Rethinking the Whiteboard | Hacker News Reader

Rethinking the Whiteboard

boss.blogs.nytimes.com

34 pointspavs22 comments

I thought everyone knew $10 4x8' sheets of shower board from home depot was the shoestring budget whiteboard solution. $250 framed whiteboards are for the "Enterprise".

I've been pondering hanging sheets of glass on my walls. I've been taking notes on my bathroom mirror with a dry-erase marker for a while. The ability to get out real cleaning products and get the writing surface really, really clean is compelling.

This is actually what I just did.

I got a big sheet of glass and spray-painted the back of it white with epoxy paint. Total cost ~$180 for a 28x68" whiteboard, and it looks amazing!

As a quick tip, if you're looking for big, inexpensive sheets of glass talk to your local glazier and ask if they have tempered glass mis-cuts. Lots of people order tempered glass in the wrong size, and seeing as they can't re-cut it often you'll pick it up for cost...

It also makes a great desk cover - you can write quick notes all over your desk using a fine tipped Sharpie.

The best way to clean them I've found is 90% isopropyl alcohol. The bad side effect is your office will smell like a doctor's office for a while.

You might also consider whiteboard paint. Paint a wall surface and voila, instant whiteboard. That said, the one guy I know who did it ended up covering it with glass panels, so YMMV.

I have "Bertha" (4x6) and love it. I'm patiently waiting for 2x3's to get back in stock to buy another smaller one. Oddly, though the process to buy was problematic. I never received an emailed receipt or shipping information, it just showed up one day. No receipt in the box. Also, at one point the SSL on the site was bad.

All of this to say that the product is amazing, but they are still working out the kinks... the kinks mainly (to me, at least) being customer service related. I'm sure that is just a growth issue, though, and will be taken care of in time.

Did you put it on textured walls? From their video, it looked like the material was very thin, so I wonder how well it works on any but the smoothest walls.

The material is paper thin.

I have my "Bertha" on a textured wall. It works fine, although you can still feel a bit of the texture through it. (The texture is "damped," if you will.)

I don't think it would be a problem for anyone except the most OCD of users.

Does anyone else think that "WhiteyBoard" is a problematic name? I initially thought it was a Chris-Rock-style joke.

Yup, my first thought was "that's an unfortunate name".

It doesn't bother me for the same reason that reading a kid a storybook about the dread pirate Blackhearted Bart doesn't.

An open source package I am aware of, once had a request from a government or non-profit agency, to remove any references to the software's use of "master / slave" in both the code and documentation, as it was found offensive.

Reminds me of http://www.ideapaint.com

Different solution to the same problem: special paint that acts as a whiteboard when dry. Has the advantage that you can paint over it if you get the "ghosting" effect and it comes in a variety of colors. Downside seems to be that its probably harder to get it off and that it has to be on a wall, unlike the stickers that you can just put anywhere.

This isn't deeply relevant to the profiled product, but I found the following characterization of YC rather odd:

"Y Combinator is the early stage investment fund that uses a biannual, weekend-long pitch and demonstration competition to find investment-worthy companies."

Isn't it more or less the other way around? (Demo Day is a "result", not the source, of YC companies)

The reporter is clearly confused about what Y Combinator is.

On the other hand, that YC is described as a bi-annual award program speaks to a growing problem that I'm sure PG and Co have to face: admission into YC becomes something to covet for its own sake. I can imagine that people who are in it for the resume padding wouldn't be motivated enough to see their startup through.

We tried using a stick-on whiteboard and had dismal results. The writing surface was not smooth, since the thin material was going over our (bumpy) painted wall. Also, the adhesive would come off after a while, making us tape the whole thing down. Replaced it with a more traditional whiteboard.

A question I asked when these first came out:

how hard would it be to print a faint graphic on one of these? I glued a metal whiteboard to a utility table for gaming; the 1" grid dots are pretty important for the games we play. If I could get a Bertha with pre-printed grid dots I'd be all over it.

Alternatively, how opaque/translucent are these? If I drew grid dots directly onto the table surface and then placed Bertha over the top, how much would the dots show?

They're fairly opaque. If they showed at all, they would be very faint. If you had a lightbox underneath, that would be a different story.

Has anyone tried this? I've been thinking of getting one but am curious to how well it erases or if it succumbs to a "ghosting" effect over time.

Mine has not really had any issues with erasing, though I just purchased it. Thus far a quick rub down with an eraser and everything disappears. Not sure about long term (like leaving something on the board over a couple days/weeks.)

It is cheaper to buy a real white broad than whiteyboard in China.

OK, not exactly the same thing, but for my money you can't beat the giant 3M sticky flip charts. Unlike a whiteboard or whiteboard-like thing, you can write on it, then stick it somewhere else… forever. You never have to experience the pain of erasing! They are very hardy, too; I rolled some up and took them on a transatlantic flight and stuck em up again at my new location.

Pic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/spiffariffic/4738936107/

I'm thinking at the new office, we'll go with the glass. I like cheap but I hate the fact that all cheap whiteboard alternatives (and cheap whiteboards) look filthy after a few months. At the Truphone office in London, practically every surface is glass or melamine, it's just one giant whiteboard - that's what I want.

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