What’s on your desk, Cameron Faulkner?

It’s hard to be a writer, reviewer and technology enthusiast The edge under normal circumstances. This is even more difficult if you work out of a shared studio apartment during a pandemic. Cameron Faulkner, who not only manages our presentation pages, but also writes on a wide variety of topics, has somehow managed to do just that.

We asked him to explain how.

Tell me a little about yourself. What is your background, and what do you do it for? The edge?

Hi! Technology has always been my passion, and I have been happily writing professionally about technology for about seven years now, almost three of those at The edge. Before I got a job in the field, I worked at KFC, at a school supplies center, as a pharmacist and as a cashier. I’m always weird that I can share my weird breeding work experience with anyone who wants to listen. I grew up in the Midwest in Mansfield, Ohio, but I have been living in Brooklyn, New York since 2013.

My primary focus is on The edge is on Verge Deals, including daily deals that my colleague Taylor Lyles and I manually pick every day. It also includes writing content for the Verge Deals Twitter account, as well as publishing a weekly newsletter. (You can sign up here!) In addition, I write about peripherals for games, write reviews and manuals, and help the news team cover penetrating stories.

How did you decide where and how to set up your workspace?

Organizing different zones in a studio apartment is a challenge I have yet to overcome. All of these zones bloom into each other, and without having real rooms with walls to get space from, for example, pots knocking in the kitchen or other distractions, it can be incredibly difficult to stay focused. Although our latest arrangement may be the best we’ll ever get in this space.

My wife and I have our desks in opposite directions. Just outside the frame, behind where I sit, is her desk. We have been forced to be very efficient with these space constraints, and it is miles ahead of where we were. We actually shared this one desktop pictured here with my one monitor, keyboard and mouse on the right and her setup on the left. The pandemic made us rethink this strategy. Suffice it to say that my current setup is a huge improvement.

Tell me a little about the desk itself.

First, I would advise people to resist the temptation to buy a glass bench, just as they look. It will show dust after a few days – even faster if you have cats that want to climb on it and rub on the corners of your monitors. That said, I’ve had this one since 2008, so clearly it’s a good product (or I’m just a good enough owner).

Second, my desk is never as clean as the photo above indicates. I usually have another cup or two on it and some stray review products that are sprinkled over it. That said, I actually prefer a minimalist look (hard to maintain). No respect for my colleagues who appeared in this series, but I do not have many tchotchkes that I want to display at all times.

How’s your desk chair?

The desk chair I use is the Herman Miller Sayl, which usually sells for about $ 600, believe it or not. I bought this chair almost mid-2020 when the chair I had caused me real physical anxiety, but Vox Media allowed me to borrow it from our office in NYC. Then I immediately drove there, put it in my car and brought it home. Me and my cats love it.

Okay, now it’s time to talk about your technology. Let’s start with your computer.

I built that computer, and it’s filled with parts that range from as far back as 2014 until recently. The case is the SilverStone Temjin, built to accommodate small microATX motherboards. You might see in the photos that it was a bit scratched and beaten. I love that this box size is small enough to fit on a monitor standard so I can place the bottom of my vacuum cleaner.

Inside the case I have an Intel Core i5-9600K processor, EVGA’s GeForce RTX 2070 graphics card, 16 GB RAM and a 1 GB NVMe SSD. My cable management is not good but the case is closing and the wires are out of damage so I am happy with that. My goal is to keep the system fast enough to run any game near the highest graphics settings, but I usually do not buy the latest components right when it is released.

I see you have two exhibits. How do you use it?

I like to keep my static group of Google Chrome tabs on the left screen (apps like Gmail, Google Drive, Asana Task Manager, etc.), along with any article I’m currently writing. On the right is where I like Slack, as well as tabs that are more temporary.

Outside of work, I play on the left monitor (a 27-inch Acer Nitro XV272U) because it’s a QHD IPS panel with fast refresh rate and Nvidia G-Sync compatibility. I was used to having a two-monitor setup in our work office, and then I bought a second one (a 27-inch LG 27GL650F-B) a few months after the pandemic.

How about your other technology (headphones, speakers, etc.)?

A few devices that always have a stain on my desktop are a mouse (which one I am currently testing) and a Microsoft Sculpt keyboard, along with my JBL Pebble desktop speakers. JBL no longer makes these USB speakers, so it currently costs more than they originally sold for (and is worth it), but I really enjoy their simplicity and sound.

I keep my MacBook Pro laptop and Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones (hanging from a Master & Dynamic stand) on top of my desk if I need to attend a meeting right away. There’s also my phone, a Google Pixel 3, which sits on a metal Lamicall stand. Under my desk I have a Brainwavz BigT headphone hanger to keep an extra pair on hand. I also like to hang a long USB-C cable on it that is used to connect to my Oculus Quest 2 headset.

Our Ethernet switch, a Google Nest Wifi wireless router and a Philips Hue bridge are almost out of sight on my desktop.

This is a very interesting keyboard. I’ve seen split keyboards like this before, but have never met anyone who uses one.

I did not think I would be someone who would use one of these, but about a month into the pandemic I end up with sore wrists and forearms every day. There were much more expensive ergonomic keyboards out there, especially with mechanical keys, but the Microsoft Sculpt looked good because it was wireless and relatively affordable. It helps to orient my wrists in a more natural way as I type, and it makes a big difference to me. The material used in the wrist support becomes slightly dirty after a few weeks of use, but to dampen it with water and soap, it works well enough to restore the original appearance.

I see that you, like others here, sometimes depend on an old-fashioned notebook.

Yip! I used one in the office and keep one here at my desk. It’s too easy for an important task to be buried in Chrome tabs, or to forget an expiration date that is approaching. This is simply the best way to know how to stay on track.

Is there anything significant to your Dreamcast Cup?

I’m a big fan of the Sega Dreamcast console, but the cup itself is important because I bought it at Super Potato, a popular video game store in Akihabara, Tokyo. I do not like to get souvenirs from places, but I knew I had to bring this one back to the US. I do not even drink from it. (I’m too scared to break it.) I only keep small things in it, like pens, portable hard drives, etc.

Photography by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge