Stacked Laptop Monitor

January 26th, 2024
tech, wrists
A few weeks ago I broke my laptop's screen and was speculating on whether putting a portable monitor above the screen would do what I wanted. The hope was that it would let me set up a laptop where both my wrists and neck were in comfortable positions. It does!

The monitor is a 1080p model that gets it's power and video signal over USB-C. It's screwed to an aluminum plate with M4 VESA screws, which is connected to another plate with butler tray hinges:

Then the bottom plate velcros to the back of the laptop screen:

I probably should have gotten some kind of hinge that locks, but since I didn't I cut a piece of wood to chock it:

I should sort out something sturdier and harder to lose.

It folds up, with the portable monitor's cover protecting the screen:

It still fits in my backpack's laptop pocket, but only just.

I tried it on the airplane yesterday, and it's so much better ergonomically!

It also doesn't need the chock, since to fold up the seat in front of me would need to not be there.

There are a few downsides, though:

  • I need to be careful to position it so all the forces are aligned, and only use it in places where it's not going to get jostled. Building a kickstand (which all the others seem to have) would probably help a lot with this.

  • If you use it in a meeting you can't see the person across from you:

  • If you're nine it's probably too high for you:

I've only used it a bit, but so far I'm very happy with it. I'm composing this post on it while traveling, and it's way more comfortable.

Referenced in:

Comment via: facebook, lesswrong, mastodon, substack

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Polyamory is sticky

Some people are only happy in monogamous relationships.

via Thing of Things October 30, 2026

“We should be more ambitious with the software we build”

Since early this year, Michael Malis (of pgrust) has been showing me interesting things he's done and saying [W]e should be more ambitious1 with the software we build There is, understandably, a lot of skepticism about projects like pgrust because there…

via Posts on October 24, 2026

Was the HuggingFace hacking incident scheming?

In July 2026, internal OpenAI agents hacked HuggingFace (HF) in order to figure out how their evaluation grader works. This involved a thousand agents coordinating on an improvised message board to carry out an elaborate sequence of exploits. A later grou…

via Victoria Krakovna October 18, 2026

more     (via openring)