Shut-Up and Smile

One of the problems with working with a laptop with a 15" screen (I was using my ThinkPad T42p) on an airplane is that when the person in front of you decides to lean back, your screen is angled in such a way that you can no longer read it.

Today however I found a nifty trick. On the bottom of my ThinkPad, closest to me, are two rigged rubber feet. I was able to lift the back of my laptop up in such a way that the feet were wedged to the edge of the food tray and the rear of the laptop was lifted up about three inches. I then was able to push the screen back so that it was at about a 90 degree angle. With the person’s seat pushed all the way back and the laptop’s feet hooked to the tray, I was able to type with both hands and get some work done using the leverage of the seat and tray to keep my ThinkPad in place. Naturally when the person got up, the force of their body pushing back was removed but the person on this flight happily slept for most the three hours I was working LAX to ORD.

End of line.