stevenhaddox's Profile

I think this is a great idea, but probably because my father-in-law helped me do it this past summer with my current computer desk. I really wanted a OneLess Desk, but I couldn't spend that kind of money right then. Instead I came across a Pottery Barn Kids outlet desk with nearly identical dimensions and a similar concept, but I wanted the perfect green. I could only find it in auto paint so my father-in-law helped me go through the process of using steel wool to make sure the wood would have enough rough edges to grab the primer and paint and we went to town over several days. It took us three thorough coats and twice as much paint as we anticipated, but only $60 later I had a custom color desk for less than half of the price of a OneLess Desk. In addition to all this it was just as cheap to buy the paint sprayer (make sure you get the right kind!) as it was to rent one (from the one or two places that rented out auto-paint sprayers - be sure to double-check again).

Overall I don't think I would have tackled this one my own the first time, but having done it it really wasn't all that hard; just time consuming.

Here's some photos of how it turned out:
http://flic.kr/p/6PYc7B (spraying the desk)
http://flic.kr/p/6PYc9e (desk by itself)
http://flic.kr/p/6PYcdX (shows the shine with the monitor)

Good luck to you with whichever route your choose to pursue. And like my father-in-law says, it's really easy to clean. Worst case scenario you can always go through a car wash ;)

Another option (slightly more advanced but I've found more success with it) is to utilize a VPN service / SSH tunnel. Most airports only block port 80 (general web traffic), and as a result you can connect for free through other ports. You can Google around to find out how to create your own VPN server or you can utilize a VPN provider.

@SunnyBlue: I believe that most people would be more than willing to pay a reasonable rate for bandwidth. But if the airports want to charge $15-30 for an average 45 minute use, I think that is a bit ridiculous considering most people get a full month of high-speed access at only $50 at home. Charge me $2 an hour and I'd pay it, heck I plan on paying AirTrain $7 for my 3 hour flight down to Florida in September (then again, that's just slightly over $2/hr).

DropBox isn't quite as 'lightweight' or 'non-robust' as you imply. If you're a Linux/Mac user you can easily sync ANY folder on your system without having to move the files into your DropBox. Merely create a symbolic link via the command line (there are 3rd party apps to do this for you if you're scared of the terminal). With two simple:
ln -s ~/my/target/directory ~/Dropbox/link_name
You can have your folders synced between multiple computers without dragging a single item. I'll bet you can't find another syncing tool with that capability and the speed of DropBox (fastest syncing tool I've ever seen).

Luckily I already have an iHome iPhone so I just plug in my iPhone to my iHome in whatever room I want (the kitchen usually) and I'm good to go. I can't envision me wanting to pay $150 just to stream Pandora to a standalone jukebox... seems like a high price for such a limited use-case.