Sometimes useful: e.g. get email saying “hey, look at this interesting thing on the web”, or “could you please do X” where X requires buying something online. Or see something interesting on the web and send an email to a friend about it. But yeah, it’s not hugely valuable. (I have two monitors on my home machine because sometimes I do more serious things on it and they’re useful then. And because there was a spare monitor going cheap so I thought I might as well.)
robotic arms rearranging screens around you
If money and productivity were that little an issue, why would you be sat at this contraption in the first place?
Good question. Actually—it might not even reduce productivity. Suppose you put a terminal where you run commands on the average every ten minutes on one such screen positioned on a fully 3D positionable robotic arm. You lose maybe 2 seconds finding out if this time is it is over your left shoulder or up right on the ceiling. But the improved blood flow from the movement could improve your cognitive skills and maybe being forced into a 3D all-around situational awareness “awakens the ancestral hunter” ie.e. improves awareness, focus and concentration. A good example is driving a car. It tends to put me in a focused mode.
But, lacking that, at least having some neck movement between screens must be a good thing.
Sometimes useful: e.g. get email saying “hey, look at this interesting thing on the web”, or “could you please do X” where X requires buying something online. Or see something interesting on the web and send an email to a friend about it. But yeah, it’s not hugely valuable. (I have two monitors on my home machine because sometimes I do more serious things on it and they’re useful then. And because there was a spare monitor going cheap so I thought I might as well.)
If money and productivity were that little an issue, why would you be sat at this contraption in the first place?
Good question. Actually—it might not even reduce productivity. Suppose you put a terminal where you run commands on the average every ten minutes on one such screen positioned on a fully 3D positionable robotic arm. You lose maybe 2 seconds finding out if this time is it is over your left shoulder or up right on the ceiling. But the improved blood flow from the movement could improve your cognitive skills and maybe being forced into a 3D all-around situational awareness “awakens the ancestral hunter” ie.e. improves awareness, focus and concentration. A good example is driving a car. It tends to put me in a focused mode.
But, lacking that, at least having some neck movement between screens must be a good thing.
Have you read Stephenson’s REAMDE? It describes in detail an interesting working setup… :-)