The unbearable value of potential. Similar to a blank notebook or whiteboard. Or good land eviscerated for lawn.
The other day, after cleaning my own desk (~4 months of accrued detritus), I thought it would be good to invent a desk filing system where the benchtop can be moved out of the way and a different workspace can be deployed, similar to virtual desktops. A sort of 'physivirtual' desktop. I might just try that at home. My sketchy idea was a vertical cable-driven elevation, followed by a horizontal filing in to ceiling and wall-suspended racks for storing the array of out of use desktops. Electronics in particular is frustratingly object-laden, and any dense workspace array of test equipment tediously immobile. The biggest problem would be vertical space: in a typical room only 3m is available and 2 of that is taken for standing, leading to a maximum benchtop count of 2-3 which is insufficiently attractive to justify the investment.
Another potential alternative would be some sort of book wheel. Where the book surface is wide enough to accommodate the desk's surface. Each surface could then have its own layout to suit its unique purpose.
I share your frustration with electronics. I'd love to be able to simply shove it all back into the wall once I'm done. Power supply, soldering iron, components and all.
Retractable spools for soldering iron, oscilloscope, DMM and power cables would be amazing. Nothing I can think of would avoid mechanical damage at the spool end, though, even if you can get good signal integrity.
Mid-cable spools are easier but would be right in the way on the bench.
The other day, after cleaning my own desk (~4 months of accrued detritus), I thought it would be good to invent a desk filing system where the benchtop can be moved out of the way and a different workspace can be deployed, similar to virtual desktops. A sort of 'physivirtual' desktop. I might just try that at home. My sketchy idea was a vertical cable-driven elevation, followed by a horizontal filing in to ceiling and wall-suspended racks for storing the array of out of use desktops. Electronics in particular is frustratingly object-laden, and any dense workspace array of test equipment tediously immobile. The biggest problem would be vertical space: in a typical room only 3m is available and 2 of that is taken for standing, leading to a maximum benchtop count of 2-3 which is insufficiently attractive to justify the investment.