Analog Memory Desk | Hacker News Reader

Analog Memory Desk

kcamara.com

112 pointsdamian200036 comments

It's kind of funny to see HNers talking about the failings of this desk, and gradually re-designing it - make it smaller, make the top sheet removable to remove coffee stains, etc -until they end up with something that already exists.

These are called "Desk Pads" or "Desk Mats". http://www.staples.co.uk/calendar-desk-mat-refill/cbs/413046...

You don't buy them. Your supplier buys them and has them branded and sends them to you with a bunch of calendars and wall charts.

EDIT: I do love the desk though. I'd use the hell out of it. I like the scrolling aspect even though that'd make things harder to find. I'm gently worried about the strength of butcher's paper. there was a link on HN the other day about how people used to use rolls instead of books, and was talking about cookery scrolls. I thought then of a miniature version of this desk for cookery books. With a wipeclean glass top it could be used in the kitchen without gloop messing up your favourite book.

Desk pads, when branded thoughtfully, can be a really nice freebie from suppliers, and is one of the few items for which I'd break my `no gifts' rule. The problem I find is that a lot of suppliers go completely overboard on the branding and decoration, and leave almost no space for writing on. The last two years we received them at my old work, the recruitment agency supplying them had covered about 80% of the surface with black gradients, green `starbursts', and various other bits of advertising information, leaving a tiny island of usable space --- perhaps the size of a sheet of A4 paper --- in the middle of the pad. They ended up in the recycling because, for most people, an A4 pad was more useful.

As for the strength of butcher-paper, all that I've encountered in the UK has been pretty strong, and resists breaking/ripping when pulled from either end. The downside is I've never seen it for sale by the roll in anything other than kraft/brown, which might limit its usefulness in this case.

White butcher paper definitely exists. (Staples carries it.) I've seen it used for disposable tablecloths.

I used to always use one of those Desk Pads. Very handy. At least for me, the problem today is that my desk is centered around a keyboard/laptop and the rest of the surface ends up getting buried with stuff. Back when I used a desk pad, I always tended to have an open spot in front of me because that's where I wrote.

The cognitive overhead of sketching a diagram or jotting a todo is hard to beat.

I'd love to have a setup like this. I would probably let small objects pile up on its surface though, which would make it hard to turn.

I would probably let small objects pile up on its surface though, which would make it hard to turn.

That does seem like the biggest problem with this idea. The entire surface doesn't have to be writeable, though. You could cover part of (most of?) the desk with a second surface, fixed around the front and back, that would remain stationary as the paper moves.

Looking at my desk: Not being able to accumulate to much stuff might actually be a feature...

I'd agree with that. My desks tend to quickly end up buried under books, papers, desk tools, mail, and everything else that I lay there ``just until I put it away''. About half of the people I know do the same thing, especially when it's their desk at home. This desk almost seems to be designed to not allow that to happen, which is counts as a feature rather than a bug to my mind.

A nice compromise would be to use butcher-paper that's less wide than your desk is deep, leaving perhaps the back third of the desk uncovered. That way, you can put your various permanent pieces of desk furniture --- pen-pots, charger cables, paper trays, whatever else --- at the back of your desk and still have the front two-thirds as a rolling writing surface.

That also probably makes it easier to use 100% of the depth of the writing surface, because reaching right to the back of the desk isn't really practical. A relatively standard UK desk is about 800mm, or ~32", deep, so having the back 300mm/~11" uncovered would work out pretty well.

Edit: Just realised that this comment describes a solution that's functionally equivalent to panic's comment one level above[0], though does vary a little in the method of implementation.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9202054

You could motorize it so it moves maybe half a desk width per day in the absence of any other movement. Just put a rubbish bin on the downstream end.

A coworker in grad school used a giant roll of paper, but in a vertical setting rather than a horizontal setting. The paper scrolled underneath the table rather than across it.

I'm not sure that remembering a whole lot of coffee stains is worth tipping my monitor onto the floor everyday, but hey, I'll give it a whirl.

Try a small fold away table with a top with sides like a tray for the coffee. I remember those from childhood. They went out of fashion in the 60s.

My setup is a bit similiar, except that I don't use paper. I just write or draw directly on my desk with a pencil. Most of my notes are only needed for a few minutes and they can be easily erased without any tools.

I used to do the same with a grease-pencil at my old job, and found it a pretty good method for very fleeting information. It did, however, draw appalled looks from my co-workers, and was ultimately stopped by a new manager who refused to allow it (``This isn't a f---ing primary school, stop drawing on your desk!'')

I've noticed that a lot of people seem to think there is something fundamentally wrong with it. Some have told me to stop doing it despite having never seen my desk. Whenever I mention it to people (which I seldom do nowadays) I'm told to just write on paper like everybody else. Thus far nobody has been able to explain me what I stand to gain from the switch. Few people seem to accept my justification (I find dealing with pieces of paper inconvinient) for my behavior either.

That strikes me as incredibly odd. I can't imagine any of the managers I've had over the years forbidding me from doing something like that.

I see no advantage over keeping a notebook. When you finish your notebook, throw it in a stack of notebooks.

Yeah, both are write-only... Except you mean electronic Notebooks ;)

Looks good, but if it's the desk I'd use daily it needs more legroom, more storage, and I'd put so much stuff on top that it'd become impractical to rotate it.

Looks lovely. Could be used in art galleries for comments & doodles about the exhibits (then unrolled to make an exhibit itself).

I have been thinking about the inverse idea: a small desk with a plain pine plank top with a sheet of acrylic over that. A large piece of paper between the two with schedule/calendar/mind map for a several month project written on it. Papers archived after project completed. Important changes noted by lifting the acrylic.

I have a large glass over my desktop. Its main use is supposed to be to cut leather/patterns on it, but I end up putting papers below it to remind me of stuff. So, it is a handy idea. I prefer glass, even if it is somewhat unwieldy to lift up (weights a bit)

Do you ever get airlock issues where the glass slides around too much? Have been considering a glass layer on a desk project for a while but I'm concerned one wrong move and it could end up on the floor!

Install corner brackets (permanent) or an edge lip on three sides with a rotating lock on the fourth (semi-permanent) or get it drilled for flat hinges (liftable).

Or use double-sided tape in a color matching the underlayer.

It's way too heavy to easily move around on its own. Of course, my desk is an old, non-smooth finished wood desk, so there's no air-gliding on it. A smoother desk would probably pose a risk of sliding, but could be solved by adding some friction areas (carpenters tape on the sides of the glass, maybe)

A really nice project, I might build one for my daughter.

I used to have something similar when I studied Architecture: my drawing table was always covered with thick yellow paper kept in place with painter's tape, on which I jotted down notes and sketches. This is much more practical, as you don't have to cut a new sheet of paper when the old one is too dirty/full.

If the authors are here, I suggest them to do a KickStarter project.

I think it would be valuable.

Add a line scanner on one edge.

Certainly interesting and, personally, I find it nice as well.

Wouldn't work for me I guess but maybe a smaller version would do?

I have also considered a strictly personal blog. It would need to be thoroughly searchable and did I mention personal.

I came across this idea a few years ago when I worked on a solution for someone with amnesia.

> Wouldn't work for me I guess but maybe a smaller version would do?

Yes, and it is called a whiteboard.

The usability of this thing is a nightmare, good luck clearing your desk everytime you want fresh paper...

How about something less hipster, make it vertical, attach a linear scanner to one end of the roll to digitize it as it advances.

If you had one of these things in your conference room, after a meeting you could automatically email to all participants a copy of what was written.

Whiteboard and phone camera works quite well for recording what was doodled in a problem solving meeting.

Your vertical roller version with digitiser suggests the use of a continuous loop of dry marker roller (this used to exist as canvas painted with a heavy paint that could take dry marker pens. The paint used to crack after some years though) so after being scanned, the marks are erased...

There are whiteboard scanners--or at least used to be. But cameraphones have pretty much eliminated the need.

I would use the fuck out of something like this. In fact, I might build it into the desk I want to build one day when I have my own place. Maybe not the whole desk, because as others have pointed out I'd like to have some room to store things.

I think this would be super-interesting to have and use in practice - you'd probably end up with a kind of stream-of-conscious scroll of your daily activities!

That'd just have coffee rings and skid marks from that odd black shit that comes off the bottom of mice all over it.

Cone to think of it if you spilled something, game over.

Actually, its best use could be to remove at once all stuff sitting on my desk :)

I use a pad of paper. I have lots of pads of paper. None of them did I have to purchase. They were given to me at work or elsewhere for free. So refills are free, too. Without cranking.

And I get to use my favorite desk. I can clutter it up if I want.

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