usesthis-com-dkir4f.txt (6022B)
1 [1]Uses This 2 3 1297 interviews since 2009 4 5 Enjoying the interviews? Support independent publishing and help keep the site 6 ad-free by [2]buying me a coffee! 7 8 • [3]Interviews 9 • [4]Categories 10 • [5]About 11 12 A picture of Roly Allen 13 14 Roly Allen 15 16 Writer 17 18 September 27, 2025 in [6]mac, [7]writer 19 20 Who are you, and what do you do? 21 22 I'm the author of [8]The Notebook, a History of Thinking on Paper, which so far 23 as I know is the first and only book on the subject, and thank-you-Jesus has 24 been well received. I'm currently writing another history, but I can't tell you 25 what of, and my day job is in illustrated book publishing. 26 27 What hardware do you use? 28 29 At the age of 49, I've owned two computers. The first was a colleague's 2010 30 [9]iMac which I stole from my employer when they upgraded in 2015. (I say 31 stole: the IT manager was disgusted by the company's old-machine-destruction 32 policy, as was I, and looked the other way when I walked out of the office 33 carrying it in a bin liner). It was a great machine (although the CD drive had 34 been long dead), especially after I installed Linux (I think Ubuntu) on it. 35 36 I replaced it with computer #2 in late 2021 – a very new 24-inch iMac. It has a 37 gooooorgeous screen, which is the main thing, and has so far given me no grief 38 apart from the dumb 'No! You CAN'T charge and use at the same time!' mouse. 39 Seriously – someone was paid A Lot Of Money to design that, wtf. When it 40 becomes too old for the current [10]macOS, I'll install Linux again and all 41 being well this will be my last computer purchase as well as my first. 42 43 Other kit: a cheap Zealsound USB microphone for being interviewed remotely; 44 [11]B&O Beoplay H4 headphones ditto; an [12]HP Officejet 8100 printer which 45 can't do colour anymore yet still costs a fortune to keep tonered-up; a [13] 46 Fairphone 5 which I plan to use until at least 2032, kept in a drawer to reduce 47 its mind-melting distraction potential. 48 49 But my main hardware is a shelf of notebooks. The daily diary is an A5 Stalogy 50 368-page Editor notebook which I love for the fine paper, indestructible 51 binding, and real-cloth cover. Loose threads dangle out of the edges as it gets 52 worn! For note-taking for my books, I have a stack of B5 softcover exercise 53 books, mostly the 72-page model from Stalogy. Each chapter, or potential 54 project, gets its own notebook so I have about ten on the go at present. For 55 the pocket, some slim Kokuyo 'Sketch Books' which aren't sketchbooks, but look 56 enviably elegant when I get them out in public. In the past I've filled many 57 Moleskines and Leuchtturms over the years, but I fell in love with Japanese 58 paper and bindings about five years ago and don't see myself going back. 59 60 I write with the [14]Uniball Eye Micro UB-150 gel pen, mostly in black but with 61 occasional other colours for contrast or beauty when making timelines, 62 spidergrams, diagrams, or flowcharts. This pen is one of the absolute miracles 63 of the industrial age and I would fly to Japan to shake the hand of whoever 64 designed it. My wife gave me a beautiful brass propelling pencil (ystudio) 65 which I use (with HB leads) for marking up printed drafts. 66 67 My lovely employers supply me with a 16-inch [15]MacBook Pro. It's overpowered 68 for my needs, the screen has various shadows where I seem to have applied 69 intolerable pressure on the closed case in my backpack, and I much prefer [16] 70 MacBook Airs. Such is life. 71 72 And what software? 73 74 [17]OpenOffice for writing and spreadsheets. Love it. I experimented with [18] 75 Zotero for references and organising my research but didn't get on with it, 76 possibly because no-one showed me how to use it properly. 77 78 I installed [19]Freedom a couple of years ago to break a terrible Facebook / 79 Twitter-checking habit. When it expired after a year, I found that I didn't 80 need it again. Hard recommend. 81 82 Software for notebooks: common-placing, listing, daily diary, zibaldone-ing, 83 spontaneous short aide-memoire-making, various late-90s-academic note-taking 84 and planning techniques. 85 86 Work is [20]Microsoft Office and [21]365, our [22]FileMaker DB, [23]Adobe CC 87 (for [24]InDesign and [25]Acrobat), plus web apps for monitoring UK and US 88 stock and sales. 89 90 What would be your dream setup? 91 92 I'd not change anything mentioned above, although I'd prefer not to be working 93 in a corner of the living room. So please can I have an office, with a door and 94 a view and ample bookshelves, located a pleasant walk from home? Like a 95 Robert-Caro-kind-of-deal? Thank you. Also, thinking about it, a printer which 96 works and doesn't eat gold bars for breakfast. 97 98 Search: [26][ ] [28][Go] 99 You can keep track of new interviews by [29]subscribing to the feed. 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Last updated September 26, 2025. 102 103 104 References: 105 106 [1] https://usesthis.com/ 107 [2] https://ko-fi.com/waferbaby 108 [3] https://usesthis.com/ 109 [4] https://usesthis.com/categories/ 110 [5] https://usesthis.com/about/ 111 [6] https://usesthis.com/categories/mac/ 112 [7] https://usesthis.com/categories/writer/ 113 [8] https://roland-allen.com/ 114 [9] https://www.apple.com/imac-24/ 115 [10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacOS 116 [11] https://www.bang-olufsen.com/en/us/headphones/beoplay-h4 117 [12] http://web.archive.org/web/20230706203032/https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-officejet-pro-8100-eprinter---n811a-n811d 118 [13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairphone_5 119 [14] https://uniball.co.uk/brands/eye/uni-ball-eye-micro-ub-150/ 120 [15] https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/ 121 [16] https://www.apple.com/macbook-air/ 122 [17] http://www.openoffice.org/ 123 [18] https://www.zotero.org/ 124 [19] https://freedom.to/ 125 [20] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365 126 [21] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_365 127 [22] http://web.archive.org/web/20230317135854/https://www.claris.com/filemaker/pro/ 128 [23] https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud.html 129 [24] https://www.adobe.com/products/indesign.html 130 [25] https://www.adobe.com/acrobat.html 131 [29] https://usesthis.com/feed.atom 132 [30] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/