With the move coming closer and closer, more an more cardboard boxes are stacking themselves up around me. The spacious office upstairs has been taken apart, and i have retreated to the living room, mounting my macbook pro on a dodgy cheap-ass dinner table. But I am however into full "planning" mode. The practicalities of the move are being taken care of during the day, but in the evening its time for pondering over my "next workstation setup" Moving house means saying goodbye to my IKEA desk and looking for something new, and a for a new layout.

As usual I'm faced with the ancient dilemma. What to choose : A stark minimalistic desk or an over-the-top "move over swordfish" kind of computer core. If it where up to Nyana it would be stark and minimalistic. If it where up to me .. well ... lets just say that a 19inch Rittal Server rack would need to match the curtains. So you see my dilemma.

The hard part is choosing between both "systems" I am looking at a multi-monitor setup ( My Imac in the middle, 2 19'' tft screens on both sides) One screen hooked up to my Imac, One hooked up to my linux system (probably my EEE-Pc). For the monitors I have bought two stylish "monitor arms" that allow me to mount the monitors at different angles and heights, so i'm not constrained in that factor. The only downside is that i need an "extra" keyboard and mouse to control the Linux system. No I know you say I could use "Synergy" where i can use one keyboard and mouse to control both systems, but since i'm running them on a mac and a linux system I need to set everything up via the commandline. Synergy is cool when it works, but is a bummer when it borks.

On the other hand I still have some extra "studio equipment " that I need to set up for the podcast production and stuff like that. My Midi keyboard my mixer and my microphone. Bart Baush has been kind enough to order me one of those "pro boom arms" like they use in the studio for mounting my Condenser mike. So it will not be in my way when I don't need to record.

The bummer is : The more "functionality" that you add to your workstation, the easier you can have 'all the power at your fingertips' BUT the more clutter you have. And the more clutter you have the harder it becomes to concentrate on one task. I have gone for the "minimalistic" approach before. The slimmed down desk with just a monitor and a keyboard visible gave me the ability to focus and be productive.  So its going to be a choice between setting up all the gear I need, but not over-cluttering the entire setup. 

Some ground rules I do need to lay down are the following.

- Keyboard and mouse MUST be placed directly on the desk (no pull-out thingie)

- Monitors must be slightly elevated for maximal ergonomic use.

- Cabling must be allmost invisible

- Desk must have enough space to place extra laptop if needed.

- Workstation must have clear view of the room (i'm NOT watching a wall)

- Setup must be easy to maintain and to alter.

- Lighting must be indirect to avoid reflection. 

So i'm surfing Lifehacker and Flickr and shooting some screenshots to give me some idea's as to how 'my new digital core' will look like.