Wei
1.) What is your name and where in the WWW (Whole Wide World) do you live?
Wei: You can simply call me Wei (pronounced as “way”), that’s what most of my friends call me. At times I have been best known for my online publications such as Weistudio (prior to 2009), as the iTab maker, or MacCores (after 2009). I’m from Malaysia, living in the state of Selangor.
2.) What do you do for a living, what pays the bills? And what is the thing you do when you are not doing the thing that pays the bills?
Wei: I’m currently running a company that provides repair & maintenance services for Apple products (especially Macs) to the local community. When I am not doing that I eat, sleep, watch tv, get online, play games, maybe brain-storm on my next mod projects, or just spend time with family & friends. Mostly what an ordinary man will do…
3.) How much of what you do, personally or professionally, gets done at the work space featured?
Wei: It’s hard to measure “how much”. But I would say I will easily spend between 2 to 10 hours there on a work day. If I’m not working on other people’s Macs, then I am most likely on mine doing papers, work, or just using it to browse the web.
4.) Typically, what time of the day do you normally find yourself at this desk, and for how long? Night owl, early bird?
Wei: Even though I’m now running SOHO, I try to practice a “working hours” system. Maybe I will get up around 9 am and start working at my desk until about 10 in the morning. I usually go out around 11 if I have any appointments for the day. Depending on how many appointments I have I will usually get back around 5 pm or so. I try not to stay up too late, even though I did a bit of that in the past. I shoot to hit the sack at around 11 or 12 p.m. on week days, but on occasion you will find me there as late as 3 am.
5.) How much of what gets done at your desk is for work, how much is it to scratch your own creative itch?
Wei: I would say 60% for work 40% for everything else, a mix of leisure, non-profit work or just plain killing time.
6.) What are the essentials that can be found on your desk more times than not? How about those items just out of reach or out of sight? If it’s not on top of your desk what are the things you most often grab out of a top draw or cabinet?
Wei: On the desk - A Mac. Whatever I need to get work done, what I will work on, and what pay’s the bills. Off the desk - My repair tools, parts, screws, client’s Macs that are pending repair, anything that I won’t need & doesn’t look good I try to put away in drawers, shelves or under the table.
Right now I have a few older Macs in my collection. The iBook G3 clamshell and PowerBook G4 12” just to name a few.
7.) What beverage/food/snack can one usually find at your desk, and why?
Wei: I have never paid attention to this. But usually you won’t find any food on my desk. Just a water bottle with drinking water. Why? Maybe I hate to bring in ants, or find food stains left over on my work desk. Or perhaps just the smell of food left inside the room gets to me. Since I work at home it doesn’t hurt to just walk down stairs to get something to eat. Sometimes I will just have some biscuits while printing docs if I’m short on time.
8.) Do you have any reasoning or anecdotes that lend some insight into why your desk is setup the way it is, or the thinking behind certain item(s)? How about the things around your desks? Decoration, wall art, figurines, statues, etc? Any particular reason behind those?
Wei: Who doesn’t want a great workspace? I’m one of those wishes to have one but I don’t have a lot of money to spend on deco and stuff. Plus I just want to get started and using it to get work done so I did not spend too much time setting up it, but rather I have spent time fine tuning the smaller details.
I have some wall stickers, customized to match my wall paint. It’s an affordable way to add some geeky/art touches to my workspace I think. I also have some Apple product posters, in particular a “Think Different” poster, mostly to remind me what I’m doing and to add some color to my work space. Not too much when you think about it. I kind of like Japanese stuff so I have some small capsule toys on my desk. Also I have two rubber duckies. I like to keep my stuff organized although one might find it “messy”.
Due to the nature of my work, I often come across great used Macs at really good prices, or some semi-faulty units that I get to fix up and keep for my own use, so I actually have few more Macs kept in storage.
9.) How much of what you do, or aspire to do, influences your desk setup, tangibly and intangibly.
Wei: I would say quite a lot. I have it arranged it in such a way that I get to work on a Mac (repair/recovery on clients’ unit etc…) while I can check stuff online easily (my personal setup), or peep at a service manual while I am working on a particular piece of hardware.
I can say from experience it is enough space to house a 17” MacBook Pro with parts taken out. External drives are within easy reach. Tools are not far away. Power outlets are just under the desk, etc.
10.) Are you a Mac or are you a PC? What machine(s) are setup and used at your desk? If you are a little bit of both tell us why. How about any other tech gear that can be found at your desk or in your home?
Wei: Mac. I have a Mac Pro connected to a 30” LCD as main workstation. Then a MacBook Pro 13” for mobile. iPad for light work. My wife on the other hand has a MacBook and a converted iMac 20” that works as an external LCD display.
11.) What’s the one piece of gear you could not live without?
Wei: Mac. Can be any model and spec. So long I have my data I can work on any Mac.
12.) What piece of gear cannot be found on your desk, but you wish it could be?
Wei: 30” Apple Cinema Display. I have a 30” Dell, but wish it is an ACD. Also maybe a brand new 2010 model Mac Pro. But I just purchased a slightly older Mac Pro at a good deal so I will hold off on a new one for now
13.) Software; what do you use more often than not. What helps you get the job done? And what do you not use, but hope one day to incorporate in your workflow?
Wei:
- Adobe CS3/4 - (yeah I’m a trained graphic designer, which I did before I changed jobs and switched over to be a Mac tech). Now I use it mostly to do my billing and quotations. Occasionally to update my website or make a e-newsletter.
- iBank - Keeps track of my cash flow which is very useful for me since I do not have someone watching over my accounts.
- Things - Mostly on my iPhone even though I have the Mac version. I use it to keep track of my appointments and pending jobs.
- Mac Tracker - An offline database for all/most of the Mac/Apple products ever released, complete with specs, which is very useful for my work.
- Bento - Great way to keep track of my billing history, inventories and client database.
- ChronoSync - I use this to sync to my external drive to ensure all my file are up to date for on-site jobs.
- Diagnostic software like Drive Genius, Disk Warrior, Techtool, Apple Diagnostic Tools.
- Safari, Firefox, Tweetie, Mail, iTunes…
14.) If you could change one thing about your desk, or the room it is currently in, what would that be?
Wei: Hmm, can’t think of anything since I just recently got the new table. Probably a new Mac Pro?
15.) Workspace Breakdown;
Think of as many things as possible that comprise the setup of your office or workspace, anything from the paint color on the walls to the floor mat your chair rolls on, and list them out. Who makes your desk, how about the cabinet next to your desk, your lamp, the overhead light fixture? Anything and everything you can see in the pictures shown, give as much color and background on these items as time and memory permits.
Wei: Aww… this gonna be an issue… I try my best ok? Also due to currency exchange cost is a close estimate.
On my desk, from my left:
- Mac Pro 2.66GHz Quad, 8GB RAM, 2TB HDD, ATI 4870 1GB RAM, built-in Airport. (approx. USD1200)
- Dell 30” LCD (USD900)
- MacBook Pro 13” 2.53GHz (approx. USD700)
- MacBook white 2.0GHz C2Dwith orange spec case (approx USD300)
- iMac 20” modified as LCD (approx. USD220)
- Box Mac (approx. USD300)
- iTab (customised Wacom tablet with screen. Cost me about USD700) <— Put in storage, function is replaced by iPad.
- iBook G3 SE intro Poster in ikea RAM frame (USD10 poster + USD5 frame)
- Griffin PowerMate (USD40)
- Aluminium RAID external drive casing with FW800, FW400, USD. (USD130 casing, approx. USD140 for 2x Seagate 250GB IDE 3.5” HDD)
- Small picture frame with my wife photo (free)
- CJ7 doll (free with KFC meal in Hong Kong)
- Paper Craft Mac Classic (free)
- Super Mario keychain x2 (USD3)
- Crayon Shinchan capsule toy (USD5)
- Evagelion Shinji capsule toy (USD5)
- One Piece capsule toy (USD3)
- Replica Alessi Dozi hedgehog magnetic paperclip holder (USD7)
- Eikon biometric scanner (USD46)
- Fake plant with pot & plate (USD9)
- Bluetongue Cable Box (USD30)
- Belkin 8 point power surge protector (USD35)
- Western Digital MyBook essential with 500GB drive (USD60)
- Western Digital Mybook Studio 1TB (USD120)
- Rocstor FW800 2.5” SATA HDD casing with Hitachi 7k500 500GB HDD (USD140)
- Belkin 8 port powered USB hub (USD40)
- Belkin USB Bluetooth dongle (USD20)
- iPhone 3GS 16GB (bought in with issues, I’ve fix it up, USD230)
- Yellow rubber ducky (USD1)
- Army cammo rubber ducky (gift)
- 2 mug filled with stationary (approx USD10)
- 2x Apple remote (free)
- Muji recycle paper notepad (USD1)
- Mighty Mouse (USD48)
- SIGG bottle (USD26)
- Glass front toy storage with bunch of capsule toys (USD60)
- IKEA lamp with energy saving bulb (USD15)
- Deco desk lamp (gift)
- Canon LiDE 500F scanner (USD170)
- Airport Express (free)
- HP Laserjet 1020 (USD85)
Under the table:
- DIY IKEA storage as drawer (USD5)
- Mac opening tools (USD20)
- 2x IKEA power strip (USD10)
- Time Capsule (got it for free with busted power & removed HDD, fix up with custom power as base station. USD22)
- Sarotech hardbox with 30GB HDD (casing USD70, drive is free)
- Cheap Philip headphones (USD5)
- IKEA chair black (USD100)
- IKEA chair pink (USD15)
- Nippon paint odorless matte wall paint (not sure how much)
- Off white wall paint (came with the house)
- Custom wall sticker (USD30)
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If you would like to learn more about Wei, his workspace, or his work, you can find him at the sites listed below;
If you have any questions or comments about this, or any other featured setup, or you would like to have your own setup featured here on SetupsandSpaces.com feel free to email me at FValletutti@me.com.
3 Notes