Modular office design has evolved at a glacial pace since enclosed cubicles became America’s standard-issue workspace in the early 1980s. Today’s cubicles bear an unsettlingly similar resemblance to the cubicles of 25 years ago.
The same cannot be said of modular home design. Sure, factories continue to churn out unimaginative, prefabricated double-wide homes. But a [...]
Archive for July, 2008
Cool your cube with the C2
Posted in Gadgetry, tagged C2, Cool, Cube, eBay, Herman Miller on July 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Does this week’s heat got you feeling beat? Herman Miller has a new gadget that can cool you down the moment you enter your cube. It’s the C2 Climate Control, a PC-speaker-size device that promises to cool or heat your cube, and clean the air in the process.
We’d love to review the C2 for you, [...]
As if the American workplace weren’t hostile enough
Posted in Good Times, tagged Cubicle Warfare, John Austin on July 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
We don’t have a book club, but if we did, this month’s selection would be Cubicle Warfare: 101 Office Traps and Pranks. The book’s author, John Austin, once worked as a toy designer for Hasbro. We’re skeptical, if a tad curious, about this one. We’ll give it a read and post a review next month. [...]
Obama and The New Yorker: If nothing else, it got our attention
Posted in Water Cooler Chatter, tagged Google, Muslim, Obama, The New Yorker on July 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The talk around the water cooler this morning was all about The New Yorker’s controversial cover depicting Barack Obama as a muslim and his wife, Michelle, as a terrorist. A few found the illustration to be good satirical fun, but most viewed it as a sensationalistic — and not particularly humorous or insightful — attempt [...]
A second life for our friedPod
Posted in Gadgetry, tagged BuyMyTronics, Google, iPod, Lake Michigan on July 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
After we killed our iPod last week, we contemplated the best way to dispose of it. We had a five-year relationship with our iPod, and we couldn’t well imagine just pitching it in the trash. We considered burying it, as though it were a family pet, but ultimately concluded that doing so would be eco-unfriendly. [...]
friedPod
Posted in Gadgetry, tagged Apple, Battery, iPod, Mac, Third Generation on July 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
A friend of ours convinced us that we possessed the technical know-how to replace the dying battery in our five-year-old iPod. Foolishly, we believed him.
On his advice we purchased a new battery for $20 from MacSales.com. The battery arrived within two days from the Woodstock, Ill.-based e-tailer. We eagerly removed the battery from its packaging, [...]
Endure your commute with a flute
Posted in Daily Commuter, tagged Blue Line, Commute, Eisenhower, Flute on July 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
We openly admit our disdain for workers in the Loop who eschew mass transit in favor of driving to their jobs. The exorbitant expense for gas and parking, the stress and hassle of slow-moving traffic, the smog-inducing emissions — why people opt to drive, we’ll never understand.
Nevertheless, while waiting on the Blue Line platform this [...]
Rodent infestation at Whole Foods in Lincoln Park
Posted in City Beat, tagged Lincoln Park, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods on July 9, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Thinking about picking up pecan encrusted salmon cakes from Whole Foods in Lincoln Park on your way home tonight? Think again. The Chicago Department of Health shut down the store this afternoon after discovering a rodent infestation. “More than 100 [mouse] droppings” were found in one cooler, according to a Crain’s article.
Trader Joe’s, here we [...]
