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Paint that turns walls (or any surface) into a whiteboard.
- chaosmachine 17y agoGood idea, but if you're erasing often, you will have funny colored carpets in a hurry.
- GavinB 17y agoNot if you paint it on the floor!
- quizbiz 17y agoI would love to see a room with nothing but the paint. Floors, walls, ceilings, door. No furniture. My future conference room?
- kirubakaran 17y agoWould be seriously cool if there is no gravity.
- derefr 17y agoAs a sci-fi writer, I thank you. My next story will include astronauts floating about in a big, hollow sphere room, writing on the walls.
- quizbiz 17y agoDo we get a free copy of the chapter?
- lief79 17y agoWell, I would hope a sample text at least. Free advertising.
- kirubakaran 17y agoWow that is awesome! Thank you.
- chaosmachine 17y agoOrson Scott Card, is that you?
- carterschonwald 17y agodon't forget a nice way of dealing with the fumes.. that could get kinda trippy in zero g without good ventilation
- derefr 17y agoRight. This is what's going into my notes (bit less Hard in science than originally possible, but I figure it's not any more than 20 or 30 years of technological progress, so not a particular sin against writing): A ship/station/other space-bound facility can have "meditation rooms." These are simply spherical glass rooms exposed to space on the outside, with no artificial gravity. The glass is either permanently semi-frosted white, or, if the technological level of the facility permits, can vary itself from completely clear, through frosted, until completely solid in any color (or pattern) you wish. The adaptively-colored walls can thus be used as fully-surround 3D movie "projector". The air circulation in the room causes you to tend slowly toward the center, then float—rotating slowly—in silence. The room also comes with many different kinds of writing/drawing/painting utensils, for the whole of the "bubble" can be used as a large whiteboard (it can be zapped clean in an instant, no matter how indelible the instrument used to mark it). Because of this, these rooms are also frequently used for group brainstorming—and paintball.
- stavrianos 17y agoif you paint it on the floor, you'll have funny-colored feet in a hurry
- mcav 17y agoIf you aren't able to paint a wall, you can grab a 8' x 4' sheet of Melamine from Home Depot (or similar), which works quite well as a whiteboard. It isn't as robust as the expensive whiteboards, but can be replaced as-needed since it's so cheap.
- billswift 17y agoA four-by-eight sheet of formica is a lot cheaper than that "paint" too ($3.99 per square foot??). For that matter you can often find whiteboards on sale for less than that paint.
- tptacek 17y agoNot surprising, since the paint is better than an actual whiteboard: it fits arbitrary, irregularly-shaped spaces, and doesn't itself take up space.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- gojomo 17y agoThe thin panels from home depot are cheap -- ~$12 last I checked -- but don't erase nearly as well as a high-quality whiteboard surface, especially if you leave writing up for a while. So if you're propping whiteboards against the wall of your flophouse while you hack, they're great. If you want something for permanent installation, you get what you pay for.
- dryicerx 17y agoHmm... kind of off topic, but just realized a DIY idea offshoot from this. Plane of Glass UV reactive Dry/Wet Erase Marker UV Light From the Back or along glass edges
- Xichekolas 17y agoYou could get those UV LEDs and embed them in the edges of the glass.
- twopoint718 17y agoI've seen something like this in restaurants before. They have some kind of grease-pencil/crayon and a black-backed pane of glass that's lit with UV light. It glows pretty nicely. Does anyone know what this is exactly?
- dsil 17y agoCool idea, but at $3.99/sq.ft that's hundreds of dollars per wall. I bought an 8'x4' sheet of melamine for less than $10, which would have been over $120 for that much paint.
- fnazeeri 17y agoWhite boards are so limited in where you can put them. I think if the purchase decision is "do I paint this 4' by 8' patch of the wall" or "do I install a 4' x 8' white board" then the choice is easy. But having paint that can go on any surface and that will clean after every usage opens many possibilities. My home office, for example, doesn't have space for a 4' x 8' whiteboard but otherwise has good space. Also, have you used any of those $10 sheets of melamine? They ghost up after a couple of months of use...
- jamesbritt 17y ago"Also, have you used any of those $10 sheets of melamine? They ghost up after a couple of months of use..." I've used them. They require some labor-intensive prep work, and there are some markers that seem to take a more permanent liking to the surface, but otherwise not bad (unless you leave that To Do list up for two months).
- fnazeeri 17y agoYes, you are exactly right. I'd argue that if you value your employee's time at anything north of, say $10 per hour, then having a super-quality whiteboard would be a hugely positive ROI investment. Think of it as a giant shared 3rd monitor. Would you buy monitors that ghosted if your programmers typed the "wrong" letter combinations?
- eli 17y agoshrug All you need is a 3$ bottle of white board cleaning spray
- 17y ago
- gojomo 17y agoThere's magnetic primer, too, so you could have a magentic whiteboard wall with two layers of paint. Here's one of many sources: http://www.lyt.com/servlet/the-Magnetic-Paint/Categories http://www.lyt.com/servlet/the-Magnetic-Paint/Categories (Don't know what a room with iron-shavings magnetic walls does for cellphone reception, though.)
- fnazeeri 17y agoCool. You could do all your brainstorming in a Faraday Cage which would keep out Magneto and lightning (not to mention phone calls from your wife! ;-)
- krav 17y agoThanks for making me laugh!
- DannoHung 17y agoImagine if magnetic, writeable walls had been a common thing in offices 40 years ago. I wonder what desktop computing would have ended up like?
- datums 17y agoI really like this paint. Probably not entire room, but a single wall should be justifiable. Just don't forget the wall.
- anigbrowl 17y ago$3.99 per square foot...Or you could get chalkboard paint in black or green for about $0.60 per square foot, maybe less if you shop around.
- fnazeeri 17y agoYou know what would be cool? IdeaPaint on a car! Why restrict yourself to a few bumper stickers...now your wife can write the grocery list on your car door! ;-)
- froo 17y ago"Why restrict yourself to a few bumper stickers...now your wife can write the grocery list on your car door!" I'm not sure if this would be cool. If you imagine some of the potential shopping lists, I wouldn't want to be the guy advertising his sundries to everyone he drives past. eg * Tampons * Hemorrhoid Cream * Milk Ouch! Just use RTM instead :)
- dmhouse 17y ago... and have to take your car door with you into the supermarket?
- joshhart 17y agoI have an odd feeling white rustoleum would do exactly the same thing...
- ams6110 17y agoI tried a test patch of that once: gloss white rustoleum. It actually worked for short term writing, but would absorb marker left on for more than a few hours.
- ellyagg 17y agoLast year, I tried many different dry erase surfaces, including dry erase paint and many alternative treatments of showerboard. I even tried dry erase paint buffed onto a showerboard panel. Surprisingly, this was worse than the melanine alone. After a couple weeks of testing, my conclusion was that plain showerboard and a Mr Clean dry erase pad for an eraser was the best solution for a ghost free, cost-effective dry erase board. Perhaps the dry erase pad will eventually wear down the showerboard, but it hasn't so far, and they're super cheap to replace.
- cesther 17y agoThis whiteboard product from Rustoleum looks very similar http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=128 http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=128 Note related the blackboard and magnetic paints. In NZ there is an alternative paint solution, Resene Aquapoxy in Black White, though perhaps not as neat - as it requires a solvent to clean it off. see article NB pdf http://www.resene.co.nz/homeown/habitat/pdf/paintnotpaint.pdf http://www.resene.co.nz/homeown/habitat/pdf/paintnotpaint.pd...
- daltonlp 17y agoOur company (http://www.clockwork.net http://www.clockwork.net) used ideapaint to create wall/whiteboards in our new office this spring. Yes, there are other whiteboard paints. This stuff is different, and far superior. Dry-erase marker comes of instantly. No residue at all. It's some kind of epoxy or similar material, with a separate catalyst which is mixed with the paint. It forms a very thick, incredibly hard surface. Yes, the price is quite high. That sucks. The odor also sucks. It smells like superglue for a day or so after installation. The whole building smelled bad for a few days. After a week the smell disappeared completely. It's also very high-gloss. This was a big disappointment for one of the rooms, which has a projector aimed at the whiteboard/wall. The glare was awful. On average though, it's a good product. It makes a fantastic whiteboard.
- quizbiz 17y agowould love to see pictures.
- ojbyrne 17y agoI tossed this out there the last time this came up. Good for parties:http://www.flickr.com/photos/ojbyrne/3221346015/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/ojbyrne/3221346015/
- lutorm 17y agoSlightly less innovative: use glass (windows, doors, or just put glass panes on the wall). Works better than any whiteboard I've seen, we've had one in our house for 10 years and it erases completely no matter how long stuff has been on it.
- tjweir 17y agoHere's a How-To for a glass whiteboard: http://www.instructables.com/id/A_glass_whiteboard/ http://www.instructables.com/id/A_glass_whiteboard/
- mahmud 17y agoIf this gets cheaper maybe we can paint the Sydney train stations with it. I "admired" graffiti art as a child of hiphop, but Sydney will make you wanna go slaughter anyone with a spray can. The vandals have touched every surface of all train stations :-(
- madmotive 17y agoWe've used this stuff all over our coworking space: http://www.magicwhiteboard.co.uk/ http://www.magicwhiteboard.co.uk/ Might be worth giving it a try before investing in paint. It sticks to almost anything through static cling.
- tezza 17y agoI second the magic whiteboard. It will static cling to anything, including the ceiling! It comes in a carrying box, like cling film. So you can easily take it to client sites and stick it on their wall/glass. Further, you do not have to erase them, you can just stick a fresh one ontop. In that respect it is more like Butchers Paper.
- inovica 17y agoI remember seeing Fog Creek use glass whiteboards. I keep meaning to get some made, and I don't like the idea of writing all the walls. Just found a link to a photo: http://picasaweb.google.com/spolsky/FogCreekSNewOffice#5285319604805018674 http://picasaweb.google.com/spolsky/FogCreekSNewOffice#52853...
- nudded 17y agoyou got to love how they labelled the cans with "this" and "that" http://www.ideapaint.com/site/products_work.html http://www.ideapaint.com/site/products_work.html
- rjurney 17y agoThats great, its just too expensive for my taste at $4 a square foot.
- celiadyer 17y agoI've seen the "blackboard" paint for children's playrooms, but this is awesome. I prefer this to the static whiteboard sheets I've seen.
- callmeed 17y agoWhat if your wall(s) have texture?