# 📎 Things I Use
By Artyom Bologov <aartaka.me>

I am aiming to produce less e-waste, so I don't use much hardware.
And I stick with whatever I have until it's unusable and I need to replace it.
Software-wise, I'm constantly looking for more resilient and minimal platforms.
Thus my interest in C, Lambda Calculus, ed(1), Lisp, and HTML.

## Laptop: Lenovo Thinkpad L13 Yoga (#laptop)

<assets/laptop.jpg> (Photo of a laptop lid with lots of stickers with text in Russian and English. A ginger cat is also visible in the photo.)
-- The Stickers and The Cat

A gift from Atlas Engineer folks, so thanks to them!

OS:
Arch Linux.
(Used to be Guix System, but I was irritated with outdated package situation there.)
Shell/DE/WM:
Heavily-configured StumpWM <github.com/aartaka/stumpwm-config>.
Browser:
LibreWolf; Ungoogled Chromium for Chromium-reliant sites;
Surf (segfaults right now, but I am working on it!) <nyxt-to-surf.txt>
Programming Languages/Environments:
Common Lisp (SBCL, ECL)
 with Graven Ima... <github.com/aartaka/graven-image>
 ahem, Trivial libs! <codeberg.org/aartaka/?q=trivial&tab=repositories&sort=recentupdate>
then Clojure/Scheme, C+POSIX, HTML/CSS 3-5+,
ed(1) <sed-ed>.
Writing/Website/PDF/Gemini Generator:
A bunch of ed(1) scripts and a Makefile <this-post-is-ed.txt>.
Games:
Dead Cells, TIS-100 (and other Zachtronics titles), Hollow Knight (+ Silksong),
Kandria <steampowered.com/app/1261430/Kandria>
and numerous games from
Palestinian Relief Bundle <itch.io/b/2321/palestinian-relief-bundle>,
Queer Games Bundle 2025 <itch.io/b/3062/queer-games-bundle-2025-with-10-option>, and
Play for Peace bundle <itch.io/b/2979/play-for-peace-games-for-palestine-2025-charity-bundle>.
Text editing:
Heavily-customized ed <customize-ed.txt>.
(No, just kidding, it’s Emacs!)
Everything else:
Heavily-configured Emacs <github.com/aartaka/emacs-config>.
I'm trying to get off this drug, but the thing is strong.

## Smartphone: iPhone SE2 (#smartphone)

Yeah, I know, not a power user smartphone.
But, to me, it's not a smartphone, it's a dumbphone.
So hear me out.

– I had a OnePlus 1 before, but it fell from quite a height and didn't sustain the damage.
– So I got a (used, of course) OnePlus 5T and set up LineageOS there. It has fallen from moderate heights and is damaged too, though.
– I got OnePlus 9 recently and was unable to install LineageOS on it—it's unsupported. And the battery sucked. And it didn't really work with my newly acquired desire for minimalism and smartphone-less life. And using Android without root AND without Google Services is simply unsafe due to sideloading.
– I needed something minimal, safe, and reliable.

So I got myself a (smallest and feature-less-est) iPhone and dumbed it down:

OS:
iOS 18, because Lockdown Mode
Settings:
Disabled Siri and ads, Lockdown Mode, Orbot on by default, JavaScript off.
Accessibility:
Monochrome filter, contrast utils, zoom, text scaling, and almost all Accessibility options really. I'll write on it sometime later.
Socials:
Mastodon <merveilles.town/@aartaka> (via official app, but earlier with Metatext)
and Telegram (I miss P-Telegram on iOS...)

With this setup, my experience is extremely minimalist.
No colors, slow internet, minimal notifications, maximal vision aids.
Perfect to get away from smartphones to
Hipster PDA <wiki.xxiivv.com/site/hpda> and other dedicated things.

## Cyberdeck/Blindeck (#blindeck)

<assets/blindeck.jpeg> (Photo of a mechanical keyboard with a circuitry and wires sticking out of the back, standing on a wooden table. The keyboard is beige with some light-red keys (one of them reads 'Vortex'.) the circuit in the back has several USB ports, Ethernet port, GPIO pins, HDMI and Type C ports. There are several cables plugged into USB ports. The place the circuit is plugged in looks janky and cut out by hand.)
</figure It looks slightly better now, but here is an older photo>

I have this project: no-screen cyberdeck with audio interface only.
Preferably with Lisp OS.
And it's not even a project idea—I built it!

Hardware:
Raspberry PI 400.
Case/keyboard:
Vortex PC66 ANSI, 68 Cherry MX Clear keys.
OS:
Debian/Raspbian/Raspberry PI OS.
Shell:
Embeddable Common Lisp.
Yes, I'm booting right into ECL REPL and using it as a way to interact with the system.
And it is fully speech-enabled too! <github.com/aartaka/lisp-config/blob/master/talkative.lisp>

And that's roughly it for the tech I use.
Should I tell you about my Tarot deck?
No, not today.
Copyright 2022-2025 Artyom Bologov (aartaka).
Any and all opinions listed here are my own and not representative of my employers; future, past and present.