When not knocking back gin martinis or sipping "Platform Heinekens" while waiting for the train home, Wired.com NY Bureau Chief John C Abell is quite the handyman. Not only is he the Foursquare mayor of his local Home Depot, he has also put together the best iPad typing stand yet seen.

Professional to the last, Mr. Abell even took time to load up the Wired.com front page before knocking out this video clip. The stand itself is made of a pair of "designer" steel doorstops, with rubber strips on top. And that's it. As you can see, the doorstops, which are off-the-shelf items, are rock-solid when holding the iPad at the perfect angle for typing, but can also be scooped up and tossed in your bag where they'll take up almost no space.

John was planning on somehow joining together the two wedges to save on readjusting their positions every time he set them down. In the end I convinced him that portability was more important, and he conceded that I had made an "excellent point."

Rubber doorstops would work just as well, of course, but the steel ones come in at just $6 for the pair, will last forever and will match the black-and-silver color scheme of the iPad. The only problem is that they don't appear to be in the online Home Depot store, so you'll have to pay a visit to a real store. But then, you own an iPad, so what fear could the outside world hold for you anyway?

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