On Decorating Your Computer Room?

jaxle asks: "I wanted to ask the Slashdot crowd what they have in their computer rooms to make it less... dreary. I love having windows, but like me, for many of us I don't think that is an option. I have most of my computer stuff in the basement, and I find that my eyes usually get sore and I can't stand being down there any longer. So far I have a fish tank that I got recently which adds a nice ambiance to the room. I am planning on buying some plants too in the near future. Any body else have ideas or tell us how you decorate your computer room. Also, what kind of lighting most represents real sunlight?"

Comments

Full Spectrum Lights

[Bastian]

They might take special light fixtures, and the bulbs are expensive as hell, but they are well worth it.

For one, they last a long time. I'm not sure about the cost per unit of life, but if you find the right full spectrum bulb it shouldn't be much worse than incandesent.

For two, they really are like real sunlight. You'll all probably be much happier people (since you probably don't get to see much real sunlight if your office has no windows), and you'll get more vitamin D to boot. =D

Oh yeah, and the plants will thank you for it, too.

Re:Full Spectrum Lights

[CharlieG]

Full Spectrum lights are NOT that expensive, and fit "standard" fixtures - Verilux is one brand, and even Home Depot sells some here in the states

My workshop at home is ALL full spectrum lights - VERY nice.

Another option (expensive) is HID lighting - Yes, like the cars. Fixtures are EXPENSIVE and throw a LOT of light

Whatever you do, remember to look at 2 numbers - The Color Rendering Index (aka, the CRI) - you REALLY want a CRI in the VERY high 80s or in the 90s - 100 would be perfect "sunlight". The best you can do is about 92

The other is color temp. It is the color of the light (relative to "Black Body" color). Standard Incandescent light is around 2700. Some of the "full spectrum" lights key as blue as 5500k - These are a close match to "noon sunlight", but make things look flat unless you do 2 things - design for it, and use a LOT of light

Believe it or not, the Light bulb Mfgs have some pretty good guides to GOOD lighting on their web sights. For NICE computer lighting, you probably want to follow some of their general ideas - I've actually spent money on this at my OFFICE (if I leave, I'll take the lights)

You want a medium level of ambient light - in my 10x10 office, I use a dual 2x24" florescent fixture doing an upward wall wash - gives MOST of the general light. Then I have a track light with 4 bulbs - One flood pointing at the cork board being my desk, one flood at the cluster of photos on the wall to my left, 2 spots pointing at the 2 photos on the wall in front of me (behind the visitors chairs). Then I have task lighting on my desk

Good lighting makes a difference

Suggestion:

[nekdut]

I love having windows, but like me, for many of us I don't think that is an option.

Easy solution: Use linux!! =)

Re:Suggestion:

[Tumbleweed]

Clearly, he needs a SUN box. :)

Wood rules

[tsa]

I don't have a real 'computer room' but I have a room full of electronic stuff, and I find it important to no make it too 'high-tech looking'. Therefore I have two wooden bookcases, a wooden table (2x1 m^2, the bigger the better!) and even a wooden floor. And lots of plants and pluche animals.

Velux

[Arc04]

I would personally move out of the basement, and into a loft conversion room if you have one. You can then install a Velux window - great for getting lots of natural light into the room, and then you can have a cool motorised blind for when it gets too sunny that you can rig up to your PC and then control via a temp/sunlight sensor :):)

Although you have realised the benefits of natural light, no artifical light will ever be as good, so make the effort and get yourself into a nice, light room!

Arc

PS: Oblig Simpsons quote: "Ahhh! Natural Light- get it off me, get it off me!" [Barney]

Computer room art

[TheCovenant]

I generally use old computer parts, empty beer bottles, and dust to decorate my computer room.

sunlight...

[aldjiblah]

what kind of lighting most represents real sunlight?

real sunlight. get out some.

A Fireplace

[Pathwalker]

The time when I was most productive, was when I had my main workstation in a basement room with a fireplace.

The flickering light of the fire mixing with the glow of the screen was very relaxing, and I was able to work long hours, getting a lot done and still feel relaxed.

Plus, when I got stuck, I could poke the fire, throw another log on it, or go split some wood, taking my mind off of the problem for a while.

solar tubes

[zogger]

these things are nifty

http://www.skylights-of-hawaii.com/news/page4.ht ml

No electricity required, about as "natural" as you can get for lighting. Obviously only useful during the daylight hours, but a good way to get that natural light that humans absolutely need for both good physical health and psychological health. And you can grow plants then as well down there without using additional electricity or artificial light. And here's a tip, once when all I had was an apartment, I wanted a garden, a veggie garden. So I just went for it, instead of "normal" house plants I grew like 6 foot tall staked tomatoes, etc inside. People always liked it when they came over, and it actually provided some nice fresh salad action. I had tomatoes and pole beans and peas and cukes, etc all growing inside in front of windows. Was really neat! The coolest one was a large rose bush, quite the nice odor inside a small room.

Googling will find you more sources for these and different lighting ideas. All of them more or less use a periscope type action with just ultra shiny pipes to move the light around, and there is a japanese company I have forgotten the name of now though that uses fiber optics to pipe sunlight around to various places inside office buildings.

Air Quality

[Bush_man10]

I'm surpised that Air Quality wasn't mentioned here. I have all of my computer hardware in my basement too and I find that sometimes the air can get a little to dank. With the lack of windows in the room the poor ventalation I find really affects me when I'm working on my computer. Recently we installed a central air exchange unit in the house and it makes a huge change in my opinion.

Re:Uhhhh...

[einstein]

your tactical officer gets tired of standing all day long.

My strategy

[slaker]

There are presently 16 computers in my 1000 square foot apartment, inculding a fullsized rack, external hotswap RAID cabinet and a Catalyst 5005. Most of that is crammed into one room, and the REALLY loud and ugly stuff is in a closet in that room, but of course the whole apartment had air conditioning running until just last month.

A number of issues present themselves.
1.) Exposed cabling - I went hardcore and rewired my apartment with cat5, in-wall, replacing the ancient 4-prong block connectors for phone, and adding four ethernet ports everywhere I found a jack. That helped things a lot.
Because the electrical demands of my apartment are slightly, well, extreme, I put waist-high bookcases everywhere, and ran bundled extension cords and power cables behind them. I found a bunch of cheap but not unappealing ones at Kmart for $5 apiece.
The bookcases are incredibly imposing, if I do say so myself. They're all full, either of books or CDs.
2.) Noise. *HUGE* problem. A lot of my PCs are simply enclosed somehow, either in closets, my rack or in computer desks. The RAID array and Catalyst are the biggest offenders, but my solution to that issue was to put them and the rest of their rack in an unused closet that I lined with carpet scraps. I went from being able to hear all those Barracudas while I was in the shower to having to open closet doors to make sure everything was running.
For the rest of my apartment, I've chosen various tapestries and other cloth wall-hangings to deaden noise. This is quite effective but it DOES make speaker placement for my various home theater equipment more difficult.
The final part of my noise-deadening and asthetic strategy is fake plants. I hit Lowe's, Sam's Club and Michael's for a selection of fake trees, branches and shrubs. I went out and hunted up some interesting-looking rocks to put around their bases. Fake plants do a great job absorbing noise. It's not that hard to wind cords through all those rocks, either, which helps with speaker and power cables.

My apartment is fucking gorgeous, if I do say so myself. Mission-style oak furniture (O'Sullivan even makes decent oak-finish mission-style computer furniture, and it's inexpensive), the trees and bookcases... it's a wonderful asthetic arrangement, and I was able to hide my computers well enough that those who visit, only able to see a couple of computer monitors and a pair of speakers, ask where the rest of my stuff is.

The only down side? I have to do quite a bit of dusting. :(