diff --git a/hosts/modules/base.nix b/hosts/modules/base.nix
index 1eb5078..0434e6b 100644
--- a/hosts/modules/base.nix
+++ b/hosts/modules/base.nix
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
   users.users.alex = {
     isNormalUser = true;
     description = "Alexander Wainwright";
-    extraGroups = [ "networkmanager" "wheel" ];
+    extraGroups = [ "networkmanager" "wheel" "dialout" ];
     packages = with pkgs; [
     #  thunderbird
     ];
@@ -158,6 +158,10 @@
     wireguard-tools
     zip
 
+    # maths
+    bc
+    libqalculate
+
     # build tools
     binutils
     cmake