Now, there are many sophisticated solutions which already exist for this problem. There are quite a few simple ones too, but hey, when has that ever put anyone off?

All too frequently, I find I need to scribble a note down from some email, or computer program. Maybe it's someone's phone number, or the dimensions of the coffee table on the furniture shop website. Now, I _could_ click on some little note-taking software (which I don't have apart from Outlook [spit]) and tap it in. But frankly, that's a bit timeconsuming (if you're using Outlook it is, anyway), and I tend to prefer something a bit more tactile. So I have a pad of paper next to the monitor. But that grates on my environmental feelings, coz I end up getting through a load of paper for no real reason.

So...

I'm going to paint my monitor in blackboard paint(the plastic bits, not the screen, dummy), and keep a bit of chalk next to it. No more light showerings of PostIt notes for me!
-- moomintroll, Apr 20 2005

love these... http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/stickies/
unfortunately, I cannot get mine to scroll up anymore. [po, Apr 20 2005]

I've got a monitor with the standard beige surround. I just write on it with pencil. It cleans up well with an eraser or some windex.
-- Freefall, Apr 20 2005


Interesting thought. One could build an extra large surround for the monitor with white board material.
-- bristolz, Apr 20 2005


There's a special kind of pencil that makes thick, dark markings on monitors and can be easily wiped off--shit if I can remember what it's called, but I used to use it back when I was a library tech in middle school, to draw gravestones on the particlarly hopeless computer-fixing jobs.
-- disbomber, Apr 20 2005


Maybe big "box" shaped Post-it notes, in various dimensions (PDA sizes through 80").
-- reensure, Apr 21 2005


"3B" hardness and below works great. Good idea too. Bye bye post-its.
-- Laimak, Apr 21 2005


The pencil I was thinking of may have been called "chinograph", but in the library we (including the adult staff) called it something much more simple, like charcoal pencil or something (not charcoal, but you get the picture). It was kind of a common, bourgeouis (sp), vaguely "mineral" type word.

FWIW, the computers I drew gravestones on were Mac Classics.
-- disbomber, Apr 21 2005


[disbomber], we always called those "grease pencils" when I used them to mark beakers and such in lab. When I saw "A Beautiful Mind," my favorite part was when he was writing all over the windows with a white grease pencil. Pretty.

Btw, I think the chalkboard paint idea is great.
-- dustsparkle, Apr 23 2005


I think dry-erase marker beats all of these other solutions hands-down -- that is, if your monitor has a smooth finish.
-- Size_Mick, Apr 24 2005


Concur, [Size_Mick]. On a CRT, you could write directly on the monitor without any adverse effects. This blackboard solution, though, would work well for LCD and CRT monitors alike. [+]
-- contracts, Apr 24 2005


I recall my LCD came with a clear plastic screen protector - perhaps that could be used with dri-wipe?
-- Precinct13, Jan 25 2006


//I _could_ click on some little note-taking software (which I don't have apart from Outlook [spit])// I find it hard to believe you don't have Notepad, unless you don't use Windows. I often have it open for scribbling phone numbers and such (and because I usually can find paper but no pen or vice versa).
-- wagster, Jan 25 2006


I thought this might be an idea to make the surround electronic, like a writing pad and what you write transfers directly to the screen in a program like Notepad.
-- nth, Jan 25 2006



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