EXAMPLE “TECH STACK”

Productivity & Collaboration

  • Google Workspace Business Plus ($$$): Email, calendar, cloud storage, and collaboration tools.

  • MS Office (2019): MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, MS Word

  • Google Calendar (with scheduling: https://calendar.app.google/C39dx5irfPnpxHLe9)

  • Zoom workplace pro ($$)

  • Ancestry.com international version ($$)

  • QR Code generator ($)

Website & E-commerce

AI Tools

  • ChatGPT Plus ($$): AI content generation and productivity assistance.

  • Claude Pro ($$): Large-scale document and data analysis.

  • Others: NotebookLM.google.com, perplexity.ai, aistudio.google.com/live, gemini.google.com, earth.google.com/studio/ 

Creative Tools

  • Adobe Creative Cloud ($$$): Proficient in Illustrator and Photoshop for graphic design and image editing (Premiere Pro novice level: for video editing)

  • MidJourney ($$$): AI-based visual content creation.

Social Media

  • Facebook Personal joelmackall

  • Facebook Groups: Hidden History of Black Boston/New England, d.BOBO, Ankobia6

  • Youtube Premium ($$)

  • LinkedIn (paid) https://www.linkedin.com/in/reidren/ 

  • Instagram: @reidren, 

  • X: @reidren

  • Threads: @reidren

  • Pinterest: reidren

  • TBD?: Discord, Clubhouse, Reddit, WhatsApp, TikTok 

Automation

  • Zapier ($$): Workflow automation across apps and platforms.

  • App.BLAZE.ai ($$) personalized sites

  • IFTTT cross-platform automations

  • Feedly ($): aggregator

Finance & Payment Systems

  • Wave: Invoicing/Payment software.

  • Payment accounts: PayPal, Cash App, Google Pay, Zelle, Venmo.

  • TaxAct ($): Accounting software

  • Amazon Prime ($$): Supply chain needs.

Hardware Setup

  • Dell XPS 15 Laptop: Windows 10 Pro & dual monitor connections (buying Alienware m16, windows 11 pro, Office 365)

  • Samsung SSD External HDs (multiple)

  • HP DesignJet T630 24-inch Plotter/Printer

  • Canon EOS M50 Mark II Mirrorless Camera & gimbal

  • Google Pixel 7 Cellphone

  • NFC 215 Round cards

AI TOOL LIST (who is doing it?)

US BIG TECH (Frontier Models)

ChatGPT (OpenAI) 500mn weekly, chat.openai.com Most accessible — great for writing, coding, teaching, creative use

Gemini (Google) 67.3mn unique, gemini.google.com Strong on search + visual prompts — good for Android/Google users

Notebook LM (Google) NA users, notebooklm.google.com AI reading assistant — excellent for uploading notes & making sense of files

Copilot (Microsoft) NA users, microsoft.com/copilot Works inside Word/Excel — ideal for resumes, business documents

SMALLER LABS

Claude (Anthropic) 19mn monthly, claude.ai Reads long texts well — gentle, reflective tone for learning contexts

Perplexity (Perplexity AI) 15mn active, perplexity.ai Search + citations — best for quick answers with links

II.inc (Intelligent Internet) ii.inc/web AI ethics at the design core, democratized vision

Midjourney (Midjourney Inc.) NA users, midjourney.com High-quality image generation: art, mood boards, remixing visuals

OPEN LLM LABS (ASIA)

DeepSeek (DeepSeek) deepseek.com Open model — excellent for math, logic, coding lessons

Qwen (Alibaba) qwen.Alibaba.com Multilingual — supports diaspora & Afro-global language needs

Manus (Manus) manus.im Up-and-coming — science and research potential

PLATFORM INTEGRATED LLMS

Meta AI (Meta) meta.ai Casual use inside FB/IG — light responses, easy for new users (see: LLaMA (Meta) Parent model behind Meta AI — base for many open-source projects

Siri/Apple Intelligence (Apple) apple.com/siri Cautious but coming — expected deep ecosystem integration across Apple devices

Alexa+ (Amazon) well-positioned to expand & will depend on its ability to deliver reliable, context-aware interactions

Grok (xAI-Musk) x.ai Edgy, meme-fluent — best for real-time culture convos, operated by Apartheid Clyde