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The iRack

Posted by on Jan 5, 2013 in Life

Functionality and design. Taken right to the edge.

When we envisioned a new shelf, to provide a place for all your home network equipment, we landed on a remarkably elegant and stable design. But it’s nearly impossible to make a rack so stylish and so tall, without sacrificing strength or beauty.

Creating the stunningly tall design of this new vertical shelf, took some equally stunning feats of technological innovation. We refined, re-imagined, or re-engineered everything about it from the inside out. The result is an elegant 7 level shelf that’s as much a work of art as it is state of the art.

We could have taken the easy way out and designed something more reasonable and less remarkable. But we didn’t. We took iKea Lack and made it better, re-envisioned how cables would pass straight through the shelves. We cared deeply about high quality connections and protect wires from chafing against drilled holes by using professional grade and precisely manufactured rubber grommets.

We’ve gone to extraordinary length – and height.

Stand in front of iRack and something incredible happens: The world around it doesn’t disappear. In fact, iRack fits right in. To create a vertical shelf this integratable, we pushed every limit, rethought every detail, and advanced iRack in the most astonishing ways.


vshelf

Stability and Strength


A modern but robust 7 level vertical shelf this tall is almost impossible to build, using traditional materials and methods. So we searched far and wide for other ideas how to create a seamless, precise, and superstrong shelf framework. And we found one in a lightweight solution that utilizes a light, yet robust cardboard honeycomb core, framed by a 10 millimeter particleboard, and covered all around by an extremely strong 3 millimeter fiberboard, and a final coat of Acrylic paint. Each of iRack’s composite board shelves can sustain a load of up to 3,000 grams (7 lb.).

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Grand Slam

Posted by on Nov 28, 2012 in Life

A Grand Slam in Baseball, is a home run hit, when each of the three bases is occupied by a runner, thus scoring four runs. The Grand Slam of Ultrarunning is recognition for those who complete in four of the oldest 100 mile trail runs in the U.S. And in Tennis, the Grand Slam describes the four Grand Slam tournaments, also called Majors, the most important annual tennis events.
A few years back, we came up with our very own definition of a Grand Slam, the Code Camp Grand Slam, which would recognize those who had spoken at four distinct Code Camps, during one calendar year. After having fallen short for the last two years, speaking at only three venues, Tom and I finally completed the four Code Camps in a single year Grand Slam.

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The iLift

Posted by on Sep 16, 2012 in Life

Creating an entirely new design meant inventing entirely new technology

When we envisioned the new stand for MacBook, we landed on a remarkably elegant and stable design. But it’s nearly impossible to make a device so stylish and so firm, without sacrificing features or beauty.
We could have taken the easy way out and designed something more reasonable and less remarkable. But we didn’t. If the technology didn’t exist, we invented it. If a component wasn’t solid enough, we re-imagined it. If convention was standing in the way, we left it behind. The result is iLift: the most elegant, most stable, most stunning MacBook Stand ever.

We care deeply about ergonomics and comfort; iLift is 330 millimeters wide, 260 millimeters deep, and 90 millimeters high. To make that happen, Techcasita Productions’ engineers had to be creative. The conventional approach to building Laptop stands raises the complete laptop, decreases its footprint, thereby creating a wobbly, unstable structure.
iLift raises the MacBook’s screen an unprecedented 165 millimeters (6.5-inches), which puts it right in the middle of Apple 27″ Thunderbolt Display – yet it’s 20 percent more stable and creates 22 percent more desk-space than any stand we have seen before.

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Practical Inexpensive Monitor Stand

Posted by on Feb 9, 2012 in Life

About once a year, I’m writing about a DIY project. Not about the stuff you typically find on this blog, but more old world, non techy things, like last year’s Riding the Rods projects.
This time it’s about a monitor stand that I built for my home office. I don’t know if it’s because of my constantly decreasing visual perception, which some might call Presbyopia aka age-related farsightedness, but I thought it would be a good idea to raise my good old Apple 23″ Cinema HD Display up a little.
Many of the newer – but still not as good looking – LCD displays, can have their hight adjusted. My Cinema display on the other hand has a a beautiful brushed metal foot, unadjustable in hight tho.

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Running Errands with Google Wallet

Posted by on Nov 7, 2011 in Life

Running errands with Google Wallet in San Diego’s Carmel Valley / Rancho Bernardo area (92128 / 92129 / 92130)

Tap & Go a.k.a PayPass, is a new simple way of paying. PayPass is a payment method that lets you make purchases without having to swipe your card or provide your signature. A simple tap with a card, key fob, or mobile phone is all it takes to pay at checkout.

So this Saturday morning, I took paying with a mobile phone to the test – the only method of payment available to me was the Google Wallet application on a Samsung Nexus S Android Phone running on Sprint’s 4G Network.

Google Wallet can be linked to a Citi MasterCard, or like I did, used as a prepaid card, funded with any of my existing credit cards.

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