DIY Standing Desk Round 2 - Home Edition

I wrote previously about the Standing Desk I use in my cube at work. Recently, I decided that it was working so well for me that I wanted one at home, too. At home, I didn’t have a cubical I had to work with, so I went for a different design. I wanted something adjustable so I could get the height exactly right, but I didn’t care about being able to adjust it on the fly (once I got the right height I knew I wouldn’t care about sitting down at it or anything).

Published at May 19, 2011 ·  2 min read

AutoJournaling with VoodooPad - moving toward Interruptible Programmer Nirvana

Since I read the Interruptible Programmer, I’ve been trying to do a better job of handling interruptions. Well, specifically to reduce the effort it takes me to get back to where I was before the interruption happened. I and switch to a new task very easily, but my brain isn’t wired to get back to where I was, leading to much frustration (and lots of misplaced coffee cups that happened to be in my hand when I started answering a question when I was away from my desk).

Published at February 1, 2011 ·  3 min read

Standing desk DIY Episode 3: It was too hard AND it was too soft, but now it's just right.

Two more days of Standing Desk, with a level keyboard, and I love it, but I have two problems. The first is, my feet hurt, especially my heels. The second is that I have a tendency to rest my hands on the keyboard shelf when I not typing, causing it to flex, and I’m afraid I’m going to warp or break it. So today, I’m fixing both problems. The first is easy, although not cheap.

Published at October 22, 2010 ·  3 min read

Standing Desk DIY Episode 2: Customizing the keyboard stand

I wrote a couple of days ago about my DIY desk. I’ve been quite happy with it so far, with one exception: The keyboard “drawer”. It wasn’t quite table enough. It would bounce just a little bit when I typed, which was annoying. Even worse, though, the lap desk I was using wasn’t completely flat, and so the keyboard was tilted slightly which made it very difficult to hit the right keys.

Published at October 20, 2010 ·  2 min read

Standing Desk DIY: Cubicle Edition

Lately, I’ve read several articles on standing desks and especially on the health risks of the modern office. I wanted to try it out, especially since I pulled a muscle in my back a few month ago and, now that I’m all recovered, I don’t want it to happen again. The biggest problem with that for me, is that I spend a lot of time programming in a cubicle farm. I hadn’t seen a configuration yet that seemed like it would work well with cubes, but I think I finally managed to work one out.

Published at October 18, 2010 ·  4 min read

The Value of Slow: Lessons Learned via the Golf Course

Once upon a time, I was working on a project at a high tech company in an LA suburb, and I was working for a manager that I’ll call Mike (because that was his name).Mike had once worked managing a group that put satellites in orbit, and from that experience he gathered some great wisdom, some of which he attempted to impart to me, and some smaller amount of which actually sunk into my young (at the time) head.

Published at September 17, 2010 ·  2 min read

Musings On Stress

This weekend I have a ton of work I need to do. One evening earlier this week, I squished a bug that had been bothering me for a while in KidChart, one of my shipping apps. Instead of submitting a new version with just that one bug fix, I want to get one full work-flow session under UI Automation testing to see if there are any other bugs I should be fixing as well.

Published at September 11, 2010 ·  2 min read

Horror Movie Productivity

A few years ago, I had a job that involved writing software while I worked at home. I, like many people in that situation, struggled with how to keep myself motivated.I found my thoughts wandered too much if the house was silent. I tried music, which had worked for me in an office setting, but I had trouble getting into “the Zone” like I felt I needed to.Eventually, I found something that worked quite well for me - horror movies.

Published at September 6, 2010 ·  1 min read

On Becoming an Interruptable Programmer

Just read a great blog post on becoming an interruptible programmer. Since the older my daughter gets the more interruptions I get from her, I think I’m going to try this and see how it goes.(Via @GeorgeSealy)

Published at September 5, 2010 ·  1 min read