Slashdot Mirror
The Ultimate Computer Chair?
An anonymous reader writes "Check out www.mypce.com. They address the idea
of the computer workspaces by treating the it as an overall environment
instead of the desk and monitor we're all used to. Hopefully, the industry will
start moving in this direction and address more of the physical issues of computing.
No idea on pricing, but very cool nonetheless."
It appears to be a Medieval torture device!
The ultimate computer chair is self-cleaning...pr0n!
is a fridge for cold beer and toilet paper dispenser...
IANAL, but imagine a beowulf cluster of in Soviet Russia all your belong are base to us welcoming the new SCO overlords.
Can someone explain to me WHY I'd need a sport bucket seat to use the computer? I mean does this thing come with neon and Type R stickers? Yeah, I've got a nice force feedback wheel for playing Colin McRae 3 but I don't think it's *that* good.
Oh...and if they really want to sell then where's the fat person version? Cuz I can tell you the only way to squeeze me into something like that would inolve more Crisco than I'd care to contemplate.
"Where quality is like a dead stinking rat - you just can't miss it."
I took one look at those chairs and the first thing I thought was "These look like the design of a dentist on a bad acid trip."
Comfortable? Maybe, I've never tried one, so I can't say.
Eye-searingly awful looking? You better believe it.
"I won't mod you down - I feel the need to call you a twit explicitly, rather than by implication."
a computer chair with frikkin LASER
Since the site is already /.'d, i'll just dream a little:
Laz-e-boy recliner installed with:
1. monitor swing-arm
2. keyboard split across arm rests
3. speaker surrounding head, woofer under seat
4. vertical-load cd tray in left armrest
5. mouse pad on right armrest
6. Linux inside ...sweeeet....
Don't use the Troll mod just because you disagree with me.
Indeed. For those of you who can't access the site (which is slowing down already!), it is just a dup of the iLoo announcement.
It looks just like one of those home gyms. And then when the marketing speak said:
> The MasterPeace Rocks and Cradles you
I thought... "You can rock, rock, rock! yourself to firmer abs!"... damn those infomercials.
The biggest problem with those is there is no place to put good old fashion pen to paper.
Even when I was in R&D I still liked to use pen and paper beside my superfast machine. I like a big desk with lots of room to scribble.
Interesting side note, since we were in R&D, we weren't allowed any "scrap" paper to work on. All our work had to be in our logbooks, that had all our notes (aparently incase of patent dispute). So I started doing my doodles in that. Then I put things like, "if you are reading this, then I must be dead, the treasure is buried....". Of course, after our head of project died, i stopped doing that.
I use to have a funny sig, but slash cut it off, and I forgot what the punchline was.
Of all dot-bomb employees polled, 90% preferred the Herman-Miller Aeron. According to rumor, these chairs are easily obtained. :-)
Do you like German cars?
OK, seriously, how many of the Slashdot crowd would actually buy this? I mean we're the kind of people they must be aiming for, but I can't see it sitting in the corner of my room. It'd give me nightmares. It looks like a cross between a psychotic gaenacologists favourite torture implement and one of the Machines from the Matrix. Either way, not something I'd want in my house.
If you want a conversational piece, buy a bonsai kitten or something . . .
"If being a geek means being passionate about something, then I pity those who aren't geeks." - Pike65
Devices like this ensure that geeks do not get laid by the cute coworker down the hall.
just needs a caff IV and a cath, and half the folks here would never leave :)
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
Not mentioning the fact that this idea is old, I see a few problems. Some of us don't exclusively work with computers. Sure, a good half/two thirds of my desk is dedicated to computing space, but I also do stuff with paper and I need space to do that. Or, more importantly, store CD cases, Star Wars action figures, and pile empty pizza boxes. A work/computing environment without a foot of assorted junk piled on top isn't a true environment.
Besides, the system is too restrictive. I don't like my box shipping with the device. I want to choose what components I use. Similarily, until the quality on LCD displays matches that of CRTs, I'll keep using those. And unless I'm mistaken there's no switching system to allow you to hang a CRT from there.
I mean, it's an idea we've all had, and cherished for a while (I remember in UF Stef bought one to increase his Quaking skills, we all know how that worked out), but it's just not feasible that way.
As much as we would like to think it is, a Personal Computing Environment isn't 100% PC.
That thing looks like if you lean too far to the left or right, you're rollin' (At least for those fat bastards that really need a reclining chair to complement their sedentary work-style.
Get some fat-bastard playing Grand-Tourismo 4 too into the game, he starts leaning into the turns and WHAMMO!!!
Not to mention the collateral damage if your dog happens to be in the way.
..holder for the box of tissues???
Space has an article with pictures on a server that isn't slash dotted... yet.
Try some of these links, not mirrors but they have info and pictures, and may just stand up to the power of a slashdotting a bit better.
PC World
Space.Com (Nice big pic of the two chairs if you click on the smaller image)
"I won't mod you down - I feel the need to call you a twit explicitly, rather than by implication."
... and you're all set. Is this straight out of Dilbert or what? How more anti-social can you get? Yout Personal Space is now guarded by 120VAC and large poles of steel. Great. This is a one-stop divorce mill.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
"you must be THIS TALL to ride"
[/joke]
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
The last time I tried to sit in one of those someone tried to stick things in the back of my skull...
Whaddya mean it'll feel "WEIRD"?
There is no sig...
Clearly these people have not talked to the developer community in designing these chairs. I see no Dr. Pepper / Red Bull holders nor any place to set your half-eaten bag of Cheetos.
When will someone get it?
jack's bicycle is music to my ears
Oh, Yeah! My wife is going to let me bring one of those into the house!
Well, not everybody is a whipped-up husband. Some of us are hopelessly single losers who can't get any unless it involves a financial transaction so we get plenty of space to fill as we see fit.
Now, all we need to find is a way to smuggle this monster into the basement without mom finding out.
No sig
was built from a hospital gurney. There was a cutout for your head, much like a massage table, and the monitor screen waas facing up. The keyboard was a split-design, which was the one difficult part to get used to, and your arms would just hang straight down. The mouse was a trackball mounted horizontally.
Drool gutter optional.
If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
*Mobility* is the name of the game from here on. Design focus should be more on technology usability issues, rather than how to make human beings adapt to the 1980-90's version of fixed workststions. Thank goodness, the latter are goin away.
Sure, there is a need for better fixed workstation ergonomics, but very few organizations will spend the capital necessary to deploy this sort of thing on a wide scale.
There's probably a niche market in design and graphics shops for things like this, mostly as a design statement to impress clients.
If innovations like this were cheap, we *might* see them make the residential office markets.
I used to lust after those, until they gave me one. The mesh thing is cool, I could ride my bike in and I'd try up pretty quick. But you can't cross your legs in those things, you have to sit "properly." I like to be able to shift around how I'm sitting every 15 mins or so, there are only so many ways you can do this if sitting yoda like hurts your knees... I knew their days were numbered when they stopped stacking up on nurti-grain bars and juice, which in the long run made me happier than the chair.
Purchase Order Request #15398
Vendor Name: Personal Computing Environments
Ship To Name: Mindragon
Purchase Request:(1) MasterPeace Personal Computing Environment
Price: $7,000.00
Purchase Reason: An ergonomically designed space will reduce the risk of repeatitive strain injury (RSI) and increase my overall productivity while I'm in the office thereby decreasing expenses and generating additional revenues for the company.
Real Reason: This looks way cool!!!
From the Mind...of a Dragon...
Just add {In Space!} to anything.
I liked this idea better when it was being marketed by Poetic Tech. At least PT gives you the option to have counterspace to pile crap on.
For a while I thought my keyboard (Kinesis Ergo) was to thank (and perhaps the MS Trackball Explorer, which you click with your thumb). I still like my keyboard -- RSI aside, it's a great input device -- but I think there's a limit to what they can do.
What really helped me was the armless chair I got, and the posture that has encouraged me to take. Which is actually no posture at all -- I shift positions on the chair at least twice an hour, sometimes leaning sideways, sometimes forward, and reclined in different ways. There's no real stability to the chair. None of the postures I take are ergonomically correct postures, which is why I think it's good -- no posture is right for too long a period.
The problem with a fancy system like this is that it's all about the Right Posture. It creates a whole frame around some "perfect" position, and from the look of it you'd have a hard time taking any other position. It's the same with a lot of the ergonomic devices, which advertise the relaxed and supported position you take, but you are locked into a single position, so even if there's less damage you have to worry that eventually it will accumulate since it's always the same damage.
I've got arthritis in my spine from being behind a computer for too long. This type of design with the monitor suspended over my head is what the same design I've come up with but haven't been able to build.
The idea of supporting your back and neck is a very good one if you're concerned about your long term health and you spend a lot of time behind a terminal.
There is a significant problem here. It needs to be able to be reclined. You need to be lying down for this design to do your back some good. Otherwise, this is just a raised chair.
Good start though.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
>instead of ..in bed! it's with a laser!...
... chyea, right. For $7,000 I better be sitting on Claudia Schiffer's lap for 8 hours a day.
Actually I keep a laser under my pillow. Because you never know.
No joke.
I was pretty seriously contemplating one of these chairs until I saw the $2,800 - $7,000 price tag
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer