

A Home Office FAQ - bdfh42
http://www.biscade.com/office/

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marvin
I actually have a hard time understanding what you can do with all this
hardware. The monitors; ok. Monitor real-estate is important since you don't
have to use time and effort to shuffle all the windows you want to use. But
what about the rest of the systems, two laptops and three servers?

I've read Stefan Didak's home office description as well, and he says that
having a massive amount of storage and cycles can help you if you're doing
complicated work. Does someone have an example of jobs that become easier with
4 terabytes of local storage and thirty CPU cores? It seems to me the overhead
of administrating these kinds of system would dwarf any benefit.

Obviously I am wrong, but how? This stuff looks fun, and it definitely sounds
fun to be more effective than your peers by making "unacceptable" choices
regarding the tools you use.

[Edit: If you have the same questions, have a look at
[http://www.stefandidak.com/ramble/2007/04/03/home-office-
usa...](http://www.stefandidak.com/ramble/2007/04/03/home-office-usage-
scenarios-1-and-2/). It's really cool.]

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alabut
Yeah I'm with you - I can see the need for two systems, one for real work and
the other for all the other crap (email, music, etc) but not 6. I wonder if
it's like getting tattoos - once you get more than one, it spirals until
you're covered.

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alabut
I just realized I actually do this right now - a mac mini for work and an ipod
touch for music, email, etc. That's how I get away with using such a cheap
system for design work - I offload everything except Fireworks on to the ipod,
plus then I get a little bit of help with procrastination because the mini is
for only real work during the weekdays.

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sutro
The parallelism of this guy's porn consumption must be truly breathtaking.

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markbao
He could invest perhaps in a better chair.

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alabut
I'm always split on that - go Joel Spolsky and treat yourself right to an
Aeron, or go the Paul Graham route and skimp with a cheapo? I've had nothing
but Aerons at work for a few years and my butt kinda misses them now that I
work from home on a folding chair.

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Frabjous-Dey
I suspect that you can get 80% of the comfort level of an Aeron for 20% of its
price.

Almost anything beats a folding chair, couch, or bed.

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newsycaccount
Yep, I have an Aeron at work and an $80 (from Sam's Club) "Office Star Matrex
Meshback" or something goofy name like that at home. I use both regularly and
have no preference between the two. I would think a startup that needs the
meager funding ycombinator deals in would be crazy to blow it on an Aeron.

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noonespecial
I love the setup, but I have to say that all of the most awesome work that
I've seen done has been done on couches, with cheap dell laptops that have
stickers all over them.

I'm not one to talk of course. My workstation is a monstrosity that grows by
the year, but I miss the purity of a bunch of guys sitting around a cheap
apartment on goodwill furniture, all logged into the same server, perl and
python flying, as a site almost magically congeals before our eyes. Guess I'm
just sentimental like that.

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hs
does having X * (PC, monitor, laptops, servers <insert hw>) make you X times
more productive?

i guess not, it could be diminishing return

or even negative return (more distractions, harder to admin / sync / whatever)

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petercooper
Depends. Looking from a "soft" point of view, he might find having all that
kit motivational or pleasing in some way.

My productivity was certainly lower when I was a PC user, as compared to the
Mac. I really _enjoy_ using my Macs and don't find work to be so grating when
the system keeps out of my way and the hardware is solid.

Could I produce just as well with one machine and a smaller monitor? Sure, but
I probably wouldn't be as jazzed or enthusiastic about getting started.

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mnemonicsloth
Could you produce just as well with one machine and a smaller monitor?

Actually, no. Studies have shown that bigger monitors make just about everyone
more productive -- one estimates 2.5 hours per day in savings:

[http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/03/10/bigger-computer-
moni...](http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/03/10/bigger-computer-monitors-
more-productivity/)

The study did find that extremely large monitors are less effective (this
might be an ergonomic artifact. They didn't differentiate between one
doubleplusbig monitor and two singleplusbig), so you'd be on firmer groud if
you'd said:

"Could I produce more with ... a bigger monitor than what I've got now? Maybe
yes, maybe no, but I'd definitely be more jazzed or enthusiastic about getting
started."

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petercooper
You make a good point, but I don't think it's true for _me_. I just spent the
last two weeks only using my MBP in the lounge, leaving my Mac Pro and 30" ACD
gathering dust upstairs :) I'm now back upstairs, however.. it's all about the
variety in my case.

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gsmaverick
Awesome setup!

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kirpekar
what a show off

