Er... Yes, learn sign language if you want to but sign language is NOT the preffered access method for most deaf people.
Speaking clearly, whilst facing the person in question, and in good lighting does more for a lip reader (most of us lip read to some extend whether we have a hearing impairment or not or whether we realise it or not) than sign language classes for the rest of the group who aren't deaf.
If the person in question uses hearing aids then an induction loop system might be of benefit. They're relatively cheap and don't take a lot of setting up. Another alternative is a radio aid which is basically a radio microphone whose receiver output is placed next to or plugged into the user's hearing aid.
If the person in question is a sign language user then you'd be better hiring an interpreter (they are not cheap) as it takes about 4 years training to get to interpreter. But by all means if the person does use sign language then do> learn enough to be polite and sociable and order a round of drinks or whatever. I did, so it can't be too hard:-)
On an acoustics note. Many people make the mistake of simply amplifying the speaker's voice. This is good but if the room is too "boomy" then quite a lot of people with a hearing impairment will find difficulty. A nice, dead, flat room is usually the best. Though I realise the choice of room acoustics is not always yours.
Ian
PS:
Subtle clue which most people miss... Sign language users are likely to spell deaf as Deaf. Whereas people who do not (primarily) use sign language spell deaf as deaf.
At least in the UK that is.
Sometimes, drinking and driving is freaking hilarious. Like at a carnival, driving bumper cars drunk. Or the time a buddy of mine got hammered and drove a tractor around the hayfield. There were no cows or people to hit, so trust me buddy, it was VERY amusing.
Yes you have to choose your moments for this type of hilarity and make sure you take very stringent precautions and make sure that everyone agrees.
I remember (just) driving go-karts (not serious ones you understand) on a closed off track with my friends when we had ingested all manner of substances both legal and illegal.(er.... Name a letter and it was probably present in one or more of our blood streams)
We're still arguing about who won the race as some of us can't remember the start bit, the middle bit or the end bit. Some can't remember different combinations of the above.
Everyone, however, agrees that we had a monster amount of laughs and no-one got hurt.
Just take the precautions before ingesting anything which may affect your judgement or perception of personal risk.
Ian
Discaimer
I'm probably gonna get flamed now. So before anyone starts: I do not, have never and will not promote the use, while under the influence of any substance, of heavy machinery, cars, trucks or other such items where there is any chance of anyone who does not choose of their own free will and without coercion, while not under the influence to be hurt, offended or encouraged to engage in said activities. Driving under the influence of anything other than water may be injurious to health, illegal or both.
In other words; Don't try this at home, don't involve anyone who doesn't want to be and please, let's be careful out there.
Does anybody know the physical effects of alchohol at this altitude and low gravity environments? Every time I have flown to LAX (I live in AUS) I've been warned about excess alcohol cosumption at high altitude
It's not so much the high altitude as the lack of pressure. I know planes are pressurised to about 10,000 feet IIRC but I don't know about MIR. Maybe they held it at a lower pressure to reduce the stress on the seals etc.
Does anyone have any relevant info?
I personnally tested this effect on a mountain at about 12,000 feet some years ago and I can report that yes, alcohol does have a greater effect on the brain at lower atmospheric pressure.
All in the name of scientific advancement and the improvement of the human condition of course....
Victims of flesh-eating bacteria sometimes have limbs amputated to save them from an uncurable spreading necrosis.
Speaking as one who has survived such an infection (DWIFS, MRSA, call it what you will) I can attest to the lack of niceness in these conditions. The damage done took a lot of reconstructive surgery and a lot of hard work to fix (for various and relative values of fixed).
When you wake up to find yourself oozing green stuff and smelling like the effluent from a goat offal factory you know that your either a politician or you have a bacterial infection.
What about rabies?
Rabies is pretty much a dead disease in most of Europe. Britain has not had a native case since God knows when (about 80 years if memory serves) and France has only had a couple of cases in that time. I couldn't speak for the other countries nearby but it is generally agreed here that our dog / cat quarantine laws, based on Rabies, are completly paranoid and should be releaxed.
We have had a few cases of Rabies where people have contracted the disease in places where the disease is endemic like the middle to far east (most of the place names end in...stan) or Latin America.
I believe that the American Budweiser licensed the use of the name in America a long time ago.
Yes, this was to fool Eastern European immigrtants into thinking that they were getting stuff from back home
The Czech original is Budvar, after a town, I think.
Correct.
Budweiser is the German equivalent. Pilz is a Czech town where the Pilsner style began (it actually means "from Pilsen", again the German equivalent). "Urquell" is German for "Original source".
Correct up to a point. Budweiser is a term used to describe drinks made with the same method as those which originated in Budvar
We get both forms of Budweiser here in the UK. I prefer the european one myself but it's just a personal taste thing.
Avoid notebooks like the plague, the ergonomics are a pile of pants.
However, if the style and lightness of touch appeal to you then try one of the compact keyboards from Sejin (about GBP 35) or from Electrone, especially the MINI-KB (about GBP 80) which fit all PS/2 or mini-din (with an adaptor of course) ports
I had a mail router running OS/2 for a couple of years and I believe that it carried on running for another 1.5 years after I left. It was the right tool for the job at the time (space does not permit me to elucitate all the reasons). This OS snobbery is pointless (and I come from a nation which invented the word "snob") we simply use the best tool for the job at the time.
Let's keep/. OS advocacy free huh? We're just trying to get along.
One of the basic tenets of my assessment process is that I let my clients try out all sorts of different trackballs, touch pads,mice and pen input devices before I get to the stage where I reccommend a solution.
It's worth trying out a whole bunch of pointing devies before you buy. What might look like a real funky pointing solution might be a pile of pants in actual day to day use.
If the vendor doesn't want to let you try before you buy then go elsewhere. A dodgy mouse can cause you immense amounts of pain and distress.
Your solution is based entirely upon your own phisiology and medical history and not on what looks funky at the time.
As they say on Hill Street Blues... Let's be careful out there...
I couldn't agree more. These keyboard look a lot like the Maltron units and are obviously based on the same principles of wrist positioning and finger length etc. I'd like to try one if they're available in the UK.
Also this company sells sells a keyboard under the name MAXIM which appears to be a direct copy of a keyboard which Seimens-Nixdorf (SP?) have been selling for years. It has a variable split and variable tilt to accomodate two handed touch typing.
For those of my clients which have use of both hands (albeit with RSI related pain) the Maxim/Seimens-Nixdorf (SP?) ergo keyboard is one of the most popular/indicated items in my armoury. Note: the Microsoft (and oft copied) "ergonomic" keyboard is a bloody good example of how not to build an ergonomic keyboard. This is due to a number of reasons but I really can't be bothered bashing another Micro$not product here in this forum.
OK. No problem. I do a mean Saag Aloo (Potato based dish, not to hot) and I have a wide topped thermos flask so everyone in the bar could dip in and try it.
I guarantee converts within the first five minutes...
To quote a man with infinitely greater fortitude and dignity than I will ever possess: First they came for the communists, but as I was not a communist I said nothing.
Then they came for the trade unionists, but as I was not a trade unionist I said nothing.
Then they came for the disabled and the gays, but I was neither so I said nothing.
Then they came for the Jews but as I was not a Jew I said nothing.
And then they came for me... And there was no-one left to speak for me.
Paster Martin Niemuller
1894 - 1984
I heard this on a tape my grandfather made many years ago (circa 1962/3?) it is an exact transcription of his opening address to a meeting in my home town. I thought nothing of it (interesting history perhaps?) until I visited a place where genocide has/is taking place in modern times. I went home and hapened to chance upon the tape again, I listened to it with a new understanding. These words were burned into my soul.
I have but few words of advice for you: Read it.
Think about it.
Apply it to your own situation. (maybe change the categories a little?)
Then shut up, pronto.
Because by the time you are done, you will be alone and there will be no-one left to speak for you.
Ian
PS.
Sorry to everyone else but I've seen the effects of ethnic cleansing. People, it ain't pretty.
>>Sixth, food. Geeks get enough grease and too little exercise at work.
Right on brother! / sister! / person! (trying not to offend you understand)
We need the food of the *GODS*. A decent curry is what should be served. Both meat eaters and vegetarians must of course be included but that's not too hard given the range of Indian (or Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Kashmiri, Afghan et al) food available to those in the know. Note to certain elements in the UK population: Curry does not have to be HOT. Vindaloo is a bastard dish created by Portugeese invaders of the sub-continent.
And for those of you that think that Balti means curry then think again... Balti, literally translated means "bucket". i.e. it's food mixed in a bucket.
Yes a nice Kashimiri selection tempered with the rather warmer, fuller, rounded flavours of the south west would be excellent geek fare.
Anyone for popadums and pickles?
Ian
Former (amongst other things) writer for the Bradford (where 26 percent of the population is from the sub-continent) Curry Guide
Plus... Men Behaving Badly - When I first saw this I truly believed that it was a hard hitting documentary about young adult males sharing a house but then someone mentioned comedy... You can tell what sort of household I lived in at the time.
And sixty percent of the UK adult population carry a mobile telephone. Yet most of them would reel in horror at the thought of getting involved with "technology"
I think mobile telephones (sat or terrestrial) will probably be the way into telephony for the half of the world which has not yet sampled the delights of the engaged tone and Voicemail Vera:-)
There are already parts of the world where the mobile network is more reliable and more secure than other forms of communication.
Wierd huh? Eleven years ago you needed a government licence and a certificate of fitness from the UK Olympic weightlifting team to carry a mobile phone. Now my eleven year old niece takes one to school and it's better than mine!
I'm writing this from my home office (so you'll have to look up web links yourself) and not from my workplace where I provide consultancy services for people in just your situation. My clients have various impairments and about 60 percent of them have upper limb difficulties (25 percent RSI, the rest due to other difficulties) like yourself.
The following is given based on my experience as a consultant in this field, it may not be a comprehensive list and it always pays to be seen and fully assessed by a specialist in the field and try out any equipment he/she suggests before you spend your hard erned cash.
There are a number of options for one handed keyboard use.
1.. Use a compact keyboard it involves less stretching than with a normal keyboard and it's easier to position. Both factors reduce the risk of RSI type problems in your currently uninjured hand The qwerty layout also means there is no learning curve to tackle.
Try the Cherry G84-4700 or the cheap ones made by Sagem.
It might sound like a bit of a no brain solution but in my experience when people ask me for one handed keyboard solutions then a compact keyboard suits them best.
2.. Learn to touch type using one hand - There's a typing tutor out there called... Wait for it... "One Handed Typing Tutor"
3.. Try the one handed keyboards from Maltron - You didn't say which hand was affected but Maltron do both a left and a right hand version.
The idea behing the Maltrons is that your fingers are all different lengths (funny how most designers of keyboards have not spotted this little known anatomical fact yet) so the keys are laid on the surface of a concave bowl.
The layout is nowhere neare qwerty so there is a learning curve to get over but these keyboards are well constructed and designed - worth the money and effort.
4.. Here's where we get really quite radical. I have experience of two chording keyboards.
a) The CYKEY. Looks and feels a bit flimsy and I worry for its long term reliability. Very soft touch keys
b) The BAT one hander. This unit has 7 keys (one for each finger and three for the thumb) and looks like it was built to be dropped from 40,000 feet compared with the CYKEY. Not cheap but worth it just for the build quality.
5.. If you are using a PC then voice is becoming more like a viable option as each month passes. Dragon Naturally Speaking Professional allows the user to write macros to automate certain tasks and is quite a powerful input method.
With the correct techniques (training, keeping the voice model clean, buying good mics and soundcards etc) you should be able to achieve and maintain a >98 percent accuracy. You may find that with your one handed keyboarding voice might blend in quite nicely to form part of the overall access solution.
If you like the Kensington Expert trackball then you might like to consider the Penny & Giles Trackball Plus which has accelleration rates etc set in hardware. These are aimed at the special access needs market - and what could be more special than needing to play your favourite game?:-)
Penny & Giles are the folks who make the "black box" recorders for jet aircraft and the space shuttle. Needless to say their pointing devices are robust howerver you are likely to pay upwards of GBP 200 for an example of their fine engineering skill.
Yeah we're getting into windpower in the UK (too) slowly. When we move house (projected 2 years) myself and the GF are going to try going over to at least partial wind power.
I've convinced her on the windpower but the composting toilet and reed bed sewage treatment plant is going to take a little more persuassion.:)
But we now have the problem that certain less enlightened members of our society think that windmills are a blot on the landscape and planning permission should be revoked on every damned one of them.
This is opposed (one must presume) to the 27 coal fired power stations I can see from a particular hill near my parents home on a clear day.
Some of these fsckwits even claim to be trying to protect the environment.
Over here in the UK a company called Maplin - a Radio Shack-u-like - (Link here) supply them for just over GBP 4.00 + tax. You need to rig a few together but you could easily power something like a Palm.
If you mounted the cells on hinged plastic or whatever you could just fold out your array whenever you needed it.
> Read my lips: Your Idea WILL NOT WORK. This can't be done.
It's not that it won't work really. It's more that you'd need the computing resources of the entire planet to acheive it. It would work the algorithm is simple but the cost would bankrupt Bill Gates.
We installed this sort of thing in a previous job for a very large UK law firm (no names, no non-disclusure suit) with the idea that it would save money and I suppose in a way it did.
We had to spend a long time injecting large amounts of clue (sometimes forcibly and with the use of language which was "inapropriate in a professional environment") into the heads of the helpdesk staff though and not a few rantmails to the manglement about the pitiable state of the staff they were hiring to work the phones.
(One guy was hired on the basis of his 3 years experience on a helpdesk - As it turns out when we sysadmins questioned why this guy could barely type never mind fix a user's mailbox we found out that the helpdesk had been for users of cash registers...)
What we found after a while was that although the helpdesk staff were improving, the lusers were not. In fact they were (as if it was possible) getting worse.
We were stumped as to what to do to get out of this downward spiral. The solution? Lie to the lusers and tell them that remote control is down for the day and talking them through it is the only way. They soon tired of this and began to remember passwords etc.
One problem which may rear its ugly head especially if you are fixing external client's PCs which I have come across. What do you do if as I did I found an image of what I judged to be a minor in a state of undress?
I deliberated over this for a few seconds then called in my colleague who agreed on the age estimate. From then on it took whole milliseconds for my hand to reach out for the phone and the boys in blue.
This was internal so I had no qualms but it might place your company in an interesting legal position if it was an outsider.
Ian
PS. The whole thing was hushed up and he left the firm.
No one ever asked me to be a witness in a court case against him so I guess he got away with it.
Slashdot Mirror
Speaking clearly, whilst facing the person in question, and in good lighting does more for a lip reader (most of us lip read to some extend whether we have a hearing impairment or not or whether we realise it or not) than sign language classes for the rest of the group who aren't deaf.
If the person in question uses hearing aids then an induction loop system might be of benefit. They're relatively cheap and don't take a lot of setting up. Another alternative is a radio aid which is basically a radio microphone whose receiver output is placed next to or plugged into the user's hearing aid.
If the person in question is a sign language user then you'd be better hiring an interpreter (they are not cheap) as it takes about 4 years training to get to interpreter. But by all means if the person does use sign language then do> learn enough to be polite and sociable and order a round of drinks or whatever. I did, so it can't be too hard
On an acoustics note. Many people make the mistake of simply amplifying the speaker's voice. This is good but if the room is too "boomy" then quite a lot of people with a hearing impairment will find difficulty. A nice, dead, flat room is usually the best. Though I realise the choice of room acoustics is not always yours.
Ian
PS: Subtle clue which most people miss...
Sign language users are likely to spell deaf as Deaf. Whereas people who do not (primarily) use sign language spell deaf as deaf.
At least in the UK that is.
Thanks to my partner who is D/deaf for that one.
Yes you have to choose your moments for this type of hilarity and make sure you take very stringent precautions and make sure that everyone agrees.
I remember (just) driving go-karts (not serious ones you understand) on a closed off track with my friends when we had ingested all manner of substances both legal and illegal.(er.... Name a letter and it was probably present in one or more of our blood streams)
We're still arguing about who won the race as some of us can't remember the start bit, the middle bit or the end bit. Some can't remember different combinations of the above.
Everyone, however, agrees that we had a monster amount of laughs and no-one got hurt.
Just take the precautions before ingesting anything which may affect your judgement or perception of personal risk.
Ian
Discaimer I'm probably gonna get flamed now. So before anyone starts: I do not, have never and will not promote the use, while under the influence of any substance, of heavy machinery, cars, trucks or other such items where there is any chance of anyone who does not choose of their own free will and without coercion, while not under the influence to be hurt, offended or encouraged to engage in said activities. Driving under the influence of anything other than water may be injurious to health, illegal or both.
In other words; Don't try this at home, don't involve anyone who doesn't want to be and please, let's be careful out there.
It's not so much the high altitude as the lack of pressure. I know planes are pressurised to about 10,000 feet IIRC but I don't know about MIR. Maybe they held it at a lower pressure to reduce the stress on the seals etc.
Does anyone have any relevant info?
I personnally tested this effect on a mountain at about 12,000 feet some years ago and I can report that yes, alcohol does have a greater effect on the brain at lower atmospheric pressure.
All in the name of scientific advancement and the improvement of the human condition of course....
Ian
Speaking as one who has survived such an infection (DWIFS, MRSA, call it what you will) I can attest to the lack of niceness in these conditions. The damage done took a lot of reconstructive surgery and a lot of hard work to fix (for various and relative values of fixed).
When you wake up to find yourself oozing green stuff and smelling like the effluent from a goat offal factory you know that your either a politician or you have a bacterial infection.
Ian
Rabies is pretty much a dead disease in most of Europe. Britain has not had a native case since God knows when (about 80 years if memory serves) and France has only had a couple of cases in that time. I couldn't speak for the other countries nearby but it is generally agreed here that our dog / cat quarantine laws, based on Rabies, are completly paranoid and should be releaxed.
We have had a few cases of Rabies where people have contracted the disease in places where the disease is endemic like the middle to far east (most of the place names end in
Ian
Yes, this was to fool Eastern European immigrtants into thinking that they were getting stuff from back home
The Czech original is Budvar, after a town, I think.
Correct.
Budweiser is the German equivalent. Pilz is a Czech town where the Pilsner style began (it actually means "from Pilsen", again the German equivalent). "Urquell" is German for "Original source".
Correct up to a point. Budweiser is a term used to describe drinks made with the same method as those which originated in Budvar
We get both forms of Budweiser here in the UK. I prefer the european one myself but it's just a personal taste thing.
Ian
However, if the style and lightness of touch appeal to you then try one of the compact keyboards from Sejin (about GBP 35) or from Electrone, especially the MINI-KB (about GBP 80) which fit all PS/2 or mini-din (with an adaptor of course) ports
Both should be available worldwide.
Ian
Spill Chucker failure I'm afraid.
Ian
Let's keep
Ian
More like...
Veni,vidi, visa
I came, I saw, I shopped
It's worth trying out a whole bunch of pointing devies before you buy. What might look like a real funky pointing solution might be a pile of pants in actual day to day use.
If the vendor doesn't want to let you try before you buy then go elsewhere. A dodgy mouse can cause you immense amounts of pain and distress.
Your solution is based entirely upon your own phisiology and medical history and not on what looks funky at the time.
As they say on Hill Street Blues... Let's be careful out there...
Ian
Also this company sells sells a keyboard under the name MAXIM which appears to be a direct copy of a keyboard which Seimens-Nixdorf (SP?) have been selling for years. It has a variable split and variable tilt to accomodate two handed touch typing.
For those of my clients which have use of both hands (albeit with RSI related pain) the Maxim/Seimens-Nixdorf (SP?) ergo keyboard is one of the most popular/indicated items in my armoury.
Note: the Microsoft (and oft copied) "ergonomic" keyboard is a bloody good example of how not to build an ergonomic keyboard. This is due to a number of reasons but I really can't be bothered bashing another Micro$not product here in this forum.
Ian
I guarantee converts within the first five minutes...
Ian
First they came for the communists, but as I was not a communist I said nothing.
Then they came for the trade unionists, but as I was not a trade unionist I said nothing.
Then they came for the disabled and the gays, but I was neither so I said nothing.
Then they came for the Jews but as I was not a Jew I said nothing.
And then they came for me... And there was no-one left to speak for me.
Paster Martin Niemuller
1894 - 1984
I heard this on a tape my grandfather made many years ago (circa 1962/3?) it is an exact transcription of his opening address to a meeting in my home town. I thought nothing of it (interesting history perhaps?) until I visited a place where genocide has/is taking place in modern times. I went home and hapened to chance upon the tape again, I listened to it with a new understanding. These words were burned into my soul.
I have but few words of advice for you:
Read it.
Think about it.
Apply it to your own situation. (maybe change the categories a little?)
Then shut up, pronto.
Because by the time you are done, you will be alone and there will be no-one left to speak for you.
Ian
PS.
Sorry to everyone else but I've seen the effects of ethnic cleansing. People, it ain't pretty.
I rest my case
Ian
Right on brother! / sister! / person! (trying not to offend you understand)
We need the food of the *GODS*. A decent curry is what should be served. Both meat eaters and vegetarians must of course be included but that's not too hard given the range of Indian (or Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Kashmiri, Afghan et al) food available to those in the know.
Note to certain elements in the UK population: Curry does not have to be HOT. Vindaloo is a bastard dish created by Portugeese invaders of the sub-continent. And for those of you that think that Balti means curry then think again... Balti, literally translated means "bucket". i.e. it's food mixed in a bucket.
Yes a nice Kashimiri selection tempered with the rather warmer, fuller, rounded flavours of the south west would be excellent geek fare.
Anyone for popadums and pickles?
Ian
Former (amongst other things) writer for the Bradford (where 26 percent of the population is from the sub-continent) Curry Guide
(I must stop parenthesising(now))
Men Behaving Badly - When I first saw this I truly believed that it was a hard hitting documentary about young adult males sharing a house but then someone mentioned comedy... You can tell what sort of household I lived in at the time.
Ian
I think mobile telephones (sat or terrestrial) will probably be the way into telephony for the half of the world which has not yet sampled the delights of the engaged tone and Voicemail Vera :-)
There are already parts of the world where the mobile network is more reliable and more secure than other forms of communication.
Wierd huh? Eleven years ago you needed a government licence and a certificate of fitness from the UK Olympic weightlifting team to carry a mobile phone. Now my eleven year old niece takes one to school and it's better than mine!
I give up :-)
Ian
http://www.accesskeyboards.co.uk
Contact Information
Telephone +44 (0)118 9663333
FAX +44 (0)118 9267281
Postal address
18-19, Suttons Business Park
Earley
Reading
Berks.
RG6 1AZ.
UK.
sales@accessKeyboards.co.uk
Hope this helps.
Ian
The following is given based on my experience as a consultant in this field, it may not be a comprehensive list and it always pays to be seen and fully assessed by a specialist in the field and try out any equipment he/she suggests before you spend your hard erned cash.
There are a number of options for one handed keyboard use.
1.. Use a compact keyboard it involves less stretching than with a normal keyboard and it's easier to position. Both factors reduce the risk of RSI type problems in your currently uninjured hand
The qwerty layout also means there is no learning curve to tackle.
Try the Cherry G84-4700 or the cheap ones made by Sagem.
It might sound like a bit of a no brain solution but in my experience when people ask me for one handed keyboard solutions then a compact keyboard suits them best.
2.. Learn to touch type using one hand - There's a typing tutor out there called... Wait for it... "One Handed Typing Tutor"
3.. Try the one handed keyboards from Maltron - You didn't say which hand was affected but Maltron do both a left and a right hand version.
The idea behing the Maltrons is that your fingers are all different lengths (funny how most designers of keyboards have not spotted this little known anatomical fact yet) so the keys are laid on the surface of a concave bowl.
The layout is nowhere neare qwerty so there is a learning curve to get over but these keyboards are well constructed and designed - worth the money and effort.
4.. Here's where we get really quite radical. I have experience of two chording keyboards.
a) The CYKEY. Looks and feels a bit flimsy and I worry for its long term reliability. Very soft touch keys
b) The BAT one hander. This unit has 7 keys (one for each finger and three for the thumb) and looks like it was built to be dropped from 40,000 feet compared with the CYKEY. Not cheap but worth it just for the build quality.
5.. If you are using a PC then voice is becoming more like a viable option as each month passes. Dragon Naturally Speaking Professional allows the user to write macros to automate certain tasks and is quite a powerful input method.
With the correct techniques (training, keeping the voice model clean, buying good mics and soundcards etc) you should be able to achieve and maintain a >98 percent accuracy. You may find that with your one handed keyboarding voice might blend in quite nicely to form part of the overall access solution.
Hope this helps
Ian
Penny & Giles are the folks who make the "black box" recorders for jet aircraft and the space shuttle. Needless to say their pointing devices are robust howerver you are likely to pay upwards of GBP 200 for an example of their fine engineering skill.
Hope this helps
Ian
I've convinced her on the windpower but the composting toilet and reed bed sewage treatment plant is going to take a little more persuassion.
But we now have the problem that certain less enlightened members of our society think that windmills are a blot on the landscape and planning permission should be revoked on every damned one of them.
This is opposed (one must presume) to the 27 coal fired power stations I can see from a particular hill near my parents home on a clear day.
Some of these fsckwits even claim to be trying to protect the environment.
Oh well, I suppose you can't educate pork.
Ian
If you mounted the cells on hinged plastic or whatever you could just fold out your array whenever you needed it.
It's not that it won't work really. It's more that you'd need the computing resources of the entire planet to acheive it. It would work the algorithm is simple but the cost would bankrupt Bill Gates.
OK I'll stop being a pedant now... :)
Ian
We had to spend a long time injecting large amounts of clue (sometimes forcibly and with the use of language which was "inapropriate in a professional environment") into the heads of the helpdesk staff though and not a few rantmails to the manglement about the pitiable state of the staff they were hiring to work the phones.
(One guy was hired on the basis of his 3 years experience on a helpdesk - As it turns out when we sysadmins questioned why this guy could barely type never mind fix a user's mailbox we found out that the helpdesk had been for users of cash registers...)
What we found after a while was that although the helpdesk staff were improving, the lusers were not. In fact they were (as if it was possible) getting worse.
We were stumped as to what to do to get out of this downward spiral. The solution? Lie to the lusers and tell them that remote control is down for the day and talking them through it is the only way. They soon tired of this and began to remember passwords etc.
One problem which may rear its ugly head especially if you are fixing external client's PCs which I have come across. What do you do if as I did I found an image of what I judged to be a minor in a state of undress?
I deliberated over this for a few seconds then called in my colleague who agreed on the age estimate. From then on it took whole milliseconds for my hand to reach out for the phone and the boys in blue.
This was internal so I had no qualms but it might place your company in an interesting legal position if it was an outsider.
Ian
PS. The whole thing was hushed up and he left the firm.
No one ever asked me to be a witness in a court case against him so I guess he got away with it.