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Comment by fhd2 | Hacker News Reader

Quite cool! I wonder if it doesn't wear down the laptop hinges to keep it at 180 degrees opened in an upright position. Could print some clamps for the sides to reduce strain if that's the case. Though that'd only work for laptops that actually _do_ open 180 degrees, according to TFA, not that many.

I have a "car desk", which is just a little expandable contraption you hang on the steering wheel, then you can place your laptop on it. I wouldn't call it ergonomic per se (the right external keyboard could probably fix that), but using it for about one hour per week, it works well and doesn't cause any issues I'm aware of. The driver seat is not a place where I previously could get any work done, so the bar is a bit low.

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I believe there‘s likely less wear in that position than any other angle you might use it at.

Fair, didn't think that one through :D

Getting computer work done inside a vehicle is not easy if comfort is a requirement. Driving posture is not generalisable.

The ergonomy of most laptops (and keyboards in general) is poor. The modern laptop that is most ergonomic is the "2 in 1" design, which can be folded and used as a tablet.

For a programmer, an ergonomic keyboard with a trackball, connected to a 2-in-1 portable in tablet mode, might be easiest to assemble from common components for working during travel.

Another option is to plug in AR/VR glasses, which solves the head tilting problem in trains. There are plenty of options around ~500 EUR/USD nowadays, which might be worth it for people with a daily commute.

AR glasses are perfect for this. Best if you can configure your laptop to give you a video signal while the lid is closed, which seems to be luck of the draw.

What’s your minimum resolution?

> Getting computer work done inside a vehicle is not easy if comfort is a requirement. Driving posture is not generalisable.

I had a similar situation to the GP in that I only ever used my laptop in a car for an hour or two a week. In my case it was whilst one of my offspring was doing some sports related thing that I had to drive them to.

Most of the time I'd just take a book to read but sometimes I'd like to tinker with some programming thing in that time.

More often than not there was a nice cafe to sit in, or a nice bench somewhere in the sun, or a viewing gallery that meant I could watch rather than staring at my laptop. But not all venues were the same.

Some had nowhere to watch or nowhere to sit in the warm or dry, and nowhere suitable within a short drive, and so I'd default to sitting in the car experimenting with seat angles/etc to get into a position that wasn't awful.

Not owning my own car meant I was often driving something different each time which added to the fun. (RIP UK Zipcar.)

Yeah, driving kids to stuff is my use case too. I did the cafe thing for a while, but I didn't like the overhead of going there, ordering etc. For some reason I'm pretty productive in weird environments (trains, airplanes etc), so it's always a good opportunity to just get some stuff done I'd otherwise be distracted from. I'd probably sit outside in a bench if I was in a warmer, dryer climate.

Well, with the steering wheel desk contraption, the monitor is placed in front of the wind shield, looking there is what the front seat is designed for, so that part is neat.

The keyboard however, is over the steering wheel, and while the arm placement is _similar_ to holding the wheel, it's a bit awkward, typing on a keyboard and operating a steering wheel are just quite different movements.

I _think_ it'd be ergonomic if I had some kind of keyboard and mouse/trackpad solution elevated on my lap, but the steering wheel gets in the way of a standard lap desk pillow thing. It'd have to be split.

For my one hour per week I haven't bothered yet. But I do think I could come up with something that'd have similar strain to just driving the car. Which, yeah, is probably not as ergonomic as a good desk setup to begin with.

> I have a "car desk", which is just a little expandable contraption you hang on the steering wheel, then you can place your laptop on it.

I remember one of those on Amazon with like a thousand reviews that were all meme reviews about using it whilst driving. Cant find the exact one, but it was one of those many Amazon products full of joke reviews.

Hp has a lot of "convertible" laptops that open the full 360 if you want, usually with a touchsreen and two cameras so they can optionally be used as a tablet.

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