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Do You Have a PC Posture?
prostoalex writes "PC Magazine takes a look at 'PC posture' and the problems associated with the workstyles of those who spend hours in front of the PC. They talk about proper sitting styles, the erroneous name of 'wrist rest,' monitor height and the need for periodic exercises to help alleviate potential repetitive stress injuries."
My PC is powered by an exercise bike.
Now, if only I could stop forcing my kids to pedal whilst I sit back I might actually lose some weight.
liqbase
he must be working overtime
as the previous article by "hdtv" domain (PLASMA-HDTV-PRICES.COM) is registered to Alex Moskalyuk aka prostoalex, along with the blog submitted on ZDnet is also Alex
so he registers a load of domains and then pretends to be different unrelated submitters in order to hawk his scam of the week, i guess ZDnet doesnt pay that well
Are your shoulders hunched? Yes
Your wrists arched back? Yes
How about your neck: Is it craned forward? Yes
Is your back aligned with your chair back? Yes. Is this bad?
Are your feet flat on the floor? Yes. This is bad too??!!
Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups. -- 0 1 My two bits
Comment removed based on user account deletion
And now, a PSA from David Lynch.
i must comfortably because i find myself quite often having to loosen my trousers while using the computer
Obviously the author only covered "PC posture", not "Gamer posture"
Slumped back in chair, head tilted towards screen, body rigid except for wrists and fingers.
Trying to correct that is like trying to find a cure for the neurotic cat.
Also, about halfway through the article I saw the following:
"A new study suggests many workers would forego higher salaries in favor of an improved work-life balance and career advancement opportunities. Click here to read more.
And the entire sentence was a link to this site. Was that link an ad to another of their articles? How in the hell was that relevant to this article? There was some more link trickery throughout the page as well. Honestly, this story read more like something on Askmen.com than something from an actual news organization.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Offtopic? Insightful? INTERESTING? WTF!?!?!? It's an article about PC posture and the picture is about PC posture... it's FUNNY people! Mod parent FUNNY!
I have a Mac posture. It's just like waaay cooler ;^)
spoonerize "magic trackpad"
If you actually try to sit right and relax you won't go back to the hunched possition (apart from when you've been awake for 30+ hours and your muscles simply wont support sitting upright anymore).. It's such a relief for the whole body to feel the muscles in the neck and shoulders relax properly.
The popular press is very good at promoting the line that computers are dangerous. The courts and "ergonomic consulting" firms seem to buy into the danger as well. But where's the evidence?
Here's a contrary hypothesis: carpal tunnel syndrome and chronic back pain are stress related. That's not to say they aren't real, it's to say that the primary contributory agent is stress. People in repetitive data entry employment may have stressful lifestyles. The stress may be partially caused by the job, or there may be some other non-causal association.
Now sitting differently -- or any other intervention -- may even cause a measurable improvement due to the Hawthorne effect. That's not proof that sitting one way or the other was the cause of the problem.
Exercise -- just getting up and walking, running, swimming, and so on -- probably has more effect than changing posture at the job. Whether that's physiological or psychological or, more likely, both, is unimportant; it works.
I encourage people to check out primary sources or research on these issues, not just statements from consultants who have something to gain from a particular point of view, or trade unions or employers or insurers who have somewhat different axes to grind.
[Says he slouched in bed with wrists heavily on laptop keyboard, who is about to go out for a jog, so as to prevent the chronic back pain that he has suffered from time to time in his life.]
FTFA:
Well, here's some news that might get you to sit straight up in your chair:
Shit this is gonna be intense... I knew it there's something in there I didn't know.
Along with the majority of the computer-facing population, you could be well on your way to developing a series of unsavory repetitive stress ailments such as carpal tunnel syndrome, postural syndrome, tendonitis and eye strain.
Wait, you promised me news, damn you. I WANT MY NEWS!!!
At my home desk computer I have on very old worn chair with where the back rest is pretty much unuseable.
It has been with me for the last 6 years, in which I have been sitting at the computer many hours every day in this chair.
I have often been thinking about replacing this chair and often people tell me to do so. So far I have not done this. Somehow I have an idea that this miserable chair helps me to avoid injuries.
One obvious things about this chair is that with me not sitting comfortable I often rise and move around for a little while before getting back at the computer, one thing that the article emphasises as being a good thing.
Another good thing is that this chair makes me change seatnig position all the time, without really thinking abuot it, the chair is not much diffrent than a stool I have a variety of ways of sitting at the chair that put the strain on diffrent places in my body.
I think I will stick with this worn chair until it totally falls apart after which I will go look for a similar old worn chair.
After all the countries where people sleep directly on the floor without soft mattresses like India back injuries were curiosly enough almost unknown until they started getting civilized sleeping in soft beds.
My mom has been telling me this every day for the past 6 years :/
Three rings for the Elven-kings in the sky
I have a PC posture. Kinda like this.
Then when I want to use a laptop I tend to adopt a more erganomic posture such as this one.
For about 30 years, I've been staring at PC monitors from whatever chair is available, in whatever triangle with the keyboard and my body happened to be easily adjustable. My eyesight, which started at a little better than 20/20 in both eyes, is now better than 20/16.
I did switch from CRT to LCD after about 10 years. And I use two very different action keyboards on my desk. And I refused to learn "touchtyping", preferring instead a John Entwhistle approach to 10-fingered hypersonic hunt and peck. But my PC rigs seem to have served more as exercise equipment than torture chamber. Maybe I'm just lucky to be born PC-shaped.
--
make install -not war
They bully my comments.
The actual truth is human being isn't designed to live more than 40 years old. So consequently, no matter the working position, there is potential for degenerative problems. It is only in the past 3000 years that people are living more than 40 years.
If we are always standing up, we'll have hip and knee problems; if we are always sitting down, we'll have vertebral column problems; if we are moving from one position to the other or always moving, we'll have tendinitis and bursitis problems.
So honestly, my conclusion is our musculoskeletal system isn't designed at all to work as long as our 2006 life expectancy.
For(k;;)(Fork();)
Funnily enough, I just bought one of these http://www.badbacks.com.au/product.asp?productID=1 35 because I noticed I was starting to round my upper back and also I was rolling my shoulders forward. I've had this thing for a few days now and so far it's been helping a lot.
I was in a major car accident receiving some pretty bad whiplash..
the physio said something about bad posture making the effects of the crash worse... and my sitting at a comp all day has messed up my healing time im pretty sure.
-judging another only defines yourself
I have a very strange selection of poses that I'm likely to pull while hacking away. I've been known to tuck one or both legs under myself, sitting on my heels, lean up against whatever happens to be near by, sit cross-legged on the chair, or pull one leg up and lean on the knee -- all very ergonomically correct positions, I'm sure. Then again, my 1984 Model M keyboard is pretty darn ergonomic as well, so I don't think I have anything to worry about.
"My heart is in the work." - Andrew Carnegie
I can work for hours comfortably in front of my computer at work but not so at home. I've done a lot to improve things, like retiring my ancient chairside IBM laptop and replacing it with a much more modern monitor. One of the things that seems to make a big difference is that my office is much more brightly lit than my livingroom. Increasing the light level in the livingroom seemed to help.
For me, the absolute most damaging thing I did was work at a company with crappy health insurance, and crappy doctors. (Blue Cross Blue Shield, later Aetna) -
When my lower-back problems first arose, it was nearly impossible to get a doctor to do anything other than "take a couple advil". Next step was "take a couple vicodin". Or unhelpful or obvious advice like "lose some weight" (duh).
My problems got progressively worse year by year. Until last year, when I was hurt so bad I could barely work. Each time I had a hurt, it was extreme pain that would last 8-10 weeks, or more. I'd get x-rays, and the doctor would say there's nothing wrong. Sometimes I'd get chiropractic - which also did nothing to help the long-term problem.
FINALLY, a new doctor talked the insurance company into springing for an MRI. Degenerated L4-L5 disk (at this point, it had already been obvious). They talked about cortisone shots, but freinds I knew who had similar issues weren't helped. I've heard a lot of good things about surgery, where the bulging part of the disk was trimmed. But no doctor would do that unless I was physically impaired to the point where I could not walk, or lost bowel or bladder function. (I shit you not).
So it seemed as if I was doomed to keep experiencing these re-occurring episodes 2 to 3 times a year, with only reactionary treatment available, nothing preventative, nothing that would be a long term cure. Unless I paid for it myself and saw an out-of-network doctor.
I say this now: When the revolution comes, HMO accountants will be the first ones up against the wall. I swear, I will torture those motherfuckers until they beg for mercy. And then I'll keep torturing them.
Now, I had been sent to "physical therapists" before - heat treatments, microwave treatments, ultrasound treatments, traction, massage, etc. ALL a complete fucking waste of time.
Then, I saw one that specialized in sports-medicine, who simply proscribed a series of daily stretching excercise for my gluteals and hamstrings - that, coupled with an ergonomic workstation that allowed me to work standing-up during part of the day, then sitting for part of the day. These two things did more than anything else to help me.
Sit-stand tray and monitor stand.
Hamstring and gluteal stretches.
That's all.
I still have a lot of pain and stiffness, particularly in the morning. And I still get sciatic pinching symptoms like patches of numbness on my leg, or burning sensations. But for the most part, I don't get these injury-episodes anymore where I can barely walk for 8-10 weeks. The stretching is the factor that helps the most. If I had a curious doctor, I suppose I'd go in for another MRI to see if there was any effect on my degenerated disk. But that's never going to happen. Not with my current insurance.
One side-effect, though; I usually stand for about the first four hours of the day, then I sit. But this has started to cause some soreness in my knees and ankles now, and, my mouse-wrist, because of the change-in-angle when I'm standing, so fixing the wrist problem was just a matter of changing my keyboard angle when I go from sit-to-stand, and vice-versa.
I'm hoping that the knee and ankle issues will be relieved, since I began a light weight-training program at the advice of the physical therapist.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
wrist rest == net nanny
Not a word was mentioned about my favorite posture. Two pillows propped up behind me while I sit up on my bed, laptop in lap. This is a very comfortable posture IMO. And it allows me to nap mid-PDF. But some will say the heat from the laptop is damaging my balls. Well that's where Merck comes in. I have complete confidence in Merck's ability to cure my "overheated testical disease" as well as my "arched wrist disease", "detached sacrum disease", "reaching disease", etc. The "reaching disease", of course, caused by a misaligned keyboard and mouse.
--
bytecolor
bytecolor
Next time you have to take a long drive, try setting your seat upright. Move the seat forward until your fingers can reach the dash, set the height at a comfortable level and adjust the mirrors.
You'll probably find that you need to stop and stretch less often. Most travel-related back problems are easily cured this way.
Slashdot is an amusing way to stay on top of news stories and hear other people's opinions about them. That's it. That's all. Why take it so seriously?
Breakfast served all day!
The two things that have saved my spine (aside from Dr. LaBreque, my chiropractor) are a really good chair and an articulated monitor arm.
I used to have a standing workstation, but once I started doing long hours (as in 10+) of work at home, that was no longer practical. But for as much as 4-6 hours a day, it’s awesome, especially for gaming. (This is the only point on which I agree with Rummy.)
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
As your eyesight gets worse you tend to use a bad posture to get closer to the screen...
... when somebody, a few years back, told me that the best way to sit in front of the computer is with your back towards the computer.
Do I really want my sacrum touching the back of the chair -- ouch!
I'm convinced that the best way to sit at a computer is to sit in different awkward positions each time. Slouch, sit upright, lean to the side, sit at an angle, bring one leg up on your seat and sit on it. It really doesn't matter. Just don't do the same thing all day.
I should probably have carpal tunnel by now, considering how much I use computers at work and at home. Yet it's the people who aren't very into computers and only do data entry at work that seem to get it.
It's not about any of that stuff. It's about getting attention and feeling in control. Nothing more.
I have been dealing with computers for quite a numbers of years now. RSI, back and shoulder problems, eye strain, you name it, I've been throuh all. We are all bound to suffer of this as long as we keep on sitting in front of the computers both at work and at home.
The only real cure I've found for back problems is actually yoga. The classical yoga program takes no more than 1 hour to do and it stretches thoroughly most muscles in your back. Try it, join some yoga courses and be constant for several months (the beginner's course once a week is NOT enough!). Your milleage may vary, but it worked wonders for me.
Perhaps Rob should run an editorial on antislash and give us some examples of complex queries that give interesting insults. I'm sure thousands and thousands of us would be interested in seeing the results, over and over again.
actually the problem is we have DEVOLVED to the point where we are in bad shape as we near the century mark (most folks a don't make it b are trashed by the time they get there)
what kills us is a bad case of stupid
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
The actual truth is that living beings aren't "designed" at all. And, the fact that people do live longer than 40 years disproves your assertion too.
In most people the things you describe happen after they've reproduced so how could natural selection work on them?
I was 20 when RSI had me in non-stop pain. My best friend developed it in his early twenties. I know a 14-year-old sufferer. It's not just an issue for middle-aged and old people.
Perhaps the word you're thinking of is "scrotum"?
Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
Would you please be so glad to tell me more details about the stretching you perform?
While I didn't write the comment you replied to, my story pretty much mirrors the parent poster. My problem started with an accident injuring my neck and shoulders and working on a computer most of the time didn't help the healing. He may post his stretching exercises but in case he doesn't, here are mine.
For each of these stretches, you won't be able to actually touch the body parts as listed but if you attempt it, the stretching will happen as intended. Only stretch as far as you can comfortably while still feeling the stretch. Do not over extend. Hold each for 5 seconds and repeat 3 times.
1. Tuck chin to chest
2. Lean head way back
3. Right ear to right shoulder (move only the neck and head, not the shoulder)
4. Left ear to left shoulder (move only the neck and head, not the shoulder)
5. Right ear to chest
6. Left ear to chest
7. Right elbow to left shoulder (use left hand on right elbow to make the stretch)
8. Left elbow to right shoulder (use right hand on left elbow to make the stretch)
9. Stand facing corner of room with palms at shoulder level on each wall, lean chest into corner
10. Lay down with forehead on floor. Reach hands forward on floor, holding one hand in the other. Lift hands up from floor with arms straight.
These stretches really helped me. I hope they do the same for you.
But why is the rum gone?
I use WorkRave to force myself to take regular breaks and get my "10 to 12 seconds" of wrist relief.
The program can be a real pain when it's getting late and I'm rushing to meet a deadline--but this is where I need it most... You can configure "micro-breaks" as described above, longer rest breaks and even a daily limit. And the program is smart enough to only calculate the time you are actually on the system.
Try it out--it's free software and has Linux and windows versions available for download.
Every posture if lasts more than 1 hour is bad for health, the only, easy, solution, is to change posture every time possible.
"Men tend to be low writers. They like their chairs lower, and to sit back in them, and they need to learn to sit higher. Men strain their arms and wrists when they sit too low. "
I'll let the readers figure out why this guy is so lame...
And there I was thinking, what the heck is a politically correct posture?
linvir (henry@linuxvirus.net) said:
Are you actually admitting that CmdrTaco deliberately posts mean links to take down sites? Oh wait, that's what all Slashdot editors do!
You just n00bed all over yourself, Henry. You should get a towel.
It is only in the past 3000 years that people are living more than 40 years.
Sorry, but that's wrong. Life expectancy may have been 35 or 40, but many individuals has lived twice as long; and those individuals have probably been very important in preliterate societies. In addition, 3000 years is plenty of time for big evolutionary changes.
Slashdot linking to a 40 megabyte file on a NASA computer system is further proof that Slashdot's users have a liberal agenda to steal taxpayer money and fund their shitty software companies through pop-ups and banner ads. Just like eBaum's World.
It's spelled "LUNIX": all caps, "L" in the front, "UNIX" in the back. Makes sense, no?
With laptops, I compute as often reclined on my couch as I do sitting on my desk.
If your back pain gets so bad that a doctor reccommends "disc fusion" or similar, look into "artificial disc replacement". I first heard about this last year on NPR, but it looks like research and development of this technology has been going on for at least 20 years.
Unfortunately, I think they are still working on the surgical technique - the method described on NPR seemed to indicate that they had to operate from the abdominal side, moving your organs out of the way, to fit the implants in, because from the backside the spinal cord was in the way. Hopefully, by the time you need this they will have the problem solved, and it won't be as "major" of surgery (not that anything involving the spine and surgery isn't major)...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
They are even possible to use as office chairs. Training your balance is a good thing.
One of the single best ways to fuck yourself up is to have your keyboard and mouse right up at the edge of the work surface. Get them as far back as you can so your forearms are on the desk instead of hanging off it. If you’re stuck with a vacuum tube on your desk, pull the desk out from the wall so that the pivot base of your monitor is at the back edge and the monitor’s ass is hanging out in space. Then push your input devices as far back as you can. Spend a few hours like that and see how it feels. You’ll probably be pleasantly surprised.
Fortunately, the shift to LCDs should free up another foot or more of space on people’s desks. And hopefully their reduced size and weight will cause more people start mounting them on walls or articulated arms. Oddly enough, bringing your focal point up to eye level does wonders for the neck (and probably the eyes as well).
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
http://pics.obra.se/homo.gif
Ever notice the "anti-slash propoganda" links throughout slashdot?
You can fight this and other crimes by anti-slash's editors by joining anti-anti-slash.org.
For those of you against the anti-anti-slash movement,
You can fight this and other crimes by anti-anti-slash's editors by joining anti-anti-anti-slash.org.
Due to an earlier injury, my cronic back problem as been the limiting factor in my coding productivity.
At last year's MacWorld Expo, I picked up this really need strap like device that goes around my lower back, and front of my knees, then I lean forward and pull it tight, then as I lean back, my lower back gets amazing support. I sometimes feel things getting "adjusted" inside and my chiropractor has mentioned a significant improvement. I can now sit about 3 - 4 hours longer with less discomfort by using this device. I think they used to call it a "Nada Chair", and now I bring it with me wherever I go. It fits inside this nice little pouch and can fit just about anywhere... It was well worth the $40 investment.
I saw it at a booth at Macworld, stopped by to check it out, and they almost had to kick me out of the booth because It felt so good. So I wound up buying it... Good marketing - to make presence in a place full of wimpy nerds allergic to exercises... like a MacWorld Expo...
If you run across something like this and have constant back pain like I do, then you might want to check it out.
Back in the days of green monochrome monitors (with 280x192 resolution), we referred to the ghoulish contorted posture of young hackers as NERD HUNCH.
Thank goodness for corporate ergonomics efforts, or I'd be a crippled hunchback by now.
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
thanks for your life's story, cyndi are you an anti-slash activist or something?
My posture usually consists of my elbows resting on my desk, and my head resting in my hands. Tears generally stream down my face because I CAN'T GET MY $*#% CODE TO WORK!@
Even though the article mentions problems with bifocals, it ignores one thing that gives great relief to the "more experienced" among us: a proper pair of prescription glasses for computer work. Bifocals are the pits: you can't keep the whole screen in focus, you slouch back in the chair or twist your neck to see the screen through the little "reading" window, and you wonder why you have a stiff neck and stress headaches. Get a pair of full-frame, single-vision glasses with a prescription suitable for your screen-reading distance. It's best to have the anti-glare coating, too.
This is misinformed. The reason we 'live longer' in modern societies is primarily due to an improvements in child health and childbirth. Children dying young, and young women dying in childbirth dragged the mean lifespan down - people lived about as long as they do now, just less of them got a decent run at it. Basically, they didn't just drop dead at 40, they lived to 70 or 80 if they didn't die before the age of 5.
A better 'average' lifespan is around 70. It's difficult to say, as many of the side effects of a modern industrialised society - poor diet, lack of exercise and chemical/toxic pollution drag us down just as modern medicine helps individuals live longer.
Your post also assumes a 'designer'. We've evolved like all animals, and part of the evolution that allows us to stand upright also involved bending the spine into a rather unusual shape, leaving us prone to lower back problems. We also have wear and tear on the joint surfaces (which usually starts kicking in seriously about 70). We have a number of evolutionary weaknesses, which have often been caused because they gave us an advantage in another way, or simply weren't detrimental enough to the population to be weeded out. There's no 'natural' age to live to though, it really just does depend upon luck and maintenance.
Remember kids, it's all fun and games until someone commits wholesale galactic genocide.
I work in IT.
I once had some mild sciatica which was partially caused by my chair. I am tall in my upper body but somewhat short legged. Having the upper body of a tall person means that many chairs do not have a high enough back for my upper back. On my old chair, if I sat up straight, relaxed and sat back there was nothing to support the upper half of my body. So I would slump down into the chair far enough to get some back support for my upper back. I would do that for several hours per day in front of my computer. Eventually, I started getting tingling in portions of my lower ankles and feet.
My doctor told me that my tingling exactly followed the path of the sciatic nerve in each foot. He suggested that the nerve was nost likely being pinched in my lower back although he was slightly surpised that I did not have any pain in my lower back. He prescribed some stretching exercises which he said should loosen up my lower back enough to stop the nerve from being pinched. That plus getting a new chair totally solved the problem. Experimenting on my own I could soon tell that both my posture in the chair and the stretching exercises were both factors that could be manipulated to make the problem go away.
This may be slightly off topic but here is another ergonomic problem for people with tall upper bodies. It is the lower location of the rear view mirrors on almost all cars made in the last decade or so. On almost all cars now the mirror is low enough to create a large blind spot in my forward field of veiw. It is annoying to not be able to see pedestrians along the right hand side of the road without having to keep bending or stretching to look under or over the rear view mirror. That is not a problem with my old full size pickup or with old cars with I have driven which were manufactured back in the 1960's or 1970's. Their rear view mirrors were mounted up slightly above my forwared field of vew. But, nearly all newer cars have that problem. I once rented a car at a rental place and tried several different models of their largest cars and even with their help we could not find a way to adjust the seats in a way that would solve that problem.
I was recently driving someone elses mini-pickup in a construction zone. I was going along at about 15 MPH and suddenly noticed some boots barely visible under my rear view mirror and a helmet just barely visible above the top of the rear view mirror. I leaned down and looked under my rear view mirror and noticed a short little Mexican construction worker holding a stop sign about 20 feet ahead of me. I almost didn't see him. Have other tall people noticed a rear-view mirror problem on newer cars? Do people in wheel chairs know that tall people in newer cars may not be able to see them at all? I avoid that problem by driving my old early 1990's full size pickup which has the rear view mirror properly mounted up high for a clear forward field of view. Sorry about getting on a slightly off-topic ergonomics subject. Between chairs, cars and having slightly non-standard shaped feet which don't fit most shoes, I feel like a square peg in a round hole in this world.
As soon as I began working from home I built myself a desk that is at chest height. Literally the top of my desk is just under my armpits.
I have found that standing at my desk all day eleminates all the hunching over problems. I can rest my arms on the desk, I can bounce my legs and move around all day as I am working. Compared to bouncing my legs endlessly while sitting.
Of course my friends initially made fun of me, saying "Dude that is way high, what did you do? Screw up when measuring before building it?" I said it just seemed natural to want to stand, perhaps from working in server rooms early in my career.
After a bit of searching I found I was not alone, including Donald Rumsfeld, Sir Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Virginia Woolf, and even Thomas Jefferson
10 reasons to use a stand-up desk.
I'll never go back to sitting all day.
Let me say first that I distinguish RSI from carpal tunnel in a basic way. I think RSI is a problem that is going to happen regardless of posture and that is just about the simple question of whether any signal we send to repetitively through our system is bad for us. I think people become open to RSI because of the R, the repetition, and we should be wary of tasks that ask people to become machines. "People are good at judgment. Machines are good at repetition." People should not be doing the tasks of machines.
But carpal tunnel is very different. I have had friends fall victim to this, and I've seen them point to all manner of things to deny what seems totally obvious to me, and yet what I see no press play about: A lot of people who spend their time at a desk are not football players. They have not trained themeselves for years to be strong. That's just an observation, not a criticism. The weakest among us often prefer desk jobs. And some of them end up victim to the fact that desk jobs have their physical stresses.
At the risk of angering my insurance company, I should say that for 30 years I've sat with posture that is not perfect. I've rested my hands on my desk. I've worked long hours. And my typing is fine. Yet others I've known haven't survived 2 years of light typing. Why the difference? I can't believe it's typing.
Looking around at those who do and those who don't, I see weak-wristed people who have problems and strong-wristed people who don't. What did I do as a kid? I swam (with my arms, never kicking enough) competitively for a number of years. I bowled, using at least one wrist heavily. And I played baseball--again sport that uses the wrist. I played volleyball (lots of wrist there) and ping-pong (same). I did tetherball (very strong wrist use). And I loved the horizontal bar (pullups, and pulling my whole body over the bar). It doesn't surprise me, then, that as an adult, my wrists had nice broad cord strength going through whatever the bone structure was there. My arms were always very strong, and it's served me well programming. Probably plenty for a robust typing life.
If you're a kid, or you know one, or have one, who wants to be into computers, I recommend sports. And particular those sports--the ones about wrists. I just don't see the problem. Then again, typing itself from an early age may well build a generation of kids whose bones grow up knowing they'll need this strength. So it may just be those who are late to learn typing that end up with the problem. Still, a bit of swimming and those other things won't have hurt you any...
Maybe what I'm advocating is less PC style posture, and more Mac-style posture, since the Mac commercials seem to be more about getting out and doing physical things with your computer on your belt...
Kent M Pitman
Philosopher, Technologist, Writer
Yeah, but not as tired as I am of spammers like you. Four spams to the same article? That's pretty lame.
Also, your site looks like some kind of silly troll hangout (judging by your About page and your forum). You can't expect anyone to take your grievances seriously with such an ugly site with unprofessional information and focus, and seedy members.
Here's an idea: You have a web site. Why not turn it into what you think Slashdot should be, instead of some worthless hive of negativity? Oh, that's right: it's easier to whine about something than to do it yourself.
Arguing about vi versus Emacs is like arguing whether it's better to make fire by rubbing sticks or banging rocks.
This man speaks the truth.
Life expectance changes over the life span of an individual. That's why it's always specified "at birth" or "at 5 years of age".
Read up on human population biology, demographics and bio-demography for a deeper understanding of how this science works.
So what you're saying is reproducing causes the problems? That's good news for us slashdotters!
sent from my slashdot browser.
Hi, I run anti-slash.org. Unlike the admins (or editors, as the case may be) of some other sites you may visit, I have the technical wherewithal to redirect these requests to the goatsex du jour.
Thanks for playing.
How is that insightful? Interesting, perhaps, but insightful : no way!
The guy has observed, and reported his observation; and how very interesting it is, but it is insightful only by performing (illegal) gymnastics with the word "insight".
It makes me think the moderation mechanism selects for the mindless moderator, or perhaps its just democratic. After-all, democracy is just a refined version of mob-rule. And no, I'm not a leftie-liberal socialist: I want power and authority united in one; a king.
The article has it completely wrong. My orthopedic surgeon told me that the straight up feet on the floor, as recommended in the article, is all wrong. My doctor, James Welch was one of the inventor's of the artificial knee. He knows a lot about the human muscular/skeletal systems. The proper way to sit is slouched, with the hips forward of the shoulders, feet elevated 3 or 4 inches, and the knees above the hip girdle. The straight up posture causes the hip girdle to rotate forward (clockwise), pinching the sciatic nerve. Permanent relief is obtained rotating the hip girdle backwards into the proper position. The lower back muscles must be strengthened to keep the spine in proper alignment. My back was so bad there times that I couldn't stand up with out help. Dr. Welch had me change my sitting to the aforesaid position. He had the phys. therapist work with me on a half dozen different exercises. He also had me use a heat lamp once a day. That was in 1972. I have not had any problems since.
This is just great. I'm supposed to be politically correct about my posture now!?!
If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
Where do people get these stupid ideas? There are two reasons for low AVERAGE life expenctancies.
1) Serfs are worked to death. This has nothing to do with our "design" life expectancy and everything to to with human exploitation in early agricultural societies.
2) Hunter gatherers have high infant mortality rates. Read Lee's ethologies on the !Kung. However, if you make it past 6, you can expect to live to 70.
s/expenctancies/expectancies
s/ethologies/ethnologies
I'll go shoot myself now.
"ExerciseBreak software helps personal computer users exercise at their desks to avoid repetitive-motion injury. Available for Windows, ExerciseBreak software lets a person design a custom, on-line exercise program by scheduling regular breaks at their desk, and selecting from more than 50 routines to stretch specific muscle groups. The user can also decide how long to do each exercise."
http://www.hoptechno.com/eb.htm
Are you tired of slashdot's editors?
Yes, they make mistakes. Don't we all?
Check out anti-slash!
Okay. It looks like a site that was intentionally designed to tick people off. Oh wait - that's what trolls do.
While you're there, check out the database tool here.
I will admit - that's a neat piece of work. It's a shame it is only being used to break the moderation system.
That's right. Moderation is broken because the likes of you intentionally try to break it to prove a point.
With the database tool, you can quickly gain karma by reposting highly-moderated slashdot posts, and secure the +1 bonus for future jihad operations.
Submarine troll. You collect karma for a while and then burn it off trolling. Should your "jihad operations" reach the respectable, positive contributors who browse at higher thresholds, your use of "jihad" will only rally them against you.
By decreasing
People come to Slashdot for the comments, where ideas are discussed. If you want to promote journalistic integrity as your "About Us" page says, why not engage in educated discussion yourself, rather than spamming the site with rhetoric suggestive of terrorism.
you can force
Also on your site, you say that editors are unqualified. That would mean incompetent, not malicious.
Also, how would it "force" anything? The only thing it would "force" them to do would be to make the system even more complicated, even less transparent, making things senselessly inconvenient. Isn't that what email spammers did to our inboxes? How about botnet owners and OS security?
and have a great time doing it!
Not only a submarine troll and a twister of facts, but also no conscience. You want to berate the editors earlier in the post for "ethical lapses", but you yourself have no ethics. Have you considered becoming a lawyer? You could be the next Jack Thompson!
Thank you for your support,
You're welcome.
jihadi_31337
Two things wrong with that. You choose "jihad" just so you can provoke us, when you could have come up with a word with a much more positive connotation, such as "crusade". Then, by calling yourself 31337, you hint at your narcissistic need to elevate yourself in front of others. In fact, the entire post is there just to get attention, which hints at histrionism as well. Go see a psychiatrist.
To sum up, you have what would have been a noble cause, but you ruined it by giving it a negative name, a hypocritical and inappropriate means of delivering that cause, and multiple personality disorders, not to mention the fact that this means so much to you that you find the need to disrupt discussion and tell us all about it. Believe me, I'm doing you a favor by telling you to shut down your site and go get help and a life.
I used to have all these problems and fixed them all
by buying a bigger monitor. I found a 20" to be too
small so I invested in a 45" HDTV. I sit three feet from
it and find that I no longer hunch forward and strain my eyes
to make out the text. My eyes focus at a more comfortable
3 feet instead of 18 inches. My posture is much better and my neck
pains are history... well almost. A few weeks ago I had
to switch back to the laptop for some work and within
a couple of days, all my pains returned. I noticed that
I was hunched over the keyboard and the 15" screen felt
like peering into a keyhole.
Do yourself a favor and buy one of the new 37" to 45" 1080P
screens that are coming out and hook it up to your PC. Sit 3 to
4 feet away from it. You won't be disappointed. WoW is way
more immersive too.
While reading that article I was thinking to myself about my own typing style and posture. My normal daily routing involves reading some documentation on the screen for a few minutes (resting my hands) then coding a few blocks of code (slow but steady typing). I don't like to use my mouse when I'm programming. This may have something to do with learning on Emacs but I rarely use the mouse unless I'm switching to another application and scrolling a lot (reading documentation). Since I am in a more design-oriented position I regularly get up and walk down the hall to consult with other programmers. If I'm not taking a break to consult I'm staring out the window trying to figure out how to fix the problem at hand (resting my eyes).
Maybe other people in the typical office (whoever does a lot of typing and sits all day) should take a hint from their development department.
Well, he could have meant "designer" in the metaphorical way, as I took it, so evolution itself "designed" us the way we are. Or, the earth "designed" us. A designer isn't nessicarily a person.
Please put some pants on before you post again.
I work for a large US company and when I had shoulder and back problem but could not product a doctor's certificate that I have a problem they would not even think about a good chair.
The policy for many companies is to wait for something to go wrong and only then try and fix it, well I was not going to wait for the problem to become so bad that my doctor would provide the certificate.
I went out and purchased my own Aeron (classic) chair and after the first year the problem was cured and any serious back problems avoided. I still use the same chair 6 years later and it is still in very good condition, well worth the expense of the best know desk chair known to man (and woman).
Go out and fix it yourself, companies will take all the avoidance measures to NOT pay for something. You have to look after yourself.
Have you ever tried to convince that using the same keyboard for more than two years is a health risk as it collects all manner of nasty bugs, Esp. id you eat at your desk? I go out and get my own to stay healthy, I use my sic days as extra days off and not to recover from some real illness.
In most people the things you describe happen after they've reproduced so how could natural selection work on them?
The evolutionary argument for this one is that grandparents being around (whilst they may be past reproduction age themselves) improve the chances of their grandchildren surviving and therefore passing on their own genes.
The actual truth is the human being isn't designed.
Take off every 'sig' !!
Thanks for playing,
Many years ago I had lower back problems that were (fortunately) identified and fixed by getting good typist chairs (high back, arm rests) instead of the usual commodity office chair. Anyone in our area whose predominant activity is coding gets shipped off to a local office furniture place and gets *fitted* for a chair. Since then, I have also ditched my crummy foam mattress for a futon and taken up indoor rock climbing, both of which help a bunch (IMHO). Swimming is also good for body tone, and I am also trying out archery.
Xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
It's quite a common misconception that life spans have been rising since "stone-age". The closest estimate to a "natural" lifespan is around the 60-70 years, and pre-agriculture humans managed that. The advent of agriculture and the joys of packing people together where they share their goodies dropped the life-span by 20-30 years. Since then, it has been getting slowly better, in leaps and bounds, and fall-backs. Sometime around the invention of Penicillin, average world human life-expectancy finally managed to crack the old average limit set by them hunter-gatherers from way back. So why do current hunter gatherers not have good life-spans? Look at where they live. Us "civilized" people have pushed them out to the junk areas, where it's too damned hard to grow anything. And we give them some lovely diseases too, that couldn't have evolved (or spread anyway) if everyone was a hunter gatherer.
Poppycock We've evolved several physiological and biochemical events that don't happen until we're fifty. Humans' long life is critical to our social structure, and has been since we had something significantly different than Chimps. Everyone else has pointed out that you shoun't have used the word "designed" so I won't beat you up over that. It is true that some physical systems in humans don't seem to last the distance, but in many other people they do. Myself, I've got more degenarating bits of joint and bone, assorted cysts, nerve problems etc etc than I can poke a stick at, but I'm quite aware that that is me (guess I was a friday build). Not Humanity. In gerenal, humans are quite well put together, we've just developed this tendency of wrecking our bodies.
I've found the stretches on this http://ergocise.com/ site to be quite helpful in making my computing day less painful.
They're both. I suppose you think the editors just accidentally banned a bunch of dissenting mods?
Creating accounts on your site seems to be broken. Maybe you should fix that before you go avertising it on Slashdot.
Moderation 0
50% Offtopic
50% Insightful
Exactly my point about your "censored thread". My post was indeed offtopic, just like the FSTPI.
And are you still there? I haven't received a reply to my latest post on this thread. I must have indisputably proven you wrong, and you must have cowardly crawled away like the pathetic troll you are. I win.