The new desks

Sun 29 January 2006 9:52pm by Daniel
Filed under: Home life 

The old desk, to my utter surprise, reached $137.50 on eBay. It was bought by a guy from a few suburbs away for his daughter to use for studying. She seemed happy, he seemed happy, and I certainly was. Win-win. That’s why I like eBay.

He came to pick it up on Australia Day. I disassembled it with my newly purchased drill/driver, and in the heat, we managed to load it into, and on top of, his stationwagon. He tied it up with coaxial cable (! — he said he had way too much of it) and gingerly set off down the road.

I grabbed a beer and one of the new desks out and set it up. The second desk waited until today, when the kids helped.


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It all looks heaps better than before. The new desks look snazzier, and more importantly they fit the space much better.

PS. Yes, I know I need to do something about the curtains…

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Comments

10 comments on The new desks

  1. Somebody in the WWW on Mon, 30th Jan 2006 10:23am

    2. Why did you put “No reserve” in the title? eBay doesn’t allow for reserves any more, except for Motor vehicles. (cars, trucks, buses).

    Is that computer on the desk a HP by any chance? I thought someone like you would have either built one, or bought a custom built one, not a HP from Myer or Harvey Norman or somewhere.

  2. Nathan on Mon, 30th Jan 2006 11:10am

    3. Like any good computer geek, you put the computer together on the first desk before starting building the second desk, I approve :)

  3. Daniel on Mon, 30th Jan 2006 12:20pm

    4. Oh, I thought you could still do Reserve prices. Ah well, it didn’t hurt.

    I don’t have the energy (or the skills — I’m more of a software person than a hardware person) to build a machine myself. The machine on the left is a custom-ordered one bought in May last year from a smallish mob called Landmark Computers, in LaTrobe Street. The one on the right is a couple of years old, built for me by a friend, though it uses some parts (drives, and a video card) from much older computers.

  4. Sussy on Mon, 30th Jan 2006 1:44pm

    5. That’s so cool!

  5. Peter on Mon, 30th Jan 2006 5:08pm

    6. A great production; an explanation of the method would be highly geekrantable to this luddite.

    Is there any way of varying the speed; it seems to be determined by CPU utilisation, with a slowing when it’s doing other things.

    BTW was it just coincidence two of you happened to be wearing similar ‘uniform’ - London Underground T-shirts?

  6. Konrad on Tue, 31st Jan 2006 4:30am

    7. Were the photos taken automatically at regular intervals?

  7. nancy on Tue, 31st Jan 2006 7:32am

    8. Yes - the curtains. But the wires Daniel! you need to do something about them too. I have a “thing” about wires…

  8. Daniel on Tue, 31st Jan 2006 5:35pm

    9. Peter and Konrad, I’ve written about how I did this here. Yes, co-incidence on the shirts.

    Nancy, but these aren’t wires. They’re cables!
    So, you have a thing about them… which means I need to do something about them?? Actually I’m planning to go in with cable ties etc and tidy them up when the setup is finalised.

  9. Andrew on Tue, 31st Jan 2006 7:13pm

    10. Awww, I thought it was all done in one and half to two hours. I feel cheated. I should have looked at the window. Was the mention of curtains a hint?

    If you have a few wires going in the same direction, Ikea has, or used to, some flexible tubing that has a full length cut. You slip the wires into the tube and it tidys them up quite well.

  10. Matthew on Thu, 16th Feb 2006 8:56pm

    11. My family and I have, also, purchased computers, equipment and service from this Landmarky. They have always been good to deal with. Their margins are a happy balance between product that is too expensive and product that they can’t afford to sort out when it goes wrong. Treat them well and they treat you well.