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Best Chair For Desktop Coding?
wifeoflurker writes "Can someone give me recommendations for a desk chair to give my husband as a Father's Day gift? He currently uses a cheap one he got from Office Max, but I want him to have a really comfortable one. He spends his life in this chair (coding and lurking on Slashdot). I don't have time to research good chairs on the internet today (I'm chasing my 10 month old around, and she seems to get into the most mischief when I'm staring at the computer screen), so I figured a few folks here might share their personal recommendations." Has there been any great progress in the state of the art (of sitting) since the last time readers sought recommendations for back-friendly chairs a few years back, or the perfect computer chair nearly a decade back? Is there even such a thing as a back-friendly chair, or should we all be in astronaut-style lounge workstations?
The Herman Miller Aeron is my choice.
Strong enough to take my abuse (and I'm tough on furniture).
Comfortable enough to sit in for hours.
The aesthetics are extremely nice IMHO.
Only downside to this chair is the $$ price.
I highly recommend Knoll's Life chair... It has an active support system that gives you good lower back support throughout a range of positions. I sat in an Aeron for years and I much prefer "Life".
They list for $1200. But you can find them online for under $600 including shipping. I was lucky enough to find a guy near my house that sold them to me for $325. I've bought 4 now for my employees.
I had an Aeron at a previous job. Making the switch to whatever this purple monstrosity I have now has been difficult. My favorite part about the Aeron is it allows airflow around your body.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
How about a WalkStation?
Price is around $2500 to $3K.
I've recently done a lot of research about this. Apparently, sitting on an exercise ball is good for very short periods of time, but very bad for you back over long periods. The lack back support and angle of your pelvis causes a lot of compression on your lower vertebra.
I'm sure with a little googleing you can find more information.
It's so much simpler and cost effective than the Aeron. The chair moves with you,
the seat pan, the lower lumbar support, it's great. It's arm rests are fully adjustable, vertically, forward/back, and side to side. The lower back support actually works and doesn't feel like someone stuck a piece of wood behind your back. You can adjust it's height and it's depth. I've owned one now for 2 years now and have no regrets. I have back problems and this is the only chair I can sit in without being miserable when I use a computer.
http://store.steelcase.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=LEAPV2
If you really want to go all out, get the forward tilt option. The only
reason I didn't is that the lead time was an extra 1-2 weeks. I should also
mention that it was really easy to setup. It came in one big box and in two parts, the seat and base. All I had to do was drop the seat onto the base and it was ready, no tools were necessary.
www.alphalinux.org
I used one of these for a few years. While these are great for your back and posture, I found it started bothering my knees once I got a little older.
"Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?"
I recommend the Humanscale Freedom Chair with Headrest. I ahve used one for eight years following back surgery, and I love it. I prefer it to the Aeron. It comes in lots of color/fabric choices and is virtually indestructible. The only drawback is price. List is about $1,000, but you can find it for $150-200 less on the net. It also looks cool.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
Like this: http://gizmodo.com/5015730/emperor-workstation-belongs-in-the-death-star-my-office ?
Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
I 2nd this. I got one about 6 months ago and have had much less back trouble. My brother has something from Knoll that he likes a lot, but it costs even more than the Freedom (it is leather though). BTW, the Freedom chair is what Bill Maher uses on his show.
While Herman Miller gets the press (and looks cool) The SteelCase Leap chairs are quite cozy and incredibly well built.
--- Nothing To See Here ---
Come on mods, that was funny. Lighten up a bit.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
this is the article
Win95 and early versions of Exchange and Office are nothing to be proud of. It's good that you had a good sense to not mention Windows 98 and Me as a shining example of solid engineering.
Now the current versions of Exchange, SQL, Server, IIS, Office, dev tools - I think Microsoft can be proud of that. Vista is a management fuck up, IC's have nothing to do with it being a pile of crap.
I'm going to make my work buy one today.
This is embarrassing, but two years ago I had surgery on my butt. I can't remember the name of the condition, but it has generally been reserved for truckdrivers. Basically what happens is a hair in your crack becomes ingrown because you sweat (I live in a sub-tropical environment and at the time, wasn't wearing 100% cotton underwear), and sitting down all day the hair grows inward. Long story short, you go to *extreme* pain very quickly and hence I had a lot of morphine (which is good) and a general anesthetic and surgery to remove about 60ml of pus (which was bad). I had an additional hole in my arse about the size of my fist (poor choice, perhaps a tennis ball).
The next worst thing was the healing process. You have to regularly wash the wound out three times daily to prevent the condition occurring again until the wound completely heals. That takes about 4 months! I'm stoked that my partner is a nurse, but it's not really all as glamorous as it sounds.
You do not want this condition! Wear 100% cotton underwear, pants that breath, and a chair that does not allow you to lean back. (Found the condition - pilonidal cyst - beware the gross pictures)
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I've used the Aeron, and I like my Mirra just as much. The only way I'd get an Aeron right now is if I were very tall/short (thus making the sizing thing worthwhile) -- for 90% of us, the Mirra works just fine and it significantly less expensive.
What the parent poster said, by the way? Completely dead-on. There are two bits of furniture you shouldn't skimp on, and they're your bed and your office chair.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.