growl

[pixilated-serra.livejournal.com]

maybe i posted this before. but i need to say it again.

WHOEVER DESIGNS OFFICE DESKS SHOULD
DIAF X 2328904823045

its always when there's like a total crisis I NEED TO GET THINGS DONE NOW and i cant MOVE the stupid CABLES because whoever set them up is plotting AGAINST ME and BOUGHT THESE STUPID DESKS that are BOLTED to the FLOOR with no room for CABLE WIRING ARHGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

</3 </3 </3

Comments

[glitteringlynx.livejournal.com]

.. are they worried someone would steal the desk otherwise? o.O

[mouse-from-marz.livejournal.com]

it's happened.

[glitteringlynx.livejournal.com]

I would love to know how that was pulled off.

[mouse-from-marz.livejournal.com]

can't think of any offhand, but boyfriend's old job desk was integral to the cubicle - to steal the desk you'd have to steal the whole cubicle... his job wasn't messing around!

[brotherflounder]

Ugh. My mother bought had a nice new custom desk installed in her home office a couple years ago. Did she provide the measurements of the nice new computer she was ordering at the same time? Nope. There is literally 1cm of clearance on each side of the computer. Fortunately, it's one of the Dell XPS models with the front vent that sticks out like a handle, which lets me pull the computer out if need be.

But yes, desks + computers = MUCH PAIN.

[brotherflounder]

Whoops. Strike the "bought".

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

I worked for one place which 'upgraded' its desks to include computer shelves with about that much clearance. Made for much whining whenever I had to ask someone to pull the case out and read a serial number off the back.

[reyvin.livejournal.com]

Or executive desks that weigh 5000 lbs. and have NO drop holes or anything so you either string the cables across them, around them, or like some brilliant people, under them. I always got the ones where the desk was sitting on the cables so I couldn't move them, remove them, nothing.

I always said that whoever designed desks never actually used them or had to work under them.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Heh. I got one of those, although it's modular so it's a heck of a lot easier to transport. I tend to place it about a foot or so from the wall and fill that wall with wireframe shelving. Holds all the computer gear and leaves a nice big desk for cluttering up.

[pixilated-serra.livejournal.com]

OMG YES i did an expandsion with a few of those that were UGHHHHH SO HEAVY!!! and all bolted together stupidly and had these big huge canopy tops on them but if you moved any of the bottom part you had to balance the top part without scratching it or breaking the little notch thingies all while standing on your head and trying to not let the damn desk warp so it would go back together guuuh

[wxgeek.livejournal.com]

Power tools == new drop holes.

[melstav]

Ya beat me to it.

[pixilated-serra.livejournal.com]

i've got myself one of those circle drill thingies too... its just the damn cables bolted under desks i don't understand!

[spooforbrains.livejournal.com]

I'm so with you here. And, in fact, the desks that attempt cable management are usually the worst offenders. A simple tray down the back works just fine, thanks.

I have a whole post waiting to be written about my recent experiences with a particularly irritating series of desks.

[lightforce.livejournal.com]

I have a fun furniture story of my own, from when I worked in the computer labs at the university I attend. It's from before my time, but it's part of the IT department lore.

About 10-12 years ago, a new science building was being constructed, and the entire first floor of one wing was set up as computer labs. The desks for the labs were custom ordered, and were scheduled to be delivered a couple weeks before classes were to begin for the coming fall semester.

When the desks were delivered to campus, IT discovered that they had been built to the wrong specifications. All 150+ of them. The built-in cable raceways were barely large enough to hold all the cables they needed to fit, and allowed practically zero room for working or expansion. Since time was so short before the start of classes, IT couldn't just return them and have them modified or have new ones made correctly, so they did the only thing they could and installed all of them (and got a big discount from the manufacturer).

Those desks are far and away the most annoying and painful computer furniture I've ever had to deal with. Every time I had to replace, fix, or re-attach a cable, it took at least twice as long as it would have in a sanely-designed desk, and I usually ended up with scraped knuckles. If they ever decide to replace them, I'll be there with gasoline and matches.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

Our sales department got a load of nice looking desks that are CHEAP. Minor scratches show particle board, slide the desk and it sways instead of moving, etc.

NO FRIGGIN CABLE DROPS!

ONE of them has those nice "cabinets" for a PC in place of drawers. Of course, it has NO ventilation and the cable holes are too small for the cable CONNECTORS.

I now own a 12v drill and a 2" drill bit. This shit fits NOW!

[taleya.livejournal.com]

Most office desks appear to be designed for rabbits.

Well they're sure as fuck not designed for a human being. Or computers. Or anything else remotely fucking useful...

[kgasso.livejournal.com]

I recently ran into what was possibly the most stupid furniture installation I've ever seen.

3 years ago, our wonderful furniture installers decided that instead of running cables through the knock-outs at the base of the glorified-cube-walls, that they'd just put the walls over it. Steel-framed walls, bolted to a concrete floor.

Fast forward to last week, when an employee's UPS (battery backup) stops working. I swapped batteries, ran tests, and verified it was dead. Go to pull the sucker out, and find out that the UPS's power lead was pinned between the wall framing and the floor. One side of this is attached to the UPS permanently, the other side where the wall plug is located is too large to fit between the wall and floor. Mother f!@#$r. Now instead of sending the UPS back for refurbishment, I get to discharge all power in it and snip the battery backup's mains cable with a wire cutter.

When putting the new UPS in, it took me all of TWENTY SECONDS to pop out the cable knock-outs in the wall and snake the new UPS's power lead through.

Friggin' idiots.

[docskurlock.livejournal.com]

I went to fix a lady's computer at her house and she had one of those desks that puts the tower right in the middle of the desk, but it's lowered down and the only thing you can reach is the optical drive. Well...I had to replace it and had to move the WHOLE DAMN thing to get to the back and unplug everything. I couldn't pull the system out because of the way the "hole" for the pc was. The desk surface actually covers the whole. It infuriated me so. Most inane desk I've ever seen. That and having power plugs on the floor instead of waist high.

[jecook]

Agreed.

While some of the stuff *is* getting (marginally) better, I've yet to find a desk that'll fit my specific requirements. So, the next computer I'm going to build will have a desk wrapped around it. (i.e. the Computer is The Desk and The Desk is The Computer).

Doing the Lunchbox gave me a bit of experience with doing unique case mods, so this should be nigh on heroic when it goes down. (and yes, I'll get pictures of it, too.)

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of my last workplace.. we didn't have desks, we had 'pods'

Imagine 8 wedge shaped desks, all jammed together to form a circle around a central pillar, like orange segments around the pith. And all the important cables run down though this cable.

There was literally no way to get to anything. The idjits had installed the computers, and shoved them back until they were stuck in the narrow end of the wedge between the little mini-walls separating desks spaces. Then they'd used the security bolts to fix the systems down.

Which meant that should a cable come out, you had to disassemble the entire pod to put it back in...

[pixilated-serra.livejournal.com]

pure, omniscient genious

[hisamishness.livejournal.com]

Our place likes to buy / reuse desks that are Just Small Enough to fit in the office or between non-movable bits of furniture or beams or...

Of course, the furniture guys slap the desks in the way they fit best. Often as not, that puts minor bits like the power outlets and/or phone/data drops behind non-removable modesty panels, end panels, etc. And yes, there is rarely more than an inch between the furniture and the walls.

[hellkat9940.livejournal.com]

On the topic of wretchedly designed desks, I had on that required a blood sacrifice. I have a four inch scar and a two inch scar from the sharp edges on the thing.