Wednesday
Mar232005
office plans and babybabble
Wednesday, March 23, 2005 at 9:45AM
Thanks so much for the feedback and suggestions re: my office, everyone!
In answer to my question about the magnets, Michael Pereckas wrote:
"Magnets do not normally cause problems for equipment unless the magnets are extremely strong and very nearby or the equipment is more along the lines of a sensitive magnetometer than a PC. MRI scanner? Be careful. Refrigerator magnet? Don't worry. I used to run a mass spectrometer in the same small room that housed a seven-Tesla liquid-helium-filled superconducting magnet for an NMR spectrometer without any problems. Can you erase a hard disk with a refrigerator magnet? No. With a fancy rare-earth magnet? Maybe, but unless that magnet rather exotic and too powerful to play with safely, you'd have to disassemble the drive (which contains fancy and strong rare earth magnets very near the disk platters--if you see flat, curved, and strong magnets for sale cheap, they were salvaged from hard disk service) to do it, which will break it anyway."
From Dave Alway:
"Oh, here's something handy called 'Grip-a-Strip' that I've used to advantage in the past. If you want to look at another distributor, just Google 'Grip-a-Strip'."
From Joe:
"Ooooh shelves.
Our office has giant sheets of metal painted white so they are also whiteboards. That's where we brainstorm new ideas and display drawings - magnets holding up five or six giant size architectural / engineering blueprints.
I wouldn't put the whiteboard/metal in that narrow corridor - the whole point of such a board is to display stuff and in that corridor you can only view from close up. What about having the metal whiteboard on runners in front of the shelves on the wall opposite the door? Just imagine! That entire back wall one great big metal whiteboard! (Well five panels, each from desk/counter hieght to the ceiling anyway).
Slide one panel sideways, behind another, to get at the shelves or the window behind."
From Steve:
"Our home office has a two-foot-wide shelf/counter/desk running all the way around, with shelves both above and below it. The wide shelf is 0,5 in oak plywood, supported on shelf brackets and diagonal braces. I recommend Elfa two-slot shelf brackets, which are made of steel bent into a U shape and can support amazing loads without bending.
The basic idea came from my parents' home office, which used ordinary kitchen cabinetry for the counter and base."
I also got some useful tips from my friend Walter, whom I chatted with last night at an outing to celebrate Vartan's 40th birthday. Walter had printed out my office layout that I had posted in Blatherings and Flickr yesterday afternoon, made some useful suggestions about how I might be able to get more space.
Last night I met John's and Mary's two-and-a-half month old daughter for the first time. I walked around the restaurant with her for a bit, holding her in my arms as she gazed around at the lights and colours with great interest.
Then at one point, her glance happened to wander to my face. She proceeded to stare up at me with seriousness, as if caught by surprise ("Hey, who's this STRANGER holding me?!?") and deciding whether or not to start screaming. I waited nervously, babbled at her about nothing in particular...and suddenly a big smile spread across her face.
Oh lordy, how that little smile made me melt.
Good thing she couldn't talk yet, because she could have asked me for anything at that moment and I would have said yes. I sang the Hockey Monkey song at her (very quietly, so I wouldn't be kicked out of the restaurant) and she stared at me, fascinated, her mouth making small motions as if she was trying to copy me.
I love babies. This confuses people who know about Jeff's and my decision not have children, of course, and I guess I can't blame them. But I do find babies' whole tabula rasa state immensely fascinating, and I go disgustingly cooey before the power of those tiny fingers, chubby cheeks, smiles and gurgles.
Until they need to be changed, of course, at which point I happily pass them back to their parents.
:-)
Speaking of happiness, by the way, WE GET TO SEE OUR NEW HOUSE TODAY!
(pause for a Snoopy joydance here)
In answer to my question about the magnets, Michael Pereckas wrote:
"Magnets do not normally cause problems for equipment unless the magnets are extremely strong and very nearby or the equipment is more along the lines of a sensitive magnetometer than a PC. MRI scanner? Be careful. Refrigerator magnet? Don't worry. I used to run a mass spectrometer in the same small room that housed a seven-Tesla liquid-helium-filled superconducting magnet for an NMR spectrometer without any problems. Can you erase a hard disk with a refrigerator magnet? No. With a fancy rare-earth magnet? Maybe, but unless that magnet rather exotic and too powerful to play with safely, you'd have to disassemble the drive (which contains fancy and strong rare earth magnets very near the disk platters--if you see flat, curved, and strong magnets for sale cheap, they were salvaged from hard disk service) to do it, which will break it anyway."
From Dave Alway:
"Oh, here's something handy called 'Grip-a-Strip' that I've used to advantage in the past. If you want to look at another distributor, just Google 'Grip-a-Strip'."
From Joe:
"Ooooh shelves.
Our office has giant sheets of metal painted white so they are also whiteboards. That's where we brainstorm new ideas and display drawings - magnets holding up five or six giant size architectural / engineering blueprints.
I wouldn't put the whiteboard/metal in that narrow corridor - the whole point of such a board is to display stuff and in that corridor you can only view from close up. What about having the metal whiteboard on runners in front of the shelves on the wall opposite the door? Just imagine! That entire back wall one great big metal whiteboard! (Well five panels, each from desk/counter hieght to the ceiling anyway).
Slide one panel sideways, behind another, to get at the shelves or the window behind."
From Steve:
"Our home office has a two-foot-wide shelf/counter/desk running all the way around, with shelves both above and below it. The wide shelf is 0,5 in oak plywood, supported on shelf brackets and diagonal braces. I recommend Elfa two-slot shelf brackets, which are made of steel bent into a U shape and can support amazing loads without bending.
The basic idea came from my parents' home office, which used ordinary kitchen cabinetry for the counter and base."
I also got some useful tips from my friend Walter, whom I chatted with last night at an outing to celebrate Vartan's 40th birthday. Walter had printed out my office layout that I had posted in Blatherings and Flickr yesterday afternoon, made some useful suggestions about how I might be able to get more space.
Last night I met John's and Mary's two-and-a-half month old daughter for the first time. I walked around the restaurant with her for a bit, holding her in my arms as she gazed around at the lights and colours with great interest.
Then at one point, her glance happened to wander to my face. She proceeded to stare up at me with seriousness, as if caught by surprise ("Hey, who's this STRANGER holding me?!?") and deciding whether or not to start screaming. I waited nervously, babbled at her about nothing in particular...and suddenly a big smile spread across her face.
Oh lordy, how that little smile made me melt.
Good thing she couldn't talk yet, because she could have asked me for anything at that moment and I would have said yes. I sang the Hockey Monkey song at her (very quietly, so I wouldn't be kicked out of the restaurant) and she stared at me, fascinated, her mouth making small motions as if she was trying to copy me.
I love babies. This confuses people who know about Jeff's and my decision not have children, of course, and I guess I can't blame them. But I do find babies' whole tabula rasa state immensely fascinating, and I go disgustingly cooey before the power of those tiny fingers, chubby cheeks, smiles and gurgles.
Until they need to be changed, of course, at which point I happily pass them back to their parents.
:-)
Speaking of happiness, by the way, WE GET TO SEE OUR NEW HOUSE TODAY!
(pause for a Snoopy joydance here)
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