DIY Electric Lifting Desk

“Loren” (no last name given) of Canada designed and built his own electric lift standing desk, with integrated computer. I do like this. He’s mostly managed to create a desk that I like, while at the same time doing some tricks that I normally think are cringeworthy.

It’s a corner desk, which I don’t tend to like because of they’re inflexible layout, but I do appreciate how they maximize of surface area that’s in reach. It has a glass top, which always seems a bit cold (both physically and aesthetically), to reveal an embedded computer. I’m kind of torn about the embedded computer. Part of me thinks that it’s a bit too gamery, yet I do like how it frees up floor space, and it does simplify the cable runs when raising and lower the desk. Even with all these touches that I don’t really like, the top does look nice. It’s the the legs that I can’t stand.

The legs are very amateurish. He’s using very thin (what half inch, if that?) single board trestle style legs. They’re absolutely horrible. They are literally two boards nailed together in the shape of a tee. The desk just doesn’t look stable. He’s added some simple boards for mounting some linear actuators, but the mechanisms are still exposed on the other three sides. The legs are really a disappointment.

The real find for the desk are the linear actuator arms. HARL-3616+ arms from SuperPowerJack. 18 inch extension and can lift 500 pounds on 36 volts. The real feature is that he could find them on eBay for $50 to $100. They don’t have limit switches though, but those are simple to wire up.

Still, an electric lifting standing desk for mere hundreds of dollars instead of several thousand is a huge win!

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Printing Press Drawers as Shelves

As I said perviously, I do like the drawers for movable type, and I do have a fascination with furniture that serves no purpose today, and so it’s not surprise that I perk up when I see a movable type drawer used as shelves. I think it’s the combination of the regularity and irregularity of the cells that appeals to me. Yes it’s big, and it fills up a wall, but the individual cells are pretty shallow. Probably less than six inches, but definitely no more. I don’t know what I would actually want to show off in it. When you see pictures of these utilized, they end up being filled up with crappy trinkets, and that doesn’t really fit my personality.

Previously. Previously.

Angler Fish

Michigan sculptor Justin LaDoux, is selling his his angler fish sculpture. A collage of knives, shovels, bicycle parts, and other found pieces of metal, the sculpture is four feet wide, five feet long, and five feet tall, and features motion activated lights.

I don’t know really anything about this artist. I do know that this piece was originally part of a set displayed at the 2010 ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In an interview during the ArtPrize, you can see a similar loose jaw fish and a squid.

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Lead Type

I’m a sucker for movable type. (The lead blocks, not the software, I have no opinion on the software.) The idea of assembling little blocks to make words and sentences makes my heart flutter. I don’t know why. I guess it’s sort of like legos. I love the large trays holding the letters, and I particularly like how the bins are different sizes depending on the character distribution of the language. As I read about how movable type was used and evolved over the years, I gained a greater appreciation of typography. Ligatures, kerning, why periods go inside quotation marks, and why it’s as irrelevant today as the creation MLA’s parenthetical citations 30 years ago.

I don’t think I would have the patience to use movable type. Laser printing is just too easy, and hot metal typesetting seems like cheating. Although in the world where movable type was common, U certainly would have used it instead of carving individual presses for every page.

via Dark Roasted Blend: Intricate Japanese Movable Type Sets

Oblique Strategies

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Brian Eno has released the sixth edition of his and Peter Schmidt’s Oblique Strategies. Limited to 500, this edition contains some new cards. When I read about this, I immediately ordered mine. I know it’s bit lame, especially since it’s the sixth limited edition (well I guess it’s actually the fifth limited production run, with the actual fifth edition being unlimited) of cards dating from mid-1970s, that you can download from the Internet, but I still wanted my physical artifact.

A Statement from the Hoffa Family

My name is Michael Crancer. C-R-A-N-C-E-R. I have been asked by the Hoffa family to read statement to the media. There will be no questions at this time.

This morning at 10:13 am Eastern time, James Riddle “Jimmy” Hoffa died peacefully in at Western Regional Hospital in Belmopan, Belize. He was surrounded by his children James Junior, and Barbara.

Thank you.

Nah. It’s just the same ol’ same ol’.

Great Job Receipt Checker

Today, I saw a mother and her son steal a box of Honey Nut Cheerios Marion, Illinois Sam’s Club. They walked right out with it.

My dad and I were getting ready to check out when I saw the woman and her late junior high, or early high school son walk through one of the many closed but not roped off checkout lines that are endemic at all “discount department stores” these days. They went to the concession stand at the front of the store and bought a bottle of water and stood there until someone went to leave and was being “checked” by the “receipt guard.” When she was occupied, they walked right past to their car.

The cart was empty except for the Cheerios.

I thought about embarrassing the receipt checker by asking her if she checked every receipt, or perhaps asking to talk to the manager, but I didn’t. It would have embarrassed my dad, and probably got the woman fired from a job that doesn’t even pay above poverty. And for what? Participating in security charade that exists nationwide?

Nah. Fuck The Man™.