Evolution of a Battlestation - Four Years of Improvement

You Can’t Just Buy Your Way To Awesome; It Takes Experimentation Too.

A hobby of mine is analyzing pictures where people show off their workstations. I think most people these days have a very personalized space for their work. If you combine technology, an individual’s creativity, and a person’s needs, a special space is formed. Enter the battlestation.

Have you ever done the exercise where you look at the contents of someone’s wallet (without identification) and try to figure out what kind of person they are? A battlestation is a more complicated version of the wallet exercise. It says everything about a person. How clean is this person? How organized is this person? Is this person rich, or poor? Where in the world does this person live? What is this person’s profession? What systems does this person employ to improve their life? The questions and insights go on and on forever it seems.

One of my favorite battlestations from my collection.

“A battlestation says everything about a person.”

The number of changes to my battlestation are mind boggling. Over the past four years I moved from Japan to Georgia to Washington State, and it was a crazy ride. All the while I learned tons from studying other people’s battlestations, making smart purchases, making big mistakes, and asking for help from people who experimented before me. Each time I changed something in my battlestation, I evaluated it, tested it, and used it over a long period of time to really understand what I wanted and what about it worked or didn’t work. I included every life hack and innovation possible, for as little money as possible, in a series of weekend projects. I didn’t have much time either. I hope you can learn something from my experience.

In my journey of self improvement, I discovered some important guidelines for making the ultimate battlestation. You can see these themes throughout my story. Here are the guidelines I discovered:

1. Beautiful is better than ugly.

2. It’s better to have things in plain sight, even if they are ugly.

3. If it’s not on a computer and backed up, it’s temporary.

4. Simple is better than complex.

5. Performance is even more important than a beautiful user experience.

6. You need a toolbox, and it needs to be easily accessible.

7. Modularity is the most important feature.

8. Lighting is important.

9. A few personal decorations go a long way.

10. Prototype with free or cheap to understand your needs. Then buy what will last you a lifetime.

11. Default settings are important.

Full frontal of Battlestation 1, wires and all.

We’ll call this battlestation 1. Until this point, I assembled whatever I could find. I found everything by dumpster diving in my apartment complex over the period of a year or so, or found it dormster diving. (Dormster diving is dumpster diving around university dorms, especially around move in and move out time.) This is right after I purchased an iPad and converted hundreds of books to electronic format, which saved me a ton of space and future money. Even the camera I used to take this picture was terrible and found next to the dumpster, as you can tell from the quality of the photos here. (That camera would eat through two double A batteries in about four pictures.)

The full space of Battlestation 1.

Battlestation 1:

Chair: $40 Wal-Mart special

Desk 1 (background): Bought for $25 from old roommate

Desk 2 (left): Found outside at a dorm.

Desk 3 (right): Bought from Biomorph, but way too expensive. (More on this later.)

Roller thingy (right): Found this outside my apartment.

HTPC: I had a spare 24” TFT monitor (terrible quality) and some parts, so I purchased a nice case. I hated the idea of a TV because it just doesn’t make sense to pay for a service when you can own the thing yourself. So the HTPC was my alternative. Eventually, I sold this to some random guy on Craigslist when I upgraded to battlestation 2. I ended up getting my money back on it, so it wasn’t too bad of a deal! Running XBMC and trying out tons of other HTPC software taught me a very valuable lesson: TV is dumb, computers trying to be TV is dumb, keeping metadata in sync is dumb, and all that matters is your file system and having VLC. The user experience that TV sets up for people is inherently broken. Sitting on a couch and using a dumb, preschool style interface to consume media is no way to set yourself up for building a system upon which you can make your life better. It’s far more important to own things (whether digital or physical) that are high quality, and in order to do that, you need to see the details about how all these things work together.

Battlestation 1 in standing mode.

PC: An old AMD x64 rig that could barely run Windows Vista. It had random shutdowns, bluescreens, etc. The monitor was a pretty good Samsung 17” that I ended up giving away to a friend when I upgraded to battlestation 2. I have a wireless Apple keyboard which I bought as a “remote” for the HTPC. It actually worked out pretty well. It’s a great keyboard, aside from the weird FN key which is located where the CTRL key should be located.

Even though I still have this keyboard today, it doesn’t get used at all. Wireless things suck because you have to replace batteries all the time. It’s an annoying problem to troubleshoot and fix, and batteries are expensive. I just want my stuff to work! I also had an old school Apple Keyboard, which worked as well as any other low-end keyboard out there. The webcam I had was such terrible quality that I never bothered using it. The tiny speaker pictured on the left was actually rather loud and decent quality. I ended up fixing this thing all the time, and eventually it broke because I couldn’t solder the damn connections back together anymore. The speaker broke all the time because over the years it took a beating from being thrown around in my computer box for whatever reason.

iPad: Best investment at the time. This let me take hundreds of books and donate them to universities or Goodwill and just get electronic copies of the books. I kept a good box of books, however. I still have my iPad 1 to this day, and considering the price and repairability of it, I think it’s still the best tablet on the market right now.

Weird sleeping bag couch thing (Not pictured): I hate couches. Let me say that again. COUCHES SUCK. Who wants to own a giant piece of foam, stuffing, fabric, springs, and wood that is so heavy you need three strong guys to move the damn thing? So I tried this experiment by taking old clothes and cutting them up (or foam or whatever I could find) and stuffing this sleeping bag full of it. It wasn’t too bad, but was really weird. Nobody wanted to sit on it, even though it was pretty comfortable. This was one of my most time intensive experiments, and the cheapest too. I spent $0.00 on making my weird sleeping bag couch thing. After a few weekends dumping time into my couchless project, I discovered someone else who did a similar experiment. I did more research and ended up buying Lovesac’s Sactional couch in stages. It’s the best damn comfortable seating I’ve ever had. More on this in battlestation 2.

Throw pillows: This was a pretty important discovery. If you look at Goodwill or equivalent (Value Village, Salvation Army), you can find throw pillows that are in good condition for a couple of bucks. Throw these things in the sharp corners of your space to add comfort. It’s the cheapest way you can instantly turn your space into a comfortable one.

Many crazy experiments occurred during Battlestation 1.

I think this picture really demonstrates the experiments and evolution of the space. I picked up almost every free thing I could from dumpsters and tried it in every configuration imaginable. This particular iteration I was working on the HTPC, the weird sleeping bag couch thing (you can see the shoe box I was using to collect the scraps from cut up worn out clothes), some weird experiment with growing my own plants, experimenting with curtains to see if it was a better experience overall than the default blinds (it wasn’t), seating with a stool I found, and experimenting with using my recliner as my computer chair. What a weird and wonderful time.

Anyone observing from the outside might have thought, “Man he’s crazy. What is he doing cutting up old worn out clothes in his living room on a Saturday afternoon?” I don’t know, maybe it was crazy. I think it gave me hands on experience to really, deeply understand the space that I wanted to build. I was having fun doing it, so it was worthwhile either way.

Battlestation 1 after some improvements and evolution.

The battlestation improved over the year, but it still had some essential problems. I still didn’t like the viewing experience for consuming media. I couldn’t play PC games very well, due to the lack of performance. I wanted something that was easier to use, and was beautiful. Battlestation 1 really was the foundation of many things (and the skills and abilities I learned before then, even more so). It wasn’t just about making a cool place to hang out. It was about building the systems that could enable me to become a better person. Before long, I moved to a different apartment, and discovered even more.

Full frontal of Battlestation 2.

Here’s Battlestation 2. There’s one, simple theme to battlestation 2: beauty. My experiments in battlestation 1 allowed me to save a good chunk of change, and I bought more Apple things. After all, the best item I bought in battlestation 1, by far, was the iPad. Wouldn’t it make sense that other Apple products provided the same value? (Some did, some didn’t.) I also spent more time thinking about how the environment made me feel. Was I happy in my environment? If so, why? If not, why?

To me, happiness is a good thing because it lets you be more efficient when you’re working. I’m a bit of a workaholic, and I always have some weird projects going on. Now I know this sounds weird, but sadness is also important to my work as well. It has a sobering effect and gives you perspective on a situation. All in all though, happiness is harder to obtain, I think, so I wanted to focus my environment on nurturing happiness.

Fangamer.net art filled the wall in Battlestation 2.

Battlestation 2:

Chair: A rather expensive Aeron copy-paste office chair. I was lucky enough to inherit this instead of paying for it. I wouldn’t buy one of these without extensive testing to make sure it worked though. This thing is a real blessing either way. I can’t imagine sitting for many hours without a chair like this.

Desk: The Biomorph desk proved to be pretty good! The other two desks from Battlestation 1 were given away at this point. The problem with the Biomorph desk is that it is not modular enough. I moved across the country from Georgia to Washington State, and even though I took care to protect the desk, parts of the frame ended up getting bent during the move. Even so, it’s still a good desk, just not worth the $1,000 I paid for it. The most important thing about this desk remains the curved front and the ability to adjust the height. I like my keyboards really low.

Battlestation 2 was amazing for consuming media (Professional StarCraft 2 pictured).

iPad: A year later, still a damn good investment. The best part of the investment wasn’t the iPad itself, per se. It was the ability to finally back up all of my books and then carry them with me. I use technical books that can be up to 500 pages each, and it’s really important to have the speed to access any of my books, especially when there’s no internet available. Apple has a weird stance toward the file system though, and even though the iPad is the best tablet on the market in my opinion, syncing with iTunes to manage your files is so maddening that it almost makes me want to trade it in for an Android tablet. If Apple doesn’t fix the iTunes problem, in a few years there will be an Android tablet good enough so consumers can fix this problem for themselves. It might be worth the trade. I don’t know yet.

Cinema Display (2010): All of the experiments before with the HTPC boiled down to this: I need a good viewing experience, and ultra big speakers or other external components with lots of wires aren’t important to me. I also discovered that the idea of splitting my money, time, and space between two different displays for my computer work and media didn’t make any sense. Why not instead dump a little more money in ONE good display? My previous experiments with displays really let me make a smart decision here, so I bought the best IPS display on the market for the money that had a minimal number of connectors. Not only is Apple’s display the cheapest one, it’s one of the best. The only bad part is that it has a glossy display. Strangely enough though, the glossiness let me identify and improve a different aspect of the battlestation in Battlestation 3. A matte screen would make this the perfect display. I don’t know if I’d ever buy another one.

MacBook Pro 13” (2010): One of the biggest themes I identified from battlestation 1 was that “modularity is the most important feature”. So I wanted a laptop that I could dock with a bigger screen. At this point I was already considering purchasing a Cinema Display, so I went with it. I don’t regret purchasing the MacBook, since I discovered so much from it — however it was my biggest failure to date.

Performance is more important than beauty. That summarizes all the issues I have with the MacBook. I have no problems with the Mac OS (Windows 7 has its own issues, and Mac OS X Lion has its own issues). I was able to find comparable and sometimes even better applications for what I needed to accomplish. No problem! The biggest problem is that for $1,000 I could have built a swank desktop computer. Instead, I ended up with a laptop with a Core 2 duo, integrated graphics card, hard disk drive, and 4 GB of RAM. So it didn’t matter that it was portable, because playing StarCraft or compiling an application on it was slow. Not only is performance a huge issue, but Apple’s stance towards the file system seems hostile, as well. My files are the most important thing I own, and if I can’t manage these as I wish, then it’s worthless to me.

“Performance is more important than beauty.”

Razer Mamba 2012: This mouse is the best thing to ever happen to me. Using crappy $20 USB mice was standard fare before this thing. I suppose your mileage may vary, but the ergonomics, the dynamic DPI, simple design, drivers, lengthy cord, and fast response time really make this an amazing mouse. Several of Razer’s mice have similar ergonomics for a lower price point, so check those out if the Razer Mamba 2012’s price scares you.

iPhone 4S: Towards the end of Battlestation 2, I used the knowledge and ideas gained from what I enjoyed about the Cinema Display and put it into purchasing the iPhone 4S (unlocked). The unlocked bit is very, very important. If you buy an iPhone 4S on a particular carrier here in the US, you’ll find yourself at some point in the future calling their customer service requesting some unlocking of your hardware. If you want to purchase something for the long run, then you want the unlocked version. It’s actually cheaper in the long run. If you end up travelling internationally, you want the ability to pop a foreign carrier’s SIM card in your phone. Even if you just stay domestic US, you can take a cheaper carrier’s SIM card, cut it down to micro-SIM size, and enjoy a wonderful no contract $30 a month, 1500 minutes / texts cell phone plan.

Purchasing an iPhone 4S is the same as purchasing a damn good digital point and shoot camera, smartphone, and digital organizer all in one. After 4 iterations, it’s a mature device and there are few bugs (except the cursed tie to iTunes). The biggest problem is that it’s made of glass, which is a huge problem with a device you’re going to carry and drop all the time. Thankfully, the iPhone 4S is somewhat repairable.

Art and Clip-Glass-Frames: I’m not a guy who covers his walls in posters, just because I hate how they end up looking. I was never able to find any art that portrayed my love for certain things in the way I wanted. Fortunately, Fangamer came through. These guys are amazing, and everything they do is steeped in a giant community of their customers. The clip-glass frames were fairly cheap from a local art store. It took me all of an hour to set all the art _just right_ and hang it all up. Even though it’s just a few posters, it draws out the personality in the space. These few pieces of art go a long way to making me feel happy and at home.

Everything in my toolbox.

Well stocked toolbox: Many of the things I was able to do or make all came from this toolbox. I slowly discovered that it was very important to place the toolbox within arm’s reach as well. More on this later.

Lovesac Sactional Couch: Sadly, the space in Battlestation 2 wasn’t enough to put this in the battlestation’s area. I think it really killed some of comfort and connectivity in the space. The Sactional is important for sharing my space with other people, or making other people feel at home. Like almost everything else in the battlestation, it has many strategic purposes. I’m still discovering new uses for this thing.

Battlestation 2 was a huge experiment in making things simple and beautiful. It made me happier to work in, to play in, and to live in. All the improvements from Battlestation 1 carried over into this iteration. Even though I created a great Battlestation, something was essentially lacking. There were also some key problems, like performance, or lack of connected space. I wasn’t happy with my dependence on Apple’s technologies, either. While it was greatly improved, this space felt like a consumptive space, and not a creative space. That’s something that I’d strive to fix in Battlestation 3.

Full frontal of Battlestation 3.

Battlestation 3 has finally evolved into something amazing: A battlestation for improving the battlestation. It incorporates every idea and innovation from each previous battlestation and makes a few breakthrough discoveries that really take the space to the next level. The space has taken a life of its own almost, so I’ve given it a name: The Lab.

Battlestation 3, during construction and building the PC.

Battlestation 3:

My Cinema Display, Razer Mamba 2012, iPad, iPhone, Chair, and Biomorph desk are brought straight over from Battlestation 2. These are core components of Battlestation 3. The MacBook would slowly take a lesser role, but it’s still useful. As of this writing, I’m considering selling it altogether.

The softbox plays an important role in Battlestation 3.

Photo Basics 411 uLite and 20-Inch Soft Box: It occurred to me that the light reflected really terribly off my Cinema Display, so I wanted to find some soft lighting to fix the issue. Not only did the soft lighting fix my issue, it also made everything in the room feel warm and happy. No more glare on my Cinema Display! Some people might think it’s strange to have a soft box in their living room, but I hardly notice it anymore. It’s just another lamp to me.

Art is pulled straight from Battlestation 2. Iterative improvements are important.

Lovesac Sactional Couch (now as two “chairs”): The sactional couch makes a reappearance in Battlestation 3, now that the space exists for it. It didn’t feel quite right as a couch though, so I experimented with two separate “chairs”. It really does amazing things to the space once you split the couch up! This really speaks to the testament of having modular things. As your life changes and your needs change your stuff can evolve with you instead of needing to be thrown out. Now, a couch that I purchased over 3 years ago is suddenly brand new. This couch isn’t just a couch. It’s an interview area for my show. It’s a way to relax after work. It’s a nap zone. It’s a workout machine (I jump all over the couch and jump between them. It’s fun! :D ) The couch itself is decoration in the space. I can’t emphasize this enough: Modularity is the most important feature.

“Modularity is the most important feature.”The modular couch, now split to fill the space better.

Lifetime 4 foot table: Finding this table was a major breakthrough. This is a 4 foot, foldable, height adjustable table. It’s only $40, Wal-Mart special. It can serve as a work area, or even as a desk. If I knew about this years ago, I wouldn’t have bought my Biomorph desk. This desk is perfect for LAN parties, a backyard BBQ, or really any event you can imagine. It’s so damn modular that when I found it I cheered, “YES!” pretty loudly in Wal-Mart. (Fortunately it was late, and nobody cared.) It’s crazy how simple things can be better than complex things, even if it isn’t intended for the purpose you want to use it for. I have two of these tables as of this writing, but they’re so cheap and good that I’m tempted to go buy more just for the hell of it.(Edit, 6/1/2013: I no longer use these. The tops of these tables are always warped, so it doesn’t make them useful for much besides a backyard BBQ.)

Toolbox: The toolbox is now front and center in my battlestation. It is an essential part of everything I work on, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a little ugly. Just as long as the tools have a home base, it’s fine. It doesn’t matter how they’re organized in the toolbox, or even if they make it inside the toolbox all the time. Things get thrown around, chaos happens, and having a home for tools makes it work.

The current layout and setup for the battlestation.

Desktop: I finally bit the bullet and built a new desktop. It was a painful experience and took some work, but the final result was AMAZING. My OS now boots in a few seconds. Programs load instantly. Compile times are almost 1000% shorter. I can play any game on Ultra settings, broadcast it to the world, and hold a Skype conversation with 10 people at the same time. THIS is what a Battlestation is about! This was the key component into making this a creative space and not a consumptive space. I spent about $1,000 on it, about the same amount I spent on the MacBook. The difference amazes me still.

Battlestation 3 really solidified all of the ideas that evolved over the past four years. It turned the battlestation into a place of constant improvement and creative work. It makes my life so much more wonderful! I hope you can pick up some of the things I’ve learned over the last four years to make your own life shine that much brighter.

[Originally published March 31, 2012]