My Dream Development Desk

Finally got my development desk all set in the way I really think best suits my work. Better yet, it does not really cost me a fortune to do so.

Chair: $ 90

First I need a good chair. Although I would really like to have one Aeron Chair from Herman Miller, but that will have wait till my IPO. My previous chair really is killing my back, so after a long struggle I finally bought this green one. It has great 3D cushion for my butt. Together with a curved back support to make sure my body will not be slipping forward and my back  not curled up.

L-Shaped Desk custom made: $ 180

Desk, man I really wish for a corner desk. It is the most productive setting as everything can be reached within arm length. I could have my mouse pad at my right and paper and pen at my left. My elbow also can rest on the top of the table at both sides which is very nice for long coding session.

Microsoft Ergo Keyboard: $ 20

Talk about the keyboard, this curved ergo keyboard I bought fits into this setting nicely. As my elbows will be resting on both sides, this curved keyboard reduce the wrist tension by almost no wrist bending. One complaint only, is the keys are a bit tight, not helping me as a touch typer.

Topcon Main Monitor: $ 120

My bought this one at a fire sale event, a Topcon 22W. As I have very little requirement for monitor color and contrasts and response speed etc .. (I am no gamer anyway) I just bought the biggest wide screen monitor within my budget.

Side Monitor: $ 13 !!

The side monitor at my right, as you can see has no bazel.  Yes, it is a LCD panel I rip off from a retired notebook. As I really would like to have a portrait mode monitor at the side for referencing programming books and websites, but I do not want to spend any more money. So I do a little research and find I could buy a LCD module with power supply. Basically I just unplug the panel from the notebook, notify the vendor with my panel code to make sure the plugs are fit and firmware is right and that’s it. Just make sure the computer display card has 2 ports to do a dual monitor setting though. You can see I am running a Windows 8 virtual machine there! I will try to turn it into a touch screen when I have time using this.

Asus Notebook: $ 450 and Development Machine: $ 1000

I best friend the Asus notebook UL30A. It is very light and has a very good battery life. When I go out to do on site job, I most could trust it without bringing my power with it. It is a bit slow now after 2 years of heavy use, but I need it to play music, run Outlook and Sharepoint, get my Youtube videos to pump me up for long coding nights! For $ 10 more I got a stand to make the screen vertically aligned with my main monitor and give me a bit more desk space.

Macbook: On Loan

A great friend loan me this MacBook for a iOS job I got. Also the iPad is from my customer for testing purpose (what a nice customer, give that a brand new iPad 2 for test while he use a iPad original).

Plantronics M155: $ 55

I still got a lot of phone calls during the day for support and enquiries. In the past I need to pick up a phone, stop my keyboard operation or use my neck and chin as a phone holder … very unproductive way to do phone calls. This wonderful Platronics connects to 2 bluetooth devices really seamlessly allows me to handle call very productively. My hands are not tied and can keep on working on doing remote support and administrative tasks while talking on the phone. A must have for those that need to engage with customer on a regular basis.

Synergy: FREE

Without synergy all these will not be productive and seamless. This great piece of open source software lets you control all the devices, in my case, 2 Windows 7 PC and 1 Macbook by just moving around the mouse! Install the server piece on my desktop development machine, and the client piece on the other notebook and you are ready to roam! Amazing productivity boast from this simple yet powerful software. For Mac it will be much easier to install the QuickSynergy client.

This is a long post, hope you find useful and so share you productivity thoughts so we all run faster! Until next time.

XAML Power Toys

Its great to get good learning material, it is even better to get great tools to get the job done!

XAML Power Toys  provides a code generation workflow for MVVM pattern. It will generate the viewmodel and also the view by reading a class automatically.

For a beginner like me, the value not only lies in having quick and fast application component to work with, but to learn the pattern by reviewing the code generated using the best practices.

Sharing is what makes the internet great! Thanks Karl again. The full feature list as below:

XAML Power Toys Full Feature Set

• Create ViewModel Class – from a VB.NET or C# code window, easily create a ViewModel stub that includes commands and exposed data class.  Optionally you can elect to re-implement all Model properties on the ViewModel.
• Create Silverlight DataForm For Selected Class – quickly create a DataForm complete with bindings that are easily associated with properties on the source class
• Create WPF or Silverlight DataGrid For Selected Class – quickly create a DataGrid complete with bindings that are easily associated with properties on the source class
• Create WPF ListView For Selected Class – quickly create a ListView complete with bindings that are easily associated with properties on the source class
• Create Business Form For Selected Class – quickly create a form complete with bindings that are easily associated with properties on the source class
• Create Business Form – quickly create a form without selecting an entity class.  Great for creating unbound forms or just laying out a Grid.
• Show Fields List For Selected Class – display a list of class fields similar to Microsoft Access.  Allows dragging of fields to create controls
• Extract Properties To Style – allows selecting a control, choosing desired properties and have those selected properties extracted to a newly created style
• Group Into – allows selecting one or more controls and group them inside a new parent control.  Many options provided
• Change Grid To Flow Layout – allows selecting of one of more control and will remove all MinWidth, MinHeight, Margin properties and will set all row and column definitions to Auto.
• Chainsaw Minimize Cider Designer XAML – allows selecting of one or more controls and will remove all MinWidth, MinHeight, x:Name, Name, Margin properties and will set all row and column definitions to Auto.
• Remove Margins – allows selecting one or more controls and removes the Margin property from them
• Edit Grid Column and Rows – allows selecting a grid and then add or remove rows and columns
• Set Defaults For Created Controls – allows customizing the initial properties that are set when the software creates a new control
• About Box – see the version of XAML Power Toys installed on your system.  The current version of XAML Power Toys is always displayed at the top of this page below the title.