Using Tools that Fit

  • At work my setup is good. I've got 2 large monitors (both 27"), a foot stool. My desktop has 2, 512 GB SSD drives, for which I'm thankful. And I have both headsets and earbuds. (I've got to have them because for whatever reason, they've lump developers in with help desk personnel, so there is a lot of phone conversations. Very distracting and counter productive.) I wish I had one of those desks that I could make into a standing desk, but I don't. Nor am I likely ever to get one.

    At home its different. I've got a small house. In fact, too small. I've no office nor corner to put anything. So my computer setup is in the living room. There's no place else to put anything. One 20" monitor, because that's all the room I have. I'm especially sensitive to only having 1 monitor. I have to print out a lot of source code, SQL queries, etc., because I don't have the convenience of having a second monitor to put that onto while referring back to it. The sound system is superb, but I shouldn't have gotten it. In fact, it was stupid that I did. I've got a nice sub-woofer and 4 satellite speakers, which are all bunched up in front of me. Its meant for a gaming situation  to be scattered around me, but I don't have the room. I keep them in hopes that maybe I'll have the room some day.

    Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.

  • Heh... "I'm workin' for a livin' so I'm takin' what they're givin'". 🙂 Except for the chair... I stole a good one from a conference room when the company moved to a different building and I'm not giving it back.  I can tolerate a whole lot in a comfortable chair.

    --Jeff Moden


    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

    Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.


    Helpful Links:
    How to post code problems
    How to Post Performance Problems
    Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

  • Rod,
    if you have an HDMI port on your computer, send the signal to your TV.  Just display some stuff on your computer screen and some on the TV. That's what I do... and I don't have big monitors at home.

  • pietlinden - Thursday, September 7, 2017 8:05 PM

    Rod,
    if you have an HDMI port on your computer, send the signal to your TV.  Just display some stuff on your computer screen and some on the TV. That's what I do... and I don't have big monitors at home.

    That may work, although the distance between my PC and the TV is 15 ft. Will make it kind of hard to see the text, even on the TV. But I can give it a try.

    Rod

  • The link to the key switch sampler brings me to a page that has this on it:

    Redirect Notice

    Rod

  • From a hardware perspective as long as I have reasonable processing power on my laptop(retail mine is less $400 and works fine i'm also sure my company got some kind of bulk rate on them) my most important productivity tool is my screen space.  Currently I have my laptop screen and 2 22'' monitors at work, i used to actually use all three but my current cube set up doesn't allow it :angry: .  Other than that there's very little difference between a $20 keyboard/mouse and a $150 keyboard and mouse which is really the only other hardware I actually have attached.  For work I certainly also don't need a workstation in the thousands of dollars since I'm not doing massive compiles locally or hosting any data locally or rendering or anything that requires massive local processing power.

    Oh I do have a fancy blue tooth wireless headset, that is invaluable if you spend long periods of time on the phone and intend to do anything else but get a sore neck.

  • I'm looking forward to having a couple/three large monitors at home (not so much at work... people shouldn't see what I'm doing).  I'll work on one in the middle and set the other two to bright white so I can get a suntan while I'm working. 😉

    --Jeff Moden


    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

    Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.


    Helpful Links:
    How to post code problems
    How to Post Performance Problems
    Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

  • I was just re-reading the replies and enjoying the diversity of perspectives. The comment on the foot stool was one that stood out - I use one at home, but also have a foot support so I can sit with my legs elevated (I like to slouch I guess!). Jeff, you made me smile about the suntan,there's no doubt 3 big monitors on max brightness is a bit much, I always turn mine down to something livable. I've never loved portrait mode, but haven't tried it with larger monitors and I should.

  • Andy Warren - Friday, September 8, 2017 3:56 PM

    I was just re-reading the replies and enjoying the diversity of perspectives. The comment on the foot stool was one that stood out - I use one at home, but also have a foot support so I can sit with my legs elevated (I like to slouch I guess!). Jeff, you made me smile about the suntan,there's no doubt 3 big monitors on max brightness is a bit much, I always turn mine down to something livable. I've never loved portrait mode, but haven't tried it with larger monitors and I should.

    I have to admit that there are times I'd kill for a portrait screen.  It would actually get used quite often because of Word documents, which are comparatively narrow compared to the likes of SSMS and other code windows.

    --Jeff Moden


    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

    Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.


    Helpful Links:
    How to post code problems
    How to Post Performance Problems
    Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

  • I am like you.  I like having what it want to work with. I have for years brought my own keyboard, mouse, and often monitor(s) to the office.
    It is important to me to keep the same feel of things, it is about comfort and consistency for me.

  • If I'm going to be using the same set of tools day in and day out, I want the "best" that I can comfortably afford... "Best" doesn't necessarily mean most expensive, it simply means the best for me and the way I work.  
    That not only applies to hardware but software too. If I went to work for a company that didn't provide SQL Prompt, I'd come out of pocket for it myself w/o thinking twice about it.

    The only down side... My skin crawls when I have use someone else's workstation and I'm not sure I could complete a simple select statement w/o SQL Prompt at this point.

  • I totally bought a badass loud mechanical keyboard. Unboxing it at work, everyone got crazy jealous. 

    I would do it again.

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