DIY MacBook Stand | Hacker News Reader

DIY MacBook Stand

github.com

173 pointsergenekonyigit125 comments

I just love how github ends up being blog, forum, wiki, disqus-clone etc. for us tech people.

As for the stand I used this cheap ikea-hack: https://i.pinimg.com/736x/c7/c9/a0/c7c9a072c328a3596186e1b71... (can't find the original post sry)

I don't know if I love that, but it has turned into all of those things indeed.

As long as GitHub doesn't abuse its control of the portal, it's okay.

GitHub is basically DeviantArt for programmers. When you look at it that way it all makes sense.

While both are filled with low quality content, personal experiments without public importance, etc. I think github has some high quality, community relevant content that DeviantArt lacks. I see it like both DeviantArt and something like ArtStation.

I have tons of silly projects on GitHub. The same thing for DeviantArt too, I would think the 1-hour programmer hackjob is probably just as bad as a 1-hour caricature.

I actually dislike that fact very much. Oh, I don't disagree that github is that for so many users...and i can not disagree with the convenience of what github provides...I simply dislike that it is all controlled/owned by github...a single point of technical/infrastructure failure, and a single corporate entity where so much content (content beyond raw code, that is) is hosted...not unlike the facebook effect. I wish people hosted their content in a more decentralized fashion.

Well, at least you can easily get your and other people's data out of GitHub (unlike e.g. YouTube and Facebook).

It would be easy to create a giant mirror of GitHub, for example (once you have a distributed storage system).

Also, GitHub doesn't control what users are viewing (unlike YouTube and Facebook), which makes the platform less of a threat to internet freedom.

> easily

So they added a button to dump all issues and PRs without messing with the API?

We’re programmers... working with APIs is what most of us do day to day, they’re not holding it hostage behind complicated and metered usage APIs.

GitHub API is decidedly metered. https://developer.github.com/v3/rate_limit/

When I say metered, I meant "pay per query", not rate limits meant to keep the service online.

I'd consider Youtube to be one of the top easiest sites to get one's data (or someone else's!) out of. Why do you think it's not?

Do you mean downloading using unsupported 3rd party tools? Because those have to be regularly updated to ensure they even work and could some day stop working entirely if Google decided to care about blocking such tools.

In comparison, GitHub offers a simple clone button (among ways) which gives you everything.

No, I mean Google.com/takeout

That only helps you backup your own data. Github (or rather Git) facilitates distributed backup.

I just did a complete takeout - it doesn't download videos, only history, comments, playlists and subscriptions (in various formats: json, html, etc).

Then you did something wrong or didn't pick the right export options. I do a download of mine every 3 months, and it works fine.

Youtube-dl?

I mean I get your argument but op isn’t wrong. YouTube is reallly easy to rip content from.

And the point of that argument is that youtube-dl only works because Google doesn't care, and the need to patch it regularly is only caused by the incidental changes in the service. When Google starts caring for some reason, it'll be a difficult battle.

I haven’t updated mine in ages and it still works...

I have to update every time I use it.

I've had to update several times in the last couple years due to some YT links not working. Updating always helps.

it could be easy to rip, but exact word "rip" is indicating that you are going against service provider's SLA. Meanwhile GitHub is providing tools (git) to get, share content which fits in their SLA.

1. It's not legal (see ToS).

2. Google can block it any moment, or inject ads.

3. You don't get the original data, but a transcoded version. And/or a watermarked version.

In contrast, GitHub is intended to download data from, so above points will never apply.

1 and 3 are incorrect. I'm talking about Google.com/takeout not YouTube-dl.

You said:

> to get one's data (or someone else's!) out

Google/takeout does not apply to someone else's data.

Everyone says that people want a decentralized set of repositories for open source. I have never seen it happen and instead we just get better and better iterations on sourceforge.

I think Gitlab does very well as a decentralized set of repos.

Is there a github clone people can host on their personal site that handles git, wiki, issues, and pages? Not talking about gitlab either. Only for hosting at the project level to keep things simple.

https://github.com/gitbucket/gitbucket

That's so true. I helped a friend who is hosting his freaking school research symposium website on there. It's easy to set up and collaborate on there. Love that.

100 years from now maybe github will be the new geosites. Or maybe my great great grandkids can review that PR I made today.

Wow, great thought. Maybe I had better write better commit messages then.

Recent commits with profanity: http://www.commitlogsfromlastnight.com/

Wall of shame? :-)

Reminds me of how increasingly online everything has become, which is being documented in perfect detail. Would be interesting how sociology would change a couple decades from now.

> which is being documented in perfect detail

I wouldn't go as far as to say that…websites are lost every day without an archive of them being taken.

The difference being that you can clone the exact contents of a repo with one press of a button. That's just the code though, I wish Github also stored wiki, issues, images, and all other "meta" data into the repository as well.

That way, it would be easy for archive.org and other parties to build a scraper that just takes snapshots of all repos every once in a while, for posterity.

What is that ikea thingy?

Looks like a shelving frame* with a door handle to hold the laptop.

The handle seems to be a Lansa: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60138759/

https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/making-a-laptopbook-stand-o...

Source for the Ikea stand: https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/making-a-laptopbook-stand-o...

Just needs swipe left/swipe right on the Issues tab...

The diagram of the center spreader piece doesn't make any sense without context. Are the four pieces glued in place? Is there a tab that isn't visible in the picture which allows it to be sandwiched between the other two pieces?

What materials? Is there a cad save file for cutting it ourselves?

Agreed it is confusing, the JPEG "is" the CAD file (although there is a DXF file as well) but laser cutters will often use a JPEG as the profile image.

Here is my guess, you laser it out of acrylic, you slot the two large parts together to form an 'X' (looking down from the top) and you glue in the four wedges using solvent glue to stabilize the X shape of the two pieces.

Which is daft because you can just cut another slot and shove a bit in at an angle to lock it — no glue needed. Also the CAD is useless unless you have the exact thickness of material to laser cut since you can't adjust the cut width. This could easily have been a clever script to generate an SVG to match your material thickness and laptop dimensions.

This is submission is well below the bar for what I usually see on HN.

People will post any old drek for karma & downvote anyone who questions the frontpage algorithm's objective rightness at displaying only the hackerest articles.

Wow, you’re right. Downvotes because someone uploaded a poor laser cut design to GitHub instead of thingyverse.

I meant the opposite, I agree with you.

If they had used an STL[0] instead of a JPG then I think people would have liked it.

0: https://help.github.com/articles/3d-file-viewer/

Yes if the two halves had matching horizontal slots forming T's with the vertical slots, the whole thing would lock together with friction. That's a pretty obvious improvement.

> laser cutters will often use a JPEG as the profile image.

Laser cutter operator here. Never heard of laser cutter, plasma cutter, or oxy cutter (our company has all three) accepting a JPG as the input file. I've spoken to two other local operators and they all require a DXF / DWG or some other type of NC (Numeric Code) file as input.

I'm guessing it's a reference to GlowForge, which can cut based on pictures or drawings on the material itself.

Ah, right, thanks, wasn't aware of that.

And a bunch of the inexpensive Chinese laser cutters, some of which provided a pirated copy of Corel Draw to do your designs in.

CorelDRAW is a vectors graphics program.

I often use Inkscape for text I'm going to laser cut because it does a proper job of creating text outlines compared with Draftsight which manages to bork the text when I run explodetext command.

What I don't understand using a vector graphics program to generate CNC cut items is how do you specify dimensions? CAD files have dimensionality inherent.

How does that aspect work?

The Glowforge will only engrave from a bitmap. You need a vector to do cutting.

Of the 3, which is your favorite?

AFAIK Ponoko just uses the line widths to indicate cuts vs etching. they provide an Inkscape template but I don't think it's required so long as the line widths are right.

What makes this a MacBook Stand and not a general notebook stand for any other 13" notebook?

Two guesses:

1. Adding "Macbook" to the title increases the chance of getting to the frontpage (like some sort of cheap SEO).

2. People starting to use "Macbook" when they mean "notebook" like when you use the verb "google" instead of "search on the internet".

I can agree about 1 and the last part of 2. But I am willing to bet you people’d say “laptops” to refer to any non-Apple laptops.

I recently released a stand I made for my ThinkPad Yoga. It'd probably work for a Macbook too. They're very close in size. I like mine a little better because I can put the dock and cables under it.

https://github.com/KeenRivals/ThinkPad-Yoga-Laptop-Stand

Nice, thank you for sharing!

I'm curious, which 3D printer did you use?

It looks laser cut, most schools would have a laser cutter nowadays because they’re stupidly easy to use.

It would be difficult, and inadvisable to print something this large on a regular 3D printer.

Thingyverse is literally full of designs like this and often much better.

https://www.thingiverse.com/search/page:1?q=Laptop+stand&sa=...

It's not laser cut. I used a MakerBot Replicator 2. It was actually quite easy to print. I designed it roughly two years ago after browsing thingiverse and getting bad print results with the larger stands. The smaller single-piece stands were too flimsy/unstable. I also wanted the stand to be just big enough to fit a Lenovo docking station under it.

So you printed it in pieces and assembled it?

I’m sorry to be harsh but this is the kind of thing we get undergrads to do on day one of an internship. Why do you feel it was worthy of posting on HN?

But I like the simplicity of the design, the poster’s first hand experience, mentioning other designs, and the idea of leaving usable room underneath the laptop. Further, it’s nicely illustrated with a photo.

Not, perhaps, a mathematical tour de force but useful information. Just like the numerous reports on HN of IKEA products used to prop up monitors. These ideas won’t win a Turing Award but are often clever and give me ideas to try out myself.

I see your point but from my experience this is closer along the spectrum to ‘hello world’.

I don't see what you are contributing here either.

Aw, please just don't kill this place by reacting to other people's work so nastily. It isn't that you don't have a point—let's assume you do—but the poison it adds to the air is just so damaging.

If the problem of elementary work being submitted above its weight class is an issue on HN, it's in the part-per-million category compared to the problem that you made worse here. If you'll refine your mental model of internet forum dynamics to include this information I'm sure you'll see that.

I used a MakerBot Replicator 2.

I use this: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20302596/ . Works great at the desk for me since I don't use an external monitor.

Isn't the screen still pretty low when you use that? (That's actually my gripe with most laptop stands, come to think of it.)

For me, it was a good improvement compared to the stock laptop position (13" MBP). I guess it reduced the angle of neck-crane by half so for the price, I was pretty happy.

It's nice but a Samsung FullHD 24" PLS (Samsungs IPS) cost about 130 euro's nowadays. The DPI is to cry about but it beats working on < 14" any day for me.

Maybe this solution is nice and useful because you can take it with you together with the keyboard and trackpad and get a reasonable working posture anywhere?

Your comment confused me at first, because it didn't even occur to me that people would use this stand to correct their posture when working with the laptop on a desk.

I use a laptop stand (stacked carton boxes) at work to use it alongside my two 24" monitors. If I weren't lazy I would build this stand and use it so my desk would look nicer.

I've also made my own MacBook stands, but using MakerBeams[0]. After receiving a kit as a gift, I messed around with several small projects and simple things, but I've consistently used the stands since I've built them. Very solid and stable, yet open, and I'm able to use the desk space underneath them for dongles, cables, or whatever. Everything I needed was included in the kit, except for some vinyl endcaps and foam sheet material, both added to protect the macbook and my desk from scratches.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/MakerBeam-Regular-anodized-including-...

I might be missing something, but it looks like it would work with most 12 or 13-inch laptops, not just Macbooks.

Seems like a roundabout way to avoid using an external monitor.

Much cheaper though.

Geez. Spend $3,000 on luxury laptop, can't afford a $100 external monitor.

You wouldn't want to use a $100 monitor after that Retina display.

I use a similar (more portable) stand for another use case:

Hotdesking between offices. One external monitor on all desks. Using built-in monitor as well as external monitor sucks if you constantly have to look up and down.

Using a stand, I can have the typical multi-monitor experience (aligned top borders).

I personally use an mStand[0] by Rain Design. I was using a small cardbox box before that and my employer at the time gifted an mStand to me.

The difference is night and day and it made me appreciate my MacBook's display much more even when it was connected to an external monitor. I also found myself using multiple (virtual) desktops so much more as well.

If you're able to afford it, I really recommend shelling out the extra cash for a proper stand. If not, and you have an employer that might buy it for you, go out on a limb and ask for one. It might really improve how you interact with your laptop.

[0] http://www.raindesigninc.com/mstand.html

I'm actually really surprised by this gushing review - I use the same stand at work, but I don't think too much of it. Could I ask you to elaborate? Just curious.

A lot of other stands don't have the laptop sitting so high above the desk, making them much closer to the table or even flush but angled upwards from the back.

As it sits now, it is high enough so that it matches the exact same level of eyesight as my external monitor. This makes the external monitor compliment it rather than replace it.

The shape also allows you to move your hands around under it, whereas if it was lower or if the design was different it would interrupt movement and usage of an external keyboard.

Other things I like about it is that it's super solid, it's all just a single piece, made of aluminium (for heat purposes) and the rubber things on it keep the laptop held securely in place.

Anyone else moving his monitors as far down to the table as possible?

I just use a stand to get more space on my desk by the tilting (on my home setup, where I have one big nice screen). At work it's dual monitors and I keep my laptop shut while docked.

Yes, I've never liked elevating the monitor. To me it's uncomfortable and bad ergonomics. I want to avoid tilting my head up to look at the monitor. I want my eyes looking slightly down from a completely level position, and this decreases eye strain. I've never understood why so many people want to jack their monitor up on a box, fat technical book, or stand. The most important thing is to make sure the surface of your desk is at the right height for working while sitting or standing.

No one heard of thingiverse?

I think this is great and like the approach to the design! Amazingly it was almost 10 years ago that I put mine up on Thingiverse - thing 32, while we were still testing before making Thingiverse public :) https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:32

Does the cardboard version in the photos work, or was that just a prototype?

It works great! I had that on my desk for quite a while. Eventually it gets beat up and starts to wobble a bit, so wood or acrylic last longer, and in fact we still use some of these at my office years later.

I use this for my MacBook stand: http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/small-storage-organisers/...

It folds up compactly, is extremely lightweight, and has survived 4 years of almost daily use without complaint. Highly recommended.

I usually use these: https://www.amazon.com/HP-Printer-Office-Letter-172160R/dp/B...

heat dissipation?

Better than sitting on a desk.

My DIY MacBook stand is simply a pile of old textbooks. Gets the job done and comes with the added bonus of adjustable height.

ah, the mythical $500 MacBook stand (4 or 5 college textbooks)

Sunk cost though. I use parking tickets as bookmarks. At least I'm getting some value out of them.

I use a roll of toilet paper (not a joke).

I use five little 4oz paper cups (also not a joke).

I like this. I'd like to see more "open source" easy to make by the average person accessories.

This is wonderful, and vents the bottom of the laptop

https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Ventilated-Adjustable-La...

I have this one and the thing that sticks up pokes my wrist all day. I don't think a human tested it for any amount of time.

Do people use their laptops when on a stand? I thought they were to keep them off your desk and make room for a full sized mouse / keyboard.

I thought it was to bring the monitor to eye level.

I'm puzzled by this too, can't people just look down?

I had all kinds of neck problems staring down at a 13" laptop on my desk all day. Once I moved the screen up so I was looking straight, the neck problems went away.

It's one of those things where you don't notice it until you do. When you do, it's a big problem.

huh? I use it while using the laptop in clamshell mode.

What else do people use stands for? Surly it's not to elevate the screen to eye level and still type on it? That's just awkward.

I've got a stand I use to lift up a 15" macbook pro retina screen while I use an external keyboard.

I use this one:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007CYBY5C

I use a couple of kitchen handles connected to a couple of timber angle brackets all from IKEA, cost about $20 I think and lasted me years so far

I'll stick with my superior Roost, thanks.

The nexstand, although a knockoff, is half the price and more robust

It's also depriving the inventors of their return for their excellent invention and the quantity of R&D that went into making it.

A bunch of shoe boxes works fine too

I remember building one of these 10 years ago. Nice to see the resurgence

Shoutouts to the water bottle acting as an iPad stand.

That looks kinda flimsy... I'd be a little scared of putting my (employer's) $3000 Macbook on that.

Seriously, are you afraid that your macbook can break falling from 10 cm ?

I'm worried when my thinkpad falls from 1 m high.

Aluminium dents easily.

Apple makes nice but brittle bodies.

It looks as steady as some of the pricey aluminum stands I've bought.

Looks fine to me. I've dropped my Air from over 4 feet with not a scratch, granted it landed on a wood floor.

Even if this somehow broke, it would only break in one direction, causing it to tilt and fall meaning the speed on the vertical would not be so huge.

Yeah, they're really tough - a drop of a few feet is fine.

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