By David Ponce

Having meetings, I’m told, is kind of important. So I’m all for having them, but I’m also against a few vestiges from the old world, like paper. It just doesn’t make much sense to have a couple of people meeting and be passing sheets of paper to one another. Or turning your laptop around to show your point. Or even to unplug your laptop from the projector so the guy next to you can use it. It’s an archaic way of doing things and there is a better solution. The Media:Scape from Steelcase is a fancy KVM-type switch. The white box contains four AC plugs, and four cables that attach to laptops, iPhones, iPads, etc. Each cable features a touch sensitive pod (which they call a Puck) and the idea is that by touching your pod, you take control of the connected screen. This way the meeting can proceed smoothly with everyone being able to demonstrate on a common screen whatever it is they want. It’s quick, convenient and greatly improves workflow. But it’s not cheap.

The 4 plug version, which will be available in February, costs $6k to $7k. There is a larger 8 plug version that comes integrated into its own table, but that’s somewhere around $12k to $14k. But heym if your company has the cheddar, it’s definitely a cool way to conduct meetings.

[ Product Page ]

By Evan Ackerman

I wrote this post in six minutes. This is vastly, exponentially faster than I normally write posts. How did I manage it? Through hard work, dedication, and threats. Mostly the threats, to be honest, thanks (I guess) to a webpage called Write or Die, which aims to combat laziness and apathy by literally forcing you to write. You tell Write or Die how many words you’re trying to get down in how much time, and depending on how strict you want it to be, it will do anything from slowly turning its text box red to playing evil sounds to (in “Kamikaze Mode”) actually deleting your words if it doesn’t think you’re going fast enough. Like, I just had to rewrite that sentence because I went and checked my email for 10 seconds and Write or Die did not approve. For $10, you can get a desktop version, which eliminates the internet as a distraction and gives you the option of disabling saves until you meet your goal.

Now, I’m all for positive reinforcement as opposed to negative reinforcement, so it would be way better if there was a website called “Write or No Jellybeans” that gave me jellybeans when I did a good job. Until someone figures out a way to make that work (and honestly, it probably wouldn’t be that hard for someone with some hardware and software skill), I’ll just keep on punishing myself with this website because damn, I’m super productive now. At least, I am as long as

[ Write or Die ] VIA [ Geekosystem ]