Uses

I often get asked about what software or hardware I use, so this page will serve as a living document and a place to point curious readers to. You can also find me on uses.tech!

Website

Customization

I created my own Hugo Blox template which adds several features that I was missing from the base templates:

  • Theme-aware giscus integration
  • Advanced citation and bibliography rendering
  • Automatic unique page ID generation
  • Self-healing PURL resolver
  • Email obfuscation feature to protect agains malicous crawlers

Feel free to fork use and improve!

Editor + Terminal

Backend Development

  • Python (main language for backend + data science)
  • Flask (API backend for my Audify/Frankify project)
  • Node.js + TypeScript for tooling and lightweight servers

Writing & Content Creation for Learning in Public

AI-Augmented Research

I use large language models as research assistants to accelerate my workflow:

  • Discovery phase: AI helps surface relevant papers, documentation, and connections I might miss (primarily Caude and ChatGPT)
  • Knowledge structuring: I enter findings in Obsidian, building conceptual graphs and sources in Zotero
  • Fact verification: Cross-reference AI outputs against primary sources (papers, official docs, my production system logs)
  • Synthesis: I write first drafts, using AI to check technical accuracy and identify gaps
  • Critical review: Final analysis, opinions, and conclusions are 100% mine

This approach amplifies my ability to connect disparate technical concepts while maintaining intellectual ownership of all insights.

Why This Transparency Matters

As someone learning in public, building knowledge systems, I model the practices I advocate: using AI as a powerful tool while maintaining human judgment at every decision point. The perspectives here emerge from a decade of engineering petabyte-scale systems and hands-on AI security research—experiences no LLM can replicate.

OS & Environment