5 ms·

Medieval Desktops

153 points by benbreen 12y ago

michaelbuddy 12y ago
This is not medieval but for those interested in these 'multi-monitor' bookstands, I was immediately reminded of a forefather of the United States, good ole Thomas Jefferson. He had swivel bookstand and here's a PBS woodwright workshop video on how you can make one. http://video.pbs.org/video/2365004559/ http://video.pbs.org/video/2365004559/
whitten 12y ago
It is a fun idea to have one of those book wheels but with laptops loaded instead of books.
- haroldp 12y ago
  http://synergy-project.org/ http://synergy-project.org/
- Too 12y ago
  A whole server tower filled with kvm racks? http://static3.bigstockphoto.com/thumbs/6/1/1/large2/11606903.jpg http://static3.bigstockphoto.com/thumbs/6/1/1/large2/1160690...
  - VLM 12y ago
    Only one will be at the ergonomically correct height. Unless your "real project" is making a variable height powered automated chair. Which is an interesting idea. Given an infinite amount of cheap space (coasties need not apply) something like a teeter-totter with a counterweight to lower static torques to practically nothing... A motionless chair might result in less sea sickness when combined with a moving rack. COTS is boring but COTS you can buy half racks and lift tables with multi ton capacity for moving machinery (think like, engine blocks) You'd want some kind of shielding to keep kids and pets out of the works. And you'd need some kind of interlocking to prevent forcing a open laptop thru your lap when lowering.
- VLM 12y ago
  I was thinking workbenches, and tools, if the wheel can lock into place with a spring loaded foot pedal or something. Spin the wheel get your SMD rework station, spin the wheel get your RF test equipment, spin the wheel get your connector assembly workbench, spin the wheel get the fastener screwdriver and wrench shelf. I enjoy unusual carpentry projects and I'm now thinking about making a 3-wheeler for my library room in my house as a big project. Wouldn't that look interesting? I'm getting a dark stained oak and brass fittings feeling about the whole project. Maybe start on a much smaller scale with a kitchen spice rack at 1/4 scale. One operational problem is I read recreational books one at a time on kindle app or real space, not 18 books in parallel, and if I do anything academic enough to require actual citations or verifications that's exclusively browser tabs online. I might end up building something really cool that I won't actually use.
Mikeb85 12y ago
Omg I need a book wheel!!! I've got so many thick reference books (in a variety of subjects), I would love to be able to have them all open at the same time...
- haroldp 12y ago
  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I15SB16 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I15SB16
  - ht_th 12y ago
    That's not what he's asking for. He wants multiple books open at the same time with easy access and in view, I suppose. Of course, you could have more kindles, like a bunch of the star trek [PADDs](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/PADD http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/PADD) lying around on your desk, but the kindle is too expensive for that at the moment. And even then, when I am doing historical research or writing a conceptual piece on some scientific or technical topic, it is not uncommon to have ten to twenty books, articles, documents or artifacts open at the same time and it never fits on my desk comfortably. So I end up using multiple table-like areas on different heights alongside my desktop: a coffee table to the side of my chair, another chair in the corner, an open closet with shelves just below eye level, and so on. A document "wheel" or carousel would help a lot.
    - VLM 12y ago
      "but the kindle is.." Currently cheaper than some of my hard cover textbooks, and I graduated in 2005, so I imagine its worse now. So that is expensive in a absolute experimental sense but not excessive in the book industry as a whole. Also carpentry project expenses can add up if you make things fancy, so I can imagine spending about as much on the raw materials as loading a wheel with kindles.
      - ht_th 12y ago
        > "but the kindle is.." Currently cheaper than some of my hard cover textbooks, and I graduated in 2005, so I imagine its worse now. Yes and no. Text books are needlessly expensive and, to be honest, often superficial content-wise. The information contained in them can be easily gotten from the Internet or, if that doesn't work out, from a good library. But even if I'd want to use 10 text books at the same time, one kindle isn't going to cut it. I think the biggest problem with using digital documents, for me, is that there's no natural geometrical mapping that I can keep in my head the way I can with books, articles, and stuff scattered around my office. I know that the information on concept A is in that corner, for example, and that going deeper into that pile means going in deeper chronologically. And I put documents on related concepts closer to each other. Somehow, these stacks of documents form a concrete representation of the argument I am constructing. I tried to do the same with digital documents, I've got thousands of them, but tagging them, or putting them in directory trees, and so on, does not give me the same handle on the the information as I understand it at this moment in my mind. It is quite frustratingly, as digital documents are a lot easier to handle otherwise.
goldfeld 12y ago
What really jumps out at me is that before perspective theory was invented the paintings rather look like Ultima Online.
leoc 12y ago
Note how most of them are reading and writing on pitched surfaces, either using a pitched desk or a pitched stand. The near-ubiquity of flat reading and writing surfaces is a recent development afaics: even old mass-manufactured school desks from the early-mid C20 tend to have pitched surfaces. The explanation seems to be that while pitched surfaces are better than flat horizontal surfaces for both reading and writing, flat surfaces are superior for piling crap onto (loose papers, books, telephones, adding machines, typewriters and what have you).
- nl 12y ago
  I'm pretty sure I used a desk with a sloping top at school in the late 1980s or early '90s. It looks like it was probably 30 years old though. Form memory it was ok to write on, great to read on and terrible to put thing on. But it had a self underneath where you kept things (and could hide novels to read during class).
  - leoc 12y ago
    Yes, some old pitched school-desks were definitely hanging around in the '80s, but my impression is that their manufacturing was another casualty of the '60s/'70s. (That seems to be when the two-seating, flat, Formica-surfaced table came in as school furniture: so modular! so modern!)
- arrrg 12y ago
  Pitched surfaces were definitely a thing in schools until the middle of the 20th century. Check out these images from a Bavarian school museum, showing classrooms from 1875 and 1920: http://www.schulmuseum.org/raeume/ http://www.schulmuseum.org/raeume/ That’s not 45°, but still slightly pitched. Also note that bench and table are one massive combined piece of furniture, with two (or more) students sharing one bench. That makes the classroom layout completely inflexible. I think flat tables (and individual chairs) in schools can also be explained by an increased desire to reconfigure the classroom on the fly, moving tables around to make working in groups easier.
  - wyclif 12y ago
bicx 12y ago
In this (https://medievalbooks.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/bl_royal_18_e_iii.jpg https://medievalbooks.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/bl_royal_1...) photo, you can clearly see the man flaunting his Beats by Dre earbuds over the edge of his desk. You know he didn't just happen to hang those bitches on the most visible part of his gaudily minimalist desk with gravity-defying angles. This guy was clearly a douchebag. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
- leoc 12y ago
  Yup, Beats "caually" draped over the top of his multi-monitor stand.

153 points by benbreen 12y ago

This is not medieval but for those interested in these 'multi-monitor' bookstands, I was immediately reminded of a forefather of the United States, good ole Thomas Jefferson. He had swivel bookstand and here's a PBS woodwright workshop video on how you can make one. http://video.pbs.org/video/2365004559/ http://video.pbs.org/video/2365004559/

whitten 12y ago

It is a fun idea to have one of those book wheels but with laptops loaded instead of books.

haroldp 12y ago
http://synergy-project.org/ http://synergy-project.org/
Too 12y ago
A whole server tower filled with kvm racks? http://static3.bigstockphoto.com/thumbs/6/1/1/large2/11606903.jpg http://static3.bigstockphoto.com/thumbs/6/1/1/large2/1160690...
- VLM 12y ago
  Only one will be at the ergonomically correct height. Unless your "real project" is making a variable height powered automated chair. Which is an interesting idea. Given an infinite amount of cheap space (coasties need not apply) something like a teeter-totter with a counterweight to lower static torques to practically nothing... A motionless chair might result in less sea sickness when combined with a moving rack. COTS is boring but COTS you can buy half racks and lift tables with multi ton capacity for moving machinery (think like, engine blocks) You'd want some kind of shielding to keep kids and pets out of the works. And you'd need some kind of interlocking to prevent forcing a open laptop thru your lap when lowering.
VLM 12y ago
I was thinking workbenches, and tools, if the wheel can lock into place with a spring loaded foot pedal or something. Spin the wheel get your SMD rework station, spin the wheel get your RF test equipment, spin the wheel get your connector assembly workbench, spin the wheel get the fastener screwdriver and wrench shelf. I enjoy unusual carpentry projects and I'm now thinking about making a 3-wheeler for my library room in my house as a big project. Wouldn't that look interesting? I'm getting a dark stained oak and brass fittings feeling about the whole project. Maybe start on a much smaller scale with a kitchen spice rack at 1/4 scale. One operational problem is I read recreational books one at a time on kindle app or real space, not 18 books in parallel, and if I do anything academic enough to require actual citations or verifications that's exclusively browser tabs online. I might end up building something really cool that I won't actually use.

Mikeb85 12y ago

Omg I need a book wheel!!! I've got so many thick reference books (in a variety of subjects), I would love to be able to have them all open at the same time...

haroldp 12y ago
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I15SB16 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I15SB16
- ht_th 12y ago
  That's not what he's asking for. He wants multiple books open at the same time with easy access and in view, I suppose. Of course, you could have more kindles, like a bunch of the star trek [PADDs](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/PADD http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/PADD) lying around on your desk, but the kindle is too expensive for that at the moment. And even then, when I am doing historical research or writing a conceptual piece on some scientific or technical topic, it is not uncommon to have ten to twenty books, articles, documents or artifacts open at the same time and it never fits on my desk comfortably. So I end up using multiple table-like areas on different heights alongside my desktop: a coffee table to the side of my chair, another chair in the corner, an open closet with shelves just below eye level, and so on. A document "wheel" or carousel would help a lot.
  - VLM 12y ago
    "but the kindle is.." Currently cheaper than some of my hard cover textbooks, and I graduated in 2005, so I imagine its worse now. So that is expensive in a absolute experimental sense but not excessive in the book industry as a whole. Also carpentry project expenses can add up if you make things fancy, so I can imagine spending about as much on the raw materials as loading a wheel with kindles.
    - ht_th 12y ago
      > "but the kindle is.." Currently cheaper than some of my hard cover textbooks, and I graduated in 2005, so I imagine its worse now. Yes and no. Text books are needlessly expensive and, to be honest, often superficial content-wise. The information contained in them can be easily gotten from the Internet or, if that doesn't work out, from a good library. But even if I'd want to use 10 text books at the same time, one kindle isn't going to cut it. I think the biggest problem with using digital documents, for me, is that there's no natural geometrical mapping that I can keep in my head the way I can with books, articles, and stuff scattered around my office. I know that the information on concept A is in that corner, for example, and that going deeper into that pile means going in deeper chronologically. And I put documents on related concepts closer to each other. Somehow, these stacks of documents form a concrete representation of the argument I am constructing. I tried to do the same with digital documents, I've got thousands of them, but tagging them, or putting them in directory trees, and so on, does not give me the same handle on the the information as I understand it at this moment in my mind. It is quite frustratingly, as digital documents are a lot easier to handle otherwise.

goldfeld 12y ago

What really jumps out at me is that before perspective theory was invented the paintings rather look like Ultima Online.

leoc 12y ago

Note how most of them are reading and writing on pitched surfaces, either using a pitched desk or a pitched stand. The near-ubiquity of flat reading and writing surfaces is a recent development afaics: even old mass-manufactured school desks from the early-mid C20 tend to have pitched surfaces. The explanation seems to be that while pitched surfaces are better than flat horizontal surfaces for both reading and writing, flat surfaces are superior for piling crap onto (loose papers, books, telephones, adding machines, typewriters and what have you).

nl 12y ago
I'm pretty sure I used a desk with a sloping top at school in the late 1980s or early '90s. It looks like it was probably 30 years old though. Form memory it was ok to write on, great to read on and terrible to put thing on. But it had a self underneath where you kept things (and could hide novels to read during class).
- leoc 12y ago
  Yes, some old pitched school-desks were definitely hanging around in the '80s, but my impression is that their manufacturing was another casualty of the '60s/'70s. (That seems to be when the two-seating, flat, Formica-surfaced table came in as school furniture: so modular! so modern!)
arrrg 12y ago
Pitched surfaces were definitely a thing in schools until the middle of the 20th century. Check out these images from a Bavarian school museum, showing classrooms from 1875 and 1920: http://www.schulmuseum.org/raeume/ http://www.schulmuseum.org/raeume/ That’s not 45°, but still slightly pitched. Also note that bench and table are one massive combined piece of furniture, with two (or more) students sharing one bench. That makes the classroom layout completely inflexible. I think flat tables (and individual chairs) in schools can also be explained by an increased desire to reconfigure the classroom on the fly, moving tables around to make working in groups easier.
- wyclif 12y ago

bicx 12y ago

In this (https://medievalbooks.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/bl_royal_18_e_iii.jpg https://medievalbooks.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/bl_royal_1...) photo, you can clearly see the man flaunting his Beats by Dre earbuds over the edge of his desk. You know he didn't just happen to hang those bitches on the most visible part of his gaudily minimalist desk with gravity-defying angles. This guy was clearly a douchebag. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

leoc 12y ago
Yup, Beats "caually" draped over the top of his multi-monitor stand.