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Laptop Post-It recess

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I'm posting this on behalf of my brother, Sturton Buchanan, who is the least creative of the triplets. This accounts for the dullth of this idea.

He has noted that the smooth silvery surface of his MacBook, either side of the trackpad, is covered with a variety of phone numbers, sketches, and a rough graph of the Dow-Jones covering 1999 to 2010.

He has suggested that a shallow recess in one or both of these surfaces could accommodate a small sheaf of Post-It notes, perfect for the jottings which are invariably required whilst at the laptop.

I have reminded him of the existence of 'Stickies' (the on- screen equivalent), but he insists that paper notes are essential in some situationstances, such as doodling, or when it is necessary to write down a phone number or price shown on the screen.

MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 17 2011

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       Brilliant! Some of your best work, [MB]!
MikeD, Oct 17 2011
  

       Good grief. I suppose I shall have to relay your congratulations to Sturton. He'll be quite insufferable. Still, you're American, aren't you?
MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 17 2011
  

       I was so sure that I had already posted this idea, that I had to check a few times..... I have it drawn in my note book. Must be a good idea then! +
xenzag, Oct 17 2011
  

       Why, of course I'm American.   

       Sturton? What the hell are you talking about?   

       <re-reads post>   

       Ah... this is akward.
MikeD, Oct 17 2011
  

       and the view of the 2nd triplet - usually the jam in the sandwich?
po, Oct 17 2011
  

       The view of the second triplet is almost invariably blocked by Sturton (although, at present, our intercalary sibling is away, in pursuit of the Surinamese large-eyed jumping spider).
MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 17 2011
  

       //Surinamese large-eyed jumping spider// Almost extinct, since the introduction of Sumatran Rats by the Dutch in the 1870s.   

       Unfortunately, the trackpad on Apple laptops is destined to grow, like the blind spot in hyperspace, until it engulfs everything, leaving no room for post- its.   

       [+] for //intercalary sibling//
mouseposture, Oct 17 2011
  

       //not convinced that writing is necessary if you're at a computer// That is more or less what I said to Sturton (after "Good evening, Sturton" and before "Is that a badger?").   

       However, he vehemphatically disagrees. There are times, he says, when you need a simple paper note of something. For example, you want to write down an address so that you don't have to open your laptop whilst driving to your destination. Or some poor laptopless soul asks you to get them the phone number of the nearest tattoo parlour.   

       Moreover, if you halfbake at, say 1:10 instead of 1:1, a Post-It will be more than adequate for the preliminary sketches.
MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 17 2011
  

       We misread the title as "Lamp-post IT Op recess" which we deduced would be a small fold-out shelf in the side of a lamp- post, which revealed a power outlet and an RJ45 jack, allowing peripatetic workers to replenish their computer batteries whilst simultaneously accessing high speed networking and being able to work without balancing the computer precariously on the knees.
8th of 7, Oct 17 2011
  

       I am finding it hard to believe that the Borg require reading glasses.
MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 17 2011
  

       It's something to do with the way that the head-mounted laser bounces back off the screen at certain angles and bings us in the eyes.
8th of 7, Oct 17 2011
  

       Bravo.
blissmiss, Oct 18 2011
  

       As a fiction writer (no, really, I am), my creative process naturally involves hundreds of scraps of paper, napkins, and occasional slow-moving cats with bits of story ideas scrawled on them, all taped to the wall of my library. This idea would cut down on my tape budget and probably eliminate that terrible noise the cats make until they come unstuck. Where is the outline for chapter 3, anyway? She was up there this morning...   

       So, [+]
Alterother, Oct 18 2011
  

       If you find that you have no more need for the paper notes, the recess can be repurposed to hold a few saltine crackers.
swimswim, Oct 18 2011
  

       Up until a year or two ago almost every idea I've ever posted was written in working-title form on the, front and back, of various sticky-note pads. How can I not (+) this?
I ask you?
There's just no doing it is there?
  

       Is there no not bunning this? Yes, there isn't.
Alterother, Oct 18 2011
  

       I knew it. I freaKIN KNEW IT.   

       ...and now I have to take a shower.   

       ...again.
Bloody neurons.
  

       Arse and bollocks.   

       [hippo] I accidentally deleted your anno instead of responding to it. Please accept my apologies, and feel free to reannotate.
MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 18 2011
  

       I'm trying to remember what I said now. Maybe if you respond to what you think I said, I can then write something which makes sense in the teleological context of your response. I think it's a mistake to be bound by out-dated Euclidian constraints on the ordering of comments and their responses.
hippo, Oct 18 2011
  

       I think it was about using a dish-stacker mechanism. However, that would require more gubbins beneath the recess.   

       Oooh! You have inspired a further idea, much better than Sturton's, which I shall now go away and post.
MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 18 2011
  

       Yes, that was it, one of those stacks of plates with a spring underneath it that they have in franchised self-service restaurants, to keep the top plate always at the same level - the stack of Post-It notes needs a similar mechanism to keep the top note flush with the silky-smooth aluminium surface of your MacBook Pro.
hippo, Oct 18 2011
  

       Somehow I sort of assumed it would be like that.
Alterother, Oct 18 2011
  

       Can't you just write on the trackpad with a stylus? i.e. pull up a note and then electrically fill it in.
MisterQED, Oct 18 2011
  

       Sturton can't, apparently. I think it awfully kind of his non- retar--excuse me, non-mentally-challenged brother Max to halfbake this for him.   

       Oh dear, I believe I've been shot. Hang on, I've got to go chase a political-correctness militia off of my killzone--er, that is, my front lawn.
Alterother, Oct 18 2011
  

       // just write on the trackpad with a stylus? i.e. pull up a note and then electrically fill it in.//   

       Yes. But (playing Sturton's advocate), that (a) requires you to have a stylus at hand (b) is therefore too premeditated for effective doodling and (c) requires you to connect to a printer, print said doodle or note, discover that printer is out of paper, get paper, load printer, re-send note to printer, collect both (!) copies from printer, and then hand one to your friend for whom you urgently Googled the address of the nearest toxicologist.   

       Sturton does have a point. It's just rather a dull one. Even if, in ten years' time, Post-It recesses are as common a feature as trackpads, I would still not feel I had met my full potential if I were known as "the person who invented that recess where you put Post-It notes on your laptop".   

       (On the other hand, for Sturton it would be quite an accomplishment. He works in Tactical and Recreational Banking, and his only other claim to fame so far is the invention of the 'Buchanan Debt-to-Height ratio' [BDH] as an economic indicator. Nobody yet knows what it indicates, but it is the subject of several Ph.D. theses.)
MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 18 2011
  

       How about an E-Ink touch screen. I'll call is a NoteScreen 1) Like a Post-Iit, you can read it while the laptop is powered down. 2) You don't need to find a writing implement to doodle on it. 3) The OS could have a "copy to NoteScreen" feature that allows copying phone numbers, addresses, etc to the NoteScreen. This is faster than hand copying and reduces the risk that I can't read my writing after an hour or I write down the first half of one number and the second half of another. 4) Doddles can be copied into programs on the laptop and of coures multiple pages of NoteScreens can be stored, combined, etc.   

       Disadvantage: -1) Cost -2) You can't add notes while the laptop is off (or flip through multiple pages of notes). We could add a low power processor that could do this sort of function with the main processor off, but then it starts getting too complex for its own good. -3) It's hard to draw really detailed doodles with a finger unless it could zoom in for editing small details (again probabyl getting too complex.   

       Lets "compromise" and put the Post-It recess on one side of the tackpad and the NoteScreen on the other.
scad mientist, Oct 18 2011
  

       Its unappealing to go backwards to paper, but i understand that paper has zero boot time, and that give it some advantages over word, paint, or the stickies app.   

       Someone just needs to make an app that boots, on a keystroke, lets users write though a trackpad, and can save and close, in a single step. Im sure someone could to it pretty easily?
bob, Oct 20 2011
  

       That app would also need to be capable of being torn off and handed to someone who needs the phone number.
MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 20 2011
  

       [-] There's nowhere to keep the pen.
DrBob, Oct 20 2011
  

       //There's nowhere to keep the pen.//   

       Sturton has a very surprising suggestion on that topic.
MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 20 2011
  
      
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