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The Floating PowerBook
Pingsmoth writes "With the proliferation of laptops today, many replacing the traditional space-hogging desktop computer, this seems like a neat idea to free up even more square footage on your desk. It's the floating laptop, a 'stand,' if you will, that is invisible to the average user and just as functional as other traditional laptop stands. The obvious appeal of the 'Floating Laptop' is its aesthetic quality, especially when compared to some of the other stands out there, but it's also cheaper ($15) and only takes a half hour to build."
The stand seems uncomfortably high, though I suppose it's used with an external keyboard or mouse, or perhaps standing up. I wouldn't trust my PowerBook to the cardboard backing on a desk. A bit more wood could bracket it to the actual desk from behind without loss of the aesthetic.
My biggest issue is the appearance of the stand without the computer on it... it's three prongs looming over your desk space. If it could fold up, I would like it more. Of course, that would increase the cost, but I think it might be worth it.
Coral link.
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
Good luck typing on it.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
The only thing I know how to build is a computer. I don't know how to use REAL power tools!
From "floating" I thought this was going to involve waterproofing.
Oh no... it's the future.
This is a simple page I've thrown together to show my "Floating Powerbook" laptop stand. I've had the idea to build such a thing for a long time, but just never got around to it until recently. Before this I used a Griffin iCurve on a stack of textbooks to have my computer at a height that I like. Doing this, though, wastes a lot of desk space. Even using just an iCurve uses up desk space, so I wanted to find a solution to that problem. Thus the Floating Powerbook Stand was born. Total cost: about $15.
Here are all the pieces of the stand before I had done any type of assembly. I went to a lumber store with just an idea of what I wanted to build, and walked out with four "oak fillets" according to my receipt. These are sturdy, somewhat finished pieces of wood about two inches wide and a quarter of an inch thick. They were plenty long that I could cut them down to size. While I was here, I also bought three small two-inch corner brackets for attaching the "arms" of the stand to the back brace. I picked up a couple packs of small nuts and bolts as well, making sure I had ones that were long enough. My total cost at the hardware store was $13.28.
Here is the assembled stand. This should give you a good idea of how it will work once it is "installed" onto the desk. I cut the oak fillets into three pieces, the two longer ones are ten inches in length and the middle one is eight. I think the back brace is sixteen inches long. On the top of each of the three "arms" are three little rubber grips. I picked these up at a hardware store, they're called "bumpers" and they cost me $2.66 for a pack of nine. One thing I had to be sure I did was get rubber grips that were thicker than the screw heads. You can see the screw heads on the back end of each arm. If I had grips that were too thin, the computer wouldn't sit on them and would instead sit on the screw heads - not good.
This picture shows the underside of the assembled stand. It's actually pretty simple. One thing I had to make sure I did though was bend the brackets just a bit so the arms of the stand would be tilted downward slightly. I didn't want my Powerbook to be sitting completely level for a few reasons. One, the iCurve is tilted just slightly, as are most other stands you can buy, and two, if the computer sat level, you'd be able to see the stand. That would put be the end of the "floating" aspect, now wouldn't it?
Here's what makes the whole thing work. My desk has shelves up the left and right sides of it with a bookshelf on top. On the back of all this is a "fake wood" durable cardboard sheet. It makes it look like there's wood all the way up the back of the desk when there really isn't. The stand will be attached directly to this cardboard sheet. It's about an eighth of an inch thick, and though it's not as strong as wood, it works just fine for holding my computer. The large hole in the center was there previously to run wires through. You can see the nine holes I drilled through the cardboard where the "backbone" of the stand will be attached. The "scuff marks" are from things I've taped and removed from the cardboard, exposing it's "fake woodness".
This is another view of the mounting holes, from the backside of the desk.
Here we can see the backbone of the stand attached through the holes we just drilled. Each of the arms is attached to this backbone, through the cardboard on the front side of the desk. This allows them to just "hang" there and look as if they're attached directly to the cardboard.
A view from the front of the desk with the arms firmly attached through the cardboard and into the backbone which you can't see.
Here is another view from the front of the desk. You can see a few of the cords coming through the hole (which will be perfectly hidden behind the screen) as well as the angle at which the arms are tilted. As a note, I didn't measure those at all. As I was drilling holes in each arm I would attach each one to a bracket just to see how it looked. I then put the bracket in a vice a
Now I hoped there was some magical forcefield to carry my laptop attached to my belt floating along.
You surely can imagine my dissapointment here :(
If he is complaining about his current stand taking up "valuable desk space," then perhaps he should get rid of that random vase of junk on the left and clean up his desk a bit more often.
The laptop stands on you!
First we have a guy who spends 1.5 years building something you can already purchase and now we have a guy who thinks he's clever because he re-invented the shelf!
The iCurve is not that much more, far more stylish and when you count in the time can work out cheaper!
Matt Thompson - Actuality - Insert product here.
" Ta-Da! The finished project in action. It works prefectly."
Creator confirms there are minor typing problems with the unit.
...my experiments with a bath tub clearly show that powerbooks don't float.
it's a shelf! wtf is this place coming to?
It's not a real laptop stand that you can carry around. I was hoping to find something kinda stylish that goes with the laptop. Three chunks of wood screwed into a desk is good for the guy, but has limited use for anyone else looking for a cheap and cool laptop stand.
Pointless story, pointless comment.
Bad newsday, or what?
Something bad is coming when people are suddenly anxious to tell the truth.
If only there was a floating webserver with plenty of grunt and fat pipes so we could see the floating laptop...
Front page news on slashdot today - a shelf.
TO be honest you're doing this shelf a disservice anyway. It can hold much more than powerbooks, such as plates, magazines, monkeys, fish fingers, books, CDs, 750:1 scale whales, etc.
A news item about a shelf is bad enough, but failing to give it a decent multifunction review is just criminal.
You've got to be fucking kidding
Isn't there a story about about Microsoft bashing or somthing we could read?
Gosh!
One of our local "LUGgers" made this a while back:
http://lappyvator.cyberknights.com.au/
"Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn't been good to you so far
...how does that contraptioin make his desk any less cluttered? Especially since he doesn't actually seem to PUT anything in the space he "liberated".
Two scoops of ice cream, and two scoops of PowerBook.
Hate mail goes here!
hi mom!
"Invisible to the average user"? What does that mean? It's not invisible to superusers?
This person obviously doesn't use his computer a lot, at least not for typing. That position is like begging for back and a arm problems. I don't even understand what the problem is with having the computer on the desk, but then I'm sitting by a miditower and a 22" CRT monitor, so obviously I have other priorities.
Freaking cardboard... And hanging an expensive laptop on cardboard? WTF is he smoking??
That little strip of wood in the back isn't enough to hold that thing up. Wait a few days and see what happens then get back to us. Let the humidity go up some. Here, it's in the high 90's all the time. That little project of his would last about 30 seconds and that laptop would be bouncing off the floor..
That's about the worst idea I've ever seen. Visually it's cool but in reality, it's dangerous, this guy is going to lose that laptop..
Take powerbook outside. Add 1 gallon of gasoline. Ignite.
Magically, your desk space will be improved, and so will your productivity.
No longer will hours be wasted moving icons around or listening to gurgling sounds of email arriving.
Thank you.
Why on EARTH doesn't this guy just put his laptop on his desk?!
I realise another 10,000 people have already pointed this out but since I can't see much scope for any further discussion.
He's built a shelf and took photos. This is not interesting, I can go around to my married mates houses and watch them build shelves if I wanted to. I don't.
It's a Shelf !!!!! Building shelves is not hard. It also looks crap.
Any guy in India can do better than this - his laptop can float above the desk without the screws. (being helf there by stream of purloined bank account data)
I doubt that we will ever figure out - and I suspect that even if we did figure out we couldn't do much about it
Front page story about a freakin cardboard shelf in some kids dorm room? Stuff that matters my ass...
A floating laptop on a sunken webserver!
Sound waves should be free!
That project is pathetic. Cardboard!??!?! You're going to suspend your $3000 Powerbook in the air with cardboard?!?
If you want to do this, you should do it right. Like for example, the Ergotron Laptop Arm.
I must be an average user, since his server seems to have become invisible too!
...there's nothing underneath. What was he trying to save the space for?
Your solution is much smarter than levitating the laptop if you like to use an external keyboard. Levitating hides external keyboard if you need the screen to be close to you.
I use the same type of solution - but actually I just bought a cookbook holder. This solution is stabile and works for most of my coworkers.
Wow! This is revolutionary! Taking the floating shelf idea and re-work it (making 3 prongs come out of a wall) to hold a laptop. What will the clever people think of next.
Anywaze... Please go check out my floating Sun Server.
I also made a floating hamster, floating coffee mug and other floating objects by sticking them to my cube using small (almost invisible!) prongs.
"I used to have that really cool,funny sig
Not that I want to criticise, but for only ~20 UKP I got a really nice removable stand for my PowerBook, the iCurve which I think is a really good solution (even if it was over priced for a lump of clear plastic).
I got this for use at work, where I use it with a nice big monitor, with a 'normal' keyboard and mouse (the idea being that it's better for my back/posture in particular, also because it allows me to see the second screen on the PowerBook - on which I usually stick an IRC window on - at eye level).
I would think it's more cost effective and more convenient (particularly as it can be moved) to by one of the available stands than spend time making a fixed one.
I think the best idea in this field is detachable display (as seen in Toshiba). But the display must be "thin client", no tablet whatsoever.
you are not your sig
Now I hoped there was some magical forcefield to carry my laptop attached to my belt floating along.
... which will (a) float your laptop, and (b) power your car.
Of course there's no such thing as "magical forcefields".
What you want is a cluster of hydrogen-filled balloons
-kgj
-kgj
Ford Prefectly.
/cue James Bond theme
"i built a shelf"
dude.
when a post consisting of the single line "bad newsday, or what?" gets modded +4 INFORMATIVE
WTF is this guy smoking? He bolted 3 pieces of wood to a piece of cardboard... and this is cool... HOW?
/. has gone downhill...hell I don't even mind the dupes... they're great if I miss a story if I'm not near the computer when the original gets posted.
.but then to see SHIT like this on the front page just is a slap in the face.
For 3 more pieces of wood and (to be cheep) only 6 more screws, he could have bolted on some supports behind the cardboard to support his delicate and expensive laptop... but maybe the 1/2 inch he'd have to move his desk from the wall was unacceptable.
Although.. I feel with his carpentry talents he could have possibly made a fake wall out of an old fridge box or something to compensate... THAT would have been far more interesting then this crap.
I hate posts that bitch about how
But in the last few months, I've really been considering saying to hell with it. With all the raving fanatics, shitty moderation, and crap stories, this place is reaching the end of my patience level. The people who claim to "speak" for companies by adding all the "we're going to do this" or "we did this because" are really annoying as well. As are the people who reply to posts, including every bit of knowledge they know (googled?) on the subject... just to toot their own horns.
I've submitted a few things to slashdot and got them rejected...altho I know they weren't super WOW factor stuff, I figured they'd be good for a slow news day.
Well after they got rejected I was like "oh well"..
Thanks slashdot... for now I've posted a reply even I can't stand.
We're in the eye of a shit tornado, people.
If I can't smoke and swear I'm fucked.
Everyone says this hack is uncool because it's lame, that the cardboard will crash, that he didn't use the freed up space...
Why doesn't anybody notice one more FUNDAMENTAL thing:
Try typing measy 4KB of text on this laptop.
The functionality is ruined.
If you rest your hands on it, it will go down, crashing. You must keep your hands suspended in air, about 20cm above reasonable, comfortable height, and type like that.
Hiding this laptop under the desk will have lesser impact on functionality, free up desk space better, will be cheaper and certainly safer.
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
Maybe I'm missing something, but wouldn't it work better to just put the laptop on the desk itself instead of raising it above the desk, which seems to have made it less usable? Laptops are designed for portability as it is -- also another magical trick that you can perform: Hide the desktop under the desk and then you can tell your friends that you've created a computer out of thin air!
The good news is it lives up to its name.
But why is the rum gone?
...it's the candy stash! How can you expect the guy to work without candy? I mean, those two Blow Pops on the shelf aren't going to fuel him for long with the increased caloric requirements of holding his arms up so high! Sheesh!
...it must be a witch! BURN IT!!!
I can build a better looking shelf, however I'm not sure why I'd build a shelf for a notebook when I can put it anywhere I need.
Doesn't that remove the point of having a notebook? You can get a more powerful computer for less money if it's going to be deskbound. If you need to use your desk area then *move* the notebook.
Did I oversleep and it's April 1 again?
Err...
/. readers (and people with mod points) NEVER seen a laptop stand before?
The point is you plug (or use a wireless) keyboard and mouse. It ensures your screen is at eye level. The point of this is to strain on your wrist, back and neck.
It clearly indicates the point was to raise this laptop to a suitable height in the first paragraph (ref: "to have my computer at a height that I like").
Have so many
Scary...
What the article failed to point out is that he will now have to spend over $10,000 in servo controls and stabilizers to be able to type on his new Galloping Gertie laptop shelf.
/.
I would have preferred seeing a Powerbook wrapped in styrofoam floating in some hot chick's bathtub.. but this is
/. spaztech
... we have a word that describes this type of creation. Dodgy.
If the laptop being used has rear ventilation then the system temperature will rise with extended use. Not good for longevity of your hardware.
This is what I use, more than $15, and not particularly pretty, but man is it nice. airdesk
I have a 15-inch laptop, and i keep it "afloat" with two empty 50-disc spindles, one on the right and one on the left. Maybe pricey if you include the CDs, but I call it re-use.
Reading some of the previous comments, a lot of people seem to have the impression that you're suppose to type on it. Really the main point of the iCurve and this shelf is that it's suppose to raise your laptop screen to eye-level. You're supposed to use an external keyboard to type.
As for why this is posted on slashdot? ehhhhhhhhh...
m y k a r m a i s m o r e p o s i t i v e t h a n y o u r s.
Good Sweet Jeebus! This is Front page geek news?!? A monkey and a orangutan gould fashion something equally as "cool" as this. I'm no engineer (but I play one on TV) But building a simple "C" shaped structure would yield the same thing and be much more stable... Time for ASCII art:
----
|
|
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Put a little pivot/lock at the top and it is instantly angle adjustable and all the space of this solution. Hell, for that matter, simply screw one 1'x1' square into the base of the desk flush against the back "wall" and the top part (still could pivot) and it is equally as hidden and much more stable.
With a slight bit of neurons firing, just about any third-grader could come up with a better solution.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
Along those lines, I went to a dollar store (US), and got a book stand that had "holders" just right for the tablet I use. It takes up very little desk space, and is fashionably flat black to match. If you have a tablet PC, spend a few minutes at dollar stores or discount store looking for one; it's worth it.
a 'stand,' if you will, that is invisible to the average user
So, to average users it is invisible.
But, to power users and computer geniuses, they can see that it is on a shelf, and not actually floating in mid air.
- Donny was a good bowler, and a good man.
When the laptop is not on the shelf... which is likely to happen a lot, the shelf is really, really ugly. Not to mention that there is no desk space! Where do you put your soda? A mouse? The papers you are working on? I cannot think of a work area I would want to use that did not have other surfaces to put stuff on! This is a non-story!
Spend $2000 on a laptop and then hang it on cheap wood and cardboard. That just blows my mind.
Doesn't anyone have design sense, or even common sense?
--- witty signature
Trashdot must be having a slow day when "home improvement" trash makes headlines.. who would trust a 2k powerbook on some $20 homedepot project? looks like some hicks dream.. must work at a call center with wood desks.. even cubicles are 'bmw' to those
that is invisible to the average user im sure your friends will ask "how is this laptop floating? did you cast levitate?" instead of looking under it...
That has got to be the most pointless mod (I suppose you would call it) ever. I can't see any possible functional use for it. It places the keyboard at a height where you can't type and even if you could it would give you RSI in about 5 minutes. Worse though is the sort of dead space that it creates under it. I mean what are you going to do with that weird 30cm gap between the desk and laptop. At best you could use it as a sort of book shelf but then you could have just put your lapton on top of the books.
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
Maybe we can create a floating Mainframe or something
In one version you use Gorilla Glue to adhere the laptop to the back of a cat and buttered bread to the other.
The second version involves 4-8 very powerful magnets.
sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
I levitated my laptop for about 1/2 a second the other day. Well, not exactly 'levitated'. Now it won't boot....
In the last picture on the left.
In one fell swoop..
You've exposed your "special alone-time" habits to the world!
chown'd.
Nothing to see here, please move on :)
It's called: My Lap.
Anyone have any plans or ideas for how to build an LCD and keyboard/mouse arm? In case you're wondering what I mean, its those things you sometimes see at kiosks in the mall where the lcd and keyboard/mouse are supported by arms attached to the wall so it effectively eliminates the need for a desk.
Slashdot DOS Attacks Cost User His Provider!
-1 completely useless
Wouldn't it just be smarter to put the laptop on the desk and build shelves to put things on? Just a thought
I hate to brag.. no, I don't really.
;-P
I actually thought that the story would be about something like my desk setup.
I'm in a 1950's research building.. 15" concrete floors, concrete block walls and imbedded shelf rails in the walls.
The obvious solution for me was to take a long shelf rail, have the guy in the ship saw a sliver out of it, bend it, and weld it back together so it angles down as it leaves the wall.
I finished a small plank of 1/4" plywood (fancy stuff). I ran it through the router table to put a nice edge on it and clear sealed it.
My Powerbook actually floats over the desk, straight from the wall. It's about Starbucks tall off the desk in the front so I can easily slide my keyboard and mouse under when another notebook comes in for repair.
It's too high by design for normal typing but the angle makes it easy to use in a pinch. It also allows me to use my mouse/keyboard when working on a desktop on my desk.. but I can still use the laptop when needed.
To be honest, I don't think I'm that clever that I should have a better solution than something in a slashdot article. Pretty sad.
I'm not feeling witty so bite me
then why the hell didn't you just buy a desktop? use your LAP
*plays the Apogee theme song music*
...now I know why my ADSL router is lit up like Christmas and twitching and cringing under the desk, here. (-:
Good thing it's a 512/512 link and not a more typical (for Perth, WestOz) 512/128 or I'd have naff-all access left. Give it ten minutes, I may not have any anyway.
For the curious, the coccyx healed up much faster when I started using this, and is mostly fine now. I still use the lappyvator from time to time, e.g. when I'm totally knackered but still have stuff to do. With a comfortable pillow, and as long as I don't actually nod off, I can stretch out the last few hours of a day by lying down as I work.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
...please give me a couple of days warning to point the DNS somewhere else first! If this is what a link in the middle of a story is like, I don't want to know about a front-pager.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
You know those trick globes that float in a magnetic harness? How about a few of those harnesses floating a notebook several inches above a desk? A wireless mouse, and little thumb-grips on the notebook for opposing finger typing, and the notebook could hover above the desk's mess. Thereby taking up no desk space at all, or just the minimum from the harness footprints.
The hard drives are the only device left sensitive to external magnetic fields, now that the floppy is dead. And the HD is probably shielded well enough to ignore such wimpy little fields. How do they do that, anyway?
Yes, it accomplishes about the same thing as this sturdier stand. But this one really floats! How cool is that?
--
make install -not war
-1, Karma Whore. :P
And no links to the pictures!
(Someone else got called a troll for saying the same!)
Dave Letterman thinks it will float, Paul Shaeffer thinks it will sink.
My shit stained underwear are more elegant than this lame laptop stand. Whoever posted this is a cunt.
I don't think the shelf could hold fish fingers. For the simple reason that fish don't actually have fingers.
And as another poster pointed out, a 750:1 scale whale would break the shelf due to its exceedingly large size. Perhaps a 1:750 scale model whale might fit though.
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
http://www.prop-forward.com/products.asp
:-(
Takes up very little desk space, and pretty cheap among other laptop stands, but I just feel like I've been robbed paying that much for a few centimeters of aluminium extrusion
two thumbs down
Heat from some idiot's laptop ignited the cardboard he strangly placed it on, burning down his entire apartment building.
Would be great if there were actually a website at the address given.
The website says its suspended not floating.
Paper made out of sand would quickly wear down any pen or pencil that a person would try to use to write on it.
Next thing you know, you're going to try to tell me that there are such things as boys made out of paper, tops made out of boxes, melons and pitchers made out of water, mobiles made out of autos, and balls made out of feet, bases, and baskets.
Do you think that I am that gullible?
Well, I'm not; there's just no way that I can be turned into a gull.
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
Slashdot DOS Attacks Cost User His Provider!
Ah, but in Soviet Amerika, Slashdotting sends you to Gitmo!
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
to go on top of my legs while I watch VH1 and drink free bheer while surfing the Internets.
...
seriously, that would be useful.
but not one to make my laptop even harder to read on my desk
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
People here are mean today. I think it's cool when someone has a minor inconvenience and comes up with a DIY remedy. Yeah it isn't innovative or hi-tech but it's the kind of thing I'd do. Only mine would be cheaper, lower quality, and halfway done. And I'd never make a webpage about it.
Man, you really need that seminar!
I'm guessing someone exceeded their bandwidth so I didn't get to read the article or see what this thing actually looked like. But I did enjoy the responses. If you're looking for options to what's out there try http://www.anthro.com/.
"You work three jobs?
Seems the site's ISP is getting a little greedy for money, and took the site down. I don't suppose anyone has a mirror site?
Static magnetic levitation with permanent magnets is impossible. The globe works because it's spinning. Somehow that solution doesn't seem feasible for current laptops. Now, if you came up with a diamagnetic case, maybe...
What about Tenser's Floating Disk? Huh? What about that?
Early prototypes of Tenser's Floating Disk used tethered hydrogen balloons for lift. These were soon replaced with vacuum-filled balloons, for great lift. Finally, vacuum-balloons were compressed to nano-scale, embedded in the disk itself, whereupon the embedded vacuum was replaced with negative space, creating the Tenser's Floating Disk we know today.
-kgj
-kgj
No patents pending, AFAICT; the idea is so obvious that I'd be amazed if anyone could sustain a patent on it.
Obviously you haven't heard of the US Patent and Trademark Orif^H^H^Hffice. >_
"The newly born animals are then whisked off for a quick run through a giant baking oven." --heard on Food Network
..it must be a witch! BURN IT!!!
Have you had one in your lap for longer than a half-hour? It takes care of that itself!
The Floating Powerbook doesn't really appeal to me. For $15 it's a really good deal but I might as well stack some books on top of each other and place my powerbook there. Has anyone heard of Jellyfish? It's a company called CBS products and unlike the iCurve it's height adjustable and very sturdy. They also do other powerbook stands. After looking around my friend recommended the Jellyfish to me.
As a ready-made alternative, try an AirDesk. They are pricey but well-made.
http://www.airdesks.com/
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http://del.icio.us/billso
What about adding a cup holder?