A special thank you to Lifeform Chairs and Lori Dyson with Relax the Back, Las Vegas store on helping me decide on the new chair! I urge anybody interested at all in purchasing a Lifeform Chair to email info@lifeformchairs.com. Their customer service is top notch and will make your purchase effortless.

Summary: Lifeform has done it again with the Ultimate Executive High Back. This is not the Rolls Royce of chairs. Rolls Royce is the Lifeform of cars. If you have a back, rear end, legs, torso, or any combination of the aforementioned body parts, you owe it to yourself to invest in a Lifeform Chair. Secondly, if you haven’t already, please read my original Lifeform Chair review. Then come on back. Boom.

There comes a time in every man’s life where the best is merely accepted rather than appreciated. It is a sad time. Yet a time full of opportunity to see what the whole “max out your credit card” idiom even means. Back in 2007 I began a journey to find the best office chair on the planet. After trying many, spending thousands and thousands, I came to the victor: The Lifeform Ultimate. It has been one of the best investments I have ever made. That may sound like hyperbole but that’s because you haven’t tried a workday at your desk with a Lifeform yet. However, I am a man of wants and I kept checking out all the new hotness Lifeform was pumping out and I couldn’t help but be tempted.

After much deliberation, I finally decided on my new dream chair: Ultimate High Back Executive in Deer Run bitter chocolate leather with cornflower piping, deep contour seat and a cherry wood base. Naturally, the best comes with a price. An exact price of $3,325. Of course, while I was shopping I of course needed the matching footrest for an additional $225 bringing the grand total to a spicy $3,550. Note: I am planning on retiring at 143 so no worries.

The Chair Arrives!

As you can see, the chair is not small. The whole chair came in three very large boxes much to my delivery guy’s enjoyment.

The build begins

The best news is that the chair is extremely simple to set up. And I mean extremely simple. There were no instructions and I had it set up in under 10 minutes. True story. Everything feels solid, together, and fits like a glove. You can feel instantly that a lot of thought went into making this chair.

Boom.

There’s the beauty. It’s cliche, but pictures do not do the chair justice. The leather is a deep dark chocolate that works with the lighter cornflower piping. The new cherry wood base also gives the chair an big style upgrade. The plastic on my original chair was fine but it’s nothing to the quality of the wood base. Of course the matching foot rest is not too shabby either. The foot rest was not an after thought by Lifeform. This is a beautiful well made product that should seriously be on your list if you’re buying a Lifeform.

All set up, ready to sit on. After looking over the great adjustment videos located here I was ready to enjoy. This was an easy task. The Deer Run leather was an awesome upgrade and feels like butter. Not too soft, still has a nice texture to it so you’re not sliding all over the place. The deep contour seat alleviates all the pressure in my legs. This chair does not “hit” in any one place but rather distributes your mass evenly.

tough problems to have

Here is the new chair side by side with my original. You can see the main differences: no headrest, color, type of leather, and the cherry wood base. Both beautiful chairs in my humble opinion but the new one just blows the old one out of the water on the pure looks department. It could fit in a home, CEO’s office, or boardroom.

So it’s been more than four years, how about all the new competitors out there? What about all the other manufacturers? What have they been doing while Lifeform is kicking their butts all over the ergonomic chair world? Not doing much it seems. I did go ahead and look at a few more chairs:

Think Chair by Steelcase ($919 MSRP)

Meh. I actually really liked the look and feel of the chair. If I was outfitting my new startup in silicon valley I would love to have a fleet of these just for the aesthetic. I of course would require employees to pull out the Lifeform mid backs when the investors leave. The chair was fine and comfortable for a bit but it can’t compare to the firm pillow the Lifeform creates. Additionally, the arm rests, which are so important yet so many manufactures forget about them, suck on this chair. They are short and stubby and unless you’re related to a Tyrannosaurs Rex, they will not be comfortable. Also, for close to $1000 you’re almost in Lifeform land…

Leap by Steelcase ($1329 MSRP in leather)

Steelcase Leap

I was actually impressed with this chair. Steelcase stepped their game up a bit and if you want a small drafting chair for not too prolonged sitting periods you could have a good time in this chair. I don’t think it comes close to the Lifeform in quality but it gets the job done. If an analogy must be made the Leap is the Lexus of ergonomic chairs. Dependable, comfy, not too exciting, but it will get you there. Most importantly, they fixed the armrests! That said, now this chair is dangerously close to the Lifeform price and it’s tough to recommend it.

Herman Miller Embody Chair (starts at $1150 MSRP)

Definitely the best Aeron chair out there in my opinion. I just don’t think they are made well for bigger people. I’m 6’3″ 200 and the chair is just not comfortable for me after an hour or so. It’s not a “bad” chair but I don’t think it’s worth the hype. Sit in in though, you might like it. Personally I would steer you to a Steelcase series before an Aeron and I would definitely steer you towards a Lifeform before a Steelcase…

Conclusion:

People ask, “Jordan, is there ANYTHING not to like about the Lifeform chairs??” Um, yes, the price kicks like a donkey downhill. Would I love for the chair to cost half as much? Of course. But I’d like a lot of things to cost half as much as they do. In my mind, until someone else comes out with the same quality chair, I can’t judge Lifeform too harshly. If there is money to be made someone would come in and undercut Lifeform. Hasn’t been done yet to my knowledge. Speaks volumes in my book.

The least expensive way to get into a Lifeform chair is around $1600 unless there are some real spicy discounts and deals going around. If that is too steep for you (completely reasonable) just realize that you will probably spend that much over your life in cheaper chairs. Additionally, you have no idea how much pressure you are putting on your body by sitting in a bad chair all day. Try a Lifeform, you won’t regret it.

Common Questions:

1. Is the headrest worth it? I liked my original headrest but I never really reclined that much to take advantage. Definitely a nice option but not one of my top choices. Lastly, I don’t think it looks as good as the non-headrest version.

2. Is the wood base worth it? Completely aesthetic. Does nothing to add to the chairs functionality. Personal preference. If it’s going in your home…maybe not worth it. If it’s going in public/work setting, the wood is pretty damn nice.

3. How did you decide on that color combination? There are literally thousands of color combinations. You can choose the color of just the center panel, the piping, the back panel, the whole chair, etc. It will drive you crazy/excited depending on how involved you get.

4. Is the leather worth it over the Dreamweave? Personal preference. I think the leather feels and looks great. Other people swear by the Dreamweave. The Dreamweave is “cushier” and softer. More pillow-esque. The leather is a bit firmer. You have to sit on both to decide. I’m a leather guy though. One note about the leather: if you live in a hot climate, say Los Angeles, the leather can get a bit toasty. Just something to keep in mind.

Thanks all for reading! Please ask any questions or leave any comments in the comment section below. Love to hear what you think of the chair!

Gallery

Side shot

intimidating

a lot of levers

leather armrests

back

wood base

Are you dealing with a ton of “message undelivered” “message unsent” “I hate you” messages from your iPhone? Welcome to the club.

Tons of glitches with a few of their updates and rather than get all technical I’ll just tell you how to fix it:

1. Go into Settings from your home screen
2. General
3. Reset
4. Choose “Reset Network Settings.” Click Ok/yes to agree to their warning and then your iPhone will restart itself.

Don’t worry, resetting your network settings does not erase any data. All you will have to do is rejoin your wi-fi networks (and enter in the passwords again). Worth it for trouble free messaging.

Note: if resetting the network settings does not alleviate your problem, you can troubleshoot a few ways. First see if you’re having problems sending messages while you’re on wi-fi or using 3G. If wi-fi, reset your wireless router (just take out the power, wait 30 seconds, and plug it back in). If 3G…that’s a bit trickier. Some people say they have success doing a hard reset (completely wiping their phone). Try resetting network settings. I bet it will work.

Boom.

What is the goal of all the “Occupy Wall St” protests? What are their demands? What are they trying to achieve? Anybody? Most useless, sad, protest I have heard of in awhile. It is truly complaining for no reason other than to complain.

The protester’s have reason to be upset. They have lost their homes, jobs, livelihood while these fat cat bankers are ranking in millions. Unfair! Ok…so…what do they suggest? Cap how much bankers can make? Should we also cap how much investors make on the investments they make with these banks? How about the insurance companies, schools, and pension funds that invest with these banks? Sometimes they make a nice profit on those investments. And what should we do with the excess wealth not going to the bankers anymore? Send it to the government? More taxes? Where will that money go? Will it fix all the complaints?

The economy is stuttering. Our GDP is at an ugly 1.5-2.5% increase and there is little trust in our stock markets. Consumer spending is at a low and unemployment is around 9%. An estimated 1.2 million US homes will be foreclosed in the next 12 months (as soon as the banks get to it…they are busy foreclosing on another 750,000 homes). We just went through one of worst financial crashes in capitalist history and it ain’t over yet people.

So I suppose the best course of action to jumpstart our economy is to plan a big camp out in the middle of cities! Can’t lose. Somehow, our leading economists missed this tactic.

Is it awful that someone lost their job? Absolutely. I wish everybody could be employed. I wish that the company that fired that person wasn’t losing money hand over fist and could afford to hire everybody who submitted an application. Is it awful that someone can’t pay their school debt? Absolutely. They should have gone to a public school or to a school that offered them a scholarship. Harsh? Sure. They took the risk of taking out a loan to go to school in order to, most likely, increase their future earnings and pay off said debt. The risk didn’t pan out.

I don’t want to go into an entire capitalism debate but mainly I just wanted to ask how are these people not making one demand? Besides the ultra-realistic “stop being greedy America!” A bit too vague. Can we get someone organized who actually understands the economy point out some actual possible fixes? Or…just keep relaxing in the park thinking of new picket slogans. Either one.

Lastly, I find it insulting to the people who are waiting hours in lines at job fairs fighting for work when these people are camping out getting free food and help from local businesses.

Tons of fun new features for iOS5 but some of my favorites are rarely publicized: keyboard shortcuts, custom vibrations, LED flashes for visual alerts, instant definitions, cover your digital tracks, check app usage, and alternate routes in Maps.

1. Set Up Text Expansion (Shortcuts)

First things first, let’s get text expansion (or Shortcuts, as Apple calls it) set up. To get it set up, follow these steps:

Open up the Settings app on your iPhone’s home screen.
Tap the General section.
Tap the Keyboard section.
Swipe down to the bottom and tap the button labeled “Add New Shortcut…”
Under “Phrase” type the phrase you want the shortcut to expand to, and under “Shortcut” type the shortcut you want to type instead. For example, if you wanted “brb” to expand to “be right back”, you’d type “brb” for the shortcut and “be right back” for the phrase.
Tap save when you’re done.
Repeat for as many you as like.

Some examples to start you off (shamelessly ripped from Lifehacker):

EML -> your@emailaddress.com, so you never need to type your email when sending a message to yourself or sharing it with someone else.
PHN -> your phone number, so you can easily share your phone number without the need to type it or even remember it.
ADDR -> your address, so you don’t have to type out the entire thing.
SIG -> your email signature, in case you only want to use it sometimes and not with every message.
CTCL -> can’t talk, I’ll call you later, when you need to tell a friend you’ll get back to them a bit later but aren’t able to call (or answer their call).
FMIN -> I’ll be there in five minutes, for when you want to text someone that you’re five minutes away but only have a few moments to type it.
BRB -> be right back, for those of you who IM frequently on your iDevice.
THX -> thanks!, is one example of many ways you can abbreviate common endings to messages.
IDADBBWIDIPDE -> I don’t always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis.

2. Create Custom Vibrations for Stealth Alerts

You’re in a high-powered business meeting. Your phone volume is mute because you don’t want to offend the client. But you really need to receive that critical phone call from your pilates instructor scheduling a rain check. By assigning a unique vibration sequence to any contact, you can leave your iPhone on the table and listen for the sweet euphony of a customized “zizip, zizip” as your device resonates against the table top.

Interested? Go to Contacts, choose a contact and tap Edit. Navigate to Vibration>Create New Vibration. You’ll be greeted by the screen above. Simply tap out a new vibration rhythm, save it, and prepare for near-stealth notifications of when special people are trying to reach you.

3. Create LED Flashes for Visual Alerts

We all have different preferences when it comes to how we receive iOS notifications. Some people like audible alerts, some like vibrating alerts, some like no alerts at all. But the more flamboyant among us may prefer a new visual alert buried in the Accessibility menu in General settings. Toggling on “LED Flash For Alerts” will prompt your iPhone to trigger your camera’s LED whenever you receive a message or email when the phone is set to silent mode.

This feature offers great utility to anyone who can’t hear, but we also see great potential for multiplayer gamers who like to create a chilly-spooky vibe in darkened rooms. Huzzah! says the flash. Your pizza has arrived!

4. Instant Definitions

Much has been made about iOS 5’s new text formatting options. You can select a word or text string, and then make it bold, italic or underline. That’s well publicized. But check out all the other options that become available when you hold down a selection of a word.

The Suggest function provides a list of other words you may have preferred to type. Quote Level either increases or decreases the number of vertical lines that appear before text — helpful when you’re annotating a threaded conversation. But one of the niftiest options is Define, shown here, which provides a tight (but surprisingly robust) dictionary entry for the selection, complete with a definition, usage examples, and often information on word derivatives and origin.

5. Cover Your Digital Tracks

The new iOS includes a number of key features that foster more private, secure use. In Safari’s settings menu (shown above), you can toggle on Private Browsing. Once enabled, Safari will refrain from building a history of your browser activity (hey, we all have something to hide).

Over in the new Message app, which provides for seamless transitions between traditional carrier-hosted text messaging and Apple-hosted iMessages, you can define whether to allow Read Receipts, which notify your friends when you’ve read their messages. So, if you want to continue the charade of, “Oh, did you send me a message? Never saw it,” then head to Settings>Messages, and turn Send Read Receipts to off.

Finally, you can put an end to those awkward conversations that occur when you leave your iPhone on the table, and someone reads the first few sentences of one of your text messages or emails on the lock screen. Go to Settings>Notifications and turn off Show Preview for both Messages and Mail.

6. Check App Usage, Dispatch Offenders

If you fear your iDevice is approaching the limits of its storage capacity, head on over to Settings>General>Usage, and start surveying your worst offenders. Clicking on an app name will provide a bit more detail — specifically, the footprint of the document and data files associated with the app. You’ll also see a button to delete the app entirely.

7. Alternate Routes in Maps

Views of alternate routes have always been available in the desktop version of Google Maps, and now they’re finally available on iOS devices too. After defining where you are and where you want to be, just tap Route 1, Route 2, etc., to toggle between Google’s recommended directions.

Enjoy!

source: Wired.com

Note: Sexual assault/Rape is something I take extremely seriously. I personally know women who have been attacked. I teach female self-defense and I have spoken on how women can better defend themselves. Most importantly, I will never believe it was the victim’s fault she was attacked. It was nobody’s fault except the attacker. Plain and simple.

To those who have not heard, earlier this year a Toronto police officer made a flippant comment that women should avoid dressing like “sluts” to avoid being raped or victimized. This comment sparked outrage in some groups who have organized “SlutWalk’s.”

Conclusion (for the impatient out there): SlutWalk’s serve no purpose other than affording people another event besides Halloween to wear minimal clothing.

As you can possibly garner from the photo, SlutWalk’s are a march of self-proclaimed “sluts.” They are taking the word back. With pride! Now, people can’t use the word slut to hurt them anymore. They’ve owned it. “We’re Here! We’re Slutty! Get used to it!” Ok, unfortunately “queer” and “here” rhyme a bit better but you get the idea.

The concept of these SlutWalk’s are simple: Women should be able to wear whatever they want, whenever they want, and never feel in danger of being victimized in any sort of way. Love it, sounds great. If not for reality, I think it’s a feasible goal.

People rely on their perceptions to make conclusions. It’s how we survive in society. You see something, make a judgment, and act (or choose not to act) based on that judgment. You see a shirt you want on sale in your favorite department store, you want it, you buy it. You see an overweight person eating a bucket of fried chicken, you assume that was not their first bucket of fried chicken in their life, you judge they are an over-eater. You see a woman in extremely revealing clothing drunk at a bar, one will most likely judge it is not her first time drunk at a bar and furthermore she is not a neurosurgeon (although I am sure there are some wild, partying neurosurgeon’s out there). Are you right all the time? Of course not. But people don’t have time to reevaluate their perceptions. There is a reason first impressions are so powerful, not to mention lasting.

Back to the situation at hand: it is tough to argue that there is not a positive correlation between how “slutty” a woman appears and how much attention she receives. Men, in general, are hunting in a way when they go out. Not to the same degree sexual predators hunt but the thought process is somewhat similar. Again, sweeping generalization, but when a man sees a woman dressed provocatively, he is more likely to treat the woman how he perceives her (“slutty”). She is dressed differently than other women and thus she must be different (crude rationale by a man). Is this hypothetical woman a “slut” in any sense of the word? Maybe. BUT, most importantly, she is not a “slut” in any sense of the word just because she is dressed a certain way. The only important thing to note is that this is how a man will most likely perceive her. Armed with this perception, a man is more likely to disrespect/be more forward with that woman than a woman dressed more conservatively. The man could now improperly feel comfortable touching, grabbing, or speak to her in an extremely lewd manner (I’ve always wanted to use the word “lewd” in a post).

Whore’s Uniform

Does this man have any right to do this? Absolutely not. Does that change the outcome? Absolutely not. The reality is, where there is alcohol, men, and women, men will do stupid things. Maybe if every single woman dressed “slutty” then it wouldn’t shock some men and some women would not get more attention merely for the outfit they choose. But for now, if a woman would like to minimize the amount of unwanted attention, she could reasonably not dress “slutty.” Does she have every right to? Absolutely. Doesn’t change the fact that it will bring more attention.

It is an ugly world out there. Many people, thankfully, are sheltered from how much evil there is. It exists. It is ruthless, careless, and causes true pain without regard. For example, and apropos to this post, in San Mateo gang members shot innocent people wearing red, the color of a rival gang. This same atrocity has happened numerous times throughout the years. The gang members saw people wearing a certain color, made a judgment, and shot to kill. Did those gang members have any right to do this? Absolutely not. Did that stop one of the victimes from dying and three being severely wounded? Absolutely not. Did those kids have every right to wear red that day? Of course. Was it their fault they were shot? NO. That said, if I lived in that area, I would never ever wear red. Plain and simple.

How does this all relate to actual sexual assaults and rape? It is well documented that sexual assaults are not crimes of passion or lust. They are crimes of anger, control, and power. These attackers are considered (and should be viewed) as predators. That’s what they are. The term “sexual predator” is embedded in the vernacular for a reason. Predators do one thing and one thing well: look for prey. Predator’s do not look for other predators or prey that could possibly hurt them or cause them problems. They want easy. They want to accomplish their goal while being in power. They already feel weak inside, they want to feel strong for once. If dressing provocatively increased your chances of being noticed by a predator and thus of being assaulted 5% is it worth it? Even if it increased it 1%? .1%? .01%? Weigh that increase against the desire to wear whatever clothes you want.

Is this fair? Of course not. Is it the reality? Yes. Just like those kids wearing red did nothing to deserve being shot, a woman wearing “slutty” clothes did NOTHING TO DESERVE being attacked. What does that change, though? Life is not fair.

Organizers of the SlutWalk’s desire change. They want to live in a world where a woman can wear whatever she wants and be just as safe and protected as a woman who is dressed conservatively. I applaud that desire. Organizing marches of half-naked people do absolutely nothing to address that fact. Absolutely nothing. You think a rapist sees these marches and says, “oh wow, I completely misjudged that girl I attacked!” These marches cannot be compared to Gay Pride marches because gays were silent and the marches were a loud shout that they are not a few, they are many and they’re not going anywhere. They were shouting to the “hetero world” to recognize and accept them. Who are these self-proclaimed “sluts” shouting to? Toronto police officers? Men? Women? Who is listening that will change the basic act of predators and prey?

Final thoughts: why is being slutty even something women desire to “take back?” How is this a positive goal in any sense of the word? Being sexual and slutty are completely different things. If a woman is comfortable with her sexuality and wants to enjoy sex responsibly, great. Dressing like an out of work street walker demanding to be called a slut should not be an attractive ideal. Is “slut” overused in our society? Sure. A woman has sex with a few guys and people could call her a slut. Ok. Sucks for her. Society will get right on fixing the entire double standard between men and women. But for now, the over and incorrect use of the word slut has absolutely NOTHING TO DO WITH WOMEN BEING ATTACKED.

Sexual assault and rape is supposedly down over the years. Personally I believe it is being under reported more than ever. These SlutWalk’s do nothing to address that fact. “Hey girls who have been attacked…keep wearing slutty clothes or if you aren’t, go ahead and dress as slutty as you like because…because…because…?” Why exactly? Because you should be able to?

Kids should also be able to wear red and not get killed.

To make things simple, the iPhone 5 is being released on all 4 major networks: AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint. Fortunately, you only have to worry about AT&T and Verizon (there are 7 people on T-Mobile and only the Sprint CEO uses Sprint. I said it.).

To make things even simpler, if call quality/reliability is of utmost importance, go Verizon. If data speed (uploading and downloading) and using data while on the phone is more important, go AT&T.

That’s it. If you must know, Sprint is somewhat similar to Verizon and T-Mobile is near identical to AT&T

This may be the greatest video ever describing AT&T vs. Verizon for numerous reasons. Point of the story: 5 dropped calls for AT&T and not a SINGLE DROPPED CALL for Verizon. Boom.

Ok, little known fact about me: I’m a sucker for beta/preview releases. Not sure why. I was playing around with every beta version of Windows 7 as it was coming out, caused me no end of frustration but I dove right in.

Also, little less known fact, Windows 8, Microsoft’s follow up to the smash hit (I said it) Windows 7, has been making tech waves due to it’s new “Metro” style UI. Kind of like a giant smartphone screen on your desktop.

So here’s the deal: Microsoft releases these preview/beta versions of Windows 8 and uses everybody who downloads it as guinea pigs to find all the bugs. Free testing. So why should you download a buggy operating system when your Windows 7 machine is rock solid? Because you should live hard and stop playing it safe with your computer.*

here’s the download page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/home/

*all seriousness, don’t overwrite your main operating system. Google, “dual boot windows 7 and 8″ and you will find tons of guides of how to run both operating systems on the same computer with (little to) no fuss. And to make you’re life even easier: http://lifehacker.com/5840387/how-to-dual+boot-windows-7-and-windows-8-side-by-side?popular=true

Looking to clean up my blog, CoolSlice…anybody a slick WordPress designer?

I have 10 left…just in case some of you have not tried out Spotify yet…for shame…

ask and you shall receive

Rumors are starting to finalize and the next iPhone iteration looks like a winner: larger screen, multitouch home button, thinner, same or better battery life, upgraded 8mp camera.  What’s not to like?