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[ivanw]

What's nice about this topic is its title that says that you can put just about anything in here.
As I had some words in my clipboard that I didn't know what to do with, well here they are. (BTW, the clipboard I'm talking about is my own, not the one from Windows.)
It seems that no one has anything to say about FingerWorks devices anymore. Quite like everything has been said... OK, I am part of those who did not talk! But here I am with an attempt to wag some chairs...
Aside from owning a FW trinket, what are you all doing right now ?

[ivanw]

Well, if no one talks for some time, I will tell you how I am keen about buying myself a new chair...
1) I switched to chairs because I am concerned with the idea that more of keyboards would not be a sign of good health!
2) I will suggest opening a new index section anytime soon...

Also, as I am in a wealthy period (for a change), I intend to spend the money I earn before I die.
This is a decision I came to after a very short period of time at thinking about the whole thing.
As I use to do lastly for any subject I get into seriously enough, I've tried to drain the planet for any information I could get about my last whim...
(Yes, thank you, my obsessive behavior is fully powered and quite steady these days)

If I am given any good motivation to do so, I will say more about all I've found on the Freedom chair I've ordered long before I've read any of the wonders that are said about it and its designer Niels Diffrient.

After some googling, it appears that I was not showing any bad taste when I made my choice, those guys at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution agree!

Stay tuned on FingerFansNotCom

[TorbenGB]

How nice to find a loose thread to tug at and write a little random thoughts (if I had any).

About that Freedom Chair, it looks rather like a furniture that Hawking would use, because of the headrest, except it could use a few electronic gizmos here and there. Where do you plan to mount the FW surfaces?

I'm still teetering on the brink between loving the gesture surface right under my hands, and the lack of tactile feedback - Bqckspace is my best friend...

Summer is coming, hah. It's colder now than it was in April, and they say it'll stay like that until August. And here I thought I moved South?? Whatever, as long as August 18th is great, that's all I care for, and then I'm off on a honeymoon where the weather can't sting me.

Speaking of furniture and getting stuff that's not a FW device for a change, I can only say good things about my latest toys: three audio players that have finally put an end to a poor cd-player, hifi set, and so on. These Squeezeboxes simply play any and all music I have on my pc, and it's so easy to use even my dad could figure it out.

Disclaimer: The Hawking remark was in no way ill-meant; he's an amazing guy and it's great that he has some very useful tools to aid him.

[ivanw]

About tactile feedback, this is the reason why I've acquired a MS Natural Ergonomic Keyboard. Then I made sure that my current skills at typing with the TouchStream won't degrade with time when I don't use it for a while. It takes some time to get back to the feeling you can type again at some reasonable speed. But it is not the case for gestures, those have become so natural that fingers don't need a brain anymore.

Now I work at improving my typing abilities on the MS keyboard. I am trying to get closer to some kind of hover mode where fingers will type free from any conscious directives. If I can achieve this on a standard keyboard, I am pretty sure it will transpose quite well to the TouchStream. Then, I expect an easier progression for my next commitment at making it an effective working tool.

In the mean time, I enjoy the tactile feedback from the MS keyboard. I'm pretty sure it could be quite better thanks to a sound choice of material and key switches and no more staggered layout. All these elements have been considered by one keyboard manufacturer or another. The point is that we need the one with all the good ideas for this perfect keyboard to come around.

It seems that this unlikely combination did happen for the Freedom chair but is still to be expected for a keyboard.

What I am about right now is trying to understand what I could do to ignite the hover process. My commitment at training everyday made me reach 300cpm with Stamina at typing any text I want to read. That puts me close to 60wpm after one year of this practice. Stamina keeps you away from having to use any backspace strokes as long as it never accepts the wrong character. This is alright because the idea it not about learning how to reach the backspace key more easily as any of the other keys!
But the result is that you can insert many extra keystrokes without the inherent penalty of having to correct them. This is why I don't fool myself into trusting this 60wpm achievement.
Still, I am happy when I look at the steady slope of my average typing speed. Now, I am wondering what it takes to reach 100wpm... that's 500cpm, not far from twice my current speed! As I know that it is possible I'm tempted to believe I can do it as well... I think that I am ready to use what it needs to make it. My problem right now is to uncover what it is I have to bring into it.

[lee griggs]

Hi Ivan, did you go with the Freedom chair in the end? If so, how have you found it?

Ive got a Hag Capisco, which I find comfortable, but I would be interested to know what you thought about the Freedom.

cheers,
lee

[ivanw]

Yes lee, I have my Freedom Chair since a few months now... Now, you could not take it from me very easily... This could be enough to tell what has been my encounter with this thing.

But this does not mean that I would recommend it to anyone, I would say that it has it's own temper You need to meet her and make your own opinion... I've read from some that even hate it... But I am not sure in which way... maybe like Bogart could hate Bacall in some old movies

Your Hag Capisco has something in common with this chair, it's different! ...mine is also Diffrient's

My bads :
- Too hard for my ass as I stay sited for hours every day...
But I could manage to remove this bad point: I installed a very comfortable gel cushion, well wrapped with a nice cloth over the detachable sitting pane.

Some of my goods :
- It tries to help you sit with the best effort a chair can make... You never touch the few levers, your own weight is all it takes to support your back at any position you might take, sort of exoskeleton job.
- The head rest comes in place only when you need it. When you just straighten up, it stays away from the back of your head, you don't feel the touch of something you don't need at that time. Is is only when you recline that the articulations modifies the relative position of all the parts. Gives you a friendly feeling...

Ivan

[RAFH]

I had no idea of what you were discussing. So I did a search and see these are office chairs. Oh my. You really have no idea of decadence. My work situation is one of the main reasons I work at home. I could never sit for the hours I do in any office chair. I have a hard time sitting for minutes in most chairs because of my back and hips.

So, I use a Lazy-Boy recliner. I generally have the foot rest up and the back support way back. I am virtually laying down, fact is I occasionally nap off right in my chair.

My monitor is suspened on a monitor crane that allows it to be moved with one finger nearly any direction: closer, farther, up, down, left, right. My TS sits on another monitor crane, a cheaper one that only allows movement on one horizontal plane. I am working on changing that.

To my right is a book case under which is a passageway to the office next door and which provides access to my computer. To my left is a small table. Beyond that is my bed and the blue waters of Kaneohe bay.

I have a picture of it all somewhere around here.

[ivanw]

1up for a picture... I don't recall having seen something like what you describe here, even in Waterworld or Mad Max!

[url=http://www.alphagrips.com/comfort.html]variation on the theme...
<img title="...while many go fishing every day for less than a few $ a month" src="http://www.alphagrips.com/Keyboard_Gravity_AlphaGrtn.jpg">
[/url]What counts after all is what customers get from us at the end of the day and that we do not harm anyone in the process...
Well this is a dramatic matter but everything has been considered, profoundly judged and sentenced

...and more of this, live!

[RAFH]

Well, with the Variations you got pretty close on the chair, though mine didn't come with the special padding option.

Here's my workstation. Yes, in the depths of the salt mine, this is the grindstone to which my proboscis is eternally pressed to:



Its rough, but somebody has to do it. Besides, I am handicapped. This is also why I am pretty sure I remain self unemployed, there's not been an employer yet that will match this setup.

You can just see the new machine peeking out from the pass-thru to the office on the other side. There's a little fridge you can't see just to the left of the machine.

It is quite comfy. And there is a view to match, the weather is awful today, we are having Kona weather and the VOG is very bad as you can see in the reflection in the window to the office. Can't see the other side of the bay just 3 miles away. All my stored pictures are of sunrises and I don't want to give the wrong impression.

But this is real comfort. I can tolerate this for hours, even nodding off occasionally.

[ivanw]

Same monitor here, same color, same keyboard, not same color though...

OK, now I see what you mean. In short, you're just showing the way to those in charge of designing standard cubicles

Here is the todo list:

remove the computer box from the desk, for it only holds this on-off switch we don't use anymore!
remove the CRT
remove the keyboard as well
remove the desk
remove the chair
remove the cubicle
remove yourself and go to the beach

Eventually, you can come back, flatten your monitor, your keyboard and your chair. You don't need a desk so, no need to flatten this one, just leave it alone.

Now, don't let anyone see what you call your working place You can keep the cubicle ready in case they come to see you. Running your old computer with many small and loud fans, this would be your busy hive.

[jmadison]

RAFH,

That's great! I love it! I also work from home, and I am continually trying to find a more appropriate workstation to minimize RSI. My work is primarially on the computer too, but I do enough work on an actual desk that I couldn't do away with it entirely.

Great work.

[RAFH]

My main impetus was my medical problems. I have suffered with chronic pain for a long time, just recently discovering I have osteoporosis which is likely the cause of the pain, at the very least a major contributor. I simply can't sit in a regular chair for more than 10 to 15 minutes.

I've tried all sorts of setups. This is the current state of the art though I have a design for something a bit more comfortable. I'll have to work that up to a viewable state one of these days. Its got full length lounger set in an arc. The base is the opposite arc. Off either side would be hinge poles that would support several rotating trays to provide various writing and layout surfaces. I never seem to have enough layout space.

I also need to get at least one more monitor because even with the Dell 24, its difficult to look at more than one drawing at a time which is a very handy capability. Actually, I'd like three or four monitors, of course the others wouldn't have to be quite as big.

The little oval sort of football shaped thingy on the shelf next to the CD (Soundtrack from Foyles War) is a Griffin Rocket FM that allows me to broadcast whatever is playing on my computer to the sound system across the room. It has very good fidelity.

In the foreground you can see my bed, so yes, I do have a serious contender for the shortest commute to work.

Having the PC where it is puts it out of the way but I still have excellent access to the controls (such as they are) and the Optical Drives.

And ivanw is quite correct, very few clients see this set up. They see the office downstairs which is substantially more orthodox. I don't spend much time down there because most of my clients communicate with me via email and attachments. Currently of the three larger projects I have going, one client is on another island and another is in Utah. The third lives above 4 miles away but even we communicate via email and/or phone.

[lee griggs]

Hi Rafh, I was wondering if you had seen the gravity chair from stokke?

http://www.varierfurniture.com/product.asp?p=Gravity&la=EN&na=UK

I use one at home, and am able to lean right back in it. You can change your position from kneeling, to sitting, to leaning back and many positions inbetween. It also rocks like a rocking chair, so that your joints are continuosly moving.

I used to have a setup similar to yours but now I use a projector at home. This means that I can lie on the floor with my touchstream on my stomach whilst surfing the net I also find it better for my eyes.

[RAFH]

Shazaam, that looks nice, very sexy too. How much does it cost? Then there would be the shipping. Ouch. Maybe they would like a representative in Hawaii. I could even stock them and provide a showroom.

I've been thinking about a projector. I like big screens. What do you use?

My biggest concern with them is the cost of the lamps. I am waiting till they develop one with LEDs. Actually, I'd like to have a projector and a couple of screens. With at least two rigs running and the ability to switch out keyboards and screens to each rig.

I do want to get a new monitor arm, that one is an older model that can't quite handle the larger screen. The arms are really fantastic. I was skeptical at first, but its worked out really well. I did try the dual screen arms but they are just to flimsy for the weight. I've also been trying to work out an arm design that doesn't use strings or shocks but simply counterweights. After more than two years of working on the problem, I understand why they just went ahead and used the springs and shocks. Generally you end up with a great whacking contraption that visually loses the floating on air look.