I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

Not today — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 18:07:31 GMT

I'm going to get a T-shirt made reading "I beat Raymond Chen." Even if the only thing I ever beat him at is getting my crap down to one moving box full.

Nah. I'm better looking as well!

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

Roberto Iza Valdes — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 18:07:41 GMT

Good for you. It's hard to beat simplicity.
It is so relaxing.
Best wishes,
Roberto Iza Valdes

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

Adam Gates — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 18:08:39 GMT

WHITEBOARD HOTFIX:
I know you have a digital camera.
Take a picture of the white board and file it away.
Now you can again Love thine whiteboard.

To lazy to take a picture everytime? Setup a webcam to look at the whiteboard and take a picture once an hour.

Office Layout Service pack:
Wait till after hours and raid the lobby! Grab that sofa you always wanted in your office.

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

Gabe — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 18:40:26 GMT

Can't you get rid of your PED by just rolling it out into the hallway? Surely somebody will come by and take it. If not, then at least it won't be taking up space in your office.

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

Phill — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 18:56:42 GMT

What works really well with whiteboards is a simple digital camera and a tool like Pixid's http://www.pixid.com/ Whiteboard photo, now all your whiteboard diagrams can be imported.

Out of curiosity, does everyone get the same chair or is Steve Ballmer now issued with padded, non-breakable models?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/05/chair_chucking/

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

SD — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 19:00:32 GMT

we use these:

"http://www.3m.com/us/office/postit/products/prod_ew.jhtml"

"http://www.electroboard.com.au/products/detail.asp?ID=263"

movin'

Sam — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 19:04:29 GMT

>One of my former hallway neighbors was able to fit his entire office in one box. Now that's simplification.

Simplification? I'd say it was a huge box.

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

oldnewthing — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 19:06:14 GMT

Leaving a ped out in the hallway is a fire code violation.

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

John C. Kirk — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 19:08:36 GMT

At my last company we had a couple of digital cameras that were bought specifically for whiteboards; after any meeting, we'd take photos of the boards and then erase them. Mind you, that was in a fairly large meeting room, so I don't know how well it would work in a one-person office (i.e. whether you could stand far enough back). I quite like the idea of digital whiteboards, but I've never used one (or seen one in action), so I don't know how well they work in practice, or how cost-effective they are.

I certainly agree with you about the "de-cluttering" idea, which is something I'm trying to do at home (fighting my natural packrat tendencies). I read somewhere that you should play VHS tapes at least once a year (or just fast forward through them) to stop the tape from getting slack inside, or something like that. That then made me think that if I'm not watching the tapes that often then I probably don't need to keep them, so off to the charity shop they go. (I've found Ebay to be pretty pointless for selling small items like this, since it takes me several hours of hassle to earn about 2 quid.)

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

michaelt — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 19:47:26 GMT

What's a ped?

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

bramster — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 19:51:54 GMT

Having acquired a new Digital Camera, my previous Sony Mavica (too big to carry around on bike trips, anyhow), now serves as the White Board recorder around here.

I think I formatted a few floppies for it a couple of weeks ago ;)

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

Dave — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 20:02:21 GMT

You could get a SMART Board:
http://www.smarttech.com/

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

oldnewthing — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 20:13:28 GMT

Um, a SMART Board costs several thousand dollars. A roll of paper and a picture frame at IKEA costs $30.

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

Mike Dunn — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 20:25:19 GMT

According to Larry, a PED is "sort of a mobile filing cabinet"

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

James Schend — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 20:33:21 GMT

What's a "ped" in this context? I'm assuming it's not a pedestrian... and Google's turning up nothing useful. (Unless you have the New Mexico Public Education Department in your office...)

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

Mike — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 20:54:53 GMT

A ped is the standard MS issue one-and-a-half drawer filling cabinet on wheels.

A trick I discovered for stuff seemingly embedded in the white board is just to draw over it again and erase immediately. Both the new stuff and the old stuff comes right off.

I can fit my office into two boxes and my ped. That includes all the books but not the boombox.

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

spork — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 21:09:15 GMT

While you are taking digital photos of your whiteboard, perhaps you could take a few of the rest of your office. I'd like to see it, since what you describe is the antioffice, w.r.t. mine.

Is "ped" an acronym, or the manufacturer's name? For a moment I thought peds might be Texas-sized Pez dispensers, but that would be an odd employee perq...

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

Miles Archer — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 21:14:51 GMT

At my old company, I invented an automatic whiteboard digitizer. We bought a cheap digital camera and attached it to the white board. When it doubt, take a picture. Your co-worker needs a copy, email the picture.

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

oldnewthing — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 21:17:31 GMT

"ped" is short for "mobile pedestal filing cabinet" - that should be enough for people to find pictures

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

Mike Weiss — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 22:37:49 GMT

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

Antoine de Saint-Exupery
French writer (1900 - 1944)

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

dbr — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 23:55:33 GMT

To tie a few things together, I have that quote by de Saint-Exupery on my "quotes" whiteboard, in the original French: "La perfection est atteinte non quand il ne reste rien à ajouter, mais quand il ne reste rien à enlever." (I also have some whiteboard cleaner that I snagged when a nearby office was vacated, in case I ever want to remove it.)

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

another mike — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 00:05:08 GMT

Mike's trick for removing writing which is seemingly embedded in the white board (writing over it and then immediately erasing it) also works well for removing permanent pen markings from a white board.

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

Rick C — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 00:42:00 GMT

One easy way to clean old dry-erase marker off whiteboards is to get the spray stuff specifically made for cleaning whiteboards.

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

dave — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 01:13:49 GMT

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

Yes, but I'm much more interested in that concept being applied to software, rather than office furnishings.

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

LarryOsterman — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 01:15:43 GMT

The stuff we have here at Microsoft for removing dry-erase marker stuff changes the chemistry of the whiteboard such that every subsequent write is permanent.

I don't ever touch the stuff.

My wife swears by whiteboard polish, fwiw.

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

Scott Tringali — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 04:45:34 GMT

Once you start using that whiteboard-specific stuff, then the board gets addicted to it. After a while, the erasers will fail to work, and the only way to erase anything is to spray it.

It's a conspiracy to sell new whiteboards, of course.

If you never use it, you'll never need it.

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

mhotas — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 05:34:33 GMT

I like the roll of paper idea, especially since my workplace does not allow cameras.

Raymond, what types of diagrams do you find most effective?

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

Cooney — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 06:26:00 GMT

Dear God, I'm old!

Thanks, Raymond.

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

James Moore — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 19:02:17 GMT

I was at the office one day and the colleague who sat next to me had lost something. I said you can look inside my drawers if you like. Some of the employees from the US found that amusing. Then I realised why they use the term pedestal instead.

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

Peeyush Singh — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 22:21:25 GMT

All I need is my desktop and my TabletPC. Screw everything else. The current set up in my SOHO is exactly that. Usually when I start some project, I grab my Tablet, a pair of headphones, and head off somewhere to sit and take notes in Journal and Word. I save everything to a thumb drive, come back, load up the notes (which include UI layouts), and start coding away. I've found that a vast majority of my productive work is executed in this manner, so anything else in my workspace that's just sitting there is junk to me.

I don't see how so many other people stay efficient and effective at the same time with a lot of superfluous and exteneous stuff to pay attention to in their offices. I would think that even one is able to stay organized for long periods of time, it would take one just that much more energy to keep that state.

I don't know, maybe it's just me :)

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

Kelli Zielinski — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 22:37:28 GMT

The only way to get rid of a ped is to specifically request they come get it. I somehow ended up with two in my previous office, and for the life of me couldn't ditch number 2.

During the last move, somehow, they brought me a new one entirely. It was locked, full of stuff, and had no key. Our movers hard at work.

As for my whiteboard, we had one picture on it for months, since shortly after the last office move. It depicted a sinking ship, and every time someone left the team, we added another line of water on the ship. It was completely underwater by the time I had to erase it in favor of something new: work.

Someone came by yesterday to draw another water line on the ship, and was very disappointed to find that my ship was gone. Aw.

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

ChipH — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 05:08:57 GMT

To get rid of a unwanted ped, just work the system: Put someone else's room number on it during the next move.
;-)

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

StevePa — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 02:39:43 GMT

I can beat that. I work in the Dynamics division and I can fit the contents of my office into zero boxes.

That's right. I have no personal effects in my office. I have some supplies that get returned to the mail room when I move and printouts rarely survive a week before they're recycled. I rarely use the whiteboard and all my notes are taken on my Tablet PC. In short, I can move office by piling my three machines onto a trolley and wheeling them down the hall. I've no doubt I'm somehow contributing to the company's bottom line but that's not my primary motivation. As I'm getting older, I'm finding that I have little need for books or personal effects to keep me company. If I need to research something, there's Google. Finding out the API for DrawText on Google is usually significantly faster than looking up in a book or even in MSDN.

And I've been here for almost 8 years.

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

Craig — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 03:32:53 GMT

A good friend of mine who is retired once told me: "The older I get, the more I realize my best tool is my trash can." Amen.

I fit in one box my last office move. Of course, there's all those boxes of junk in my basement left over from previous job changes...

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

Cooney — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 21:42:03 GMT

ChipH:
> Put someone else's room number on it during the next move.

That's probably what happened to Kelli. The logical progression has a bunch of free, unwanted peds randomly redistributing themselves each time a team moves. Eventually somebody notices and one poor clod gets 20 of them in his office.

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

Eric K. — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 00:55:53 GMT

For cleaning whiteboards, use a microfiber cloth. You can get them at auto parts stores in the car wash section, and they do a great job of polishing all the color off the whiteboard without any need for solvents.

Just don't plan on using that cloth for anything else. Microfiber cloth is great for absorbing messes, and not so great at letting them go.

Cooney: You have me imagining packs of feral peds roaming the corridors :) "Omigod! They're coming! What do they want?!"

Whiteboards

danielsn — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 08:32:13 GMT

Whiteboard ink is alcohol soluable - a little vodka on a papertowel works wonders. And can be useful when deadline time hits ;)

re: I just have a plain standard-issue guest chair

JenK — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 21:35:54 GMT

Re: Office chairs, I didn't fit in those 'standard' guest chairs. Not being the person with the smallest hip circumference of my acquaintence, I had acquired one of the old wooden-armed padded chairs (not Larry's chair, a later model) and kept slapping move stickers on it. It moved with me. My boss also acquired one specifically because I found them comfortable.

Around the time I became a lead I bought a double futon with loveseat frame. I often didn't bother reserving conference rooms - I had plenty of chairs....

Re: Whiteboards, last company I was at had baby-wipe like whiteboard wipes. And lots of photos were taken of whiteboards.

I was always a packrat when I was at msft. But lately I've been trimming down. I took all my stuff home from last job in 2 days in my normal work 'messenger bag' - and it would have been 1 day if not for the books. :)

I eliminated the KVM switch

RevMike — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 00:52:45 GMT

I support software that runs on several platforms, particularly windows and linux. I finally removed all my workstations in favor of a single workstation. I keep several boxes stashed away but plugged in running VNC. They don't even need to be in the same room as me.

For someone running a pure windows environment, RDC is probably just as good, if not better.

The simplified office

The Old New Thing — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 17:00:27 GMT

Unclear how much simpler it can get.

Optimize your life #2 - Go minimalist

Richard Kuo's Personal Blog — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 08:27:50 GMT

As I move on from the inaugural tip, I feel I should mention that I write these tips from the context...

Automatic messages when you're not in the office - the infamous OOF

The Old New Thing — Thu, 11 May 2006 17:00:38 GMT

What a strange name.