Hamster-wheel standing desk: Embrace the rodent race

Take a stroll without going anywhere. Robb Godshaw

I have a standing desk that I use to alternate between sitting and standing while I work. I now feel completely inadequate since Instructables user Robb Godshaw posted his impressive hamster-wheel standing desk with a DIY guide for making your own.

You've seen standing desks. You've seen treadmill desks. You've even seen a desk with an exercise bike attached. A hamster wheel catapults the alternative desk movement into a whole new territory, a territory previously reserved for small rodents.

Designing a hamster wheel big enough for a person takes some serious design skills. Godshaw and his associates at Autodesk's Pier 9 fabrication facility ended up creating an 80-inch diameter wheel with a 24-inch-wide base. The wheel moves thanks to four skateboard wheels underneath. A preexisting standing desk was simply fitted inside the wheel.

One notable part missing from the giant hamster wheel is brakes. Brakes were on the table during the design process, but the team decided against it in order to make the desk's user really work for it. You pretty much have to walk when you're in the wheel.

The wheel itself is constructed primarily of plywood, glue, and a ton of wood screws. You can download the files to follow along and make your own. It took Pier 9 about 24 hours to complete the project.

If you do build this hamster desk for your office, then you'll probably want to practice getting into character by stuffing as many break-room doughnuts into your cheeks as possible, squeaking during conference calls, and biting the bars of your cubicle.

Since the standing-desk human hamster wheel has thrown down the gauntlet on rodent-toy-inspired designs for workspaces, I have to wonder when someone will take it to the next level and create a hamster ball with a standing desk inside. Granted, this ups the engineering difficulty considerably, but it would be totally worth it.

The Pier 9 team used Autodesk Inventor for the design work. Robb Godshaw

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Opinion: Standing at the Threshold of Windows productivity enhancements

The next version of Windows looks to have something for everyone

For my first TechRadar Pro article, I thought it would be appropriate to look forward, towards the future and a piece of tech that's soon to be coming down the line. Over the years I've spent a lot of time focusing on helping people with productivity. Whether it's at talks and events, in videos or through other mediums, such as this article, productivity is at the core of what we all need to get out of our PCs, and it's for this reason that the next version of Windows (codenamed Threshold) is getting me very excited.

I've written a lot about Windows over the last few years: how to get started with it, how to customise it and exploit its hidden functionality, and how to repair problems if everything goes horribly wrong. I'm in contact almost every day with people who have used Windows for work, study or play for years now, but still I encounter many who struggle to make the most productive use of their time.

Part of the problem is the complexity of an operating system the size of Windows, and more problems arise because of Windows' need to be something for everyone. Windows 8 was an interesting step in a new direction (though it didn't go without a few hiccups) and Windows 8.1 has refined the idea further.

However, with Threshold – bearing in mind we don't know the full story concerning this OS yet, by any means – it looks like Microsoft has put the entire focus on productivity, and Redmond's engineering teams are working on nothing but.

There also looks to be something for everybody, from programmers able to save valuable time by having a unified code base for Windows Phone, Modern apps, Xbox and, perhaps, even the desktop, with apps that can scale and change dynamically to fit the device you're using, to talk of major productivity enhancements for desktop Windows users (who felt a little left out last time around).

When I give talks I regularly extol the virtues of features such as Workplace Join, Work Folders and Windows To Go, just a few of the plethora of productivity features that Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 introduced. Not to mention enhanced multi-screen desktop support, Miracast, mobile tethering, Powershell 4, Wi-Fi direct and NFC pairing, InstantGo, gesture control and everything else that makes up the productivity enhancement package.

With a renewed focus on the desktop, and how we use it day to day, it's looking like Threshold will be the Windows release that I personally have been expecting for many years now.

So what do I know that's got me all excited? In truth, not a huge amount, but there are nuggets in all the right places. It's long frustrated me that so many aspects of the Windows UI date back to early versions of NT, especially the Control and Management functions. The introduction of Windows Server 2012 with its "live tile" interface shows the way forward, and what can be done with the expected overhaul of all these systems.

Without a doubt, I am very excited about the features that Threshold can deliver in terms of helping everybody from developers, through system administrators, to end users get done what they need to do in less time than it's taken before. After all, this is what progress is all about, right?

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