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Hardware Hacking Portables Hardware

The Floating PowerBook 236

Posted by timothy from the ooh-spooky dept.
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."
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The Floating PowerBook More

The Floating PowerBook

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  • Notes (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Oculus Habent ( 562837 ) * <oculus.habent@gm ... Nom minus author> on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @06:37AM (#13051699) Journal
    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. [nyud.net]
    • Also, because it is going to most likely be a home made stand, it's going to have rough edges from either the screws or the wood itself, which are no good for when you're digging around your desk or for the laptop either.

      • Re:Notes (Score:4)

        by walt-sjc ( 145127 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @08:54AM (#13052289)
        Can't RTFM since it's toast now, but we have this magical solution to rough wood edges called sandpaper. Reading the posted comment below of the article text, it seems that bumpers cover the screws.

        My solution to a similar problem was to put the docking-station on a bookshelf that's part of my built-in desk. Since wood-working is one of my hobbies, I made my own desk that is designed to solve the needs of a home office.

        Commercial desks (those made for home-office or business) SUCK for computer professionals. They are designed for a single CPU, single monitor, single keyboard, room for only one printer (which sucks if you have a BW laser And color inkjet), etc. Designing my own was the only real solution. That and I could make the thing out of Quality materials - solid mahagony, cabinet grade plywood (no particle board), great full-extension drawer slides, etc. When you build your own, you design in features that solve your specific needs.

        • Re:Notes (Score:3, Funny)

          by boaworm ( 180781 )
          They are designed for a single CPU, single monitor, single keyboard...

          I have a Dual CPU machine (G5), and it works just as great. Not sure what happens if you have Two Dualcore CPUs though, that could be a real mess... :P
        • http://www.snailblog.com.nyud.net:8090/ [nyud.net]

          Apparently, "Coral Link" was not well understood. ;)

        • Re:Notes (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Ahnteis ( 746045 )
          Pictures? Seriously.

        • we have this magical solution to rough wood edges called sandpaper

          There's no such thing as "sandpaper".
          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;

        • Re:Notes (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Abreu ( 173023 )
          As a side note, I strongly urge you not to build furniture from mahogany, a beautiful wood and easy to work with surely, but its already becoming endangered.

          I suggest walnut or koa, which have very good properties, look beautiful and is a much better ecological compromise.

          Best regards

          • Re:Notes (Score:3, Informative)

            by walt-sjc ( 145127 )
            It's good to ensure your wood is from certified managed forests... Sure there are many alternatives to mahogany... I built that desk a few years ago. Another alternative is Northern White Maple with a mohogany stain. Cherry is also nice.

            In reality, the amount of solid wood is fairly small since plywood is mostly used (and it has very thin veneers.) Good plywood is also very stable - tends not to warp, and has very little shrinkage / expansion due to humidity.
    • 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.

      Two pegboard brackets would fold up or be removable, look better and cost less than $5.00. This isn't clever, well made or interesting.
      I don't get it.

      • Re:Notes (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Ninwa ( 583633 ) <jbleau@gmail.com> on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @08:31AM (#13052132) Homepage Journal
        "I don't get it."
        Me either, and I'm not sure the editors even looked at the article. My first response was, "Wow that's ugly looking, I don't want my laptop poking out of the back of my desk like that". My second response was that, "I don't even have a back to my desk, there's no hutch", and my third response was, "wtf..." followed by some more bewilderment.

        This article summed up, "Hey you can mount your laptopn on the back of your desk with wood!"

        This is news? I was hoping for some cool glass-seethrough-ish laptop holder. Ah well...
    • I wouldn't trust my PowerBook to the cardboard backing on a desk.

      Not to mention the fact that he seems to have attached the brackets over part of the cardboard that is perforated so it can be popped out to fit a monitor. I imagine after a bit of strain from typing, this will fall apart.

  • Not convinced (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JanneM ( 7445 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @06:38AM (#13051702) Homepage
    Good luck typing on it.
    • Yeah, never mind whether a "shelf" is a clever invention: How is this useful? You can't easily type on it unless you stand up and lean forward, and then what's the point of having it at a desk? (Put it on your dresser or some other chest-height piece of furniture.) But hey, you could add an external keyboard... with a footprint the size of the laptop, thereby losing the desk space just recovered.

    • Re:Not convinced (Score:3, Interesting)

      by jcostom ( 14735 )
      Two words.

      PowerBook. Bluetooth.

      Expanded version: Use a BT keyboard & mouse with it.

      A friend of mine does exactly that with his 17" PB, and swears by it.

  • Disappointed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Tx ( 96709 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @06:39AM (#13051708) Journal
    From "floating" I thought this was going to involve waterproofing.
    • I was hoping for the same. Or possibly levitation, which would have been really cool.
    • I was hoping for magnetic levitation :(, however that's impossible according to Maxwell's equations...unless the field is spinning relative to the object (eg a "levatron" floating spinning top, but one could also somehow spin the field, not the object to be suspended).
      • IIRC, the way the top works is that it is spinning fast enough to act as a gyroscope strong enough to keep the top from flipping over. When it slows down enough, it flips over and comes crashing down to the base violently.
    • From "floating" I thought this was going to involve waterproofing.

      Nah--you want to avoid waterproofing. That way you get the added cooling from water circulation.

    • I expected something involving compressed air. Like a shufflepuck table.

      Hmm, shufflemac - that could become the new sport of choice for the rich and wealthy. A mac mini would make a decent puck and if you make the table bigger you could use Powerbooks as paddles.

  • Full article text (Score:4, Informative)

    by david-bo ( 578532 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @06:40AM (#13051709)
    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

  • Dissapointment (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    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 :(

  • Clean! (Score:5, Funny)

    by axonal ( 732578 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @06:41AM (#13051714)
    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.

  • My god what is this place coming to? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by matthew.thompson ( 44814 ) <matt&actuality,co,uk> on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @06:42AM (#13051716) Journal
    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!

  • It's prefect! (Score:5, Funny)

    by FooHentai ( 624583 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @06:43AM (#13051723) Homepage
    " Ta-Da! The finished project in action. It works prefectly."

    Creator confirms there are minor typing problems with the unit.

  • I haven't read the article ... but.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by speights_pride! ( 898232 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @06:43AM (#13051724)
    ...my experiments with a bath tub clearly show that powerbooks don't float.

  • ishelf (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @06:44AM (#13051727)
    it's a shelf! wtf is this place coming to?

    • Re:ishelf (Score:3, Funny)

      by shamilton ( 619422 )
      A shelf it may be, but unlike those annoying PC shelves, this one just works.
      • He had to make it himself, and the parts didn't all fit out of the box. He had to cut the boards, drill holes, bend brackets. He's even really proud of it even though it's no better than any other shelf (actually, the design could use some work - like vertical bracing behind the weak cardboard back). To anyone other than the builder, it looks like junk.

        Man, that's like a friggin' Gentoo shelf.
    • I think it's pretty "snappy"

  • Great but.... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by 12ahead ( 586157 )
    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.
    • I use one of these [standit.com].
      They're great for carrying around - even fit into one of Dell's ridiculously small laptop bags.
      Of course you need to use an external keyboard and mouse - but I can't understand why - or how - someone would use any sort of laptop stand without an external keyboard.

      They're not exactly the most stylish of things, but they don't take up much space.

      • Re:Great but.... (Score:3, Informative)

        by sakusha ( 441986 )
        I have one of those standit gadgets. But I only paid about $3 [shopblt.com] instead of $38.

      • 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.

  • Mega-Lame (Score:4, Informative)

    by Magada ( 741361 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @06:47AM (#13051742) Journal
    Bad newsday, or what?

  • Slashdot news - A SHELF! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mrRay720 ( 874710 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @06:50AM (#13051755)
    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.
    • I thought you were being sarcastic until I finally got to see the page. All I could think was "WTF! That is the sorries piece of shit excuse for a shelf I've ever seen!" mrRay, you were completely right!

      What's more the REAL improvement would be to put a sturdy hinge on the shelf and a latch on the wall so you could flip the shelf up out of the way when you like. Instead of clearing up desk space he now has 3 sticks of wood permanently poking out across his workspace.

      This...thing...is awful.
    • That's gonna take some reinforcing to take a 750:1 scale model of a whale...
    • 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.

  • Behold! the LAPPYVATOR! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by marcushnk ( 90744 ) <senectus@nOSPam.gmail.com> on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @06:55AM (#13051765) Journal
    One of our local "LUGgers" made this a while back:
    http://lappyvator.cyberknights.com.au/ [cyberknights.com.au]
    • Damn, where are the mod points when I need them. Any story that starts "I have a sore coccyx as I write" and clearly shows a tool to use your computer while lying flat on your back surely should beat out a story about a guy who builds a shelf.

      TW
      • ...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.

    • Gee, thanks, Marcus... (Score:4, Informative)

      by leonbrooks ( 8043 ) <SentByMSBlast-No ... .brooks.fdns.net> on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @10:54AM (#13053490) Homepage
      ...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.
    • From your linked article:
      "the idea is so obvious that I'd be amazed if anyone could sustain a patent on it."

      WTF? Compared to most software patents we see these days, what he did is nothing short of rocket science.
  • ...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 [mailto]!

  • Form over function? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by kronocide ( 209440 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @07:02AM (#13051787) Homepage Journal
    "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.

  • This guy is an idiot (Score:5, Insightful)

    by pair-a-noyd ( 594371 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @07:02AM (#13051788)
    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..

  • 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.

  • Bah (Score:2, Funny)

    by Muhammar ( 659468 )
    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)

  • Good Timing (Score:2, Funny)

    by joel8x ( 324102 )

    A floating laptop on a sunken webserver!

    /Budum dum

  • Ergotron (Score:4, Informative)

    by sakusha ( 441986 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @07:19AM (#13051838)
    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 [ergotron.com].
    • Or some simple wood scraps you can find at a home depot or something...

      The project is rather unimpressive though... I mean an L joint or two and some cardboard? WOW how innovative and unique!

      Next he'll show us his milk-crate sofa and cinderblock tv stand...

      Tom
  • I must be an average user, since his server seems to have become invisible too!
  • Not that I want to criticise, but for only ~20 UKP I got a really nice removable stand for my PowerBook, the iCurve [griffintechnology.com] 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)
    • RTFA, he had an i-curve and didn't like it!!! Go figure...

      I don't see what's wrong with just using it on the desk anyways without any sort of stand. I mean laptops are supposed to be like, y'know.. portable...

  • floating laptop cliff notes (Score:3, Funny)

    by i7dude ( 473077 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @07:56AM (#13051955)
    "i built a shelf"

    dude.

  • karma be fucked (Score:2, Flamebait)

    by oldwolf13 ( 321189 )
    WTF is this guy smoking? He bolted 3 pieces of wood to a piece of cardboard... and this is cool... HOW?

    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 hav
    • Unfortunately, since I don't believe the editors even READ our comments and criticisms anymore, the only way things might POSSIBLY change is if they see a drastic drop in page hits. So unless you actually stop visiting /., your post was unfortunately useless.

      I propose we have a Boycott Slashdot day in protest of how much this site has gone to shit.

    • 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.

      Did you miss reading the article, that's basically what he did. There is a strip of wood behind the cardboard backer of the hutch.
  • 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 spac

    • Nngggg.... (Score:3, Informative)

      by @madeus ( 24818 )
      Err...

      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 /. readers (and people with mod points) NEVER seen a laptop stand before?

      Scary...
  • 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.

  • Poor Ventilation (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Grizpin ( 899482 )
    If the laptop being used has rear ventilation then the system temperature will rise with extended use. Not good for longevity of your hardware.

  • Engineer he is not... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by rAiNsT0rm ( 877553 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @09:10AM (#13052448) Homepage
    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:

    ----
    |
    |
    -----

    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.

  • 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?

  • Worst "mod" ever? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by squoozer ( 730327 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @09:30AM (#13052686)

    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.

  • Other floating stands... (Score:4, Funny)

    by jea6 ( 117959 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @09:37AM (#13052752)
    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.

  • ACCOUNT SUSPENDED (Score:5, Funny)

    by Petersko ( 564140 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @10:37AM (#13053326)
    Slashdot DOS Attacks Cost User His Provider!
  • I hate to brag.. no, I don't really.

    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
  • You know those trick globes that float [1worldglobes.com] 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

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