Charles Harwood

Australian-made mobile apps and websites

Charles Uses...

Inspired by Wes Bos' Uses page, here's a list of the tools and software I use in my daily life as a software engineer. Check out uses.tech to see what everyone else /uses

Software 👨‍💻

Programming Languages and Frameworks, etc.

You can see more of what I work with day-to-day on my About page, but these are my favourites to work with:

Editor and Terminal

  • Visual Studio Code has been my IDE of choice since 2018. I originally began writing code with Notepad++, then Sublime Text, and tried out Atom for a while, but after picking up VSCode I've never looked back.
  • Sometimes I am forced to use Xcode and Android Studio for some specific parts of my React Native work, but I use the Swift, Objective-C, Java, and Kotlin extensions in VSCode to avoid this as much as possible.
  • I use the GitHub Theme's "Dark High Contrast" variant as my base VSCode theme, with significant customisations to the editor, syntax, and workspace colour tokens.
  • I use zsh with the oh-my-zsh framework for my default shell environment.
  • I don't always run a separate terminal app instead of the awesome integrated terminal within VSCode, but when I do I use Warp.
  • I currently use the free Fira Code font in my editor, integrated terminal, and in Warp. (It's also the font used for these words you're reading right now)
  • I also use Flipper for debugging React Native apps.

General Software 

  • Spotify with Family Premium is absolutely essential for me, my partner, and our kids.
  • Slack for general communication and collaboration with my >1,300 Entain ANZ colleagues in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Darwin, and Wellington, plus many fully remote staff. I also use it for various tech communities.
  • Microsoft 365 suite of apps for daily stuff (emails, spreadsheets, Sharepoint, OneDrive, etc).
  • Rectangle App on my MacBook for easily moving/resizing/reordering windows in MacOS (something Windows has had built-in for years now lol)

Audio Software 🎶

  • AVID ProTools 12
  • Neural DSP Archetype Nolly, Archetype Gojira, Archetype Plini, Parallax, Darkglass Ultra
  • Native Instruments Guitar Rig 6
  • Native Instruments Kontakt & Komplete Kontrol
  • Waves Mercury Plugin Bundle
  • iZotope Ozone 9

Hardware

Computers 🖥️

For work: 2021 MacBook Pro 14" (M1 Pro chip)

  • 2x 27" 4K monitors

For play: Windows 11 PC custom-built in 2020 with:

  • 1x 27" 4K monitor
  • Deepcool Tesseract SW Mid Tower (blue) with Deepcool Gammaxx fans
  • Gigabyte Z390 Gaming X Motherboard
  • Intel Core i7 9700 8-core 3.0GHz CPU
  • Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 Super GPU
  • Samsung 1TB 970 EVO Plus M.2 NVMe SSD
  • G.Skill 32GB DDR4 RAM (3200MHz Trident Z RGB)
  • Thermaltake ToughPower Gold 650W PSU

Peripherals 🖱️

  • Logitech MX Master 3 mouse
  • Apple & Microsoft wide membrane keyboards (I know, I know, mechanical master race and all that, I'll get one one day)
  • Sony WH-1000XM4 Bluetooth headphones for pumping my tunes when I'm actually in the office (not very often)
  • Logitech Z403 2.1 speaker system for regular audio usage (listening to Spotify, meetings, videos, gaming, etc).
  • Audio-Technica M50X studio monitoring headphones and KRK Rokit 5 studio monitor speakers for audio recording/editing/mixing/mastering and writing music or general jamming on my guitars
  • Focusrite Scarlet 2i2 audio interface
  • Line 6 POD HD500X digital modeling board

Guitars 🎸

Aside from writing code and being a dad, my biggest passion is playing guitar. Here's what I'm currently using:

  • Paul Reed Smith USA Custom 24 in teal-black, limited run with abalone & pearl bird inlays and Paul's signature on the headstock in gold sharpie where the decal usually goes
  • Ibanez JBM27 Jake Bowen Signature 7-string (Periphery)
  • Ibanez RG1127PB in Carribbean Islet Flat
  • Fender Squier Contemporary Telecaster in Gunmetal Metallic
  • Cort SFX-6A acoustic

Games I'm playing 🎮

I'm a pretty avid gamer across PC and Xbox. We have Game Pass Ultimate so that we can access all sorts of games for the whole family without buying them upfront at full price (games are expensive in Australia these days!) Here's a list of what I'm playing regularly:

  • Starfield - possibly my favourite game of all time, I have waited since 1999 for a game like this to be made, ever since I was heavily into Freespace 2 and would think "gee I wish I could dock with that big ship, or go down to that cool planet and walk around"
  • Stardew Valley - an absolutely awesome farming sim game for relaxing and unwinding with my partner, we love playing Stardew after the kids have gone to bed. It really helps to clear your mind of all the day-to-day rubbish and will have you feeling calm and relaxed after just 15 minutes.
  • Farming Simulator 22 - the number of tractors I need is equal to the number of tractors I currently have, plus one.
  • Overcooked 2 - another one I love to play with my partner, but unlike Stardew, this game is total chaos, zooming around a kitchen trying to prep, cook, and plate up orders while the kitchen does its best to hinder you - the madness is addictive!
  • Minecraft - an obvious choice to play all together with the kids, we have endless fun building houses, farms, towns, and crazy creations together.

Let's work together!

Send me an email