shitty office chairs
$Zero
i bought mine at Sam's Club.
for a little over $100.
but unlike most other swivel office chairs at that price, there's no
lean-back lock on the fricken' thing.
(though you _can_ lock it in the forward position).
so when you lean back, it's always tending to spring forward.
it's VERY uncomfortable.
it gives you assburn from constantly applying counter pressure to the
idiotic spring forward force.
but the worst part of it is, this isn't the first one i bought like
this.
i had forgotten about the glitch when i had bought the second a few
weeks ago.
i hadn't sat in the first one for several months.
it's a long story.
but the bottom line is, i've got another shitty office chair.
it fails at one of its major tasks.
to be a pleasant and comfortable place to sit and work.
what goes thru the "minds" of the designers of products like these is
a total mystery to moi.
but what's an even bigger mystery is why i'm penniless and they're
not.
-$Zero...
squares, circles, triangles, etc.
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.writing/msg/3ed73d2553ab07d1
Ray Haddad
wrote:
>but unlike most other swivel office chairs at that price, there's no
>lean-back lock on the fricken' thing.
>
>(though you _can_ lock it in the forward position).
>
>so when you lean back, it's always tending to spring forward.
Isn't there a spring tension adjuster in the front under the seat?
Most of them have that. It reduces or increases the spring tension so
you don't have to fight it to lean back.
--
Ray
$Zero
> On Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:57:36 -0800 (PST), "$Zero" <zeroi...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> >but unlike most other swivel office chairs at that price, there's no
> >lean-back lock on the fricken' thing.
>
> >(though you _can_ lock it in the forward position).
>
> >so when you lean back, it's always tending to spring forward.
>
> Isn't there a spring tension adjuster in the front under the seat?
haven't looked.
> Most of them have that. It reduces or increases the spring
> tension so you don't have to fight it to lean back.
it's a stupid design.
it can lock in the forward but not in the backward position.
all it would have taken is a simple indent in a preformed piece of
metal.
line up the designers before me and i'd have absolutely no aversion to
shooting them dead.
-$Zero...
there are no angles in circles.
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.writing/msg/af24132c1980f6ff
$Zero
> On Dec 11, 2:06 am, Ray Haddad <r...@perthmagic.com> wrote:
>
> > On Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:57:36 -0800 (PST), "$Zero" <zeroi...@gmail.com>
> > wrote:
>
> > >but unlike most other swivel office chairs at that price, there's no
> > >lean-back lock on the fricken' thing.
>
> > >(though you _can_ lock it in the forward position).
>
> > >so when you lean back, it's always tending to spring forward.
>
> > Isn't there a spring tension adjuster in the front under the seat?
>
> haven't looked.
>
> > Most of them have that. It reduces or increases the spring
> > tension so you don't have to fight it to lean back.
obligatory writerly tweaks:
> it's a stupid design.
>
> it can lock in the forward but not in the backward position.
all it would have taken is one extra indent in a preformed
piece of metal. line up the designers before me and i'd have
absolutely no aversion whatsoever to shooting them dead.
compare with version 1.0
> all it would have taken is a simple indent in a preformed
> piece of metal.
>
> line up the designers before me and i'd have absolutely
> no aversion to shooting them dead.
see?
version 1.1 is way better than 1.0.
that's how better designs are made.
tweaks.
progress forward, not regression backward.
-$Zero...
the punches came fast and hard...
lying on my back in the schoolyard...
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.writing/msg/2032670250c68698
Bill Penrose
> shitty office chairs
>
> i bought mine at Sam's Club.
>
> for a little over $100.
If that's what you paid, why are you complaining? The fact that the
chair can stand on the floor by itself without falling over is a
surprise.
Lots of places are going out of business these days, and used office
furniture is a glut on the market. Your $100 will go a long way.
DB
Pies de Arcilla
> but what's an even bigger mystery is why i'm penniless and they're
> not.
You're penniless because you spend money on new office furniture.
Where I work, we scavenge. The guy across from me has an Aeron he
rescued from somebody's trash; it's only missing an arm.
$Zero
> On Dec 11, 12:57 am, "$Zero" <zeroi...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > but what's an even bigger mystery is why i'm penniless and they're
> > not.
>
> You're penniless because you spend money on new office furniture.
nope.
that's not why.
i only buy things to save me time.
which is usually far more intelligently frugal than hoping to find
something in the garbage.
$100 has a time value.
nothing more.
> Where I work, we scavenge. The guy across from me has an Aeron he
> rescued from somebody's trash; it's only missing an arm.
that's nice.
why don't you get yourself one too?
see what i mean?
-$Zero...
progress forward, not regression backward.
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.writing/msg/1eedc2b8ff78884a
$Zero
> On Dec 10, 10:57 pm, "$Zero" <zeroi...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > shitty office chairs
>
> > i bought mine at Sam's Club.
>
> > for a little over $100.
>
> If that's what you paid, why are you complaining?
because the chair's design sucks.
they've virtually stolen my $100.
all it would have taken is one extra indent in a preformed
piece of metal. line up the designers before me and i'd have
absolutely no aversion whatsoever to shooting them dead.
version 1.0
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.writing/msg/1eedc2b8ff78884a
version 1.1
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.writing/msg/7904ebeeb41c70ac
> The fact that the chair can stand on the floor by itself
> without falling over is a surprise.
indeed, it is surprising.
> Lots of places are going out of business these days, and used office
> furniture is a glut on the market. Your $100 will go a long way.
in my region of the country, we're about a decade or two ahead in the
going-out-of-business sales.
ahead of even Flint, Michigan, i think.
the only viable industry left is the brand new casino, and they just
layed off 200 people last week.
do you think i can succesfully convert a bar stool into an office
chair?
maybe.
but it would cost me wayyy more than $100 in time.
-$Zero...
the kid who took a lemon drop from his
neighbor's candy dish without permission.
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.writing/msg/58414600156b4d0b
Pies de Arcilla
I don't want an Aeron. I like the chair I've got.
But also, you're missing something about time value. Your chair only
costs about four hours of my wage. And it's true that I probably
couldn't find a free chair in four hours. But I'm still better off
doing other things until the perfect chair comes along, rather than
shelling out. Assuming I have _something_ to sit on, of course.
Because four hours of time is not equal to four hours of _work_.
Your time really only has value when you compare what you're doing to
the alternatives. If looking for a chair doesn't prevent you from
doing something else valuable with your time, then it is not really
costing you whatever your hourly rate is.
$Zero
> On Dec 12, 10:12 am, "$Zero" <zeroi...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > why don't you get yourself one too?
>
> I don't want an Aeron. I like the chair I've got.
well, that's one way to avoid the point, isn't it?
> But also, you're missing something about time value.
LOL.
definitely not.
you're the one who does not have a grasp on the value of your time.
> Your chair only costs about four hours of my wage.
see what i mean?
the chair doesn't cost four hours of your wage, it costs four hours of
your time!
to equate them is to devalue your time.
now to you, it may seem like that's six of one and half dozen of
another, but let me assure you that the thinking model you're using to
perceive things that way is seriously fucked.
> And it's true that I probably
> couldn't find a free chair in four hours.
whereas i could find a "free" chair in one minute.
at Sam's Club.
online.
and it only costs me $100.
plus about $4 to send someone over there to pick it up and another $4
to have them assemble it.
and that $108 represents anywhere between one second and two hours of
my time, depending on what i expect my efforts to eventually bring in.
> But I'm still better off doing other things until the perfect
> chair comes along, rather than shelling out.
well, that's an executive decision that you have to make for yourself.
you have to weigh in the effects on your work of being extremely
uncomfortable for every minute that you are busy doing something other
than relieving that painful distraction.
we're not talking aesthetics here.
we're talking a substantive change in your working conditions in a way
the alters your ability to function at peak efficiency, for 18 hours a
day, every day.
you're not "waiting for the perfect chair" in the sense that you
prefer a gray one rather than a black one.
you're "waiting for a functional chair" that allows you to work
comfortably for 16 hours a day, several days a week.
get it?
> Assuming I have _something_ to sit on, of course.
look, you could sit on a milk crate all day, but your productive time
would be seriously fucked.
very low quality.
> Because four hours of time is not equal to four hours of _work_.
excuse me?
where have you lost track here?
see what i mean?
or are you saying that four hours of time (just passing by) while not
spending it driving around dumpster-diving or scanning the want ads in
search of a chair is not work?
i agree.
but that wasn't my point.
my point was that it would probably take a total of more than four
hours of your time to find a suitable chair, even if those hours were
spread out over a couple months of sitting on a milk crate.
and the cost in productivity lost over that time-span would cost you
even way more than four hours of your chair-seeking time.
well, my time anyway.
> Your time really only has value when you compare what
> you're doing to the alternatives.
oh. my. God.
what a sap.
> If looking for a chair doesn't prevent you from doing something
> else valuable with your time, then it is not really costing you
> whatever your hourly rate is.
true.
but you're not taking enough variables and effects into consideration.
such as the effect of not having the chair during that time.
NOTE: how one comes to calculate their "hourly rate" is rather
interesting, and completely relative.
and more than likely seriously flawed and self-devaluing.
...
it might be easier to see this fact if one were to consider it as it
applies to purchasing a new computer (rather than finding one in the
trash).
you may indeed have a working computer, however, let's assume that it
is running DOS instead of a graphical interface.
or that it's so slow in running Windows that you find yourself
screaming for 90% of your day while the hourglass thinger mocks you on
your milk crate, thus preventing you from working on what you're
working on uninterrupted.
now, you have reasonable knowledge that computers exist that run fifty
times faster (because you've priced them out), and which allow you to
have multiple windows open at a time, and don't freeze up every hour
or so requiring you to go thru the annoying time-consuming soul-
crushing reboot routines several times a day.
but it will cost you $1,000.
and you have the $1,000.
(or you can even borrow the $1,000)
so what do you do?
crank along at one fiftieth of your productive capacity to save the
$1,000 for some "other" purpose?
i think not.
-$Zero...
there's no market for...
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.writing/msg/20aefda0858199ff
Bill Penrose
> But also, you're missing something about time value. Your chair only
> costs about four hours of my wage. And it's true that I probably
> couldn't find a free chair in four hours.
1. Scout a series of professional offices.
2. Borrow a set of blue coveralls, preferably with a name (not yours)
on the chest.
3. Wait until noon, when only the receptionist is there.
4. Carry a clipboard, and go in, "Hi, I'm Jerry (or whatever).
Where's the chair I'm supposed to pick up?"
5. When the receptionist is mystified, pretend to spot the chair and
say, "Oh, that's the Aileron.(or whatever brand)."
6. Wheel it out.
7. Enjoy.
Remember, it's only wrong if you get caught.
DB
Pies de Arcilla
> crank along at one fiftieth of your productive capacity to save the
> $1,000 for some "other" purpose?
>
> i think not.
That's kind of funny, actually, because I was forced to "upgrade" my
computer at work, since the old one was out of warranty.
The new one is probably faster, but since I hardly do anything but
connect to servers, it really doesn't help me if it _were_ 50 times
faster.
And I spent more than a day setting the new one up.
If it was costing me for the hardware and setup time, I would never
have bothered.
Also, 50x computer speed does not equal 50x productivity. Reorganizing
the workflow is required for increased productivity with anything
complex.
Pies de Arcilla
It's not even that difficult. You just have to know when and where
someone is disposing of a lot of chairs on another floor in the
building and go and tell all your co-workers "hey, free chairs" before
they go in the dumpster.
But what I meant was, given a random point in time, it will probably
be more than four hours before I encounter an opportunity.
$Zero
> On Dec 14, 11:08 am, "$Zero" <zeroi...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > crank along at one fiftieth of your productive capacity to save the
> > $1,000 for some "other" purpose?
>
> > i think not.
>
> That's kind of funny, actually, because I was forced to "upgrade" my
> computer at work, since the old one was out of warranty.
>
> The new one is probably faster, but since I hardly do anything but
> connect to servers, it really doesn't help me if it _were_ 50 times
> faster.
yeah, well, i'm not talking about being 50 times faster under the
hood.
i'm talking about 50 times faster in _real_ life.
> And I spent more than a day setting the new one up.
ain't that a bitch.
> If it was costing me for the hardware and setup time, I would never
> have bothered.
yet another executive decision that only you can make.
> Also, 50x computer speed does not equal 50x productivity.
like hell it doesn't.
> Reorganizing the workflow is required for increased productivity
> with anything complex.
when you're constantly stuck in data flow traffic jams (and crashes,
and whatnot) because of a shitty computer, the first step in
"reorganizing the workflow" is to fork over $1,000 bucks for a new box
and throw the crapped-up one out the window to the sidewalk far below.
preferably capturing the whole event from three camera angles.
-$Zero...
it's a long story. but the bottom line is,
i've got yet another shitty office chair.
it fails at one of its major tasks. to be a
pleasant and comfortable place to sit and work.
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.writing/msg/cd2f25405cd7db59
Alan Hope
>On Dec 14, 12:52 pm, Bill Penrose <dangerousb...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Dec 14, 7:20 am, Pies de Arcilla <dearci...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > But also, you're missing something about time value. Your chair only
>> > costs about four hours of my wage. And it's true that I probably
>> > couldn't find a free chair in four hours.
>> 1. Scout a series of professional offices.
>> 2. Borrow a set of blue coveralls, preferably with a name (not yours)
>> on the chest.
>> 3. Wait until noon, when only the receptionist is there.
>> 4. Carry a clipboard, and go in, "Hi, I'm Jerry (or whatever).
>> Where's the chair I'm supposed to pick up?"
>> 5. When the receptionist is mystified, pretend to spot the chair and
>> say, "Oh, that's the Aileron.(or whatever brand)."
>> 6. Wheel it out.
>> 7. Enjoy.
>It's not even that difficult.
No, it's a lot more difficult that that. You seriously think in this
day and age you can "scout a series of professional offices" without
someone calling Homeland Security?
Besides, I'm sure receptionists have all seen the same episodes of The
A Team that Penrose has.
>You just have to know when and where
>someone is disposing of a lot of chairs on another floor in the
>building and go and tell all your co-workers "hey, free chairs" before
>they go in the dumpster.
>But what I meant was, given a random point in time, it will probably
>be more than four hours before I encounter an opportunity.
Pies de Arcilla
> No, it's a lot more difficult that that. You seriously think in this
> day and age you can "scout a series of professional offices" without
> someone calling Homeland Security?
Once you already have access to a "secure" building, things are much
easier.
Pies de Arcilla
> when you're constantly stuck in data flow traffic jams (and crashes,
> and whatnot) because of a shitty computer, the first step in
> "reorganizing the workflow" is to fork over $1,000 bucks for a new box
> and throw the crapped-up one out the window to the sidewalk far below.
>
> preferably capturing the whole event from three camera angles.
A computer is not an investment for me, nor a status symbol, nor an
exciting toy anymore. I used to lust after the latest thing like I do
with new cars, but not now. I don't see improvements, I see planned
obsolescence.
It's an essential appliance, but all I want from it is to be cheap and
reliable.
I bought a thinkpad around '03, and it still was perfectly adequate
performance-wise. The problem was that it finally broke, because they
don't make computers to last more than 5 years any more.
So I got a new laptop for about $500 maybe a year ago. But I wouldn't
have done so if I wasn't forced, because there simply is not any
advantage for me any more in terms of performance or features to
upgrade.
Bill Penrose
> Pies de Arcilla goes:
>
>
>
> >On Dec 14, 12:52 pm, Bill Penrose <dangerousb...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> On Dec 14, 7:20 am, Pies de Arcilla <dearci...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> > But also, you're missing something about time value. Your chair only
> >> > costs about four hours of my wage. And it's true that I probably
> >> > couldn't find a free chair in four hours.
> >> 1. Scout a series of professional offices.
> >> 2. Borrow a set of blue coveralls, preferably with a name (not yours)
> >> on the chest.
> >> 3. Wait until noon, when only the receptionist is there.
> >> 4. Carry a clipboard, and go in, "Hi, I'm Jerry (or whatever).
> >> Where's the chair I'm supposed to pick up?"
> >> 5. When the receptionist is mystified, pretend to spot the chair and
> >> say, "Oh, that's the Aileron.(or whatever brand)."
> >> 6. Wheel it out.
> >> 7. Enjoy.
> >It's not even that difficult.
>
> No, it's a lot more difficult that that. You seriously think in this
> day and age you can "scout a series of professional offices" without
> someone calling Homeland Security?
>
> Besides, I'm sure receptionists have all seen the same episodes of The
> A Team that Penrose has.
Overalls and a clipboard will get you in anywhere.
DB