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The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One

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Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One

#141
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on your recommendation, I think I may have to try a gaming mouse. However, the model you mentioned is currently listed as $71.99 on Amazon. Were you thinking of a different model, or have prices just dropped since you bought it?

Ah yes, it's the same. I guess the prices have dropped, it was bought almost two years ago. By the way, gaming mouse usually requires a good mouse pad in order to have the effect. Razer has a good selection, maybe others as well.

Also we have VAT ;)

Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't like private offices. It just seems like a separation between myself and the rest of the team. I actually like open seating arrangements. When I need some serious concentration and can tolerate no distractions, a solid pair of noise-canceling headphones does the trick.

For me, the sound isn't the problem. It's all the movement in the corner of my vision that distracts me. No amount of noise cancelling head phones will help that. An office on the other hand means that no coworkers can distract me, unless it's intentional

Absolutely this. I must be one of the few who cannot stand movement in my line-of-sight, but it breaks my concentration every time. I share an office with one other person and I resort to positioning my head behind my double monitors so that he's out of my field of vision. The same goes for sound actually. I just cannot filter out extraneous signals. I'm fine with "white noise" though, more than most even. I wonder if this is a recognized condition.

Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One

#143
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try the Herman Miller Mirra, it's a lower chair in their line but the back structure makes it far superior to the Aeron.

I've read that the plastic chair back feels good at first, but gets uncomfortable. I seem to recall something about H.M. listing it as rated for three hours (?), making it a "task" chair rather than a "work" chair (if I understand the nomenclature). What's your experience been with it?

I have been using a Mirra fulltime for more than 2 years. When my former employer was getting new offices and furniture, I piggybacked on their chair order so I could get a discount on two chairs for the home office.

I now work from home and think it was one of the best investments I've made in myself. The chair is very comfortable and they adjust very well for tall or very short people (my wife).

Rating: Would buy again

Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read that the plastic chair back feels good at first, but gets uncomfortable. I seem to recall something about H.M. listing it as rated for three hours (?), making it a "task" chair rather than a "work" chair (if I understand the nomenclature). What's your experience been with it?

I have been using a Mirra fulltime for more than 2 years. When my former employer was getting new offices and furniture, I piggybacked on their chair order so I could get a discount on two chairs for the home office. I now work from home and think it was one of the best investments I've made in myself. The chair is very comfortable and they adjust very well for tall or very short people (my wife). Rating: Would buy a…

Thanks for that.

Can you compare it to any other chairs? Most of us (myself included, with the Aeron) love their first ergo-chair, making it hard to compare them. :-)

Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One

#145
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sitting for a very long time is bad for you. It causes increased chance of death, causes your back to hurt, makes you fatter, and lets your energy level go down after hours of doing it. It's not so much the "coding" part as the "sitting at a desk for 10+ hours a day" part that makes standing desks so attractive to programmers. http://pressroom.cancer.org/index.php?s=43&item=257 http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/article…

Do people really sit for 10 hours? I can't stop myself from getting up to walk around every half hour or so.

You can sit for 10+ hours and still walk around a bit. It's a longer day, mind you, but it works. I'm constantly pacing on the phone for instance.

Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One

#146
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on what you are used to - 62F is 16.6C which seems like a nice warm summers day here (it is currently 13C and not very nice at at all). We haven't used the heating at home since May or so and probably won't until September/October.

heating? when I started working in IT the computers would heat up the room

"When you started working in IT"? They STILL heat up rooms.

Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One

#148

How many dev shops still give everyone workstations? Our company is entirely on laptops and I don't know a single person here that wants a workstation.

i dont want a laptop because it means i have to take it home. nope. i would happily accept a nice workstation.

Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One

#149
post #137

Interesting that the mouse is considered as something as "up to $70". After you get used to high-dpi gaming mouse you can't even work properly with Just like moving to SSD felt like a revolution, for me moving up to a gaming grade mouse has been.. irreplaceable. The precision and speed for any mouse-oriented task saves quite some time and especially gives a great feeling of having better contact with the screen. High…

I use an Evoluent Vertical Mouse, which is about $85. I will never go back to normal wrist-twist mice.

It's also good to have a thin and large mouse pad, like the SteelSeries QcK.

Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One

#150
post #137

Interesting that the mouse is considered as something as "up to $70". After you get used to high-dpi gaming mouse you can't even work properly with Just like moving to SSD felt like a revolution, for me moving up to a gaming grade mouse has been.. irreplaceable. The precision and speed for any mouse-oriented task saves quite some time and especially gives a great feeling of having better contact with the screen. High…

I currently use the Logitech MX518... I've had one for so long that the paint has started to wear off it. Still works perfectly though.
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