Travelling with 24” Monitors | Hacker News Reader

Travelling with 24” Monitors

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361 pointspolote341 comments

Working in VR allows you to travel with an infinite number of monitors, of any size you prefer. For example here is what it's like to work in a Linux VR Desktop on the HTC Vive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWLuwG91HnI

The problem is that plug-in headsets like the Vive are not very portable. The next evolution of something like this is to put the Linux VR Desktop on a standalone headset.

If anyone is interested in something like this let me know, and I can fill in more details on how to make it happen.

Realizing the damage caused to my neck by wearing heavy headphones over prolonged periods of time at my desk, I'm going to have to pass on this.

Suggestion for this: Sennheiser 6XX series are very lightweight, open cans (thus no extra pressure in the ear, but people may hear your music around a little bit). About ~$200 these days, and these used to be world's best a decade ago.

I can wear them all day long, even when the music or video ends I often don't even bother putting them off...

I just loathe the wire but sound quality is so good it's not even funny to compare with equally priced Bluetooth cans.

I'm struggling to picture what you could possibly be doing with your posture to cause damage to your neck with even the heaviest headphones. Whatever it is that you're doing, the headphones are not your problem.

When I tried this a few years ago (shortly after getting my Vive), the text resolution and comfort just wasn't good enough for long periods of time. I'm curious if anyone has had more success with newer VR headsets

@robertfw

What VR Desktop did you use when you gave it a try?

With respect to today's VR climate: I think people significantly underrate the quality of text that can be achieved in VR, even on today's hardware. Simula in particular has put in a lot of work in text resolution optimization (something that earlier VR Desktops failed completely at). This makes me able to use Simula for hours at a time, even on the old HTC Vive (2016 hardware). I won't lie and say it is equally impressive as a 4K monitor is today, but it's definitely usable and allows you to garner the other benefits of VR Desktop (10x more screens, 10x the size, 10x the focus/work immersions).

If you have an HTC Vive/Vive Pro/Valve Index, I can help you install Simula/give it a try. Contact me at george.w.singer [at] gmail [dot] com if you're interested.

You can travel with infinite monitors but the resolution of them all combined can only be around 1600p total

@shawabawa

I understand your skepticism RE resolution, but people significantly underrate the quality of text that can be achieved in VR, even on today's hardware. Simula in particular has put in a lot of work in text resolution optimization (something that earlier VR Desktops failed completely at). This makes me able to use Simula for hours at a time, even on the old HTC Vive (2016 hardware). I won't lie and say it is equally impressive as a 4K monitor is today, but it's definitely usable and allows you to garner the other benefits of VR Desktop (10x more screens, 10x the size, 10x the focus/work immersions).

If you have an HTC Vive/Vive Pro/Valve Index, I can help you install Simula/give it a try. Contact me at george.w.singer [at] gmail [dot] com if you're interested.

In terms of pixel count, isn’t the Vive only a 1080x1200 monitor? (per eye).

I’d like more information density without having to move my neck around.

Yes but you can't physically look at and process all the independent monitors anyways. So you have one physical monitor addressing n-virtual monitors.

One really bad physical monitor. At 16 pixels per degree, you're at one third of a plain old 96 dpi reference screen.

Imagine if those nice 24 inch monitors had a resolution of 700x400. You can have n of them, but that is not going to make it good. And your field of view is pretty small at the same time.

Edit: Oh, that's a Vive Pro. Reduce everything 30% more for a Vive.

The original vive is pretty outdated now. You would struggle to even read text, let alone want to replace your monitor with it. Currently the best you can get is 4k per eye which is going to allow you to read text ok but the quality will be something closer to a 720p screen since those pixels are spread out over a huge area.

Give it a couple years and there will probably be an 8k vr setup that might allow for decent desktop use. But even then I'm not sure most people would want to use such a setup since you would need a very powerful pc for it and no one else would be able to see your screen.

> and no one else would be able to see your screen.

I consider that a plus. I'm regularly flabbergasted by the things I'm able to see on screens in public transport.

In an office its probably not ideal when you need to show things to people.

Yeah that's the major issue with VR or AR monitors. If the screen fits into your whole field of view the headset screen has to be much higher resolution than the screen it's displaying.

Totally.

Some day.

But between the bulkiness of any given HMD over a long period of time, and the low resolution of the HMD display, this is generally a novelty. In 2020 at least.

The more they iterate in the hardware the more plausible an option this will be. (And I'm excited for it! )

Author here, definitely interested as it would make traveling much easier for me.

With a setup like that is there any fatigue after a few hours of usage ?

I've found that the Oculus Quest is not perfectly comfortable for multiple hours of uninterrupted use while gaming, but I've not tried it for sitting at a desk coding. YMMV, I would wager that moving around while playing requires it to be tighter, and therefore makes it less comfortable.

The Quest might be the best one to test for travel though; it's relatively cheap, has fairly good resolution, and though it normally works as a standalone system, you can also tether it over USB3 to your main machine's graphics card:

https://www.anandtech.com/show/15135/oculus-link-software-av...

Surprised you never mentioned this as part of your solution but I have a friend with a similar problem and he solved it by traveling with a single ultra wide monitor instead of 3.

>With a setup like that is there any fatigue after a few hours of usage ?

In games, no. With desktop usage, yes.

@polote

The first time I used Simula, I did experience fatigue. After that, it seemed to go away. I tend to use it for a few hours at a time, so cannot comment beyond that, but it seems to work pretty well.

If you're interested in giving Simula a try, contact me at george.w.singer [at] gmail [dot] com. Right now, it's only compatible with the HTC Vive, HTC Vive Pro, or Valve Index. It should otherwise be buildable/runnable on all Linux distros.

My eyes get taxed wearing my glasses while reading and I usually take them off to see my monitors. I feel like this solution would make my eyes very taxed.

VR systems project the image to near infinity to allow your eyes to relax.

Typically the VR lenses project the image to about 2m away.

I wouldn't do that, even on the vive pro, the text was way too blurry for my taste

@lousken

What VR Desktop did you use when you gave it a try?

I understand your skepticism, but people significantly underrate the quality of text that can be achieved in VR, even on today's hardware. Simula in particular has put in a lot of work in text resolution optimization (something that earlier VR Desktops failed completely at). This makes me able to use Simula for hours at a time, even on the old HTC Vive (2016 hardware). I won't lie and say it is equally impressive as a 4K monitor is today, but it's definitely usable and allows you to garner the other benefits of VR Desktop (10x more screens, 10x the size, 10x the focus/work immersions).

If you have an HTC Vive/Vive Pro/Valve Index, I can help you install Simula/give it a try. Contact me at george.w.singer [at] gmail [dot] com if you're interested.

I don't own the vive pro personally, it was a demo we had at work during christmas.

I've tried tinkering with it for about an hour and half, mostly testing games. But also steam vr home and I was able to get to regular windows desktop view with that somehow (I don't remember how exactly how). And while the text was readable it surprised me how blurry it was. Same thing ingame, reading "books" was quite hard and I really had to move the object close to my face.

This is one of those concepts that is obviously going to be great when it's ready for prime-time, but just isn't there yet.

In a generation or two when the headsets are lighter (can be worn for a day without leaving an impression on your face as the current headsets do) and higher resolution (can actually replace a multi-monitor setup in number of pixels), I strongly believe this is going to be a killer app that could easily dwarf the gaming market for VR headsets.

An interesting corollary of this is that now is probably a good time to start researching novel input devices, since there is an opportunity to create a completely new UI; if you can touchtype fluently then VR works fine, but if not, it's going to be challenging to use.

As an example, Facebook is working on direct neural input devices:

https://www.roadtovr.com/facebook-acquires-ctrl-labs-develop...

And I have had interesting conversations with neuroscientists about a bunch of intriguing ways that you could hook up an input device to the somatic nervous system. For most of these you'd need to learn a different set of "movements" than typing, so perhaps there's not an immediate win vs. just requiring users to learn to touchtype, but the benefits of being able to "type" characters in a UI without a keyboard are pretty clear.

> if you can touchtype fluently then VR works fine, but if not, it's going to be challenging to use.

Couldn't you just render the keyboard (+ finger positions I guess) inside the VR.

Use chording! Chording is (maybe?) similar to sign language and so "glyphs" or "chords" could be recognized by camera or finger position sensors.

I think finger position sensors would be more ideal than camera recognition, since there are many times your fingers could become obfuscated behind other fingers or if you rotate your hand. RFID tags are cheap and can use passive power. I imagine with a bracelet transmitter and positioning device they could be tracked in real time and attached to the finger tips using a reusable adhesive. Should require minimal calibration and then would allow for new touch inputs for almost any device that is calibrated along with it. Could even make regular monitors touch screen.

FWIW Simula (shown above) has a mouse & keyboard view. Here's a short video showing what it looks like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5c3Hfp8Hcw

> if you can touchtype fluently then VR works fine, but if not, it's going to be challenging to use.

I am of the belief that if you are trying to increase your productivity whilst mobile with small/light stuff, nothing weighs less or takes up less space in your luggage than some touch typing training software.

I can’t believe that there are people who type as much as some of us do who haven’t bothered to learn to type. It’s an essential skill.

Funnily enough, I learned to touch type because tables at my uni were high enough to make typing uncomfortable.

Putting my Magic Keyboard on my lap was much better, but without being able to see, I couldn't type well.

Spent 10 minutes a day over the next couple weeks learning Colemak (easier than retraining myself on QWERTY). Being able to touch type numbers is great while programming.

@sneak The near-term dream goal/dream is installing something like Simula on a standalone VR headset, and pairing it with a bluetooth (perhaps even "pocket" bluetooth keyboard) to replace a laptop.

Touch typing + bluetooth keyboard + VR headset = insane productivity potential.

Do you have any light/portable BT keyboards you like? I somewhat loathe the iPad Pro’s keyboard cover but every light BT I’ve ever tried was plasticky loud garbage. Do you have any recommendations?

I've had reasonable succcess with this one: https://www.amazon.com/iClever-Bluetooth-Keyboard-Foldable-S...

I like its compact design (it fits in a pocket), and it's very satisfying to fold/unfold :] That said, I don't use it that often because I find smartphone screen sizes too small.

It arrived today. The number keys, and thus important keys like ! and @, are in the wrong places, and (this one is on me, I should have looked before buying) it is also lacking an ESC key, which is largely the point for me of buying another keyboard.

I have the iPad Pro with keyboard cover and I keep it in my bag most of the time even when I don't have a laptop, so that's the standard I'm trying to beat. It would be nice to have something I could pair to my phone (the largest phone Apple sells) to use a terminal when on the go, but I guess I'll just keep carrying my handbag with iPad for now. I hear Apple is going to improve the iPad Pro's keyboard this year.

Oh well.

@theptip I understand your skepticism, but people significantly underrate the quality of text that can be achieved in VR, even on today's hardware. Simula in particular has put in a lot of work in text resolution optimization (something that earlier VR Desktops failed completely at). This makes me able to use Simula for hours at a time, even on the old HTC Vive (2016 hardware). I won't lie and say it is equally impressive as a 4K monitor is today, but it's definitely usable and allows you to garner the other benefits of VR Desktop (10x more screens, 10x the size, 10x the focus/work immersions).

RE headset size, I agree that today they are much too bulky. But they are still good enough to "live in the future" and get serious work done in.

If you have an HTC Vive/Vive Pro/Valve Index, I can help you install Simula/give it a try. Contact me at george.w.singer [at] gmail [dot] com if you're interested.

Please don't post the same thing over and over.

But I don't know about "significantly underrate" either. The screens in the video you linked are 93x44 characters. It's certainly usable, but just my main screen holds 8 windows that size with a generous font and room to spare.

Even a Valve Index which has much higher resolution than a Vive isn't viable for this unless you want to virtually sit very close to low resolution panels.

@ebg13

If you have an HTC Vive/Vive Pro/Valve Index, I can help you install Simula/give it a try. Contact me at george.w.singer [at] gmail [dot] com if you're interested.

That looks cool, but I prefer each of my monitors to have a 4k resolution, not all of them combined to 1080p.

You only need 4k at the focal point you are concentrating on no? Pixels at places not being looked at are just wasted equipment.

Maybe it’s my age, but my neck hurts just watching all that neck movement.

As others have said, current tech isn't quite there yet to replace screens in meatspace, but I think it's obvious to infer what general computing may be like 10-20 years down the road, if progress continues at a steady pace:

Laptops and tablets would no longer be distinct factors for mobile, because they'll be replaced by always-worn high quality AR glasses, which run off a phone in your pocket (as Apple's glasses are rumored to be) and project virtual screens into your view of the real world. The AR space may be shared by multiple users for public signage, advertisements or virtual pets and fashion, à la the anime Dennou Coil. [0]

Physical keyboards/mice/trackpads will probably still be around because I haven't seen anything to fully replace the need for tactile feedback, unless someone comes out with sensory gloves.

At home we would put our phones into a docking station for more processing power and to connect to a giant physical screen and sound system.

[0] https://myanimelist.net/anime/2164/Dennou_Coil

I'm looking forward to video feed wallpaper.

Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge constructs a very good description of such a world. I see it coming more and more to life with each passing year. If you've not read it, definitely worth a read.

> At home we would put our phones into a docking station for more processing power and to connect to a giant physical screen and sound system.

I feel like we got so close to that with Continuum on Windows Phone, but it was far enough away that it never took off. Drop your phone into a USB-C dock, and you'd get 1080p/1200p video out with a Windows 10-esque UI (desktop, Start menu), keyboard/mouse support, plus an additional USB-A. In practice though, the limitations (range of available apps for WP was mediocre, you couldn't run apps side-by-side on the monitor, some apps didn't implement a full screen UI) made it frustrating.

High-end Samsung phones do this with Dex, though I have only used it once. The app limitations make it nearly useless and. novelty. If anyone can pull it off it would be Apple with some sort of OSX VM.

See also the motorola atrix, samsung dex, maruOS, ubuntu phone, ... .

Or the other way around with using tablets, phones, chromebooks etc. as thin clients, so whatever you connect to the monitor does not really matter.

@Razengan

RE BCIs: Totally agree. We need to figure out a way to allow people to "think-type" 20,000 distinct inputs. This is how we can totally escape the keyboard.

RE VR: I understand your skepticism, but people significantly underrate the quality of text that can be achieved in VR, even on today's hardware. Simula in particular has put in a lot of work in text resolution optimization (something that earlier VR Desktops failed completely at). This makes me able to use Simula for hours at a time, even on the old HTC Vive (2016 hardware). I won't lie and say it is equally impressive as a 4K monitor is today, but it's definitely usable and allows you to garner the other benefits of VR Desktop (10x more screens, 10x the size, 10x the focus/work immersions).

If you have an HTC Vive/Vive Pro/Valve Index, I can help you install Simula/give it a try. Contact me at george.w.singer [at] gmail [dot] com if you're interested.

But isn't simulation sickness[1] the fundamental limitation in the usage of VR for longer duration?

What good a VR desktop be if it can be only used 15-30 mins at a time.

[1]https://needgap.com/problems/7-simulation-sickness-in-vr-and...

That's only an issue if you're moving around in VR, particularly with artificial motion.

Sitting in one spot is generally fine for most people, as is so-called "roomscale" vr where it maps 1:1 to the area you're in.

I am able to be productive in VR Desktop for far longer than 15-30 min at a time (sitting stationary with mouse + keyboard).

Good to know. But when you stop using it, do you do it because you feel sick or for normal non-VR related reasons? i.e. is simulation sickness not a factor at all?

This is such an intense setup.

I'd be interested to know how you did it for sure.

The music in your clip just adds to it. Crazy!

@bamboozled

I would be happy to walk you through the setup. Contact me at george.w.singer@gmail.com. I can also send you my music playlist :]

Don't you still get exactly one monitor with the resolution of your headset? I am not really seeing the benefit of this over just a physical monitor and virtual desktops and fear that working with that setup for a whole workday will be very bad for your neck.

Have you ever actually tried to work with a VR headset?

VR tech is nauseating at best and normal screens can be tiresome for the eyes alone...

There is absolutely no upside of using a VR headset for work. Please grow up.

Maybe it's just you who gets nausea? Not everyone gets motion sickness so stop extrapolating your issues onto others. Also YOU please grow up and stop being lazy, it takes all of two seconds to see how wrong your lazy opinion is on Google and how many places are actively developing workplace and training and simulation vr, ar, xr solutions

Working in current-gen VR for me would be absolutely terrible.

- Low resolution. The best we have for consumers right now is the valve index, 1440x3200 resolution ~100 degree vertical FOV. A 24 inch display at a comfortable distance in such a headset would be at around 720x480 (480p), and a little blurry because of the projection.

- Fixed focus lens. You basically can't read anything close on today's headsets. Lens are focused so that they are sharp at infinity, which also mean they are blurry up close. Coding on virtual gigantic screens at a distance may be a good experience though.

- Touch typing is a must. In fact it is touch everything, because you will be blind to the real world.

- VR headsets can be uncomfortable when worn for hours at a time. Because of technical limitations (FOV and resolution), you tend to move your head a lot in VR, and doing so while wearing a heavy headset can make it even more uncomfortable.

Portability, for me, is the least of the problems, especially those that have "inside out" tracking. These things can fit in a small backpack.

@GuB-42

RE resolution: I understand your skepticism, but people significantly underrate the quality of text that can be achieved in VR, even on today's hardware. Simula in particular has put in a lot of work in text resolution optimization (something that earlier VR Desktops failed completely at). This makes me able to use Simula for hours at a time, even on the old HTC Vive (2016 hardware). I won't lie and say it is equally impressive as a 4K monitor is today, but it's definitely usable and allows you to garner the other benefits of VR Desktop (10x more screens, 10x the size, 10x the focus/work immersions).

RE touch typing: agree that touch typing makes VR Desktop more productive; however, we have an escape hatch in Simula in the form of a live Keyboard & Mouse view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5c3Hfp8Hcw

RE HMD comfort: Agreed that headsets need to get significantly lighter before they are usable for 16hr/day; however, I would argue that even today headsets are good enough to get serious work done in (on the order of 1hr/day, and perhaps as much as a few hours per day).

If you have an HTC Vive/Vive Pro/Valve Index, I can help you install Simula/give it a try. Contact me at george.w.singer [at] gmail [dot] com if you're interested.

Sounds and looks amazing a first glance, but the issue for me is simply that more virtual monitors does not translate into more physical resolution.

Currently the resolution of VR headsets is too low to make this into the "infinite monitor" solution that we all want.

> For the powering one thing to take into account is that cable are somewhat heavy and if you have 3 screen + your laptop you will need 4 electrical sockets. You could use the same socket for the screens by doing something like that.

Please DON'T DO THAT! Shortcuts / fire start with things like this. You can find C13 splitter power cords on the net for like 20~30 euros.

With disassembling it like he does, he also lost every insurance.

If something happens and they figure out that he had some custom rig with open panels laying around he has to pay.

His job, his livelihood depends on a single terminal block/bad soldering & ducttape hackjob. I'm all for DIY solutions to unique problems, but this is just plain stupid. It's only a matter of time before that thing sets on fire.

Author here: there is a screw terminal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screw_terminal) inside. Thats exactly what is used in every houses in the world also the current is so low that there can't be any issue.

But I didn't know about C13 slitter, that sounds like a good improvement

Theatre tech here, screw terminal blocks are not rated for being in any sort of flexing situation nor are they very good at stranded cable. It would be a better idea to get a cable specifically designed to break out to 3 IEC connectors.

Or at least put the screw terminals into a housing designed for it.

I did about a decade as a digital nomad, spending a couple months in each city. These days I'm still fairly nomadic, but stay longer (3-6mos) in each place.

I've experimented with a couple different multi-monitor setups. Notably, dual 24" displays, and a single Thunderbolt 27". For a while I had Skyteam Platinum and shipped my Thunderbolt display as my free extra checked bag on a couple trips to Brazil and Holland. When the shipping was free and I was staying in the same place for a while, it was marginally worth it bringing the second monitor. When I was making more frequent jumps between cities it was definitely not.

Personally, I find having additional monitors to not be a huge productivity boost to my work (software engineering, team/account management, writing, coaching, and managing an import/ecommerce business) relative to a good virtual desktop setup, particularly when weighed against increased pack weight and shipping costs. The place where it helps me the most is to be able to have API docs open alongside my editor/IDE, but I can do the same on retina macbook display, so having a lightweight and portable setup wins out for me.

When I occasionally want a second screen, the 13" iPad does the trick nicely. If it's a PDF, I'll usually use an iOS reader, if it's a terminal or website I'll usually treat it as a second monitor.

same :)

https://tinyurl.com/qk6jlzg

Dead link

Very much agree.

With a good WM, it's quicker to switch between API docs and editor than it is to move and refocus my eyes to another monitor.

So now I'm using a single 14" laptop screen.

Same here, but an external ultra wide monitor is always useful if you have to manage a bunch of VMs, I use that setup a lot to test an app I'm working on (https://github.com/rmpr/atbswp), which is impossible with the laptop screen size. https://i.imgur.com/Cf60LtS.png

So cool to hear from another decade long digital nomad with same external monitor experience! Traveling to Budapest anytime soon?

Ah, I miss Budapest. I lived there in 2015-2016, on the Pest side in Újlipótváros. So many good memories from my time there. I spent a lot of time at the Kaptár Coworking space, the Turkish baths, Hummusbar, Pampas, and so many cool cafes. I loved running along the river and the islands. I still think of the little circus music tune they played in the metro when a train was arriving. I miss the dark Hungarian sense of humor. I lived in Pécs for a while too. I definitely think about returning and spending more time there.

Well, congratulations on the whole setup. It seems you planned everything down to the last detail and it worked out well.

However, if I were you, I would have asked myself: (1) do I really need 3 monitors, (2) if yes, can I just rent them wherever I'm headed, (3) if no, can I just substitute them with a larger UHD TV, which seem to be quite cheap these days (buy one and resell later).

In fact, if you are staying at a hotel or a serviced apartment, there would usually be a TV you could repurpose for this.

I also wanted to point out you can travel with more luggage as long as a single piece is under 32 kg, and stuff can be shipped internationally without including an invoice.

As long as a single item is below 20 kg, you could also use EMS, which works nearly as well, is cheaper, and, unlike parcel services, does not require you to appoint a customs agent on your behalf.

I'm not writing all this to critize what you did but just wanted to let you know alternate solutions should in fact be possible. As someone doing a lot of travelling, I've come to the conclusion that travelling light is the best thing one can do.

> (2) if yes, can I just rent them wherever I'm headed,

Sounds like there's a very boring but likely profitable business waiting to be spawned here. The fact that there isn't an obvious choice for renting electronic goods for digital nomads on the go is a pretty big flag.

They exist and they are horribly expensive. Last time I was setting up a recruiting booth and it was cheaper to buy a display from Walmart than it was to rent one. And I was able to return it to Walmart at the end, too.

I'm surprised that it's so expensive -- would you mind giving some pointers to the companies you looked into if you remember any of them?

I don't have names. This was at CVPR 2017 in Honolulu.

The convention center had some recommended A/V rental company that quoted $350 for a simple 28" display or something of the sort. They clearly didn't understand basic economics because it cost me 4*$10=$40 Uber rides to get a display from Walmart and return it for a full refund, so the rental company would have needed to be cheaper than $40 to make sense to a customer. Also they violated the most basic axiom of rentals which is that a single day rental needs to be significantly cheaper than buying.

I’m in the conference and events business. I had the exact same mentality as you when I started, but after a couple broken monitors and stuff that doesn’t work and so on I started to understand the logic of paying an AV vendor to just make sure there’s a working monitor on the table.

My company needed a half dozen 32" monitors for a conference (to play videos, so 1080p was fine). We had some in storage, but it was cheaper to buy some new ones from Amazon (with free shipping) and dispose of them after the conference than to pay to ship the existing ones back and forth to the conference. They bought a spare one just in case one failed (they didn't)

One of the employees manning the booth went to high school nearby and had arranged for someone from their AV department show up after the conference to pick up the monitors as a donation.

The shipping companies need to hear this -- not only are they losing business, but they are also encouraging people to buy unnecessary new stuff.

Renting equipment at conferences is indeed heinously expensive, IME.

However, this is a very different case to the one of the previous commenter, who is talking about renting out equipment to the public, for the sake of ‘digital nomads’.

"I don't really need to be close to my friends or be in a place that I know but I need ... three 24 inches monitors an external GPU and an ergonomic keyboard."

Does anyone else have a hard time coming to grips with this prioritization? Even looking at this objectively with something like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, yes we do need friends, though 3 24" monitors don't seem to appear.

Yes, i found that sentence extremely off-putting. It's surely a personal thing, but i feel being close or far away from my friends and loved ones has a much bigger impact on my happiness than how many monitors or ergonomic devices i use. And happiness, in turn, greatly affects what i do.

For example, right now i'm work&traveling, and i've definitely felt loneliness and the distance from my friends, while i couldn't have cared less that i've only been programming with a 14" laptop monitor.

Favorably read, emphasis on "close to". You can have friends you talk to daily and are physically close to rarely. Proximity doesn't matter to everyone.

an external monitor (one) and ergonomic keyboard have one benefit. ergonomics.

Remember there are no osha-approved laptops.

Typing on a shitty keyboard, no wrist rest and holding yourself hunched over is a quick way to musculoskeletal hell.

well, Maslow's hierarchy is a theory, and not without controversy, though i think you're on to something here personally.

however, it sounds like they're prioritizing productivity, which may be a proxy for money or success at this point in their lives. i'm not opposed to it.

it's also really hard to maintain less deep friendships without presence so if you're moving a lot those are likely to go away. though i do think nomads undervalue roots and community, but i imagine many of them discover that after some time, or are OK with it and keep traveling.

I interpreted it as a joke from somebody who is particularly focused on computers but also has a pretty good sense of humor about it

I interpreted this as saying he doesn't really have any close friends who are local.

That might not apply to you, but it's not really something to criticize the author for.

But then you are saying you don't understand why people do digital nomading. While I am not sure I'd like it, I can see why people are attracted to perpetual travel.

I can understand the motivation completely.

It's not about wanting to be away from your friends. It's about not wanting to be stuck in your apartment in a city that's rainy and cold for six months straight starting in late October when you're young and unencumbered and you know that there's a sunny tropical paradise just a quick 16 hour flight away.

There's lots of other unencumbered young fun people there riding out the winter season, working on their surfing skills while coding from their laptops. Some of them you already know, others you'll meet when you get there, and you'll keep in touch for years (even if you're no longer living near them).

It's such a good way to do things that many people have arranged their lives so that they can do it every year (I did it for maybe 15 years before finally buying a couch in a place where there was something to do in the winter).

But I might point out to the author that 27 inch monitors cost $129.00 each. Even in Krabi, Thailand. And they make good gifts to the locals when it's time to move on.

Sorted.

> 27 inch monitors cost $129.00 each

Heh yes, that's what I thought as well. And what's more, he only needed 24". Let's assume that 129 is the going rate for the author and he wanted 3 monitors to work on. Since he has undoubtedly spent more than three hours building and schlepping around this setup, I don't think it was worth it.

But then again, that's probably not what this is about :)

That might work well if you are single and have no obligations in live, all power to you but it's just not an option for many.

No, I don't need friends.

https://i.imgur.com/RUN11Hb.jpg

Haha, first thing I thought of as well.

You laugh but, several years ago in the second floor of Red Rock in Mountain View, I saw a guy do that very thing.

He brought in his laptop, and the box containing whatever giagantic Apple monitor he had, and proceeded to hook it up.

When barista came by bussing the tables, she told him to put it away. He was completely incredulous, but relented.

I wonder what the most ridiculous thing a coffee shop employee has had to tell someone to put away? Projector? Popcorn maker?

Hmm. I have a terrible idea.

I bet more than one coffee shop in the Bay Area has had to deal with projectors more than once.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/aNNDoiJuNkrgTwmv6

When I was in high school I worked for our district’s IT department. There were a couple of Power Mac G5s that were shared, but the students working in that department were using eMacs. One year I bought the first generation Intel iMac (my first Mac), which was significantly faster than the eMacs we were allotted. I got a carrying bag for it and biked into work with it each day. That said, I wouldn’t dream of doing that in a public cafe.

Dell (IIRC) used to have a portable workstation that when closed was basically a briefcase, with the hinge as the handle...

After a bit of digging, the XPS M2010 20" entertainment 'laptop' released in 2006.

That was Dolch's main product: http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/1226/Dolch-Computer-S...

https://jcs.org/2018/03/20/dolch64

https://twitter.com/jcs/status/1232779884751204354

https://github.com/ESWAT/john-carmack-plan-archive/blob/mast...

No, I'm not taking a vacation. Quite the opposite, in fact.

I'm getting a hotel room in a state where I don't know anyone, so I can do a bunch of research with no distractions.

I bought a new computer specifically for this purpose - A Dolch portable pentium-II system. The significant thing is that it has full length PCI slots, so I was able to put an Evans & Sutherland OpenGL accelerator in it (not enough room for an intergraph Realizm, though), and still drive the internal LCD screen. It works out pretty well, but I'm sure there will be conventional laptops with good 3D acceleration available later this year.

This will be an interesting experiment for me. I have always wondered how much of my time that isn't at peak productivity is a necessary rest break, and how much of it is just wasted.

SUN used to have the SPARKstation Voyager which was meant to be a portable desktop as well.

Back in the 90s a friend of mines dad donated a room full of new PCs for the pc lab (486 dx66) and some big monitors to our high school. My friend at the time thought that since he was the main one (voluntarily) tech supporting most of the PCs in the lab, and it being his dad who donated everything, that he could exchange a few things with his personal setup at home. Initially it was trading his 1MB RAM sticks for 4MB sticks. Near the end it was carrying home one of the those incredibly heavy Sony Trinitron 21" CRTs (the one with composite outputs) on his bike handlebars a few miles home down. I rode with him and kept thinking no way he'd make it... but he did, although there a few close calls stopping at traffic lights. In the spirit of his (sadly passed away) adventurous self, a few years ago I carried home 2x 24" LCDs that i had lent my friend the week prior... on my unicycle, figuring my hands were free, why not carry something? The worst part was going up hills... thankfully there were no spills ;)

The ID software guys used to carry their work desktops home at night to work on their own games.

One of the promotional videos for the very first Macintosh from 1984 also showcased its "portability" :)

https://youtu.be/-5zeJyQ31rM?t=113 (at 1:52, with bonus Bill Gates)

I have seen an occasional iMac set up in the coffee shop...

If you like the gamer style more, you have the Roccat Tusko for 24" monitors. Works well with a mini-ITX computer when going to LANs.

I've travelled with a single 27" iMac, which wasn't much of a problem, but it's a shame that Apple removed the "Target Display" mode [0] from the newer 5K/Retina iMacs. What the hell?

That would have been perfect, to have a lighter MacBook or even the newer USB-C iPad Pro for outdoors, with the 27" at the hotel, without having to sync data before working on the bigger screen. Or to host a visitor's Mac. But no, now you have to buy a separate 4K monitor if you want to view your Mac or iPad on a big screen, even if you have a perfectly good (and expensive) 5K iMac.

On a side note, can somebody recommend a good way to output my Nintendo Switch (or any other console) to a macOS window? I haven't owned a TV in ages, and even if I did being able to play my Switch on my laptop screen would be great while traveling.

[0] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204592

I used an Elgato game capture card to play my Nintendo Switch through my PC. I know they also support OSX.

To me it seems easier to buy a monitor at my destination and give it away than to deal with traveling with and risking damage to a 27" iMac.

If you pack the iMac in its original boxes (there are 2, one inside the other), with the wrappers and foam and all, with some extra padding (I threw in a seat cushion in front of the covered screen), it should be fine..

You could also get a specialized carry/travel case.

If you're serious about taking your iMac to places, look into a tailored flight case. I used to own one from theflightcasecompany.com (no affiliation). Apple staff gave me envious looks when I brought in my machine for service in that. Although I personally wasn't interested in keeping my iMac (mid 2011) after experiencing how flawed the design was, I know the person I sold the case to had—or has?—been happily using it for years.

Years ago, I used to do something slightly crazy, that might or might not be possible still. Rather than my iMac being an external display for my MacBook Air, I put that one in Target Disk mode (over TB1) and booted the iMac from it. Still everything in one place, but actually leveraging the better specs. I believe it was Snow Leopard at the time, which had few issues doing so. While it worked surprisingly well, the main downside was I always had to shutdown to unplug. After about a year of working like that, my iMac got those notorious black spots, and shortly after, the first MacBook Pro retina came out (good times). Since then, I'm back to having a powerful laptop and an external display.

This is actually a really good idea!

IIRC it was removed because neither the TCON or the external ports could process the LVDS or eDP streams that the internal connection uses. The old way was very simple because you practically just mux'ed the eDP to either the inside port or the outside one. I suppose you could do it with two TB3 connections now. But that makes it a whole lot more complex than just a mux and some support parts.

I figured it may have something to do with the different internal circuitry for driving the massive 5K wide-color screen, but I would have settled for some kind of adapter, no matter how bulky. Anything really to save me from buying an standalone screen just for my MacBook.

Get something like a camlink 4K and just plug your laptop into that. And VLC should be able to fullscreen that video feed just fine. And it's about the size of a USB stick (plus HDMI cable of course) so it's actually portable enough.

Keep in mind that you get some serious limitations; either low frame rate or crappy color. The problem is that at the time there was no realistic way to pump enough data around in a fast enough method. It has to be something like 20Gbit/s with no processing involved, and with processing it has to be even bigger to relax the compression a bit.

I think what most capture devices do that have 'realtime' options is either heavy compression/decompression, reduced framerates or lower color capture.

There are many enthusiasts who have experimented with cramming multiple monitors and desktop-class computers into a briefcase form factor. You can see various triple monitor briefcase setups on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/b5z9g5/rate_m... https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberDeck/comments/f1a1t5/was_told_...

The author had a preference for larger monitors over ease of transport, but if you're willing to sacrifice screen size, you can cram desktop components into a standard briefcase pretty easily.

DIY dual screen laptop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2aY6cvk-WI

Instead of multiple normal monitors I've started mounting tablets around my main monitor. Not quite the same flexibility but for e.g. email, slack etc. that I like having up, it works well.

My setup isn't meant to be mobile, but suspect it would be easier to make it so than normal monitors.

In mid-2001, notably before 9/11, I had to quickly move a 4U Sun Netra server from San Jose to Washington DC.

I just carried it on.

It was enormous - 4U and full length - and weighed a ton.

No packaging, no box - just carrying a huge server down the aisle of the plane ...

And it fit in the overhead bin!?

Based on current carry-on bag size limits, the bins on most planes are at least 22" deep, so a 19" server won't be a problem. It'll just take up the space of 2+ bags, depending on how long it is.

Depending on the server build and your physical strength you'll have a lot of trouble lifting it there. My 3U/12x3.5" lives on a cupboard (few inches lower than overhead bins), and I would never dare to (re-)move it (from) there with the disks inserted. Without them it's still heavy enough and a pain to move around, but then I'm more on the nerdy end of the STR scale ;-)

"And it fit in the overhead bin!?"

Yes, I put it in the overhead bin and it did, indeed, fit.

After all, a rackmount server is only 19" wide ...

Different times. I’ve never seen a flight with room left in the overhead bin in years.

It's his carry-on. Stash it in the overhead when you're boarding. Presumably, if a company needs a server moved in a hurry, it's worth buying a first-class ticket for the "lucky" human who has to go along with it. I've never seen first-class pax not get overhead space, and almost never even see them need to use space outside the first-class section.

Ha, now I’m imagining a 4U server getting the window seat.

-“Can we switch seats?”

-“I’m afraid I can’t do that Dave”

Definitely if it was in an exit row then it would need to be reseated.

"Ha, now I’m imagining a 4U server getting the window seat."

No seat - I put it in the overhead bin ...

Warning: when opening the overhead bin objects may fall out.

Imagine being excited to get off a long-haul flight and having this thing fall on your head. -_-

... notably before 9/11 ...

Derailing the thread, I took my first flight, age 18, in 2001. I was into carrying lots of tools on my belt / in my pockets back then, so carried on a pair of pliers, crescent wrench, flat head and phillips screwdrivers, a Swiss Army knife, a penknife, about six feet of baling wire, and lord knows what else. Dumped it all into the little round change tray, sent it through the X-ray machine, and re-pocketed it on the other side.

Those were the days.

You can still do that minus the knife as long as the tools are under 7 inches. They even allow power tools. For check in can bring whatever tools you want.

https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/whatcanibring/...

Tehcnically true but any sort of toolbag seems to trigger being selected for a "random" groping by the TSA and with tools being so cheap nowadays it often makes sense to carry on your luggage (and maybe your favorite multimeter or something) and hit up Harbor Freight where you land.

The kind of people that are flying around to fix expensive equipment aren't going to tolerate using tools from Harbor Freight. And the people that own expensive equipment where you have to pay someone to fly in to fix it aren't going to want it being touched by Harbor Freight tools.

I don't know. My friend managed to do this by accident - he had a pocket knife in his backpack that he forgot about. Just threw the backpack in the X-ray scanner and picked it up on the other side. Only noticed it when we were changing flights.

This was just a few years ago, a day or two after France had had one of its annual terrorist attacks.

I too have brought a knife through security... not sure how much of it was me versus the fact that there were a whole bunch of Boy Scouts right in front of me, so they might've though I was with them or something.

7 inches would be luxurious. In Canada we're limited to 6cm (2.4 inches) for the head/shaft of the tool, but in practice, I've had small screwdrivers confiscated for being slightly over 6cm including the handle.

https://www.catsa-acsta.gc.ca/en/item/tools

Did you just buy a seat for it? I read about an overnight courier service for weird items that would send a person on plane with the item.

That's pretty interesting. Was it an article? If so, do you think you can dig up that article?

From what I read this is how DHL actually was founded,but for legal documents.[1] [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL#Origins

Back when I worked for BT that was part of the disaster recovery for the BT Worldwide Intranet.

We would quickly reconfig our test server to match the live on whilst our support person booked taxis and two tickets from Heathrow to Edinburgh - then one of us would fly up with the server on the seat next to them.

Yes I know we should have had a hot spare in the rack in CAPITAL (the main Exchange in Edinburgh)

> before 9/11

At Aph where I worked in the 1970's, the airport people freaked out over my colleagues carrying a briefcase filled with electronic circuitry on the plane.

Aph made the prototypes for Mattel's handheld LED games. The prototype was a custom wirewrapped single board computer about 8*11 inches, with power supply and a rigged up game keyboard. It was all conveniently mounted in a hard shell briefcase. He'd have to power up the device and play the game to convince them it was harmless.

Playing them in the airport would always draw a crowd. Nobody had seen anything like that before.

I wonder what has happened to those machines. They were pretty cool.

Taking 1 off prototype devices across borders, or worse parts of ones (so you can't demonstrate even partial function) is sometimes fun. It can generate some interesting conversations, especially RF gear.

Note that there was no essential distinction between the single board computers we were designing and building, and an Apple II. We coulda been billionaires! :-/ I even made one that generated a 24*80 display on any CRT monitor.

I’m reminded of the http://catb.org/jargon/html/tv-typewriters.html hospital security story.

I know someone who recently did that with a satellite that they were transporting to the facility that was going to pack it into a rocket to launch it into orbit. They apparently didn't have any problems.

Back in 1993 or so, I was doing my PhD and also ended up doing a lot of videoconferencing demos at various conferences. This really required a Sun Sparcstation 20, maxed out with dual CPUs, as much RAM as it would take, and a video capture card and camera. In such a spec, an SS20 was pretty rare, so I carried the one from our lab everywhere in an unpadded canvas shoulder bag - on planes, buses, trains, whereever. It was pretty large, weighed about 25lbs, and back in 1993 was worth about £20,000 in that spec, which was more than I earned in a year. I was pretty worried I'd drop it or leave it in the pub or something, but I guess being so heavy, it was hard to forget. Despite the bumps, bashes and vibration, it never failed - Sun made good hardware back then. Other than having a difficult time with customs officials in Italy one time (they wanted to "fine" me for a form I apparently should have filled out; I didn't have any money, so couldn't pay no matter what they wanted - missed my flight by 12 hours as a result), nothing bad ever happened.

I had a colleague who was asked by a client to bring a 2U FPGA-based router on the plane to Brazil .. and not declare it to customs, as that would save the 50% import tax. Apparently this ludicrous scheme worked.

I've flown with sketchy looking computers in pelican cases a few times. The only time it was a problem was when I mentioned that the batteries in the box were scooter batteries. Apparently you can fly with any size lead-acid batteries you want, but "scooter batteries" are on a list of specifically banned items.

The security folks aren't applying any judgement, they're just looking for things on a list of stuff that's not allowed. As long as big-ass servers aren't on the list and they fit in the carry-on size limit, it's all good.

I had a similar experience with lithium-ion batteries: I flew from Canada to the US with a backpack full of equipment that was 99% battery, 1% rfid reader by volume. On the x-ray, it looked like battery packs and that wouldn't have been allowed. But I told them it was rfid readers, and that made it okay.

Not just security people. Easy way of avoiding it if the gate staff want to tag your carry on bag and put it on the hold: be very willing,take their receipt that points out there shouldn't be batteries in there,then very apologetically point out you have devices with batteries in there.

So far it's worked every time - not once have they asked if I could take them out; probably not so much that they're clueless as that they're just looking for the easiest way of getting their assigned task done.

I've learned to enjoy working on small screens. I did it because I traveled and didn't want anything I can't put in a backpack. For a long time I also used old low-res netbooks, because I didn't want to worry about a pricier laptop getting damaged (and because there was always one around). At one time switching to 1280x800 was a step-up; can't remember what resolution I used before then.

I know that there are way more people who are into large displays, and that's perfectly understandable, but I'll mention what the advantages of small low-res screens are for me:

- cheap + small + light + energy efficient;

- task focus: I'm looking at one thing at a time. I realise that a lot of people want the opposite ability, but I cherish this constraint. If you have problems with attention, you might want to consider this;

- more structure and efficiency in how you switch tasks: switching tasks takes more work than simply moving your eyes, so I quickly learned that thinking about what the next step is not only helps me get to the necessary window without any discomfort, but also helps with work efficiency and focus;

- information efficiency: really most of these advantages are about focus: with a small screen most of the information I have in front of me is relevant to what I'm doing. If I had all my windows looking at me all the time, only [100/number of windows]% of that information would be relevant at any point in time.

Disadvantages: partner's laptop better for watching movies.

There is for sure a sweetspot. I don't think 1280x800 is it.

When you have to scroll around on your screen to read text properly or sourcecode etc. then the screen is just not big enough.

With the 13,X" Inch display from a macbook pro i don't have the feeling of constraint. Its quite a nice size.

I used to code with that type of setup, with multiple large monitors. But a few months back, I switched to a single 43" UHD TV instead. I get more screen real estate that I did before, have fewer cables to deal with, and have less of a mental paradigm shift when I do travel and shrink down to just one laptop screen.

As soon as someone invents a way to fold or roll up a 40+ inch screen, I'll buy it.

I don't have a paradigm shift when I am forced to work on a small monitor, I just miss the real estate. I don't care if it is spread across multiple monitors or not (although I admit it is awkward in my current setup where my 3 monitors are different sizes and resolutions, so dragging windows from one to another requires resizing them).

If I have to work on my small screen, I'm far less efficient although it depends on the task. When developing, I like to have my app as well as multiple editors all in front of me at once. Can't do that on 13" really.

It's like putting together a model ship in a bottle, with a pair of tweezers.

Have you considered a 4k short throw projector? The screen would be an issue, but you could get a foldable one, buy one on the spot or just use a white wall

I wonder if it's good enough for representing textual information, as in coding.

The newer projectors are quite impressive. You won't get good color accuracy during the day, but it can still be good enough for almost anything else. The image projected is surprisingly sharp. I reckon if you work in the evenings and travel a lot it could be a nice setup.

Back in January of 2019 I bought a 55" UHD TV that I used as my main monitor for a few months.

Ultimately, I found that 55" was too big for me relative to the distance that I was sitting from the screen.

Currently I am back to using a 27" PC monitor with 2560x1440 resolution. I use this same monitor both when I use my desktop computer and when I use my laptop. In the latter case I have the additional monitor of the laptop itself, a 13.3" Retina (2560x1600) MacBook Air 2018 model, but it is sitting at an angle.

There were multiple issues with using a 55" UHD TV for me. A couple of the main issues that I had with using that TV as my main computer monitor were:

1. The pixels were a bit too visible at the distance I was sitting.

2. The upper 1/3 portion of the monitor or so was basically outside of my field of view, and as were the left and right 1/4 portions of the monitor. Turning my head, the fact that the display itself was flat still made it uncomfortable to use these areas of the screen.

3. In the RGB components of each individual pixels, there was one of them that dominated too much. I think it was the red component but I don't quite remember. To combat this I adjusted the settings quite a bit, and even reduced the saturation heavily. Still it felt sort of strange.

But even with the better experience of going back to my 27" monitor and sometimes additionally using laptop display on the side, I often feel restricted in terms of screen real estate.

Lately I have been feeling a lot like it is an impossible battle.

On top of that I am beginning to feel more and more tired from looking at my monitors, and I also find sitting down in front of my computers both restricting in how I am postured and in the poor quality of the chair that I am sitting on. I am turning 30 years old later this year.

I feel that more and more that for me the joy of computing is becoming overshadowed by tiresomeness and feelings of being restricted, both physically in how I am sitting and moving and in terms of screen real-estate and in interacting with code and data in general.

I feel like I used to be able to marvel at things on the screen when I was much younger and to not be so bothered about the restrictions of posture and of what could be displayed at once and how I could interact with them.

I am left thinking that perhaps my mental capacity is starting to shrink as part of the ageing process of my body, but then I also think that perhaps it is not so much this as it is simply that the things I am working on now requires keeping track of a lot more things at once than the number of things I had to keep track of when I was young and still learning and working on simpler things.

In the beginning of my twenties I was concerned with optimizing my desktop environment for productivity. This was largely a time sink, and not something that I have desired to do anymore for several years now. But at the same time, I feel that I am wearing myself out sitting in front of the computer. And I feel that it shouldn't be this way.

For a while, when VR was new, I was intrigued by the idea of using VR as a working environment. Never went as far as to buy a VR headset but I've since lost a lot of the faith in VR as a magical silver bullet. Perhaps in the future sometime VR will be a solution to some of the problems I am experiencing, but I don't think the tools exist today to really take advantage of VR for coding and for working with data. Furthermore, having those displays on your head for hours on end is sure to be even more physically exhausting than looking at the monitors on my desk which themselves are already wearing me down.

I guess at this point I am basically rambling. But the point that I want to get to is that I believe that the way we work with code and data today is really really far from what would be the best for us. And I don't feel like I have the time nor the energy to tackle that problem either.

I also tried a 55" UHD and found it too big. I scaled down to a 49" on a rolling tv stand and it's perfect for me. I have some distance between myself and the screen though. ~6"

I really wish there was a way for me to travel with this setup :/

I assume that’s feet, and not inch right?

> 3. In the RGB components of each individual pixels, there was one of them that dominated too much. I think it was the red component but I don't quite remember. To combat this I adjusted the settings quite a bit, and even reduced the saturation heavily. Still it felt sort of strange.

You wear glasses, don’t you? Changing the settings won’t help that much. An LCD can’t block all the light coming through, and wide gamut backlights are typically much wider on red vs sRGB. Glasses will cause chromatic aberration and exaggerate the difference.

For me, even 27" is too much. My favourite size is 24" display with 16:10 aspect ratio.

Also, I long for the day when humanity will retire the imperial measurements system.

This. I bought the good old lp2475w when its price was around $1000 , then two more when it dropped to a few hundred bucks.

Planing to use them forever.

CCFL is infinitely better than LED.

> CCFL is infinitely better than LED.

How so?

Like incandescent lamps are better than LED. Spectrum is closer to that of sun.

What are you basing that off? From what I've seen, LEDs are capable of producing smoother light spectrums than CCFLs.

Me too. I love my Dell U2415, which is not only a really well-made product but also that same 1920x1200 16:10 24" shape that seems perfect. When I have it vertical, I can fit one huge window of code or two browser windows. Horizontally, a browser window and a few smaller terminals fit nicely.

Actually, I'm using Dell UP2413, it's really great. Despite being older, it has somewhat better color resolution than U2415.

Agreed, 55" does sound huge. I'd never be able to work with the edges at that size.

At 43", I keep the monitor a few inches farther back than my old setup. But I also got a great idea from my eye doctor - he helped me refine a prescription specifically for the distance between my chair and monitor. With these glasses, the screen is impeccably sharp. And I have a different set of glasses for when I walk away from the desk.

I have a pair of bifocals for that purpose: medium/short range, instead of the usual long/short.

I use a 55 inch UHD about 4 feet from my eyes, works great, no need for reading glasses.

> Perhaps in the future sometime

Nreal "light" AR glasses (dev kit) provide a usb3 50-degree (5 fists) 1080p stereo screen at 2 m (so like 36"). Head tracking permits making that a viewport into a larger desktop. Display is very crisp. Ubuntu desktop looked quite usable.

Before CoV, the $1.2k dev kit was available outside US (long FCC delay) with claimed 1 mo lead. Issues with 6DOF tracking, nose fit, and maybe warmth. But I'd buy it if I could. Several competitors were aiming for similar designs this year. Now? But I think people are underestimating how rapid this transition might be, at least for some of our use cases.

Note there are right now fairly cheap 8k 55" TVs (Samsung Q900 series), and LG is releasing 48" 4k OLED TV soon. But I agree that these are way too large for working with text.

Regarding ergonomics, here are some obvious improvements:

1. A motorized sit/stand desk. Stand up every hour, or whenever you feel like stretching.

2. A decent chair: Leap and Embody are the best (I tried many).

3. High refresh rate monitors. If you're looking at moving text often (e.g. while scrolling) it's much easier on the eyes. Personally I'm getting two Asus XG27UQ as soon as they appear on Amazon. Also anything less than 4k on 27" monitor looks like crap. 5k looks even better, but there are currently no high refresh rate offerings. Hard to say which one more important for eye comfort - resolution or refresh rate, both are, so spend a bit more and get both.

4. Good headphones, or speakers if you work alone (speakers aren't as tiring for my ears as headphones with prolonged use). When there are other people around I use HD600 or QC35II depending on noise level, otherwise I enjoy my Edifier S360DB. Working in silence is great too sometimes.

Finally, try to get out to a park or a beach and let your eyes and mind rest a little. Leave your phone in the car. Or better yet bike/run there.

p.s. I'm 42, got my PhD in machine learning last year, currently keep track of my new R&D job projects, and an exciting personal side project, and two kids at home. Never felt sharper.

I definitely respect and align myself with your workstation hygiene arrangements but maybe not on every detail.

> anything less than 4k on 27" monitor looks like crap I run closer to 1.5K of native definition on a 30" monitor. I find this is very good and doesn't require any fancy tuning in applications or the OS's. I have the panel mounted as low as possible so that I don't have to tip my head back too much to look at the top.

I don't listen to music or podcasts while I work, I found I concentrate better in silence. I also have a door I can close when people are talking BS in the hallway, so my stomach doesn't scrunch up at the falsehoods. The speakers that play the mail alert were bought as cheap as possible at BestBuy.

I have the privilege of being able to carry out all this largely at employer's expense and I don't waste it.

The speakers that play the mail alert

This phrasing makes me think you’re much older than I am :)

which would explain you being fine with “1.5k” resolution on a 30” screen.

I have a Samsung 55" Curved TV that I use as a monitor (that frustratingly they just stopped selling) which addresses many of these issues.

> In the RGB components of each individual pixels, there was one of them that dominated too much. I think it was the red component but I don't quite remember. To combat this I adjusted the settings quite a bit, and even reduced the saturation heavily. Still it felt sort of strange.

On certain types of LCD TVs, the sub-pixels are not equal amounts of Red, Green, and Blue. As you've found out, some TVs have more Red sub-pixels than the other colours. This is because TVs are optimised for video viewing, and the manufacturers worked out that more Red in a scene results in a richer picture.

There's some videos out there that show the differences in close up (I don't have the URLs to hand), but in the worse cases, text can end up being unreadable due to the missing sub-pixel colours.

The bottom line is, a cheap 43" TV panel is not the same panel as you get in a 43" monitor.

I currently sit in front of a 55" 4K LG OLED and I feel your pain on the wall-like nature of it up close. It took some getting used to and sometimes I miss having side monitors. I sit at varying distances to it depending on what I'm doing but my head is usually no closer than 3 feet from it and I'll be honest.. I recline a lot--sometimes 45 degrees or more... I've been nearly horizontal. (I use a split keyboard so I can move my hands as far apart as I need to to get comfortable.) I don't know what the current research says about that but reclining or standing definitely makes it easier to look at the top of the screen.

How far do you sit from the TV? How near or far is comfortable compared to a monitor that fits on your desk. I'm contemplating a similar setup.

A 43" UHD TV would have the same dpi as a 21.5" FHD monitor, so I guess the viewing distance should be about the same for both, if that helps put things into perspective. I'm assuming you don't intend to use scaling.

An important thing to keep in mind is there are actual computer monitors out there that match those specs and cost about the same as a comparable TV. If you don't intend to ever use it as an actual TV, that would probably be a slightly better choice as a TV might have unwanted picture optimizations or force you to use a remote to turn it on/switch inputs etc.

Monitors will also have PC inputs (DisplayPort, HDMI, VGA), unlike inexpensive 43 inch TVs.

Every TV has HDMI nowadays. VGA is pretty common on older HDTVs. I’ve seen Mini DP on a nicer recent one too.

DisplayPort is uncommon enough on 4k TVs that none of the 4k TVs reviewed on rtings have DisplayPort inputs[0]. In contrast, the several years old 43 inch monitor I'm using has two DisplayPort ports.

[0] https://www.rtings.com/tv/tools/table/23958

I just measured, and it is 34" from my eyes to the screen. My old monitors were a few inches closer.

I'm sitting about 2 feet from one right now.

The dot pitch is about the same as a 22" 1080p or 27" 1440p monitor, so really it's like having 4 1080p displays but with no bezels and a much smaller desk footprint.

It's great, cheaper than those ultrawide displays but with more resolution at the top of the screen for music players, email, etc. The built in TV speakers are more or less the same as desktop speakers but with no extra space.

Having a large 16:9 format display is also a million times better for games and fullscreen video.

My only complaints are that the refresh rate is limited to 60fps and the display lag is 20ms. I'll probably upgrade when HDMI adaptive sync becomes more commonplace.

A comment above you mentioned a fold-up screen. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22459669

> But a few months back, I switched to a single 43" UHD TV instead. I get more screen real estate that I did before

No you didn’t. If you switched from 2x 24” 4Ks to a single 43” 4K, you have half the real estate you used to, you’re just zoomed in on it.

To avoid confusing inches as a useful metric for how much information can be shown on screens at once, monitors should be measured in megapixels.

Problem’s even worse with “ultrawides” that are generally significantly lower dpi than their 4K siblings, so 1/2 to 1/4 the megapixels compared to dual 4Ks.

I think you’re off too. A 43” 4k can be run at its native 4k and the text is fine for reading and programming. If you’re running a 24” 4k, you’re running it scaled. At a minimum you’re running it at 1.5x, which means you’re getting about the same screen usage as the 43” tv.

It’s mathematically impossible to be off when using megapixels, that’s the point. It’s objective, not subjective. Bring back the subjective by considering “dpi” or “ppi”.

And no, I use dual 24” plus the Macbook Pro 16” native screen, and I run the 24s at native pixels (dual 4K @ 60Hz). I do, however, scale fonts up to 120% - 150% text size (depends on app).

This reduces the % of screen used for UI elements, while retaining “retina” text legible at arms length (same distance you’d read an iPad or magazine).

Because of my weird comfort and focus habits I've forced myself to get used to small screens. I hate having more than one task visible at any one moment so all my apps are running full-screen anyway. I've got very used to the various short-cuts for switching apps. I use Windows and MacOS and avoid all the full-screen functionality in MacOS (never managed to really get my head round it). I've got a 13" Macbook Air (2015 - before they ruined them) and a 15" Windows Laptop (Gaming GPU so I couldn't dual boot the Mac)

My IDEs are all Jetbrains (PyCharm, Rider). A console is no issue. The biggest challenge is probably Unity but having good workspace presets for various tasks helps.

Another factor - I'm pushing 50 and my eyesight is getting worse so I want less going on at once so I can make stuff bigger...

From one old git with failing eyesight to another, think about talking to your optician and investigating a pair of glasses optimised for the shorter distance. Life changing move if you spend any decent amount of time in front of a monitor. Good luck!

Does the difference in alt-tab behavior between Windows and MacOS (with alt-` too) slow you down at all? I might venture to guess no, since your workflow sounds like largely single-window-per-program.

Not OP but in a similar position. I find that since I don't use the desktop switching features on MacOS I dont have a problem with the alt tab situation. I only use one desktop and just alt tab for everything. Its just a minor annoyance on Windows when alt+` doesn't respond.

The worst part for me about switching back and forth between MacOS and Windows/Nix is the muscle memory around applekey+c/v vs ctrl+c/v. There isn't a way to remap keys to recreate that muscle memory on Windows/nix and keep the muscle memory for alt tab.

Surely Windows has a comparable window-switching behavior which could be mapped to alt-` with AutoHotKey or similar? I'm not familiar with Windows post-95, but I'd do this in a heartbeat, since the change app and window shortcuts are deep in my muscle memory after all these years.

I use about four different windowing workflows (macOS/Windows single/multi-monitor) regularly, and don't find switching between them to be a hassle.

I use hyperswitch (https://bahoom.com/hyperswitch) which emulates Windows alt-tab behaviour on MacOS. Not bulletproof but it mostly works.

I used to regularly switch between Windows and MacOS when I was in college and found that if I used the same keyboard I'd frequently go for the wrong keys (I didn't like the college keyboards so would bring one from home). Interestingly, using different keyboards for Windows and MacOS solved that problem.

For travel I always brought one of these as us zenscreen https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-ZenScreen-MB16AC-Portable-Monito... they are powered off the USB.

Looks very practical, touch works well with mac?

This is what I plan to do. I am trying to patiently wait for the Asus ROG version. It appears to have been delayed and there are 2 versions. One with a tripod and one with a typical iPad/tablet stand built into the cover. I'm mostly wanting it for console gaming because I don't want to get a TV or put another monitor on my desk. I also live in a small studio apartment that I can only fit my desk and bed in. This can be used on my desk or sitting in my bed even and will just slip right into my backpack if I wanted.

I bought one of those as well, although it was a knockoff brand, it's great when travelling since it's about the same size as my MacBook. I wish I invested slightly more, the brightness on mine is terrible.

Not sure if this will help, but with my USB-C monitor the default brightness/contrast is poor, and requires manually fiddling with the settings on every boot/resume from sleep, so I found a Linux utility that does the fiddling for me:

    cat ~/bin/brightness 
    #!/bin/bash
    #
    echo "increasing brightness/contrast of external monitor"
    /usr/local/bin/ddcutil --display 1 setvcp 10 40
    /usr/local/bin/ddcutil --display 1 setvcp 12 10

Tie the above in with your init/resume scripts and you're good to go (assumes that your issue isn't limited by the hardware itself).

I'll give that a try later, although I think mine is hardware limited. It's probably because it's a cheap knockoff one tho, but it works for terminal use, or anything that has a high contrast.

I'd personally ditch the monitors and go with (however many) "pocket projectors" then just project them onto a wall or something. Some of these projectors screw into light bulb sockets so you don't even need to worry about a mounting system. There's also a company that was trying to make monitors that could be folded and that was all just based on fabric that expanded as a projection surface. If they ever shipped - that may be a more ergonomic option since you can line that up easier with your eye level in the same way as a regular monitor.

That's actually a really good idea, you could couple them with some frosted (plexi?) glass to get a "screen"

I think this warrants more investigation!!

Creative solution, nicely done.

For 15 years I traveled with some flavor of 23"/24" monitor, putting it into my checked bag, and paying that checked bag fee over and over and over (probably $5K USD over the years).

This year I scrapped the big monitor setup and got an ultra lightweight 16" USB-C powered monitor along with a Dell Precision 5540.

Now I just stuff everything into an REI Trail pack (40L) and walk on the plane, it's beautiful. Pack weight is around 7KG, which works for most airlines in the world.

No longer muling around tons of gear is wonderful. Not sure what I was thinking, the extra screen real estate isn't that important to my work, two screens about 16" is enough.

Here's the 16" external monitor [1], out of stock presently, but can vouch for it, great addition to the toolbox.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07WJJMV48/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...

What is your job where you travel with an external monitor?

These days mostly work in Scala and TypeScript. Just another web developer that works on the road, basically.

I would have thought TSA would "x-ray" (or whatever it is they do) through your bag and pull you off to the side for further investigation super quickly.

Nothing quite like partially disassembled, partially glued electronics to tick the box on a security checklist.

It's surprising at how little this matters.

I came back from a tech event once with a build a robot kit, except I'm a very light packer and the box was huge so I had to take everything out and fit it into a backpack along with everything else I had.

I had a compartment that had an assortment of circuit boards, screws, wires, plastic pieces, etc..

No one even batted an eye and the bag went straight through the carry on x-ray machine. This was in San Jose, California while preparing for a cross country flight. I was surprised too.

They aren't looking for electronics - they are looking for large masses that could be fuel for the explosives. Big blocks of clay, liquids, etc. A jumble of electronics alone with nothing that can actually explode is common and doesn't ring any alarm bells. I discovered this after talking to a TSA agent after flying a few times with my modular synthesizer, where I was surprised that it was never pulled for extra screening.

My mother makes soap and tends to give me a few bars when I visit. I have learned to mail it back to myself; taking a few 2"x3"x5"-ish blocks of a uniform-density material through the airport is a guaranteed close look.

What I'm reading is that it's possible to sneak a bomb through as long as the bomb smells like lavender.

Yes, baby wipes will get you searched every time. They just look like dense bricks of material on the x-ray.

Same for a rectangular pack of biscuits.

They closely examined the cucumber in my bag

Drugs hidden in a cucumber truck:

https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-fentanyl-bust...

Also, plants or foods are sometimes forbidden because of potential to carry vermin, plant diseases, etc.

https://www.cbp.gov/travel/us-citizens/know-before-you-go/pr...

Magic the gathering decks (60-100 cards) also seem to trigger this as they also show up as dark blocks on x-ray

A friend once forgot a bare PCB TV-b-gone in a coat pocket while traveling EU to US. He noticed it right at the first checkpoint.

They asked what it is, laughed at the response, and went "eh, as long as there are no wires dangling off it, we don't care." He stuffed it in a bag and had no further issues.

Why the wires would've made a difference is beyond me...

You obviously don’t watch Tv shows like 24. Wires is something you stick into the explosive.

When in university, I took part in a CUBEsat effort.

I brought the mechanical assembly -no electronics, just the aluminium structure- of our satellite to CalPoly for a CUBEsat workshop; on the way back to Europe I found out the hard way that anything which goes into space is considered munitions as far as the US DoD is concerned.

Took a while longer than expected to get on my flight...

ITAR not just DOD.

A year or so back my son and his friends built a muon detector as a high school project, and then flew it from London to Germany and back to measure muon rates at altitude. Basically two metal boxes glued together, with some hand cut holes for display and power. Inside, a large block of solid plastic scintillator, wrapped in foil, with a bunch of hand-made electronics connected to it. Suspicious? Only a bit. I wrote a letter on headed university paper, explaining what it was, and with contact details in case they needed to phone.

At Stansted, the kid carrying it got the third degree, eveything put though the explosives sniffer, and so forth. The security person afterwards told him it ticked all the boxes except one for a bomb. Would love to know what that one was! They did eventually allow it on the plane though, and got really good data from the flight.

On the return flight, security at Cologne didn't look twice - just went straight through the x-ray machine, didn't even get pulled aside. Must have been asleep on the job.

The TSA did an internal audit where they sent 70 mock explosives and weapons through checkpoints. 67 made it through.

The TSA misses about 95% of guns, so chances are you’ll be fine.

Is this for checked bags or carry on bags? I thought we literally walk through metal detectors?

In carry-on bags - bags go through an x-ray machine with an operator looking at so many negatives that it's next to impossible for them to spot a positive case.

Schneier has a nice piece about it in an excerpt from one of his books: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/04/failures_of_a...

Makes no sense why ML isn't used, with a quick peep at a potential positive by a human before they rip your luggage open with a buck knife.

>Makes no sense why ML isn't used

I agree, although remember that it changes the problem for the attacker too: they're switching between trying to fool a (bleary-eyed) general intelligence to simply fooling a ML algorithm... think about how obvious and jarring anti-facial-detection face camoflage is for a human, whereas the machine simply sees nothing.

The latest report I could find says 70%: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelgoldstein/2017/11/09/tsa...

Are there newer stats that show 95%?

the 25% difference is the bad guys who don't own up to carrying.

Probably an older stat, I do remember reading the 95% figure for an internal audit.

He forgot step 0 of the How-To: be generically non-threatening. (White or East-Asian, no beards).

I’ve used a Tumi aluminum suitcase, ultralight, no flex. A Dell 24” 4K monitor and other dev gear fits perfectly. Since it doesn’t flex you don’t need to pack very well, just a few clothes to stop movement. Example photos:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jjxctk02nvb5wmy/AADnscpr1HQCFZeiO...

What about the weight? For flight travel to work it needs to be way under 23kg.

The suitcase is only 6.4 kilos, it's really light for what it does. It's just a thin shell basically. Monitor is 4 kilos. That leaves a bunch of room for other stuff. You don't have to use any of the packing material since it's so stiff, that helps a lot.

do you mind sharing the details of your whole setup? i/e laptop, laptop stand, keyboard, mouse etc? looks great.

Plugging a friend's super cool product: a pop-up 24" monitor with full HDMI support and a long lasting battery that uses short throw projection.

https://www.arovia.com/

The few reviews of the actual product (vs gushes about the Kickstarter 4 years ago) I can find seem pretty "meh" on it though. 1280x720, bad contrast, ...

Hi Detaro, I'm Alex one of the creators. Resolution and contrast are definitely areas to attack/improve. The resolution is good enough for a lot of work. I’m using my SPUD now to type this from my self-quarantined Shenzhen apartment...Here are some pictures taken with my Oneplus 7t of my current setup with my SPUD. This SPUD was a reject from our assembly factory for failing brightness spec by 20%, e.g. the ones we shipped to customers were at least 20% brighter and usually much more (CEO gets the rejects...), with and without the overhead lights on: https://photos.app.goo.gl/7j5jx8th6kDDgMtZA

The contrast is good for indoor use/shaded cafe (unless your shining light directly at it, like photography lights, when filming a video, for example...).

Directly regarding the Linus video: I do not think it was fair for a number of reasons (this is just copy/pasted response to a Kickstarter backer who asked about it):

(1) He filmed it with studio light shining directly on the screen. This caused the image to appear much more washed out than how your eye would see it under normal (e.g. indirect) room light. Other videos and our social (https://www.instagram.com/realarovia/?hl=en) more accurately show how SPUD will appear. Even when SPUD was on the Today Show, when we had a white glossy screen (e.g. before we developed the grey matte screen that further improves contrast), the contrast appeared significantly better. That was under normal lighting (all they did is turn off the very bright studio lights directly over SPUD): https://youtu.be/9aFmoA6xFC0 I am not sure if he read the manual or any of other FAQs because, we clearly say to avoid direct light on SPUD for best performance. That said, if you ever tried to take a picture of a movie screen or a projected slide in a lecture, you know it is not trivial to take a good picture of a projected image! (2) He folded it in a way to maximize size. The manual and our online tutorials can help a lot in knowing how to fold SPUD to the smallest size: https://bit.ly/357PjkA (3) He didn’t follow the steps on how to optimize image quality. The manual and our online tutorials can help a lot with optimizing image quality: https://bit.ly/2MMXMTR I am not sure if he read or tried any of other online resources. He definitely did not contact me directly to try to get any assistance…He did contact me to ask how SPUD compares to USB monitors and I sent him an accurate, detailed answer and he did not include any of the points in his video: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XC-XvNITvGqkj32zrAfSp91jlb... It was very frustrating because all of our backers, if they have a problem, message us and we solve (worst case by RMA). He did not even make the effort to ask us before posting a video that some people may take as gospel. That said, this is part of the deal of doing something that people find interesting. I also understand that he has a huge incentive to be negative to drive clicks and there is no consequence for him doing it with a small, 3-person startup. All said, I am still grateful for him backing our project and am very grateful for all of our backers help in bringing the first collapsible display to life! Please let me know if there are any questions I can answer! -Thanks, Alex -sent from my SPUD

Yeah, it’s strange he hasn’t considered micro projectors.

I did but this would be a very complex setup as each projector would need their own support, and would need three blank screens and I would also need to have space behind the desk.

Linus from LinusTechTips reviewed that! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XufsrHTLNig

Hey I'm the friend; let me know if any questions. It's been a lot of fun and a pain in the ass to create! Though our pre-sale customers have been really happy which is awesome!: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cqVeMVOTMjuy8zhWji_pY1Lc... -sent from my SPUD

Hell of a setup!

I settled on 4x 17" laptops, much easier to carry and you get extra storage and bonus processing power.

Wasn't my plan, really, but I can't sell old laptops (too cheap, no one wants them anyway, plus I always think maybe I'll use this one for smth).

So one old laptop became a second display. Then a second. But that's three and looks stupid and asymmetrical, so I added a 4th...

Traveled once with them, barely takes up half a bag. Think I'll stick with it.

A couple years ago I relocated and wanted to keep my monitors with me until the last minute so I didn't send them with the movers and packed them in my big suitcase to take on the plane.

While waiting the gate, they called my name and asked me to see the gate agent. When I went up, I saw a concerned looking gate agent on the phone who said "Are you Mr Smith?", I confirmed and said "Tell them it's a couple computer monitors and coiled cables". She did, then looked at me and said they couldn't get the lock off the bag and wanted to check with me before they cut the lock (I was surprised about that), so I told them to feel free to clip it off. They didn't, I guess my explanation was good enough.

I always wonder how much of a productivity impact does a complex setup like this have over a single screen with multiple desktops.

A few years ago, I have bought LG 34UC98, a 34" 21:9 ultra-widescreen monitor. I thought "Look at all that screen space, it will be great for my performance". I've used it maybe a few weeks, and now it's almost exclusive to gaming and movies. My girlfriend likes to use it for large research tasks, to open 3 documents side by side. So at least someone is using the monitor for productivity improvement.

Now I'm back to a 15" macbook and I use 3 desktop setup, with apps assigned to a specific desktop, so they always open in the same space. I also disabled the feature where macOS tries to be smart and arranges the desktops based on frequency, which makes the position unpredictable. From left to right: 1. Mainly terminal, with an occasional GUI for git or database. 2. Editor (VS Code), using the native tabs feature so different projects are grouped under one app. 3. Browser, slack, mail, spotify, and other currently open apps (notes, iMessages, etc.).

Note: I changed the display setting to "More space", which increases the resolution from the default 1680x1050 to 1920x1200 to have some more space. But I had a 13" macbook before, which was 1680x1050 at "More Space" setup, and it worked well too.

Give Sidecar with a 13” iPad Pro a go. It’s been life-changing for me and my mobile workflow!

It’s fun and sort of useful with my 6th gen regular iPad and my otherwise horribly underpowered (I’m pretending to be a 4K iMac and apparently that’s powerful enough for Sidecar, but the actual processor and its iGPU are slower than a 2015 Mac Mini). I can see how it would be super useful with the 13” model and an Apple Pencil, neither of which I own.

Pelican case for author & foldable laptop displays as the next innovation for the rest. Nothing like just unfolding additional 7" on both sides of your laptop

+1 for a pelican case. I use one to lug around a 38” monitor when traveling. They are indestructible.

Hm, I'd try 2x27" instead. My 27" UHD is 4.6kg without mount and power brick. Feels pretty light, but there seem to be lighter (found a 3.2kg AOC, but that's only FullHD). Packaging two of these only requires four 3d printed parts for the corners, and the displays can face each other (not touch each other!). A dual VESA arm on Amazon should come at 3.5kg (maybe less because the number might include packaging).

Still funny though.

You could probably go even lighter by removing the power/control box entirely from each panel, and replacing it with an after-market board and a common supply for everything. It's easy to find control boards with HDMI inputs for your LCD panels on eBay, simply search for "<panel reference> control board". The control boards alone are very light, and low-voltage so safe. Presumably your panels are LED-backlit so safe, low-voltage too. You can then use a single external power supply to power the whole thing, easy to find on ebay/aliexpress too. It would also avoid the safety issue of stitching together the 3 power cables, and reduce the weight of cables as well. Then package everything in a nice box with hinges and some padding and you have a nice multimonitor transportable PC ;)

Back in the early '90's I was travelling all over the American Continent and Europe with loads of equipment. I remember a notable last-minute trip to Amsterdam where I had no choice but to take about 600 lbs (272 kg). I had to design a custom 8020-based dolly to be able to move this pile-of-technology around on my own at the airports. The idea was to take it apart, store it in one of the cases and re-assemble on arrival.

For the most part this worked out OK, except for one memorable trip to Munich. All of my equipment cases came out of the plane coated in what I can only describe as some kind of yellow grease. I was literally coated with this stuff after pulling all my equipment off the carousel. I won't bore you with the entire story of what happened at the airport after that. In retrospect it was very funny, not at the time, of course, it was very far from that.

Nice article. Logical next step is to drive all 3 screens from a single power supply (as these use LED backlighting, they do not require much power each). I would build the AC transformer into the middle screen and have it output DC to the ones on either side.

Yes, exactly what I wanted to do initially, but the issue is that the power block also contains the video card of the screen and needs power too, so that wouldn't be so easy to do, but feasible

Not to be that guy, but be careful you don’t burn anything down with that electrical work.

In regards to powering a bunch of gear traveling, I'll share my secret tip for international travel: Bring a surge protector/power strip, then you only need one actual adapter. I've found a few that support varying standards.

Coïncidence ? I came across this today:

https://www.mediaworkstations.net/systems/portable-intel-wor...

For 3 years I've been a digital nomad travelling (slowly every 6 months) with a mac mini and a 24 inches monitor and then even a 30inches monitor.

The 24 inches monitor from Samsung would fit easily in the any luggage. The 30 inches monitor was a stretch and fit with only a margin of 1cm left in each corner.

Later on I switched from a Mac Mini + Samsung 24inches monitor to simply a MacBook Pro 15inches. Even though the 24inches Samsung monitor is much larger than the MacBookPro's 15 inches, the MacBookPro 15inches is very easy on eye given both the Retina resolution and the amazing font anti-aliasing.

You could buy monitors meant to be used as external monitors for laptops. I think most are 15.6" but there's some available at 17". I know that's nowhere near the 24" you use but you could probably carry an additional one. Plus those can be USB powered so you don't have the big hacked together dangerous AC power cable. They'd be lighter weight and thinner than a desktop monitor too. So you wouldn't have some Frankenstein thing that's missing the back of the monitor just to shave off some weight.

RFI. RFI Everywhere.

I'm working remotely for a month right now and needed a monitor there to work. I had two ideas:

1. bring one in a suitcase on my flight

2. just buy one locally once I got there

I decided to just bring my existing 27" monitor and wait until the day of my flight to try and pack it... Of course it was about 2 inches too long for a standard large suitcase.

I quickly found a (physical) store which sold a cheap 23" Dell monitor and bought it. It easily fit into the suitcase and I've been happily using it for 3 weeks now. Only downside was going back to 1080p :(

Too many places to move my neck for my preferences, but this did get me looking at something like the Samsung Space 27” for this use case - seems like it would work well and weighs in at 12 pounds each so two of them would hit the 12 kilo requirement without the hacks, and probably shield the RF a bit more. Also does multi-source PIP if you wanted to create a third “virtual” monitor but I’m not sure why you’d bother when one could arrange windows instead.

I have no idea how people manage to do work with small screens.

I used to think this but I realized I needed glasses. :) Still I couldn't use 13 inch screens all day.

and laptop keyboards.

Yes. I have a full size bluetooth kbd for my laptop. They're hard to find.

Yes. I connect mine with PS/2 to USB adapter.

Tiling window managers with keyboard shortcuts for super quick window and virtual desktop switching as well as full screening focused windows. Obviously, more screen is always better, but I don't feel I loose a lot of efficiency when I'm unplugged and out and about, with my 14 inch notebook screen.

Apps that cover the screen, shortcuts to switch between them quickly, and generous use of spaces.

I understand the sentiment. I can't work on laptops (for days at a time) either.

Though I'd be hard pressed to take my chair with me. I can't work without that, either!

Isn't this an airport (or any port) security headache?

What about buying the monitors on a local board when you arrive somewhere, then sell them on that same board when you leave? I think this would work well in most cities, in that you'd find one pretty quick.

I mean you could probably find a company that'll lend you some of their dustier monitors. Most software companies seem to have a problem that they have ones they need to get rid of.

I've traveled with smaller monitors before (Asus Zenscreen) and that might be a better compromise. Theyre basically the size of my MBP but thinner, so they're easy to stuff in a backpack. Only cables you need are one USB-C each. It's heavier than traveling with jib a laptop, but probably not much heavier than my MBP was by itself 10 years ago. And you can triple your screen real estate

You just need one suitcase per monitor. The yoga mat isn't going to keep blunt pressure off the screen though. You need to attach something structural to the front to distribute load to the bezel. The corrigated plastic used for yard signs is light, cheap, and surprisingly strong. Bubble wrap that and wrap it in your clothes.

That said, nothing beats the custom molded styrofoam it came in. Keep these if you can.

Not on the scale of 24” monitors but I’ve been really impressed by the performance of Sidecar on the new MacOS/iOS and currently use it with my 10” iPad as a second monitor solution on the go.

I’ve used similar apps (eg Duet Display) before but found the lag and compression bothersome, but Sidecar seems perfect, even over WiFi. With a 12.9” iPad it would be even better!

I also used to take a massive efficiency hit when I had to move away from my multi-monitor setup. I wanted to be more flexible so I invested some time in getting comfortable with a tiling window manager.

My weapon of choice is Xmonad on Linux but I've also used i3 and awesomewm and they've been good. I hear good things about Amethyst on OSX these days too.

Fun project! My solution was to just buy a hardshell suitcase and throw a 27" monitor in it. That, a 15" laptop screen, and a hotel TV if I'm so inclined does the trick for me. I'm willing to give up my third monitor in exchange for convenience. Also, I'd NEVER make it through security with something that looks like that.

I had a similar problem back in 1997 - of course it was much worse since we had much heavier CRTs then.

The answer was to rent the monitor when I needed it. I’d imagine it would be easier to do that today than it was back then. I remember going through the white pages to find a company who would accommodate me.

Why not get a status upgrade and get an extra checked in bag for free. Also, get a hard case for this

I would find it much more interesting on how often he travels while working. Findings. Affordable place and internet and how it feels.

There has to be a huge advantage building such a weird thing over just going on holiday without all that crap

Ah, large sized travel monitors. I am reasonably (unreasonably, really) well versed in this topic although my interest leans towards carry on sized monitors. I started looking almost a decade ago... http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/1080p-travel-monitor... and there are no good solutions still.

The best monitor when looking at physical formats is the Asus PQ22UC. It has a fantastic little folding stand and less than five pounds even with that. Of course, the price immediately kills the party. Wish they released a FHD version of it.

The next best is the AOC E2351f. It's 5.5 lb with a stand that disassembles well. The 21.7" length alone however makes it near impossible to fit it in a reasonable carry on.

The one that is actually carry on friendly is the Sharp LL-S201A. The stand is a problem with that one, I admit. It's 5.1 lbs without stand and stand wise I do not have a great solution. https://www.instructables.com/id/Lego-Folding-Tablet-Stand/ this holds it up for a while and then some parts bend because it's not meant to hold something this heavy. But while it works, no question it's the lightest possible stand :) Or you could use the K&M 19685 to adapt it to tripods and use a travel tripod with removable head. The K&M 19685 is the only affordable VESA-to-tripod adapter I am aware of but it's alas 1.366 lbs and a bit bulky. The VESA stand visible on https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81SC5mDeNdL... has a few problems: it doesn't fold fully flat and it's impossible to buy these days. See rant about useful products being discontinued at https://www.reddit.com/r/UsbCHardware/comments/evj4o0/why_ar... and https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/1201726345383776256

However, since the new Club 3D DP 1.4 MST hub makes both of my PackedPixels work with the ThinkPad 25 I have, I am simply flying with those, makes life easy. I posted the first quick test and a comparison to the venerable W701ds to https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/portable-lcd-monit... and have found a personal item sized bag which easily hosts the PackedPixels and the laptop https://www.reddit.com/r/ManyBaggers/comments/f40dz2/hersche... so for me, for now, this problem is solved.

Another suggestion might be to get accustomed to programming in VR. You can have as many virtual desktops "in there". Search for some youtube videos and see if its viable for you.

Thank goodness I'm productive on a single laptop monitor.

I really just want a head mounted display, which should give much more virtual workspace than a 24" monitor.

But it seems like the VR craze killed the market and HMD products with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liaN1lu5b_A

As a Mac user, the best nomadic setup is a MacBook and an iPad. I can’t think of a more practical dual monitor setup to travel with.

During 2019 I was living in Paris and really wondering what I was doing there

If one is bored living in Paris, the problem isn't Paris.

Sounds like an amazing way how to get picked up by customs every other time you cross an international border.

When I was nomading I just bought a new monitor much cheaper then the overweight fines.

Call me crazy but maybe you can just buy one of those portable USB screens from ASUS.

Perhaps better to buy just some pico projectors? Are there 4k versions already?

I thought about that, one issue that you will have is that you still need to have blank screens to project on, and the setup would be more complex as you need to project from the back ...

The screens look delightfully industrial. Love it.

Sweet hack. This is real engineering.

That's cool. Crazy, but cool.

WTF is an "alimentation cable"?

"power cable". Author forgot to translate or mistranslated from French.

Yes exactly, it is fixed now, thank you

Power cord.

I think it's from what it's called in French.

I'm guessing it's the power cable. The author is not a native English speaker, and Google says alimentation is "the provision of nourishment or other necessities."

From the description, it seems fairly clear they are referring to the power cables.

I guess they mean power cable. The literal translation for power cable is "alimentation cable" in my native language. It's probably something like that for the article's author too.

Does does security like that?

they already complain with my setup; I use 2 LT1423 screens and a ThinkPad laptop, two external batteries for work in a unplugged situation and a tablet. All weighs about 6kg.

Each airport I arrive at I have to open this up. My setup does surely not look so 'open' and 'exposed' as his does, but always have to explain this is for work. the US is the worst, Asian countries usually care less... but each and every one.

... also, would wonder if three long pieces of wood with L-brackets will be regarded as potential hazardous for carry-on.

Why do you even need 3 monitors? That seems excessive.

Did strike me that one larger one might be easier.

If you are doing web dev, it's literally a must. One screen to type code, one screen for the browser, and one screen for the browser webdev tools.

Sometimes I wish I have a forth screen for the documentation.

Exactly, although I tend to find the third screen starts to push the limits of the convenience of having the real estate vs the inconvenience of having to turn my head too much.

Sometimes I just set up my terminal windows to take up have the screen of my main (code) screen and alt+tab to it, and then just clicking on the IDE to bring it back on top.

I go back and forth between using the 3rd and not depending on my mood.

Try portrait monitors!

I have 2 x 27" 1440x2560, and my laptop's hi-dpi screen as well. I found a landscape multi-monitor setup a bit much, but a portrait arrangement is fine. Doesn't feel like the amount of head turning required to use the side monitors is a problem. It's definitely most comfortable to look straight ahead while using the central monitor, but using the side ones isn't a big problem. They're good for more than just displaying documentation.

(Total width of my setup is about the same as 3 x portrait 27" displays, so it feels like I have a reasonable idea how much head turning would be required for a better setup. Unfortunately, my laptop can only drive 2 external displays.)

I've been using this setup for about 2 years now, and have no intention of going back. It's really great.

(Portrait 1200p or 1080p isn't as good! The screen isn't quite wide enough. A lot of stuff assumes you have 1280+ pixels horizontally.)

It's really not a "must". Most of time it's a "nice to have", but trust me, lots of people do web dev with single screens and are as/more efficient than you with multiple screens. In fact, your efficiency has nothing to do with how many monitors you have.

OS X has some behavior that honestly gets into my way when I’m swapping back and forth between editing and doing command line work, but has a benefit when doing front-end work.

Put the browser on screen two. Put your IDE and Dev tools on the main monitor. You aren’t really going to operate your IDE and the dev tools at exactly the same time. So you can write your code, flip to the browser, test and inspect your changes, and flip back when it doesn’t work.

I have two monitors and my laptop screen, which is really 2.5 monitors. Since I upgraded one of the screens to a 27 inch, the real estate difference between that monitor and my laptop is so stark that I resist using the laptop screen at all. I really only use all three in a handful of situations.

Screen juggling gets non-trivial when the work I’m doing involves command line tools with behavior showing up in a UI - either our UI, or our infrastructure (eg, modifying a build script that is breaking only in CI).

Occasionally I have to keep a semi-active eye on our production stats while also progressing on other work. But only about 10% of the people in our program have to do that work, and we tend to tag team. I could almost do that work by bringing a tablet into the mix.

But even still, the third screen would barely be necessary if I wasn’t taking little breaks all the time to do other work, like research, or to blow off steam on HN. My windows begin to get mixed up and hunting the right one down gets more complicated.

I was happy with 2 when I developed on Windows -- I'd do all my work on one and presentations on the other.

At my current job I have 2 but am feeling the need for 3 because I develop on a Linux VM, so I need one for the app or log I'm watching, one for the IDE, and one for Windows.

Same - until I started using a 40inch 4K screen. Having more desktop real estate makes you think differently.

Two horizontal and one vertical for reading documents is my ideal setup. If I only need one I only turn on one. Once you go big you are ruined and can't go back without feeling like you have tunnel vision.

Try it! You might just like it.

I have three monitors, plus a honking great screen on the laptop I connect them to. I can live without them, and most of the time I don't need them, but cross-checking something with a flick of my eyes is very natural when I need to keep track of lots of far flung dependencies.

This sounds a bit bizarre to me. Took a few seconds to find a large pool of monitors designed for travelling.

https://www.techradar.com/news/best-portable-monitor

I also don't get the need for an external GPU. Maybe for machine learning it makes sense, but just to drive monitors it sounds excessive.

>Took a few seconds to find a large pool of monitors designed for travelling.

Those are relatively small and ergonomically horrible (as are laptop screens in general). So wouldn't meet the authors needs to retaining current efficiency and comfort.

>I also don't get the need for an external GPU

I doubt his built in GPU can drive 3 large monitors and the laptop display at the same time.

edit: Also, for future reference, it's better/nicer to assume people are intelligent and try to understand their reasons for something rather than assuming they're idiots.

>Also, for future reference, it's better/nicer to assume people are intelligent and try to understand their reasons for something rather than assuming they're idiots.

The older I get, the more I learn this lesson.

> I doubt his built in GPU can drive 3 large monitors and the laptop display at the same time.

Well in that case it works. Last generation integrated GPU can handle 2 4K monitors at 60/s or 3 full hd at 60/s if I remember correctly

Meh, intelligent people do silly things sometimes, I consider this case like that.

There are larger portable monitors too.

https://www.alibaba.com/showroom/24-inch-portable-monitor.ht...

The author addresses the existence of those in the post and states that they don't like using smaller monitors.

Yes, that kind of portable monitors exist, but they are small, the biggest that we can find are 17".

The external GPU is needed when you want to use more display that your integrated card can handle, 3 in my case

Yes, but these aren't 24" and that's what the writer of the piece wanted. The biggest is 17", which isn't all that bad though. It's a shame that the resolution is abysmal: 1600x900

https://eu.aoc.com/en/monitors/e1759fwu

It takes a little more research to find 24 inch portable monitors even at 4k.

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