My friend Joacim wrote another article on why tablets can not be the future of computing. The main thrust is that a tablet causes much worse ergonomic situations than a dekstop or laptop, and that the solution - if the tablet is to become a serious device for creation - is to make it more laptop-like by supporting external pointing devices. Something about this line of reasoning always bothers me, despite the fact that I often run into situations where I try to use my Ipads in really bad ways ergonomically. I think the part where it is stated that tablets need to turn more into PCs is what really gets me. If we need PCs, we have them already. If tablets can only succeed by becoming more like PCs, perhaps we should not have them at all, or keep them around for consumption like we do now. My own thought is that we simply need to learn to work ergonomically with yet another form factor. There is already professional advice out there for ergonomic work with tablets, if you have ever read advice for computers it is very much the same sort of thing. Avoid strange positions, take breaks, mind the neck position.
I only have a truly good ergonomic situation for my computer work when I sit or stand at my specially set up desks with monitors and other surrounding devices. I have a feeling that if we do the same for tablets we will get very far. And if you intend to use a tablet for serious work, why would you not set up your working environment accordingly? Say you have a keyboard and a flexible stand, allowing you to easily switch between eye-level tablet for writing work and desk-level tablet for touch-based work. Surely that would go a long way? Tablet work without a good setup may be bad, but then so is a lot of work we all do both on laptops and desktops.
In the end, perhaps we just differ in very fine shades. We agree ergonomy is important, but I think the situation for tablets is not that much different from other computers. We just need to learn. And I think we can do more exciting things than turning around and making tablets support mice.
I have written this on my Macbook, currently while lying flat on the floor, feet resting on a small stool. I do not imagine this to be a perfect working position.
(Another tangent I wonder about: just how good was all the pencil and paper-based work we all used to do? I remember ergonomy being discussed in school a lot then too, so that was no walk in the park either.)
Steam, coming back?
I went to bed early, slept for ten or so hours, and then things felt a bit better again. Of course nothing has been dealt with, but the world is not ending today, either. I have been going about my day more or less as usual, if somewhat better than average at not feeling a huge need to do stuff. All normal "problems", "shoulds" and "coulds" feel a lot less important.
Phoning at home
I finally took some superglue to my over-ear headphones. The result of fifty crowns of material (even less should I happen to use the glue again) and a few seconds of work was excellent, and so I think I have put off buying some really expensive bluetooth headphones for quite a while. I discovered to my horror that the cable was pretty frayed in the break (which I had previously "repaired" with black duct tape), but thankfully they sound as good as always and unless they break again in the very same place I am unlikely to cause any additional stress in that particular spot.
Five stars. Would do again. Should have done much earlier.
Voila! V vivified!
For some reason my mind wandered past V for vendetta and began to wonder about a particular difference between the comic and the movie. I picked up the book, and suddenly I was a third of the way through. It might, shamefully, be only my second reading of it ever, but better late than never.
Poking myself
It occured to me that where other people are wearing fitness trackers or running exercise apps, my main movement and tracking related habit at the moment is to make sure I have Pokemon go running whenever I am about to cover any distance at on-foot-type speeds. Sure, if you are going to do something, why not pick the thing which is most wasteful energy-wise, and also the most cumbersome as it involves handling a big phone in such a way that I do not turn it off or exit the game by accicent when putting it away. Sometimes I get tired of myself.