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iWorkstations?
YoDave writes "Have a slick new iMac and a boring old desk? This BBC report may be music to your eyes. John Treby from the University of Hertfordshire has designed the iDesk. It has space age styling with space for all your Apple goodies and not much else. Rain Design of San Francisco is shipping a similar stand called the iGo. PC users can prepare to drool with envy, again."
what about those of us with an old imac and a slick new desk?
All I Want For Christmas Is My Constitutional Rights
Where do I put all my coke cans...?
blahblahblah computer workstation..too high, too expensive,too "chic".
just give me a new chair damnit! I'm turnin hunchback!
Just look at all the air around that desk. Complete waste of space!
Instead, get something like this.
That's all the desk you should ever need.
The unofficial
The desk is design to concieveable be placed within the Apple brand.
Let's hope his design skills are better than his grammar...
On a desk like that, where would I put the pizza and the stuffed Tux??
I don't think PC users drool with envy over Apple Mac computers.. i'd like an iMac, and if I really wanted one that badly i'd sell my PC and buy one. But at the end of the day, an iMac can't do everything my PC so i'm going to stick with it for now.
;) :)
Anyway... for me, computer ownership shouldn't be about having to re-mortgage my house just so I can be a trend-whore
"Hey! Unless this is a nude love-in, get the hell off my property!!"
> iWhat's iUp iWith iAll iTeh iApple iGayness ?
iDunno
The unofficial
I'm all for eye-candy, but the desk looks to be unsuitable for my needs (ymmv, of course). At work, I generally have a couple of books close to hand, printouts of specs, a project plan or two, etc. The paperless office is a nice idea, but I don't see it happening any time soon...
At home, my desk is a complete mess. CDs everywhere, a book or two, assorted junk that I really ought to put away but never quite get round to doing... There, a desk like this might actually make sense, as it would (hopefully!) force me to be a little tidier. For work, though, it's simply not practical.
Looks utterly gorgeous, though.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
...there's always the one in the front of the iMac, isnt there?
Karma: Oldschool
>>Is it any good when surfing for pr0n???
... do you see a place for a tissue dispenser?
I'm guessing not
Macslash (see article) had this on the 14th.. come'on slashdot.. get up to speed :P
Mac doesn't have the money to do major product placement and why dont we see massive product placement from M$? IMHO movie producers are gonna think something along the lines of "Our main character cant be seen to be 'mainstream' or 'usual' so lets give them something just a little unusual"
Give a man a fire, he is warm for a day.
Set a man on fire, he is warm for the rest of his life.
For either of the linked iRealityDistortionStations, there is no place to put CD's, papers, a drawing pad, or any other tools. Much less a drink. Or for the Mac crowd, their reality distortion equipment.
If you want a good workstation desk, check out the following companies. They make excellent systems for a variety of uses, including video and music production.
Biomorph Interactive Desks
Anthro Workstations
Many of the big companies (such as Steelcase, Herman Miller, etc.) that make office furniture also make high quality workstation systems. With all the leftover dotcom equipment lingering about, you can often find tremendous discounts if you dig around at used office furniture and dotcom liquidation companies.
But what will looks of your desk help when your back and neck is strained? I think that was by far the most non-ergonomical desks I have ever seen. I think I would throw them it out imediatly if my employer asked me to use one of thoose.
It is so many errors with the workspace that I don't even what to go into it.
Only one thing good was probably the iGo's built in lamp for night-work. But that is probably just about it.
- To understand recursion, we must first understand recursion -
Why is it that almost all desks made specifically for computers have their legs exactly where I would like to put mine? I hate furniture that comes in my way when I try to use it. Why not just let the table have its legs far apart, with room for my legs in between?
The pictures on the iGo page are hilarious. Can you see the way the woman has to sit in order to use the computer? More than 5 minutes at a time in that position and my back breaks. The designers obviously never tries to actually use the furniture they make.
Where the hell do I put stuff like reference meterials, notepad, or even, god forbid, a cup of coffee? At least the boring desk works
we can rebuild this sig. we have the technology
It may look good, but its functionality as an office workstation is impaired. Unless, of course, you have managed to eliminate all need for paper and take all coffee/meals away from the machine (which is highly inefficent).
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Problem 1 with that idea is that if Apple put down money for the placement the Apple logo wouldn't be taped over. It almost always is. Problem 2 with that idea is that the place one can most easily find Macs used for style is in commercials for other companies' products, products like shirts and real estate brokerage.
80C51 Programmer that I finished building yesterday
My scanner
5 photos I have been scanning
5 rolls of film for my camera
Circular polarising filter for my camera.
A copy of Mastering Linux (hardback edition circa 1988) that I use to prop up the screen from my notebook when it is on my desk.
USB cable for my digital camera.
A CD of the last film that I got processed.
A box cutter
My desktops monitor
A pile of 20 receipts that I need to sort through
My cheap as Epson printer
Remains of photos that I am NOT going to scan
Several PC cords for my film camera
Last back up DVD from my desktop
Pile of my business cards
Photo loupe for looking at negatives
More film for my camera
Some floppies
Pile of paperwork I have to sort through
Small lightbox for viewing negatives
A photo album
Various negatives that I have been sorting through
Various pens etc
So remind me again. Why am I drooling over the apple-like desk that would have 90% of my stuff sitting in the floor???? Not to mention that I rest my arms on my desk whenever I am not typing.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
You know, that fancy sleek iDesk looks awkward to me. I'm nearsighted so I really have to strain to see text on the screen if my face is more than 18 to 20 inches away. From the pictures, it would seem one's head would sit a good two and a half feet from the screen at least. I have contact lenses, but I can't look at computer screens for very long with them in before they start hurting. For some reason I don't blink as often looking at computer screens. Rewetting drops work for a while, but it's just easier to sit closer. I agree with you completely big, rectangular and flat is the way to go. Much more comfortable.
I recently ended a long and agonizing affair with "computer furniture." Over the years I've spent fairly large sums of money swapping out one arrangement for another with the belief that each new purchase was necessary -- to "finally" get comfortable, be more productive, make more efficient use of space, etc.
What did I do? I started by refinishing an old pine dining room table. Instead of a "ledge," I have a "real" desk with plenty of space on which to read and write, pile books, and rest my elbows. My two 21" monitors are off to the side (an L-shaped arrangement) on a second table I built with a retractable keyboard tray. Underneath that table, the computers are kept in a sealed but vented cabinet. The rack equipment (including hissing modems, routers, etc.) I moved into a closet (also sealed and vented).
Workstations may be fine for working if one defines working as doing nothing but staring at your monitor with your hands typing away at the keyboard. Past that, however, I find the entire concept as flawed and unworkable.
Mind you, I do think the desks shown look nice, but I'd never trade horizontal space with the gimmicky extras and pseudo ergonomics that are part of all modern computer furniture design. Put another way, if I hand nothing else, I'd use a 6' utility table instead. Or hell, maybe even a door on supports -- at least you can decorate it with a plant or two.
It all makes sense when you look at the pictures of the desk "in action".
Notice the woman in the picture is lounging around, in hip poses, looking stylish and "chic", but not actually getting any work done.
They certainly have their target market nailed pretty well.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
I got a table. Probably not very hip (nor expensive) but at least I don't look like some candy-ass who decided to steal something off of the set of Minority Report.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
Oh yes, I'm drooling with envy. I've always wanted a desk that was straight out of the Jetsons. The furniture in these pictures look like that modern crap that came out of the '60s, and quickly died, except for the fact that it's not a nasty orange color.
Yes, but even if the Apple logo is taped over, one still recognizes it *as* an Apple. I thus contend that Apple *doesn't* need to plop any money down because they're already getting free publicity and product placement.
Anyone remember the Drew Carrey episode where Drew was dancing with his iMac in his office?
Since Apple's machines are as much about style as they are substance, one doesn't necesarily need to see the Apple logo to know it is one.
No problem, they just change their name to iKea and become a Certified Apple Solution Provider.
Learn from the mistakes of others. There isn't enough time to make them all yourself.
She certainly can't sit behind the desk since they forgot to create any legspace. But hey, design is more important than functionality of course. Three buttons and a wheel are ugly too.
-- Cheers!
[warning, blantant troll] The lady in the pictures can lounge around because she finished all her work hours ago, while her linux counterparts are still trying to get their XConfig working.
Thats because when you dont have to fight with the OS to get anything done, you are a lot more productive.
Along the lines of poor design... the keyboard tray is physically centered with the display. Unfortunately, the useable center of the keyboard is not the physical center; the numeric keypad offsets everything. The useable middle of a keyboard is between the G and H keys.
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
Welcome to the wonderful world of IKEA. I have their Galant desk here at home.
This desk is immense. The shorter limb is about two meters, the longer 3. Extremely sturdy. You can literally jump up and down on it. It laughs at my 43 Kg 22" monitor. Note how the legs are placed way back or to the sides, more leg space for you. I have four computers on it, two rolling sets of drawers and the trusty old HPLJIII below. That still leaves plenty of desk space for the phone, ADSL modem, various piles of paper and assorted knick-knack.
Prize: $329. I couldn't buy the planks to build a desk this size for $329 (slight exageration).
To much or not enough? It's all modular. Buy new segments. The desk in the picture is made from a narrow segment, a wide segment, a narrow-to-wide bend and a semi-circular wide end-cap.They fit together in a wide variety of configurations. By some strange voodoo the pictured desk is exactly the same as mine.
NB: I'm not in any way affiliated with IKEA, I just like this desk. Best I ever had.
I choose to remain celibate, like my father and his father before him.
Someone please mod it up. I agree entirely. At work, I have my monitor lifted up pretty high, because I'm convinced that the people that came up with the notion that you monitor should be lower than your eyes have never actually worked at a computer all day. Everything about that desk looks right. As for not having enough room for documents and things, nobody ever said that you can only have one desk. At work, I need a lot more than one dest to suit my needs.