Blog of Jonathan Jaikoo Conway, web technologist, entrepreneur and daddy.

I’ve been lucky enough to work from home lately and coupled with the fact that the new offices don’t have Aerons has meant my back has suffered. I’ve had a bit of a dodgy back since ‘99 after I was injured in a martial arts tournament. Since then prolonged periods of sitting without proper back support can leave me in agony.

It’s been Aerons for me for about 4 years now, so I thought I’d try something else out as although I’ve found them to be very comfortable I often find myself fidgeting in them. Also I couldn’t find a cheap enough Aeron with the posture-fit enhancement as I find that worlds better than the standard lumbar support. Luckily in Clerkenwell there’s a number of office furniture specialists selling ergonomic chairs that I could peruse and try out a few other makes.

First chair to try was an Ergohuman retailing at around £420 inc VAT in the UK. Sure it was comfortable after I’d adjusted it but further investigation into the manufacture and terms of the warranty left me worried. Let’s just say that the 10 year warranty only covers the frame of the chair while the mesh etc are covered by lesser periods. Also I’d bought my mother in law a slightly cheaper chair by the same manufacturer and it lasted less than 3 years. Wasn’t really impressed by that.

It was while I was going through the billionth adjustment on the Ergohuman chair that I remembered that it actually takes me around two weeks before I’ve adjusted an Aeron chair so it’s a perfect fit. In fact it takes me so long to get the adjustment just right that I used to forbid anyone else at my old place New Bamboo from sitting in my chair for fear of the sacred balance being disrupted in the Aeron universe;).

Luckily the next chair I tried out was the Humanscale Freedom. It looks sort of technopunk from the back and it’s got very few adjustments. All I can do is adjust the seat depth, the height and the position of the back rest. Everything else such as the reclining tension adjusts itself as if by magic. This is going to sound weird, but to recline you just lean back and to stop it from reclining you stop leaning back and it holds you in that position perfectly. Meaning there’s no actually fix recline position leaving me to move freely (and stop fidgeting). But let me clarify that although the chair doesn’t have a fixed recline it does support my back perfectly preventing me from falling all the way back, out of my chair and onto my arse.

The nice thing about this chair is that it comes with a lifetime warranty, is more comfortable than an Aeron and cost substantially less than a brand new Aeron with posture-fit. Of course when I say that it’s more comfortable than an Aeron you’ve got to remember that it’s all personal taste and the magic of the self adjusting Humanscale might be a little bit too weird for the average joe.

Well Septembers been a nightmare of a busy month for me so it’ll be nice to get out and about in October. Apart from the usual LRUG meetup on the 13th of October I’ll be pottering my way down to FOWA to watch some great speakers on the 9th and 10th.

Another event I’m quite excited about is Merboutpost which is hosted on the days of Merbcamp in the US. The cool thing about Merboutpost is that apart from meeting other cool people in the UK interested in Merb they will also be streaming the talks live from Merbcamp. So it really is the next best thing for someone like me who can’t attend Merbcamp this year.

I’ve just got back from a bloody great time in Berlin. RailsConf Europe though less well attended than previous years was definitely better than last year. For one thing I actually found the calibre of speakers to be not only better but also the talks to be a magnitude more interesting than last year. I’m actually looking forward to next years RailsConf and would encourage everyone to to go, especially if you’re in Europe.

It was great to meet so many interesting and talented people this year, these include fellow Cabooser’s, the Exceptional guys (very nice people!), Applicake and so many other great people.

If you’re looking for my slides they should be up on O’reilly RailsConf site or you can get it here in pdf and of course in quicktime format here thoug the pdf version also includes some speaker notes if you’re interested.