Need a new chair – all these choices

I’m really in need of a new chair. I’ve been slaving away online and studying the latest technology, all the while sitting on a chair that is using technology reminiscent of the dark ages. Thing is can’t justify spending a thousand dollars on a new home office chair, but I do need something that is made to be comfortable for 10 hours or more. Over the years i have gone through many chairs. I’ve had cheap chairs from department stores that lasted a year or so before a wheel or something would break. I’ve also had hand-me down chairs from nice executives, solid construction and strong steel, with fine leather. Those actually were the least comfortable for long term use, after a few hours my legs would go numb just using the computer. at one time I found a place in town that was selling used steelcase chairs and those were great. I used those for a few years before the fabric became tattered and the padding in the seat just wasn’t the same as it could be.

The past two years I have moved so much I have been using temporary hand me down chairs at the home office, and now I spend so much time working at home the chair situation has gotten really bad. I saw a cool looking chair at best buy recently, it seemed to have many of the features that I like in a good chair, but it was on some kind of rack and not accessible to sit in and really check it out. So I came home and did some looking online, and google has brought me so many choices I just don’t know what to do. Ultimately I would like to try all of these chairs out in person, but I doubt there is any place in town that has a majority of these chairs I am interested in.

So here are a few of the chairs I am considering, if you have any experience with any of these in your home or office please chime in with how satisfied or unsatisfied are / were with any of these:

Ak Designs Octane – This one looks futuristic, it caught my eye at Best Buy, i had no idea it was being billed as n office / gaming chair. Sounds cool, but how comfortable is the padding?

True Seating – Vinyl Executive Chair – Titanium Silver/Gray – This is much more affordable, it looks cool, says it has “Waterfall seat design fosters leg circulation”

This Iron Horse chair looks awesome, but when a place has “request a quote” in lieu of prices for a chair, I have to assume it’s in the “if you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it” category. It does feature “Anatomically contoured foam cushions engineered for hours of seated comfort.” which sounds and looks) awesome.

This Ergocraft Phantom Deluxe Control Chair looks like it would be very soft and comfortable, it actually looks like it would be softer than my bed, at more than $400, I would probably buy a new bed first though.

I found this Executive Black Leather High Back Swivel Computer Chair at Amzaon.com it looks great, sounds great, but I can’t tell if it has adjustable arms or not, it kind of looks like it, but I’m not sure. It does look very nice for a chair under $150.

Now this chair (Office Star Black Leather Managers Chair with Platinum Finish Base and Height Adjustable Arms) looks stylish and comfortable, it has adjustable arms, but it’s around $350 – hmm. A new chair, a new bed. Decisions decisions.

Then I find this one, the Multi Function Super Ergonomic Task Chair, it seems to have lots of adjustment options, which is great, the back looks like it may stick out a bit more than I prefer, but that may be helpful for leaning up on the keyboard and typing. i like to lean back a lot when working however, and a back that sticks out a lot may make that more difficult. At $180 the price is good for a very adjustable chair though.

Then I see this chair, the Office Star Super Ergonomic Task Chair, it may be the best of what all the other chairs have, at a price that is decent. For $230 it boasts:

# Thick Padded Seat and Back with Built-in Lumbar Support
# Pneumatic Seat Height Adjustment
# Ratchet Back Height Adjustment
# Multi Function Control
# Height and Width Adjustable Arms with PU Pads
# Heavy Duty Nylon Base with Dual Wheel Casters

I really have no idea what a ratchet back adjustment is, but is sounds hi tech, especially compared to the wooden chair I am using right now.

All in all I like the technology of having adjustable arm rests.

I must have soft padded arm rests, hard plastic or hard rubber will not due.

A good soft padding, especially in the area that the hamstrings rest on. With most of the chairs I have used in and out of the office I find that I put a lot of pressure on that area when typing and mousing around, sometimes my legs go numb, and when that happens I know that the poor circulation must be bad for my legs and it keeps my feet cold, so I am trying to avoid that like the plague. I do remember seeing some kind of pulsing air cushion invention somewhere online , this may make a cheaply padded chair workable, but I think it was around $100, so if I have o make due with less comfortable padding for the legs, then t he chair would have to be considerable cheaper.

Cisco Network Equipment on a Budget

We are about to take on our own internet server and beefing up the company intranet, I remembered that Candice use to work at one of the big computer manufacturer / retailers and she went from retail level computer sales to corporate accounts. I was amazed when I heard how much these big companies spend on networking equipment. Routers costing more than $1,000 each and many companies needing dozens of those, along with multiple servers, switches and more. She is no longer working with this big manufacturer and now my company is finally in a position to consider getting our own servers online and the network equipment to handle lots of internet and intranet traffic.

So I called Candice and she recommended looking into used cisco equipment. She said that I could probably get the same warranty and save big money by going for used network equipment, and often times the places that offer the used or refurbished equipment are getting pretty new pieces that are being sold to them for next to nothing from big companies that have just gone out of business. I know that Cisco makes industrial strength equipment that is meant to take the stress of constant use, so that’s exactly what I am recommending to Derrick.

More virtual worlds being developed for kids

It seems like second life had a bunch of press for a while and then kind of faded in the media, yet there were / are tons of people that are exploring it everyday. This week I have seen two more virtual worlds in the news, and I am surprised that there will be so much focus on making them kid friendly.

From the wired campus blog:

Indiana U. Receives Grant for Development of Virtual World for Children

The Indiana University School of Education has received a three-year, $1.8-million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to expand the virtual world Quest Atlantis, which is designed to help foster creativity, social responsibility, and compassion in children ages 9 through 12.

Watch Sasha Barab, the university director of the Center for Research on Learning and Technology, discuss Quest Atlantis.-Andrea L. Foster

Looks like virtual worlds will continue to be developed, I wonder how much better they can get? It seems the the VR worlds I’ve explored are already very good, perhaps these initiatives will not be as much about making new VR or 3d technology, but about creating community. I wonder which VR worlds will end up with the most regular users.

and From Techcrunch:

EA-Land is the new, free Sims Online (TSO). The 12 different cities from TSO are being moved to EA-Land and the game area is being expanded to be “100 times bigger than the previous size of any city.” Existing TSO users will be able to purchase land in EA-Land before the new (reincarnated) world is open to the public with paying TSO users becoming “EA-Land subscribers” in a similar fashion to the way Linden Lab charges for land in Second Life.

Users of EA-Land will have the ability to upload custom content and (more importantly) buy these customizations from other players. Sounding a lot like Second Life? It gets better:

There is one significant difference though to Second Life: EA-Land won’t become the wild west as EA will be “approving all of the content [so] this user content is safe to be viewed by everyone.”

I remember when there were several social networks trying to coral the most users, and it seemed for a while that myspace had won the most people, but wasn’t necessarily the best social network software running. I would have bet that tagworld or me.com would have prevailed in that arena since the user interfaces seems better to me. There were many things that shaped myspace as a popular destination for the majority of users, and I believe a large part of that was myspace staying out of what people were putting on their pages (and by extension their 2d virtual world). With EA pushing to keep it rated E for everyone, I hope that take two will make an adult version and perhaps base it on Grand Theft Auto where it is not for everyone, so me and my friends can have a VR world that is not kid friendly, and therefor more fun to run around in.

Remote PC Access via the net with meeting and remote storage access

I was talking to Crystal the other day about remote PC access, telling her that I could access her PC from here and fix the problem she was having with her photo editing software. She loved the idea, and then got a little freaked out by the fact that I could control her PC from my place. Once I explained that she would have to send me a request to do it, and that request would have a time limit set for the amount that I could access her computer over the internet, she calmed down and embraced the idea. After the first session of her watching me control her pointer on screen from w remote location she decided she wanted to be able to do this as well, accessing her computer at from work.

This apparently has saved her a ton of time, now instead of editing 100 photos not knowing which ones she is going to need for presentations the next day, she simply downloads a list of thumbnails to her USB drive, then she can show the group the thumbnails, and when it is decided which ones to touch up and use in projects, she uses remote access to pull the full sized images up from her home PC while at work.

Crystal has been using Remote Access and has been raving about the ability to control and use her home computer from work, I’ve heard that they are considering a small business account to allow everyone int he group to do the reverse and access the work computers from home as well. She is basically using her home computer for remote storage, and I found that remote PC has a neat remote storage program that comes with each account. Danny could be using this as a way to have backup music available for his DJs. I’m sure there are other people who would use this remote storage in other ways as well. It amazes me that so many people are not familiar with the remote control abilities that are available with today’s fast access internet services.

The Primitive Radio GODS

Found one of my favorite songs of all time on You Tube the other day and i am going to book mark the page here on my blog so i can always find it and do you can enjoy it as well. The song is by The Primitive Radio Gods and is named “Phone Booth” the song helps me pass by time when i am doing repetitive work behind the computer. i know all the words to it so I am able to sing along with it and it is not so loud that I have to turn down the bass to wake my family while they are a sleep. if you have never heard this song before or seen the music video then click over and listen or watch.