Live from Austin!

Today I spent three hours tidying my desk and going through paperwork. This included going through the entire filing cabinet, removing obsolete documents. Then I shredded old information until the shredder literally burned out, emitting an unpleasant melting plastic smell. Ah well, I’d been thinking of getting a better shredder anyway, preferably one that can shred CDs.

Now I’ve traveled to the coffee house with rothko and fixed their Internet.

I was lucky enough to get on the beta list for LittleBigPlanet for PS3. I’m probably not meant to reveal too much about it, but I will say that right from the opening credits, it is utterly delightful. The kind of cute yet rich game that I would expect Nintendo to come up with. It’s basically an old-school platformer, with state of the art 3D graphics used to depict a 2D world made up of photorealistic real-world materials. Level editing tools are built in, and you’re encouraged to share your created levels with the community.

The tools seem as though they will allow people to create a wide variety of worlds. You can construct backdrops and objects from various materials (wood, polystyrene, rock, padded fabric); add various canned objects that you collect by playing the game; decorate with paint and stickers; and make everything come alive with switches, generators, string, motors, and so on. The narrator for the tutorials is Stephen Fry, some of the music is pulled straight from cult BBC show "Vision On", and there’s a Green Submarine that bears a remarkable resemblance to a famous submarine of another color. If it were any more up my alley I’d have to move it aside to wheel the trash bin out.

I’m wondering if I can build a LittleBigPlanet that resembles my desk…

I got my desk today. I’m starting to hate ready-to-assemble furniture, but really, who can afford any other kind? Plus, my desk is from Anthro, who are the Rolls-Royce of RTA.

I think the first time I saw an Anthro desk was in MacWorld Expo Boston back in 1997. It was a split-surface desk, with the Mac on the back surface, slightly higher than the front keyboard and mouse area. The guy demonstrating the desk pulled a small lever under the front surface, and lifted it higher with one hand. He started to show me the tilt control too, but I was already convinced.

The desk surfaces are extra-thick particleboard with the an industrial-grade wipe-clean coating. The legs are wide steel tubes, and the other metal parts are laser-cut steel. The carts move on rubber-wheeled castors, so as not to scratch the floor–no corner-cutting here. Their primary market seems to be the world of big business, where things like radiology workstations and industrial benches are expected to be able to stand up to years of abuse. The Anthro people like to demonstrate the strength of the furniture by having three people stand on a small computer cart without breaking it. Everything is made in Oregon, shipped in recyclable brown cardboard with all the necessary tools, and has a lifetime warranty. There’s just one snag: it’s kinda expensive.

I know that in business $800 for a desk is not a big deal, but it’s still about 4× what I’m used to paying. That’s for the smallest Adjusta cart; to be fair, the entry level cart without the fancy height adjust lever comes in at $300. But I really wanted that lever.

And then, a miracle happened. I’d been watching the special offers at the Anthro web site for a few weeks, when they announced an April Fool’s Day Special: 35% off almost anything.

So I’m writing this to say: if you’ve always lusted after a really ergonomic desk, go order an Anthro now before the prices go back up on the 30th.

Then when your credit card has recovered, you can order the extras–like the CPU rack and the industrial-grade coffee cup holder.