skater asks:

[W]hat chair should i get cmyr?  $500 or less preferably.

I’m going to go ahead and assume (based in part on some extraneous information) that you’re asking not about a general sitting-object, but rather about what is colloquially called an “office chair”, and which has come to be called (mostly by marketers) “task seating.” Since Aeron became a part of the general lexicon in the 90’s, and the importance of ergonomic workplaces became a point of general focus, task seating has experienced a bit of a boom. I like reading design and architecture magazines, and an impressive % of advertising space in those magazines is devoted to very pretty looking office chairs, in a variety of forms and price brackets.

Freedom from what, exactly?

That said, it’s something of a truism with a chair you’re going to be sitting in for much of your day that one size doesn’t fit all. I own a Humanscale Freedom, which I purchased awhile ago, and which I’ve eventually come to decide isn’t necessarily perfect for me. It is generally still considered the “best” task chair, but that doesn’t mean very much if it doesn’t fit into your work habits and work space. My problem with the freedom is mostly that it doesn’t get along with my desk; ideally when seated your feet will rest flat on the floor with your knees bent 90º, and with your shoulders positioned naturally and your elbows bent at 90º, your hands will be at the keyboard. A good chair will certainly help you achieve this, but if your desk is too high or your keyboard tray is too low, your body will still be uncomfortable and you risk repetitive stress injuries. With that in mind, picking a chair is really something that each individual should do on their own. I can give some general suggestions, such as “avoid ikea,” but it would be irresponsible of me to suggest any specific product. What I can suggest is a process; do a quick google for office furniture stores in your neighbourhood, and look around until you find a place that seems to focus heavily on seating; there’s a few of these in every major city. Drop by one afternoon, and test out a variety of options, and see what’s comfortable. At many places you may even have the option of taking a chair home for a week, to see how it fits into your routine, and if that’s an option it might well be worth it. Only when you’re comfortable that a chair is suited to your body and habits should you think about buying it. 

The HAG Capisco

Ergonomics is something I think about a good deal, as I’ve developed a few minor chronic injuries over the years from a combination of playing lots of soccer and having bad posture. I visited an architect friend of mine a few months ago, and in his office was a really neat chair made by a company called HAG. This chair was really interesting to me because it was designed in such a way as to allow the user to turn around and sit on it backwards comfortably, and to generally change position frequently, which is something I do quite a bit anyway. The next thing I’m personally hoping to do with my office is redesign my desktop space to be more accommodating (and more agreeable with my Freedom) but I’m very interested in ultimately having a few different seating options, from a good chair to something like the HAG to perhaps even one of those big rubber balls that they use in physiotherapy. A few years ago I remember reading an article in the New Yorker about some ergonomics researcher, discussing the ways in which our bodies were built to be used, and though I don’t remember tons I am stuck with one particular quotation: asked what the healthiest posture for a human body, the researcher said something to the effect that, “the best body position is the next one.” which he explained meant that the human body wasn’t designed to stay in one place or position for very long, and that it’s good to regularly change your posture. This rings true with my experience, at least, and it’s something I keep in mind when working.

Scott asks:

I would like the sickest toaster on the market today.  Maybe even something that hasn’t hit the market yet that I could be the first person to get…say a toaster with a built in rollercoaster or something wild and awesome.  Anyway, I found one that can do the normal toastery stuff but only has two slots.  I’d much prefer 4.  Also the one I found has a place that can cook an egg into a little patty and a place that heats up meat so I can make breakfast sandwiches.  Also a cancel button is needed so I don’t have to force up the lever if I want to exit my cooking situation in a hurry.

Dualit 4-Slice

Toasters probably don’t get enough respect: they receive near-daily use in many people’s lives, but they don’t seem to consume too much collective mental energy. My own toaster is crap, but I’ve only very casually considered replacing it, and haven’t looked into the problem too closely. Toasters are fundamentally utility-objects; the ideal toaster, first and foremost, will consistently make good toast. Rollercoaster-toasters are fun at first, but generally just leave you with a crumb-filled kitchen and increased insurance premiums. Similarly I wouldn’t use my omelet pan to make eggos, nor my barbeque to make eggs, and the idea of a toaster that claims to make its own meat is sort of unsettling. 

Delonghi Metropolis

In my brief little internet-look-around, I came across this great article on slate that offers a good comparison of quite a few of the toasters out there, including what I would’ve initially suggested: the Dualit 4-Slice, which has long been the cost-be-damned toaster of choice. After taking a look at that article though I’m starting to suspect that my next toaster may be a delonghi. They’re a little obscure, attractively styled, and—apparently, importantly—make really great toast.

Andreas asks:

I want a small portable netbook,  yet big enough to play 4 tiled windows of poker. I also want to play some “less then avg requirements” pc-games, and some nes emulators. Preferably crashfree aswell, and no vista (it sucks).

(more…)

This project, like way too many things in my life, began as a joke. Unlike most jokes, I seem to have taken it seriously long enough to act on it. Oh well. Having already registered the domain name and installed/prettified wordpress, it would be stupid to think better of myself now. 

Some explanation

I often find myself asked, by my (real-life, carbon-based) friends, purchase-related questions; in immediate memory these range from  ’where should I buy nice sheets’ (julia) to ‘where can I get a good non-stick omelet pan’ (marc) to ‘where should I buy jeans’ (luke). That this is the case seems even weirder in hind-sight then it did at the time (at the time actually it didn’t seem weird at all, which suggests the weirdness is probably a result of the aggregation of requests then from any innate weirdness of any particular request—with the exception of julia’s; I mean honestly, sheets?—but to which I did actually happen to have the answer, so…) but is probably due to a few simple factors. Firstly, I have a strange condition which prevents me, when asked a question, from declining to provide an answer, regardless as to whether or not the topic is something of which I have any particular understanding or insight; secondly, I have a fascination with material things, extending beyond any particular desire for particular things (I would not, for instance, describe myself as being particularly materialistic; I don’t buy things very often, and I don’t often lust after objects in the way some friends of mine do)  to become a more general fascination with the way objects are represented and assigned meaning in our society, and ultimately with the way they end up taking on mean and cultural value on their own.

All this really means, ultimately, is that when I decide that there’s something I would like (a stereo, say) I spend more time then do most people figuring out exactly what is the best object for me—I am not, generally speaking, in the “run out to Best Buy” set.

This website has two related goals: to extend the fruits of my many wasted hours beyond my small group of friends, and to provide me with a venue (and a source of inspiration) for one of my few long-lasting obsessions.