone, I use it to jot down ideas (like for this blog).
I tried Wunderlist but got frustrated by many sync issues.

Pocket
I use it to save articles from my smartphone for reading on the PC. Which is exactly what it is made to do.

Mindjet Mind Manager 9.2
I got into mind mapping when I was studying for the CFA exam, using this (now outdated) software to outline and summarize reading materials.  Freeware equivalents (XMIND, FreeMind/Free Plane) should work too.


Panda Cloud Anti Virus, Bitdefender Free Anti Virus
Free protection is good enough for me.  Both are unobtrusive, and do automatic, transparent updates (definitions and program updates), but I prefer Panda due to its unique Data Shield feature.  Use one or the other, but not both on the same computer, duh.

Keepass Password Safe, Keepass2Android
Have been using it to track my passwords for 10 years, because open source software is probably(?) more secure etc etc, and it works very well and stable.  Recently wanted to try Lastpass or Dashlane, but after I found about Keepass2Android then I have no need for anything more.  I keep the password database in a Skydrive folder and on my smartphone K2A can get it from there upon launch. 

Pen & Paper
I buy generic A5-size spiral notebook at the local bookstore, and Uniball Jetstream pens (in packs of 5).  Aside from being the best pen in the world, I like it because I can lose/lend/give it to people without thinking much.  Plus the Jetstreams actually retail for 20-30% less around here than in Amazon.

Windows Live Writer 2012
It’s free, it works fine, or I just don't blog enough to care.  Writer is very under-appreciated, but it's quite a solid blogging software especially for beginners.  It works with Blogspot, Wordpress, and Windows Spaces, maybe more.  It's part of a Windows Live suite (together with Skydrive, Mail and Family Safety) which is actually quite polished; if this suite is a sign of things to come from Microsoft, then we can expect big things.