Rough
mockup
This project has been backburnered
due to my upcoming move to California.
Fear not, it will
make a reappearance as one of a set of full desktop setups. I plan
on eventually releasing a line of fully themed, matching office
suites which would include keyboard, mice, monitors, PC cases,
scanners, printers and perhaps even custom office furniture to
house them. (6/13/07)

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Due to both
the lack of creativity in most of the technically inclined
and refinements in plastic forming and mass production, the
home computer was denied what I feel to be the proudest time
in the life of any technological device. It was robbed of the
fleeting, wonderful period right after invention, where it is
celebrated and honored by the finest craftsman and creative
minds, and given a structure befitting its potential and greatness.
It was essentially denied a "novelty period".
When the steam train roared into history,
hissing smoke and howling into the night, it was an awesome
beast, adorned in the finest woods,
ivory, gold, and intricate inlays, like some Serpent King on
a sacred tapestry. The automobiles of the 20's to 60's, each
was a work of art. The television and radio affected the world
in more ways that can be imagined, changing the entire dynamic
of human social structure and communication. They were both
appropriately gifted with the most lavish of hand tooled, wooden
scrolled cabinetry, housings which borrowed architectural details
from the grandest schools, churches and banks.
Sadly, the personal computer, which
has impacted the world more profoundly than probably all of
the previously mentioned inventions put together, never recieved
the same kind treatment. It went from a buzzing beige cube,
to a buzzing white one, to the garish space-eggs you see nowadays.
The train is a chain of linked rectangles, the automobiles have
devolved into these crappy little automobubble spheres, and
TVs/radios are about as lavish and attractive as a 2 X 4. But
that’s another
rant. what im trying to do is retroactively create a false period
of greatness in computing. The "Golden Days" of the
PC, so to speak. I'm building a blazing-fast, modern computer
into antique fine cabinetry. I've been stalking Ebay for about
a year now, and I’ve finally gathered just about everything
I need. It took me a long time, because I had to find pieces
of broken or useless antiques to modify. I couldn’t
bring myself to destroy anything good. I figure, if it survived
this long, who am I to destroy it? Also, the old hardware
has a soul to it that the new crap doesn’t, so I'd almost
feel like I was killing it. But I digress....as always.
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Here's
the chair I pulled out of the garbage and refinished. It's
been stripped, sanded, restained, urethaned, and reupholstered
with a thick, comfortable pad and thinly pinstriped fabric. |