don't forget there's no divider, so the prongs of your charger can scratch the shit out of your laptop. you might as well use a tote bag

the author linked to a comment where they described primary drivers for this as: disdain for the ostentatious as well as backpacks

personally I use an old shoulder bag, but we've all got our proclivities

I mean, yes, but: how much does a Tom Bihn bag go for these days? $300?

Maybe also add lower-budget recommendations.

> It has a wide base, so the laptop just swings back and forth while carrying.

> Can slide out easily and fall when toppled.

What..? Do you live in some ideal zero-friction world or what?

> Any simple and cheap backpack

Where I'm from, a simple and cheap backpack is just as much a target as a laptop bag. The only solution is to just keep an eye on your stuff, and be aware of your surroundings, at all times.

> regular backpacks look nothing like a laptop bag

You're missing some context here — this is in San Fransisco.

> and padded

I prefer to use a laptop sleeve, and then it doesn't matter if it is padded or not.

When I lived in San Francisco, backpacks were marginalized as being associated with being too poor to own a car. High-school students might carry a backpack, college students might carry a backpack, people on the bus might carry a backpack, but mostly not professionals who drove to work.

Maybe that's changed, though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zwWpqsI_3s purports to be from 02022, and in its first minute, I count 17 pedestrians of whom 4 are wearing backpacks. So maybe backpacks are mainstream in SF now.

And it is easy for a thief to see that a bag is heavy and slim to judge that it contains something valuable. Anf then the thief can just forcefully take the bag from you.

In Barcelona there are a lot of cases when a thieve on a motorbike would try to snatch a bag or women handbag from a pedestrian waiting on a red light.

With a back pack it does not work. The drawback of a backpack is that a thief can just open the backpack or even cut with a sharp knife and one would not notice. But more expensive back-packs with a good design have protection against cutting and easy opening while on the back and with a cheaper one can be held in front.

Details from the archived page

https://web.archive.org/web/20050212100138/http://www.jumbop...

And the bit on product placement

https://web.archive.org/web/20000414090221/http://www.bftr.c...

There's another photo of it in the thread here that didn't make it into the archived version: https://deskthority.net/viewtopic.php?t=5632

I have an O2 in storage and have been meaning to try a rebuild of this for... well, at least a decade at this point. Since I finally have a decent 3D printing setup now maybe I can actually make some progress this winter!

A common strategy among bicycle messengers too. A high end bike wrapped in electrical tape with a crap paint job doesn't look to appealing and will be a struggle to sell.

Reminds me of tips I used to see about how to cover valuable stuff up with one or two "dirty" towels to make criminals skip right past your "carbage".

A very unfashionable diaper bag makes a good case for camera gear.

But what if you wrap the Laptop in a towel?

Plus, you're not any more ostentatious than any other triathlete at the beach.

warning: all tow floats do leak in the storage compartment, especially if you do swim with it (as opposed to sitting on the beach), so if you really intend to put a laptop in, make sure to put it into a proper water tight sleeve/ziplock bag, e.g. an aloksak.

Neat! You could cosplay a 1970s fictional president, carrying the "nuclear football".

OP uses a laptop sleeve[0] so scratching isn't a worry.

Some people are "pocket for everything" organizers and some just aren't. I throw it all together anyway, and at least this has a modicum of stealth and misdirection. Nice to have extra space to chuck in a few things, too.

For a hacker community (original definition) many seem to dislike actual hacks...

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45338980

Weight. Packed size. Most people don't need a handle, so why waste volume and material on it?

I think the Toshiba Toughbook had a handle. I think many folks here, given their druthers, would design something that looked like a Toughbook, then become disenchanted with it for various completely foreseeable reasons, and go back to using their standard issue MBP.

The original “Toilet Seat” iBook from 1999is the only one I can recall that came with a handle: https://lunduke.substack.com/p/ode-to-the-clamshell-ibook-g3...

To me a handle implies that the object is somewhat sturdy. It’s okay to have it bump against other things and to set it on the floor.

Laptops ape notebooks (the paper kind). When’s the last time you saw a notebook with a handle?

> I wear a Casio watch

I only wear counterfeit Casio watches.

Not a joke... but I see the humor in saying it which is why I did. It's is a loss leader, counterfeits Casios tend not to be as waterproof. YouTube video can help you ensure you buy counterfeits.

> A bunch of people here question

Sucks you have Hacker News talking about you. Just remember they are not real life... of pretend that's true at least.

Cool blog post.

I also stay off the branded clothing and I took rock the Casio watch.

But part of me wants to spend at least one day wearing the team outfit for a team on a sport that I know nothing about, for example, rugby or just normal football (not American 'foot ball'). With this outfit would be desirable footwear, maybe with a Nike swoosh, which is something I have never worn.

Maybe add some fake gold jewellery to complete the look. How would my interactions differ with just a simple change of attire? Would I be drinking lots of beer by the end of the day?

I liked the post. I had a Waterfield shoulder bag for my 12” MacBook that I loved because it just didn’t seem like a laptop bag (maybe because of the size), but in the same vein I also took a seamripper to it to remove the brand label (did you ever follow the old SDR Traveler, uh, luggage? A little overwrought but I liked the no-branding aesthetic).

i used to slip mine in a manilla envelope whenever i needed to take it home from the office and i hadn't brought my backpack with me. our stationary cupboard was well stocked with these!

ostentatious : "characterized by pretentious or showy display; designed to impress."

You think when people see you get your laptop from a "paper bag" that doesn't create an impression? I'd say a regular laptop bag would be far more inconspicuous. Your solution just makes you seem like you go out of your way to be special. Same as if all your colleagues wore suits and you choose to wear cargo pants and a t-shirt. At least in that case you can argue comfort. This bag isn't as comfortable to carry, not as functional nor as inconspicuous as a regular laptop bag

What bothers me is the hypocrisy not the attention seeking.

Sometimes HN confuses me. I'd use a laptop sleeve with any other bag too, but all the 'smart' comments never think of that before posting?

It's like all power has been diverted to the Criticism Drive, with none left for the Self-Reflection Array... but only for oddball ideas of course. Conventional ideas and reasoning only.

For (supposedly) a hacker community I expect we can do better, and thanks OP for sharing! I'll be grabbing one of these bags even just to experiment.

Blogging about this makes you seem ostentatious about not appearing ostentatious. You might want to stop worrying about bags and start worrying about how you actually present yourself (or stop - depending on where your issues lie :P).

Rich people use paper bags. Only poor people worry about dropping their M4 Mac on the ground.

That means it's pretty widely applicable I think.

Well Cloudflare's office is in downtown SF...

Crime is bad.

I used one as a laptop etc. bag for a long time. As laptops got a bit smaller I now tend to repurpose a Mountainsmith bag (used over the shoulder) these days as my travel "personal item." But, in any case, some sort of shoulder bag is my goto. I find there are some downsides to backpacks on public transit, etc. and I end up with them slung over one shoulder anyway so why not use something designed for that usage.

Vintage ones, maybe. Timbuk2 has been slowly moving their manufacturing overseas.

Rickshaw Bagworks is the made in SF successor from the previous Timbuk2 CEO.

Haven't done a backpack, but I do have a couple of leather laptop sleeves for the M#Airs. One is from scrap napa furniture leather (1mm chrome tanned), so it's soft and colorful, but doesn't protect as well. The other is ~2mm natural + pull up leather, so a bunch stiffer, to the point of being difficult to get the laptop in the first few times it was used.

Both of these sleeves are vertical envelope style, with a tucked tongue closure, and they're generally carried in some other backpack/bag. So these are basically the padding. They replaced _really_ low budget bubble wrap envelope laptop sleeves.

What I'd say from observation of the crafting/development process is that you're going to do one to figure out the issues and one to fix them all. (Or more, having seen a bunch of shoes made in my dining room)

Theft and burglary is a concern everywhere.

I’ve been robbed and assaulted in Zürich, one of the safest cities on earth.

Never let your guard down, be vigilant.

Why, what happened to your last one?

So that was in the briefcase!

I wonder what that "big European city" would be? I don't think in Berlin anyone would grab a laptop from your hands in the U-Bahn.

That isn't a problem at all for most Western/Northern European cities though, without naming it makes it quite hard to judge if it was sensible advice or anxiety.

In Sweden I wouldn't think twice either...

I live in Edmonton, a friend of mine from London was astonished that I'd leave my bag by my chair unattended when using the bathroom at a pub. I don't even think about it, my stuff has never been nicked.

I also wonder if the Laptop Brand has to do with it. I would think the most targeted Laptops are Apples.

It’s not in my opinion. Look how wide the bottom is, so the laptop will rest diagonally across the bag which makes it not ideal to carry or put other items inside. I’m all for the perfect laptop bag, this isn’t quite it.

Well, it's the last one you'll ever need (for that particular laptop that breaks the first time you put it down too fast on something).

Maybe you meant SF in 2022. Car break-ins are down 61% since then FWIW.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/sf-bipping-car-bre...

The post doesn't say anything about worrying about it being stolen.

When I was a poor college kid living in Rochester, NY I used to park my car on the street outside the little house I was renting with a bunch of friends. I would leave a sign on the car saying, "door is open, help yourself to whatever you find inside," in an attempt to at least keep people from damaging the car, as they were inevitably going try to break in about three or four nights a week anyway. There wasn't anything in my car worth anything to take, including the car itself really. Though I was a little annoyed when somebody took my crappy cassette copy of the "Happy Nation" Ace of Base album and I had to make another one.

>It's really sad that SFO is now the car burglary capital of the world.

The airport?

Maybe San Francisco wins California, but are you sure it’s higher than other parts of the world?

He literally just said that. In TFA. You cannot make the joke if it's already there, in TFA.

Also, one usually has other things to carry along with the laptop, and there's also the question of the environment in which the bag is to be carried. That bag wouldn't be great for carrying electronics in heavy rain.

My thought is, for carrying a laptop, I'd rather have a backpack or messenger bag made of paper than a fabric grocery bag. The primary reasons I wouldn't carry a laptop in a grocery bag don't include the fact it's made of paper or the sounds of it rustling (though, it is nice to not have to worry about this one ripping).

I think the author just wanted to brag about their movie prop paper bag.

It is and should be indicated in the title.

Someone submitted it, and others upvoted it to the front page. You may be new, so that's how things work around here in a nutshell. Bienvenidos!

The real story is that you need to conceal an electronics gadget as groceries in order to not have it stolen in SF

A-ha! The author tricked you too, it's actually his laptop bag! /j

i liked it. i make my own laptop sleeves and bags, and it gave me an idea for a thinner padded version of a prop bag that would work better for a laptop.

JGC has star status here.

My laptop stand is a repurposed cardboard wine delivery box, plain brown corrugated. been using it for seven years. Each side is covered with notes: my contact data for different regions, feature ideas, architecture sketches, even little 'zen' reminders for dealing with daily inbound slop, like "if you can read this, you are getting paid for this."

It has three usable heights (standing, sitting, with/without external keyboard) and actually prevents neck and eye strain.

Today’s new note for the 'zen' side: 'This box is not the ultimate laptop stand. Do not blog about it.' 0% joking. Well except for the zen note.. that was the joke