Sweet Mac Setup: Jon Hicks

For years John Hicks has been a top-shelf new-fangled media designer. He currently works for Opera Software and publishes the Rissington Podcast.

Jon’s Setup:

1. What does your desk look like?

Jon Hicks Mac Setup

2. What is your current Mac setup?

I have a unibody MacBook Pro (2.5ghz, 4gb RAM, 300gb HD) which is hooked up to one of the new 24″ LED Cinema Displays, with Apple keyboard and Logitech Revolution MX mouse. Backups are done onto a 1tb Western Digital MyBook, and online with Dropbox (see below).

3. Why are you using this setup?

I work in many locations aside the office — home, trips to Opera in Norway or Sweden, and we often spend around 6 weeks a year up in Glasgow. Working from a MacBook Pro means I always have my files and setup with me. Years ago I used to sync a PowerBook and G5 twice a day, and it became too tedious.

4. What software do you use on a daily basis, and for what do you use it?

Dropbox is my hero. I keep all my work in a Dropbox folder, so that I not only get an online backup, but also easy versioning. Once I forgot my Macbook Pro, and thanks to Dropbox, I was able to work from another machine.

Quicksilver, Main Menu, Caffeine, and BusySync are my favourite ‘blend in so much I take them for granted’ apps.

For work I use Fireworks, Coda, VMWare, xScope, IconBuilder, Candybar, Illustrator, LittleSnapper, CSS Edit and Leap. I’m also a Yojimbo lover for storing everything else.

5. Do you own any other Mac gear?

I still own a 1st generation MacBook Pro, as well as a last generation G4 Powerbook and 1st generation Titanium Powerbook. The Titanium is held together by stickers (I lost all the screws), and the stickers help prevent electric shocks from the coating that has been rubbed away on the top!

6. Do you have any future upgrades planned?

Having got recent upgrades: new MacBook Pro and LED Display, not much. But I do plan on getting a 32gb iPhone 3G S when it comes out! I held back from upgrading to the second version (3G), as I really wanted a better camera and much more storage space, which the 3G S has. Weird name though.

More Sweet Setups

Jon’s setup is just one in a series of Sweet Mac Setups.

Sweet Mac Setup: Jon Hicks