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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??
> 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.
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
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?
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.
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.
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.