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Toys

The Ultimate Chair 93

Posted by CmdrTaco from the cushioning-your-ass dept.
bt445 pointed us to the desk of the future (well, kinda: we mentioned it here a couple years ago, but it's looking much nicer now. Mobile chair, multi head monitors, customized air flow: it would seem a shame to write code with this bad boy: it really looks like you should use it to drive a mech.
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The Ultimate Chair More

The Ultimate Chair

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  • I would love one of these. Shame about the prices though. Does anyone know a UK supplier? Steve.

  • Yuck, why don't you just become a cyborg (Score:5)

    by Hairy_Potter ( 219096 ) on Wednesday October 18, 2000 @03:17AM (#697343) Homepage
    I mean really, this setup looks like a recipe for obesity and muscle loss, sitting in an overly cushy chair with all your electronics within easy reach.

    A few years of this and your muscles will atrophy.

    The human body wasn't designed for sitting nearly motionless for such long periods of time, if you try to make it do do, you're going to get back aches, arthritis, obsesity, CPI and a host of other muscular-skeletal malfunctions.

    Something better would be something like the running pad for the old school nintendos, where you can move your whole body around to use your computer. Step with your right foot for carraite return, left foot for back in your browser, etc, etc, etc. A few eyars of this, and geeks would have the body of Adonis.
  • Where is the bar fridge ? Not even an esky.
  • Three monitors and a Rock'n'ride chair is required for a complete Quake/UT experience.

    You can't play a thing on two heads - the target is in the middle - between them.

    --
  • This isn't revolutionary, they snagged the design from Tim Burton's Batcave...

    puhleez... :P

  • Chair of the future? (Score:3)

    by Xafloc ( 48004 ) on Wednesday October 18, 2000 @03:19AM (#697347) Homepage
    More like chair of your dreams. Come on...who here is going to spend more on their chair, than they are on their computer. Maybe it is just me, but I am going to buy bigger/badder/better computer hardware/equipment long before I buy a cool looking "chair" or "desk".

    Besides that, who here as room for this thing in their apartment or house? I mean, it has it's own air control system. Just slap some sides on this puppy and sell it as a portable room.


    -= Xafloc =- Xafloc.com [xafloc.com]
    Nod.toM [www.nod.to]

  • Can you imagine... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ... a Beowulf cluster of these?
    That would be like a conference table or something.

    Thank you.

  • Re:Yuck, why don't you just become a cyborg (Score:5)

    by King of the World ( 212739 ) on Wednesday October 18, 2000 @03:25AM (#697349) Journal
    > I mean really, this setup looks like
    > a recipe for obesity and muscle loss,

    That's the same line of thought as "make Linux more user-friendly and you'll take away it's power".

    Nuts to that.

    This is a more comfortable and pleasant environment (well, lets assume that) it doesn't mean you're going to be a arthritic zombie. It merely assists you to do what you do. If you're an idiot that wallows in a fancy chair then heaven forbid if you ever got loose in a beer factory.

    Chairs don't kill people - people kill people.

  • Ah, I'm so happy. I can't think of anything one might want to do other than just sit in this chair. All of my worries have just melted away.

    50 years later...

    Apologies to the Tick...

  • American made? (Score:5)

    by Lion-O ( 81320 ) on Wednesday October 18, 2000 @03:34AM (#697351)
    I allways disliked the idea of working inside a small cube (most recent example seen in The Matrix ;)) and this doesn't make things any better. Granted; it looks like you can easily work with the computer. But stuff like checking manuals, writing documents and still then trying to keep the Unix bible from crashing off your table seems like nearly impossible there. A small desk for papers and such before they keyboard and a somewhat larger one behind your back?

    Dunno about you guys but when I grab the FM I'd like to check those examples and thingies while I'm reading (at least at work). IMHO this design sucks for system administrators (that would be me ;)), programmers, site art designers, financial managers (don't know the right verb), application managers, and maybe even directors / managers themselves (there is hardly any space to talk with customers). So whats left? IMHO the ordinary secretaries and the people behind the desk, but I doubt if they would like a design such as this ;)

    IMHO people should concentrate on how you can use this kind of stuff. NOT how it looks.

  • Possibilities... (Score:3)

    by American AC in Paris ( 230456 ) on Wednesday October 18, 2000 @03:34AM (#697352) Homepage
    Think of the fun you could have with a soldering iron, a new motor and a few hours alone with your co-worker's brand-new Aura desk. Take the time it reqires to rotate the desk 120 degrees down from 15 seconds to, say, .25 seconds...

    "...hey, Bob, got a minute?"

    "...why sure, Jim! Let me just...turn my desk around...(Bob reaches conspicuously for control unit; other co-workers groan, roll eyes)

    *click* WHZZZZT! *CRASH* "AIEEEEeeeee....."

  • Re:Yuck, why don't you just become a cyborg (Score:3)

    by chuckfirment ( 197857 ) on Wednesday October 18, 2000 @03:34AM (#697353)
    "The human body wasn't designed for sitting nearly motionless for such long periods of time..." Heck, the human body wasn't designed to EVER work at a computer! A few years of working at any computer and your muscles will atrophy UNLESS you take precautions. Get up and stretch once in a while, walk away from the keyboard and **do not spend your life in front of your monitor.** No matter how comfortable you are in front of your computer you still need to walk away from it once in a while. Anything else is unhealthy. Chuck "I think I'll go for a walk" Firment
  • Clearly you've never tried out a Herman Miller Aeron chair.
    Mine's currently on order. I paid an obscene amount for it, and I've got some pretty wicked systems to go with it. Worth every penny!

  • If more companies would spend good money on chairs maybe they would have less workmans comp, maybe insurance premiums would be lower. My back hurts so much I can't sit for an hour anymore, I think it is due to these cheap chairs that many companies stick programmers in.

    There is a store [relaxtheback.com] with cool chairs but once again cost is very high, but what is the real cost of not buying good chairs

  • Something better would be something like the running pad for the old school nintendos, where you can move your whole body around to use your computer. Step with your right foot for carraite return, left foot for back in your browser, etc, etc, etc. A few eyars of this, and geeks would have the body of Adonis.

    Heh. Imagine the poor schmuck surfing porn at work with one of those things. They'd be doing a tarantella just trying to close the pop-up windows when the boss walked into the office...

  • Right now, I'm holding a bar of chocolate and a cup of coffee, and typing with my feet[1]. This would be totally useless for my needs. There's no way I can hold a cup in my feet. We need either a food and drinks holder or a seat that can recline rediculously.

    [1]Hey, it reduces RSI.
  • What I'd like to know is, do they actually have customers? Companies that are filling space with these instead of cubicles? I'd like to hear from someone whose company is springing for these, if such a person exists.
  • From the looks of this, it is meant to be a luxury item. For hopelessly addicted gamers, and people with lots of extra money lying around.
  • Very nice. If you want to see some more of these cute 'I've-got-everything-under-control' chairs, take a look at www.signaal.com and go to products and services >> naval systems >> combat management. Look especially for the captains chair, verry nice....
  • Agreed. Somewhere to rest your elbows/forearms would also be nice when using the keyboard. What were these people thinking?

  • Ergonomic information (Score:3)

    by pemerson ( 179241 ) on Wednesday October 18, 2000 @03:46AM (#697362)
    For those of you who are interested in being as ergonomically correct as possible, you might want to check out the Typing Injury FAQ Home Page [tifaq.org].
    There's information there about furniture, keyboards, mice, etc., as well reasons why you want an ergonomically correct environment

    My department just got the Aeron Chair [hermanmiller.com] from Herman Miller [hermanmiller.com], and they are not only very comfortable, but easy to configure and reconfigure, so that you don't keep the same posture throughout the day. I highly recommend them, although they run about $750 per chair.
  • Looking at that setup, I see two monitors with a keyboard placed smack in the middle. Now, you're not going to be looking ahead while you work in this thing, because you'd be looking between the monitors. You're always going to be looking slightly to one side.

    I can tell you just from having one monitor offset from my keyboard for too long, that ain't good for your neck.
  • For hopelessly addicted gamers,

    Hehe, I totally agree with you there. If you can choose between, say, a virtual reality kit or some race car model for GP3 and yet you choose this for a setup then you truly are hopeless ;-))

  • Aeron [hermanmiller.com]. At a grand a pop they support some serious ass!
    Seriously though, these chairs rock. Mesh support to allow the body to breath, tilt at the hip, full support, extra wide arm rests, and the list goes on and on.
  • also tangentially related to one of the Ig-Noble awards (yeah, I'm too lazy to find the URL - the truth is out there). Anyway, this true story involves a guy who really likes his music - CDs, MP3s, whatever - and he codes for a living, and he has a few cats....

    He's got his workstation, his coding, plus music, and cats. For his music, he likes to wear some serious headphones and then wrap a towel over them. To keep his too-affectionate cats away, he devises a sort of skirt out of aluminum-foil (the cats don't like the noise tinfoil makes when they jump up on it). So far, he's got everything set.

    He's sitting there working, headphones and towel, plus foil skirting, all in place when... he spies the FedEx guy looking in and going all wide-eyed!

    Maybe it's only funny because I could see this...

  • I'm not impressed... (Score:4)

    by KlausBreuer ( 105581 ) on Wednesday October 18, 2000 @04:10AM (#697367) Homepage

    What? Me, the ultimate technophile, not impressed by smooth curves, individual lightning and A/C?

    That's because I think this is simply the deluxe-version of the stupid little computer-tables we find in the corner of computershops.
    You know, the ones where you have your PC, Printer, Keyboard, Paper and Mouse jammed into a tiny little space without any real desktop space at all.

    I find this rather important: you cannot have enough desktop space. It's cute if you can rotate your workarea to follow (avoid?) the sun, but where do I place my books, papers, notes, disks, CDs, magazines, lunch?

    I'm currently designing The Ultimate PC Desk with a good friend (a carpenter in Germany), and the main thing so far is to have a truly massive workspace (yes, when it's done we'll put up a site and I'll tell you all about it).

    Thinking of these Poetic Technology (hey, nice name) desks, I imagine a huge, open room, full of these things, with people sitting edge to edge to edge to edge...worse than cubicles, ugh.

    Klaus
    ---
    "What, I need a *reason* for everything?" -- Calvin
  • After following your directions, what I saw was not even in the same league. Did you check out the link in the story?
  • A long, low workbench with an integrated powerstrip that's deep enough to hold a 21" monitor, keyboard and still have plenty of room to rest arms, wrists and books in front of the monitor.

    Opposite of the workbench: book shelves, filing cabinets, misc. storage space, a couch. All of this should be low too. You should be able to access everything without having to stand up.

    A big unobstructed window. Extra points if you can open it.

    A door.

    Lights you can control.

  • spend enormous amounts of money to ruin your health and make yourself even more lazy. good idea. whoever buys this thing has way too much money and too much time. go for a walk. smell a flower, chase small squirrels around with a stick...just my god why bother with a robo-chair? americans are startin to scare me

    "sex on tv is bad, you might fall off..."
  • Slashdot is so timely, and it never repeats itself. It's just the bestest news source ever.

    Hey, check out these links on PoeticTech's workstation too!

    Anti-cubicle [slashdot.org]
    Ultimate Workstation [slashdot.org]

    Hey wait... those links look oddly familiar.

    Perhaps the /. editors should do a little more due diligence before posting a story? The rate of repitition lately is staggering.

    -Todd
    ---
  • The article is of course slashdotted, but from the comments I see it is nowhere near what I have been dreaming of:
    - A nice comfortable armchair with elevated foot-rest
    - keyboard on your lap
    - a huge video gun on top of your head, projecting a homunguous resolution on the opposite wall.
    - or some head-mounted display with a similar effect.
    - some sort of rodent to be controlled with your feet (which are nicely up already) so you don't need to move your fingers off the keyboard for the few times you need to point and drool and click
    - Desk space on both sides, in two or three layers. computer-controlled motor elevates the right desktop to you. Or some sort of carouselle arrangement, so you can have more deskspace than you can comfortably reach.

  • Hum, hopefully this is going to be expensive, else I can only imagine how work would be like, when your "office" will be reduced to the size of one of these things.

    - "Err.. Where is my office?"

    - "But this IS your office, you have everything you need inside. We are actually waiting for the new model, which features a body excrements removal system, walls and a sas lockable from outside. Have fun!"
  • You would seriously enslave yourself completly surrounding your senses just for entertainment?
  • AMEN to that! The Aeron is simply the best desk chair I have ever sat in. Amazing.

    I'll trade the "chair of the future" any day for an Aeron.
  • The human body was "designed" for anything. We evolved.

    Hmm, I wonder if there's a variation on Godwin's Law for debates about human origins...
  • I really like these Desks but the prices are idiocy. Look at the Construction of them, who needs a rotating Workspace at home? Or even at Work... Will the Human beeing be so lazy in the upcoming century? I hope not... I thought building something like this on my own would be a lot of cheaper. And all those Stuff like the Air Circulation System, the Rotating Feature, and so on are just price pushing Extras which arent really needed. Why do i need a Electronical Module for moving my Chair about 360...moving it with my feet would be a lot of healthier. Dont buy it, build it.. greets rofo
  • A couple of suggestions to avoid health problems: 1) hookups to electronic muscle stimulator to prevent muscle atrophy. 2) hookups to human waste disposal system to transport liquid and solid waste away for treatment/disposal Virtual 8 of 9 ;-)
  • I (hereby) agree.

    Something about automatic shaving and a perfumed disinfectant spray wouldn't have gone a miss though. ;)

  • Perhaps the /. wannabe editors should do a little reading of the stories before they post yet another bitch about a repeat post. Congratulations, you've proven you have a better memory than I do (I only remembers seeing this posted once), or you have so much time on your hands you can search slashdot on every post to find repeats, then post that you've found one.

    Grow up already. Jesus.
  • And I quote, from the story as it appeared:

    bt445 pointed us to the desk of the future (well, kinda: we mentioned it here a couple years ago, but it's looking much nicer now.

    They:

    1) Admit it's a repeat.
    2) Mention it's looking much nicer now.
    3) Posted a story that was <B>SUBMITTED BY A READER!</B>

    What don't you people understand about this? Almost ALL slashdot stories are submitted by people who read Slashdot. At least one person found this interesting, Slashdot worthy, and didn't know it had been posted.
  • The human body wasn't designed for sitting nearly motionless for such long periods of time

    Uh... the human body wasn't designed for anything. In fact, it wasn't designed at all. We evolved to this state and we'll continue to evolve. If this chair weeds out those genes that require people to be active 3 hours a day in order not to develope disease, so be it.

  • If Slashdot articles suck so hard, go do the active research required to dig up a new story. People submit these things. Find something more interesting, and submit [slashdot.org] it.

  • And you read my fscking comment before you start bitching. Taco mentions that it was posted a couple years ago. One of those /. articles that I linked is about 7 months old, and the other is less than 2. And I looked at the site on both occassions, and it was the same design.

    Now granted, I can't even get to the poetictech site to see if it's a "new" design, but I doubt it. Somehow I think it's the same one we saw before.

    -Todd

    ---
  • Artificial-reality pioneer Myron Krueger [mit.edu] hinted to a "Kung-fu typewriter": You stand in an augmented environment. You type by throwing kicks and punchs to virtual or artificial keys.
    It may not be very productive, but, if you currently spend 8 hours typing and 2 exercising to compensate the sedentary time, with this you could spend 10 hours kungfu-typing.

    Great, this Krueger.
    __
  • Why bother? None of the submissions I've ever made have gone *anywhere* in favor of recycling old news.
  • There's no gun rack, and no draught unit. This is not the ultimate chair.


    there are 3 kinds of people:
    * those who can count

  • Geez. Point out that they're recycling old news (*Really* old news!) and get moderated down to "Redundant?"

    Why not moderate the whole freakin' "news" story down to "redundant" since it was originally posted in January of 1999?
  • Gee, take a cubicle and make it more constricting, claustrophobic(sp?), and unsightly. The desk of the future is not a desk, probably not indoors, and completely lacking in circa 1980s computer peripherals scattered about. What people should be thinking about is the "Ultimate Productivity Environment" of the future for communication-intensive tasks, or creative tasks, or personal learning experiences. m.hardie
  • For some reason this desk arrangement seem to remind me of the tank driving scene at the begining of Tron [3gcs.com]. The cool huge monitor space and the rear panel of stuff behind the driver. (Of course living IN the computer game arena and driving a tank with a huge rotating cab would be much niftier than cubicle dwelling).
  • Children used to be afraid of the Dentist's chair, no more, enter the "Weird looking tech thingie" chair, and your children will be running for the door =P
  • Taco inserted the "mentioned before" comment *well* after the story appeared.

    It's called revisionism.
  • That's just the point....those who can afford this desk will not have spent more on their desks than they have on their computer [the computer(s) with 2-4 monitors. :P ]
    They will spend $8000+ on this desk/accessories, and then spend much much more on the computers to go in it.

    I personally think this desk would look awesomein the middle of am empty warehouse, with a little bit of a fine fog, and some lights mounted in the ceiling shining down at it. ;)

    -- Cameron
    -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
    Version: 3.12
    GAT d+(-) s+:-- a18 C++++$ UL P+ L+ E---- W+++ N+ o? K? w+() O? M-- V-- PS@ PE++ Y+(++) PGP t++(*) 5 X+ R>++ tv-- b+ DI++ D- G+++ e h-- r++ y+
    ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
  • No doubt, they had these at an internship I had when I was in school. I threw my back out, and the only time I wasn't in pain was when I was sitting in one of those. I would say they are well worth the cash.
  • More like chair of your dreams. Come on...who here is going to spend more on their chair, than they are on their computer. Maybe it is just me, but I am going to buy bigger/badder/better computer hardware/equipment long before I buy a cool looking "chair" or "desk".

    The chair I'm sitting in is a Herman Miller Aeron, which costs around $800, retail. I figure my company probably paid $500-$600 for it, since they bought a large number of them. That's less than 1% of my annual salary.

    If being more comfortable (and this chair is far more comfortable than any other work chair I've ever had) makes people 1% more productive than a less comfortable chair, the company is actually making money by buying the more expensive chairs.

    I'm in the process of turning one room of my apartment into an office where I can work from home, occasionally. I'm probably going to go ahead and shell out the money for an Aeron. If not the Aeron, then some other high-quality chair.

    That said: The super-cube in this article doesn't look particularly comfortable to me. Give me a real office, with a door that closes, not some gimmicky-looking piece of trash.

  • So if this kind of typewriter gets to be a success, the next hit song will be "Kung-Fu Typin'"

    "Everybody's kung-fu typin'
    Those cats type a doc like lightnin'
    It makes doin' emacs look frightnin'
    when everybody's kung-fu typin'
  • ... a Beowulf cluster of these?

    Yeah, and lets have a Beowulf cluster of Fords as well.

    You cluster computers, not tables.

    Kent
  • Wow that baby's even got the patented Burns Sun Shield!

  • I highly recommend them, although they run about $750 per chair.

    Actually, list price is about 1 kilobuck. But you can get a ~50% discount if you either know an office furnature dealer or you buy enough in bulk.

    Kent
  • Now how to persuade my firm to buy me one? :)
  • In reply to many of the comments: These are the most comfortabe workstations we have tried. The guys, and girls in the arena love them. We were able to sample other work stations and the concensus was with POETIC TECH. As of this time we have 40, and have an order for another 50 more. No, you do not become a cyborg while working in the AURA. Don't knock it till you try it. I wish I could let you tals to the rest tof the staff here, they would let you know how wrong so many of you are.

  • VideoDesk (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    If you like big monitors, you should go for the VideoDesk [www.aec.at] project of Myron Krueger. It was a desk with a projector and a camera above. It could recognize gestures. So you dragged a virtual (or a real object) and dropped it on another, all with your two 5-fingered hands.

    An ideal version could OCR any page you put on the desk. You cut and paste text pointing at it and dragging it to a blank real paper page.

    I find it fascinating.
  • This is great, but what if a company decides to invest in these workstations? Like many companies who decide walls are barriers, mine has cubes. This makes it hard to concentrate and hard to get much done. We can't wear headphones, and we have to answer our phones. If this workstation can provide an air filtering system, then surely it can provide a noise filter to make it quiet while sitting in the chair. This is probably what everyone doesn't realize most workstations are lacking. I can build the same exact thing from plywood and used pc fans, but I still have to hear my co-worker talking loudly on the phone about last night's barhopping while I'm trying to concentrate.
  • who here is going to spend more on their chair, than they are on their computer

    Those of us who would otherwise spend more at the chiropractor than we do on our computers and furniture combined.

  • And you must be all of 10.

    What effort? Actually remembering it was posted before and then plugging "poetictech" into the search box at the bottom of the page to get the link to the earlier post?

    Welcome to the networked world, buddy. It's not like I went to the library to pull up the newspaper archives on microfiche and scan through them until I found the article.

    -Todd

    ---
  • These desk setups remind me of a cross between a dentist's chair and a trade show booth!

    Hmmmm, though even the dentist's chair doesn't have power swiveling like most of those computer desks do. That said, they're pretty cool and if I had a few grand laying around with nothing better to do with it (ha!), I'd get myself one. I've long been thinking about how a perfect computer desk workspace would function, and this is pretty darn close to what I'd like. And the chair looks extremely comfy...

    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

  • Where is the 5.1 dolby surrond sound? for that much money it better be wired with Bose speakers.
    & if I'm going to commit to living in that chair, it better have a fridge. Wouldn't want to have to get up.

    too much free time...
  • Comes programmed to rotate 120 degrees over 8 hours.

    I sware when I got in I was facing the other way!

  • I agree. Currently my desk consists of two cheap HomeDepot hollow core doors on top of filing cabinets. This setup makes for a massive expanse of deskspace. My 19" fits on it with keyboard room to spare and I am even planning to put a bookshelf on top of my desk to create some vertical storage space. To complete my uber-workstation I am currently eyeing the Details-worktools [details-worktools.com] keyboard holders . They slide under your desk, rotate and auto adjust to a preset postion...for about 400 bucks. Very cool though, go check them out. The Steelcase [steelcase.com] Leap chair looks cool too. Anyone else design something good with computer users in mind? I want function not form. -HB
  • Heck, the human body wasn't designed to EVER work at a computer!

    er how about stick with "The human body wasn't designed - EVER!"


    .oO0Oo.
  • Apart from a couple of artsy poncy "Web design houses" - where tech illiterate art school dropouts in black Structure ribbed shirts and goatees play with their Macintosh "Kleenex Box" G4s in a "designed by Ikea" "Bauhaus meets New York Loft" one-room hole with artsy exposed brick and real wood floors while the huge brass espresso machine hisses in the corner to make cappucino for obese clients trying desperately to get out of the huge puffy leather couch in the waiting area...

    ...who else is gonna buy this?

    Real techs balance the keyboard on their knees or on top of the room-heater sized case on the floor their server is housed in, surrounded by Industrial shelving.

    Nota to anyone trying to get my interest with this - leave Star Trek: the Next Generation Borg cube to the artsies, and pass the savings onto me by giving me the 1/2 of a Volkswagon Jetta's cost in cash.
  • I've already got the perfect computer desk for me.

    I went to Home Depot and bought a 4x8 sheet of 3/4" laminated plywood (laminated for easy cleanup of spilled drinks/food). I cut it to about 3.5' x 5' (the largest object that will fit in my car flat). Then I added folding banquet table legs to the bottom. The result? A large, plain, flat, white table with more than enough room for a 20" monitor, a printer, a scanner, and a lot of misc paperwork as well.

    I love it.

    It cost me about $40 in materials.

    -michael-
  • I am also not terribly impressed, but for different reasons. While I like having lots of desk space, I don't want the desk in fron of me. I want the monitors in front of me. I want my keyboard in front of me. Desks belong somewhere off to the side for use during the 10% of the time that I need them.

    I would like to see some kind of system where the chair, monitors, and keyboard are all mounted on a gimbal so that I can position the monitor and chair in an ideal relative position and then recline freely.

    The Kung Fu Keyboard would be cool, too, though.
    ---
  • I'd venture to say that Steelcase's Leap chair [steelcase.com] is even better than the Aeron.

    This spring I spent over a week studying and trying out chairs and ended up buying a Leap. I'm totally happy with it, many of my back, shoulder, arm problems went away! And 5-6 people have bought them just from sitting in mine.

  • Wow at prices between US$3252 to US$7769 i could afford at 15% interest rate .. er .. um .. well i could put a down payment on a decent car.

    What a fucking waste of money.

    --
    you are not what you own
  • ...is that up to four 21" monitors it'll accommodate? And what kind of shelf/counter space does that leave?If I used something like this, I'd probably also pay to have a carpenter build a clamshell around it like Darth Vader had in The Empire Strikes Back. I'd go in there, lower the access, and it's "I'm Busy, Nobody Bother Me" time. Plus with some kind of wraparound wall, there could be a LOT more task-surface area and storage space for books, etc.Now if I can just find a technical writing job at $80 an hour...
  • I second that. I bought my Aeron [hermanmiller.com] a few months ago, and it's the best purchase I ever made. My back and shoulders were getting done in by sitting on a lesser chair, and now I get practically no backache, etc.

    I know of at least two firms who have kitted their entire office (all employees) with Aerons. They're worth it in the long run.

    However, not all is peachy... it's developed a wobble. Luckily, Herman Miller engineers are going to come and service it for me. =)

  • How does the Leap chair fare with the 'Fart Test'? One good way I was told about to test how comfortable a chair is in all weathers is to break wind. If your ass feels warm, then the fabric and upholstery isn't ventilating well enough, and you'll feel uncomfortable in summer. =)
  • We have one of these chairs in our office here in Atlanta. I don't like it. It seems a bit cheaply made - lots of plastic, not very sturdy, etc. The chair isn't flexible enough for those of us who can't sit still and who like to sit and swivel around a lot. Yes, everything is pretty much adjustable, but at the same time, you are limited to the range of motion which they dictate. For example, sometimes I like to scootch in really close to my desk - with this setup you can't do that.

    It looks cool, and the janitors here really like to sit in it and pretend that it's some sort of Space Chair or something, and it certainly gets lots of oohs and aahs, but for me, give me a nice Miller chair and an adjustable desk and I'm happy.

  • Wake me when they have a model with automatically-activating lap restraints. Darn those pesky intertial dampeners... :)
  • Remember the Dilbert Cartoon, where he had the new Cubicle 3000 (or something like that)....

    "Whatever you do, don't get these two tubes mixed up..."

    --

  • years? (Score:1)

    by xtype ( 41544 )
    That was "a couple of years ago"?!?
    Damn, I remember that, and it does not seem like I have been reading /. that long. Or maybe it is because I barely read it anymore? Who knows.
    But yes, it does look quite a bit nicer, and they have a few different styles now.
    Wow... maybe I can afford one now, I could not back when I first read about it I know.
  • So they really do stand behind the 12 year warranty? I just ordered my a few weeks ago, got all the extra bells & whistles (picked my color and all). I wondered how well they last the day-to-day use and abuse of an office. It better last for the $1100 it's costing me!

  • a) it does nothing to reduce external interruptions, the number two factor in creative productivity. (the first being motivation) (IMO)
    b) it has _got_ to be cheaper to throw up a few walls, run some conduits and a quiet little blower for air circulation.
    c) If these started being the norm where I work, I would immediately crank up the resume circulation.

    The benefits of an office (any size) with a door that you can _close_ can not be overstated.

    Anyone corporate officer who buys one of these monstrosities for a creative type should be unceremoniously shot.

    -- Eric
  • I bought my chair (Global Supreme Executive).

    First few days everyone thought I was crazy to spend my money on something company should provide.

    No back pain for me, I don't notice what time it is. But I _did_ choose this one out of 50+ I've tried, and bought one more for my home. $300 for a chair isn't necessarily cheap, but worth it.

    And I cancelled my Aeron order that day.
    --
    Leonid S. Knyshov
  • Ok, this wasn't posted 2 years ago. It was more like 6-8 months. I think that for the benefit of those people who read /. regularly, categorize this in "repeats", so I can turn them off (a la Jon Katz). Of course, I wouldn't ever get any stories, but that isn't my problem...
  • Hmmm... some models looks like it came off the stage for the SeaQuest series some from Babylon 5 (the White Star's navigator deck) and some from movies like Gataca & Matrix.

    Frankly I wouldn't mind having one in the office, but for the price my company would be paying I say give a nice big fat bonus!
    -----
  • ... just like on all american cars
  • Does anyone remember the CyberSurfer chair, or have any contact info for it? I recall it from a couple of years back, but I lost the link and it doesn't come up on searches anymore.... It looks a little like a cross between a lazyboy and a motorbike, a recliner with the pc between your legs and a fold-down monitor support. All you'd have to do is mount a Datahand [datahand.com] on each arm, and you'd be sorted! - nick.
  • Taco needs help driving a mech. Check his score from the Dave and Buster's party [peachnet.edu] at ALS.
  • Should be "Chair of the Past and Present"

    "Who here is going to spend more on their chair than they are on their computer?" you ask.

    Well, I would. I hope I would have a great computer also, (better than the "middling" one I have now) but that wouldn't prevent me from buying something like the poetic technologies' chairs/workstations.

    Think about it for a moment -- how many hours per day do you spend using your computer? Do you use it for "play" -- coding for fun, using the net, whatever -- or do you use it for work AND for play, spending perhaps upwards of 12 hours some days at your computer, your workstation?

    Sure, we all know that you have to get up every half an hour and move around, get the blood flowing, but how many times have you been so into something that you've looked up and three hours (or more) have gone by and the only reason you're looking up is that your big-ass container of mountain dew is empty and you need your caffeine?

    Yes, I know this is a stereotype.. but's it's a valid stereotype. I work out, almost every day I get to the community center, swim, do some weights. I'm not one of the muscle crew, but I'm doing okay for someone with a sedentary job. I know for a FACT though that if I had a more ergomonically correct work station that the work would be easier. And easier means faster. And thinking about that, well life is far too short -- the more hours spent doing things with the people we love are more hours worth living.

    "Human Engineering" -- the science of engineering things to make them the best they can be for us (where things are in your car, where the knobs are so you can reach them without crashing, etc.. all that is human engineering, and each company tries to out engineer the other) is a hot area and it should be: there are lots of things that are uncomfortable for no good reason and should be redesigned. Like the workstation that gives everyone a shoulder/wrist/backache.

    Do you know how many tens of millions of dollars are spent each year on repetitive stress injuries, including carpal tunnel, shoulder strain (reaching for that damned mouse) and other computer workstation-related repetitive movement injuries?

    Why should I (or anyone else) get back strain and shoulder strain from reaching for the mouse time after time? In a human engineered, ergonomic work station, that would never happen. In a Poetic Technologies Workstation, that would never happen. I wouldn't have the repetitive injuries, the stress injuries, the aches and pains that come from things being placed badly.

    And so you ask, would I pay a lot of money to get rid of all that, and vastly improve the quality of my work life and play (at least the part that happens on the net)? Hell, yeah, I would. I think the better question, more to the point, is why wouldn't you?

    Your computer you exchange every few years, but the hours you sit in a chair at a desk that doesn't "fit" you right, and does all sorts of uncomfortable things to you -- how could that be good? Think of it this way, if for no other reason than getting your work done FASTER because you're more focused and able to get out of that chair an hour or two earlier to rejoin life. That's a great reason alone to invest in a good work station, or even a great one.

    If I had the money, I'd buy one today. Unfortunately, I can't afford one - yet. But I will, eventually. And I can't wait. If you, whomever you are, reading this, can afford one, get it. If you use it for work, you write it off on your taxes - and think of the investment in your productivity, health, and enjoyment of work that you're making. I think that's worth a couple of computer upgrades. I really do.

  • What music goes with that? I don't recognize it.
    __
  • The 1974 song "Kung Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas. See the original lyrics here [go.com].


    ---

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