Sysless

20 years of desks

Mon, 10 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0200

My desk has always been an essential part of my daily life wheter at home or at the office.

Twenty years ago in my bedroom

I already had a second monitor to juggle conversations on the side while playing video games.

2008, First Internship

I spent most of my time testing different VoIP phone models daily. So I got as much as possible around me. Can you count the phones in the picture? 😂

2010, First Job

They provided 2 big screens and a laptop with a docking station. But I brought my own keyboard/trackpad and used my MacBook for the second screen.

2014, 3-Monitor Setup

After a while at the company, I even got a third monitor and brought a bigger one with a better resolution.

2015, Startup Life

I went to work at a young startup and had to be a bit more scrappy.

2016, First Standing Desk

I started freelancing and frequently worked from home, so I got my first standing desk!

2018, Embracing Remote Work

I had a fully remote job for a while and got an iMac.

2019, First Home Office

We moved to another apartment, and I got an independent office.

2021, Endgame?

You can check the detailed description of my latest optimized home setup.

I am always looking for ways to improve my setup, so don’t hesitate to share!

Why I ditched my smartphone

Mon, 16 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0100

Smartphones have become ubiquitous in our daily lives, but have you ever stopped to consider if they are truly optimized for the tasks we use them for?

Personally, I used my smartphone primarily for:

Watching videos
Reading news/articles
Reading/Sorting emails
Chatting

But for those activities, I always prefer to use my laptop or tablet:

Bigger screen for consuming content
Better keyboard for typing or shortcuts
Multitasking

So when I’m home, I leave my phone on my desk.
And when I’m outside, I only use it as a last resort and feel constrained.
That was not optimal 🙃

💡 My solution

I could have looked into the foldable phones, but I’m too hooked into the Apple ecosystem now to go back to Android 😂

So I decided to replace my iPhone with an Apple Watch + iPad Mini 🤓

The Apple Watch holds my SIM card, enabling me to make phone calls with my AirPods and send text messages.
I can also use it as a GPS or listen to music/podcasts/books.
The iPad mini gives me a big screen when I want to do more than that.

⌛ 2 months later

I use my Apple Watch a lot more than I did before, learning all kinds of tricks with Siri, consuming audio content directly from the watch…

Being unable to quickly check my phone has also helped me to be more present in the moment and focused on my surroundings.

And yet, when I want to show a video or photos to people around me, I’m glad I got this bigger screen. I can even make sketches with the Apple Pencil.

The only downside is the camera quality, which is not as good as my iPhone Pro 13 Max.

Overall, I am very pleased with this new setup and look forward to any new updates from Apple, particularly a new iPad mini 😁

Thank you Lastpass? 🤔

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0100

The worst and best early Christmas gift of 2022 🎁

You might have heard about Lastpass’s multiple breaches this year, especially when they announced on December 22nd that the actual password vaults were leaked…

Being a Lastpass user for the past 8 years, I had more than 900 credentials stored in that vault 😱

I knew this was a risk, but I was disappointed with how the incident was handled.
Lastpass was slow to disclose the severity of the breach.
And as of today, I am still waiting to receive official communication as a Lastpass user.
If I weren’t following tech news, I still wouldn’t know about this significant incident…

So I decided to compare other solutions and migrate as fast as possible.

Back to the discovery phase 🕵️

The last time I looked up other password managers was when I chose Lastpass in 2014.

After reading multiple reviews, Dashlane and 1Password seemed like the 2 best alternatives.

I tried them both and settled for 1Password:

I liked having a native desktop app
Browser extension had a better UX

Cleaning time 💪

Now the real work beings.
As I imported my 900+ credentials, I quickly realized that many hadn’t been used for years.
For example, many e-commerce websites where I purchased something only once, or applications I just tried for a few days…
Even worse, I still had passwords for apps that don’t exist anymore 😅

Fortunately, I discovered that 1Password has CLI and SDK integrations, so I could write a small script that would at least test if the URL was still reachable and tag the credential automatically.

But there were many websites where I had to manually log in, locate the right page to change my password, or delete my account…

And for someone like me that loves automation, that was excruciating work. 😭

Blessing in disguise 😇

After the initial disappointment, I am now almost glad this happened.

I was not directly impacted, as it doesn’t seem any of my passwords have been breached (yet).
But it made me rethink/rework my whole personal security strategy.

1Password apps/integrations are better in every way than what I was using before, so it also improved my daily quality of life.

I feel much more secure now and more prepared than ever if something like this was to happen again!

My optimized nomad setup 2021

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0100

Even if I prefer to work from home.
Sometimes I need to work from other places, but I still try to get the best setup to be more productive.

Computer

MacBook Pro 16” M1 Pro

I love the battery life and the low consumption of the new M1 Pro CPU.
16” makes all the difference when used as the main screen.

Roost Laptop stand

The best laptop stand out there, collapsible and lightweight.

Monitors

iPad Pro 12.9”

Hard to find external displays with anything better than 1920x1080 resolution.
So I’d instead use this as a ~13” retina display.
It also becomes my most portable device when going to meetings (instead of dragging my 16” MacBook)

Roost Laptop stand

Yes, I even got a second one for the iPad to have both at the same height.

Keyboard

Ultimate Hacking Keyboard

I would not recommend carrying this keyboard for everyone. It’s pretty heavy with the wood palm rest.
But I am so used to working with this every day that I feel restricted without it.

Mouse

Apple Magic Trackpad 2

I never use a mouse on Mac OS, and this way, I get the same experience when working on the MacBook.

Webcam

Lumina

I won’t hesitate to take this with me if I have any calls planned as it’s so tiny (lipstick-sized) and lightweight.

Headphones

AirPods Max

I will bring those along if I plan to work for a long time or in a noisy environment.
Otherwise, I always have my AirPods Pro in my pocket when needed.

I am not a developer

Fri, 19 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0100

I am not a developer, when I need to build something, I try to keep it simple and write as little code as possible.

Why have I chosen Javascript to build my projects in the past 5 years? 🏗

The first thing that attracted me to Javascript is that you don’t need servers to run the front side.
Which already removes most of the cost and complexity when deploying a product while ensuring easy scalability.

When I started learning Javascript in 2017, I had to choose between all the frameworks like React, Angular, or Vue.
But what made me choose React was that I could also use it to build mobile applications someday.
And I am so glad I did because I’ve been building React Native apps for the past 3 years! 😅

So my frontends and my mobile apps are done in JS.
Both can share a lot of code which reduces the total amount I have to write.

Why stop there?

I don’t want to learn another language for my backend.
And I can reuse some of the code from the frontends too!

Next, when I need to build a team, all I need is JS engineers, and they can all participate in each part of the product.

It’s certainly not the best or the fastest language out there.
But the simplicity it brings to my infrastructure and the code-sharing opportunities are helping me build faster.
And that’s what matters when launching a product. 🚀

(For the technical folks here, when I say Javascript, I do mean Typescript, I am not a barbarian 🙄)

My optimized home setup 2021

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0100

Since the first lockdown in 2020, I’ve been investing even more in my home setup as all my work and meetings are now done remotely.

Desk

Rekt RGo DESK 140

I had a manual standing desk for 3 years, and it was time to switch to an electric standing desk.
This one came out right during the first lockdown, so I pre-ordered it right away.
I like the shape and all the cable management built-in.

Seat

Herman Miller Aeron Chair

This one needs no introduction, the king of office chairs.
I have been dreaming about this chair at least since 2017.
And it does not disappoint!

Computer

MacBook Pro 16” M1 Pro

I love the battery life and the low consumption of the new M1 Pro CPU.
I switched from 13” to 16” because it’s a lot better when working away from home.

Monitors

LG 27UD88-W

Using the same USB-C monitor since 2018.
With 60W power delivery, it’s enough to charge my MacBook.
It serves as a USB hub to connect my keyboard, webcam, microphone…

Ergotron LX

Using the same monitor arms since 2017.

iPad Pro 12.9”

I also use my iPad as an additional monitor sometimes at home. But it’s usually mainly for my nomad setup. I might use it more once universal control is available (ability to control the iPad from my mac mouse/keyboard).

Keyboard

Ultimate Hacking Keyboard

I was looking for a split keyboard to improve my wrists positions.
I liked that this keyboard uses a standard layout and can even be put back together.
I even bought a 2nd one with silent keys when I work away from home.

Mouse

Apple Magic Trackpad 2

I never use a mouse on Mac OS, and this way, I get the same experience when working on the MacBook.

Webcam

Lumina

Lumina is the world’s first AI-powered camera.
It comes with a small application to configure advanced features like cameraman (automatically follow your face) and background blur.
But also, a physical card with an actual palette of colors to do automatic color calibration feels like magic!

Lights

Elgato Key Light

With a good camera, I also need good lighting.
During the day, my desk is near a full-height window, so I need the additional lighting to compensate.

Microphone

Blue Yeti X with Compass arm

One of the best microphones you can buy today, simple to use with Logitech software.
It works great with the Compass arm, and I push it away when I am not using it.

Headphones

AirPods Max

I had utterly dismissed them at release because of the exorbitant price.
But having used AirPods Pro for a few months, I fell in love with spatial audio and wanted to get the same experience with my daily desk headphones.
Now that AirPods Max price has dropped in 3rd party retailers, it’s a great contender against Bose/Sony, especially if you use many Apple devices.
Automatic switching between my MacBook, iPad, and iPhone is a must!

How can you start charging customers all around the world overnight?

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0100

After 9 months of free beta, we officially launched and got signups worldwide.

At the same time, we started our premium plan and got our first paying customers.
We have a monthly usage-based subscription model, so not the most simple and straightforward to handle payments.

As always, I looked into a solution that would be fast and simple to implement.
Being on the #tech side, Stripe was my first choice.

It barely took me a day to implement the subscriptions.
Thanks to the Checkout feature, which opens a pop-up to their website, almost no development was needed.

But when I started, I did not think of the legal requirements of doing business with companies worldwide.
And I ended up sending my first invoices with incorrect taxes. 😅

Fortunately, my accountant reminded me about my legal obligations.
I had to void all invoices and reissue them with the correct taxes…

But how would I know the tax policy for each country in the world? 🤔

The first idea was to:

build our own taxes database 🗄
write more code to get the customer’s country/tax id 👨‍💻
maintain the tax rates for all countries in the world at any time 🤯

But all of that is not helping me build a better product for my users!

So I started looking for another solution.
I was lucky enough to stumble onto Stripe Tax service that was still in private beta at the time.

Now all I had to do, was change a single line of code.
The customer is asked at checkout for his address, country, and tax ID.
And the service automatically applies the correct taxes! 💸

I am not sure how others have been doing this before, but I am glad I found a simple solution and got back to building something people want instead!

1 year ago I left my job…

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0200

1 year ago I left my job…
And it was the most exciting year of my life! 🤩

What happened? 🤔

With my brother Tom, we started Café last September.

In just the past 12 months we achieved so many things:

🚀 Launch an MVP in 2 weeks
💸 Raise 1M$ in pre-seed
🤗 Build a dream team in Paris and NYC
🏆 Product of the Day on Product Hunt
📰 Get an article on TechCrunch
🤯 Join Y Combinator 2021 summer batch
💰 Reach 8k$ MRR in 2 months

I’ve learned so much from launching my own company, in addition to creating a complete product from scratch, and having to manage all aspects of the business: sales, strategy, customer support…

This year has been crazy, and it’s only the beginning of our journey!

Techstars Alexa Next Stage

Tue, 11 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0200

For the past eight weeks, Sybel has been working with a global network of mentors to grow our business and explore voice tech innovations during Alexa Next Stage, Powered by Techstars.

Check out the Innovation Showcase!

1253208906693828608

Thu, 23 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0200

Improved my home setup again with @REKTFrance standing desk.
Essential for #HomeOffice! pic.twitter.com/LhRIiMu5Yd
— Arthur Lorotte de Banes (@sys_less) April 23, 2020