Various man machine interfaces are helpful for handicapped people. I'm not sure that these devices are the best approach for the rest of us. The way we interact with our computer is possibly most often due to the software design. Graphical systems definitely have their place, though they often place a disproportionate bias towards the use of a mouse, trackball, etc., where a simple key based interface might be both more appropriate and more efficient. It may be worthwhile noting what software you use and rate how your symptoms vary from package to package.
2. Mouse use:
I alternate between mousing with my left hand and my right hand. This does help. Note how your fingers tend to be tense when browsing. If possible, try to let your fingers lie naturally over the mouse and operate the mouse buttons with the back of your fingers rather than your finger tips. Whenever you have your hand on the mouse, mouse point, etc, ask yourself if it's really essential at that moment in time. Most of the time spent on the mouse, poised to point and click, is putting your wrist in tension. Thats a long time and a lot of pain for the sake of brief momentary actions.
3. RSI alleviating device:
I use a MouseBean attached to my mouse. This affords relief by supporting the wrist without applying pressure on the artery in the carpal tunnel area. http://www.mousebean.com
This works for me - you may prefer silicon wrist pads - I've tried them and they made me angry with discomfort.
4. Anything else:
I first developed problems working at a bench in an awkward space because my boss was hogging two desks, one of which would have helped me a lot. I should have raised hell about it at the time.
I've been guitly of holding the mouse in expectation of using it and hence placing my wrist under tension for a disproportionate amount of time compared to the actions of pointing and clicking.
At home I put the mouse on my knee because its in a position my arm naturally falls to. Looks odd, can be a nuisance when mouse falls on the ground but it doesn't hurt.
Although I'm still far from applying best practice, the discomfort I sometimes get is nothing like as bad as it was. I used to curse screwdrivers and round handles, (still do sometimes). Power drivers and proper grippy handles make life a lot easier and less frustrating.
Best wishes to all those looking for a remedy.
(I realise some wit may find ways of modifying this post for amusement - I welcome it).
Hmmm.. when I returned from a weekend in France, I was asked for my passport, not my driving licence... Perhaps things are different in mainland Europe...
You may well laugh but it surely won't be long before all chairs, tables and park benches will be able to interogate your cash/credit/"smart" cards.
Personally I don't wan't have to wear metal pants to protect my tackle, just because some nosey _______ wants to check how many credits I have left, or whether my ID card has been remotely tagged "watch this citizen - he eats curried snickers bars so he must be a threat".
Next time you sit in the park drinking your beer, ask yourself why it is that those squirrels seem less afraid than they did yesterday...
You can configure Firefox to use Macromedia Flash. Refer to http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/faqs/flash.html It works for me anyway. There were security issues relating to older versions of Flash Player. The new one seems to be ok.
Do subsequent versions of Satan have fewer vulnerabilities? ie resistance to garlic, silver, crosses, upright pentagrams, white witches, holy water, Billy Graham etc?
^~*#0$0£! decides to sue all corporations with 9 letters in their name. A spokesman from sanitation experts MacroTurd declined to comment after their attempts to reregister their name in binary failed due to an inadequate field in the registration database.
What we need to find now are hitherto undiscovered lakes which do not contain brine. Diversity is important in nature just as it is in the market place.
Lakes of vegetable oil, spring water or spicy tomato sauce would surely help complete the range of products for an eager market place.
The Quasar was and remains a very remarkable motorcycle. I doubt if more than a handful of Slashdotters have even heard of it. This bike could cruise all day at 100mph providing comfort and economy (around 80mpg). BMW did produce something that seemed to be influenced by it.
Too damn right. This gave me a sense of humour failure.
You guys across the pond think its funny to laugh at the eccentricity of our way of life and the crap we have to put up with.
What you don't realise is that your polititians get ideas from watching what goes on over here. So I hope you are still laughing when they decide to copy the new taxes that are rumoured to be coming:
A few years back, my mother bought a computer like item for me from a charity shop. It turned out to be a Canon word processor. It was so easy to use that in the space of two minutes, I had plugged in the wall adaptor, switched it on, typed up a test page and printed it.
Two minutes! It seems crazy that many GHz PC's take longer than that to boot up.
Do not underestimate functional simplicity when it comes to getting real work done. I'd also consider a Psion 5 myself. My one concern is a question of their robustness. "Normal" PDA's are not designed with authors in mind and colour displays suck battery juice bigtime.
I found this site http://www.marssociety.org/ which has plenty of links. These guys are obviously keen to explore the options for getting to Mars and figuring out feasibility issues viz accomodation, environment, making use of the availble materials etc.,
I feel that it would benefit us to engage in further autonomous exploration. Whilst it is true that we ought to look after our own planet, it is also true that on Earth there is a tendency to make excuses for not taking part in technological progress.
Sadly, not content to stiffle any chance for choice and progress in the future, mankind actively engages in regression. If this is what the people want, there may be nobody left to cash in the betts on how long it takes for us to become extinct through ignorance.
Where is Harri Seldon when we need him?
Re:Should have been running a windows box
on
Gnome.org Compromised?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
AFAIK both Windows and Linux have their vulnerabilities, strengths and weaknesses. I've made my choice and you've made your's. That's cool.
I've got nothing against windows fans it's just their operating system I can't stand
Slashdot Mirror
1. Software
2. Mouse use
3. RSI alleviating device
4. Anything else
1. Software:
Various man machine interfaces are helpful for handicapped people. I'm not sure that these devices are the best approach for the rest of us. The way we interact with our computer is possibly most often due to the software design. Graphical systems definitely have their place, though they often place a disproportionate bias towards the use of a mouse, trackball, etc., where a simple key based interface might be both more appropriate and more efficient. It may be worthwhile noting what software you use and rate how your symptoms vary from package to package.
2. Mouse use:
I alternate between mousing with my left hand and my right hand. This does help. Note how your fingers tend to be tense when browsing. If possible, try to let your fingers lie naturally over the mouse and operate the mouse buttons with the back of your fingers rather than your finger tips. Whenever you have your hand on the mouse, mouse point, etc, ask yourself if it's really essential at that moment in time. Most of the time spent on the mouse, poised to point and click, is putting your wrist in tension. Thats a long time and a lot of pain for the sake of brief momentary actions.
3. RSI alleviating device:
I use a MouseBean attached to my mouse. This affords relief by supporting the wrist without applying pressure on the artery in the carpal tunnel area. http://www.mousebean.com
This works for me - you may prefer silicon wrist pads - I've tried them and they made me angry with discomfort.
4. Anything else:
I first developed problems working at a bench in an awkward space because my boss was hogging two desks, one of which would have helped me a lot. I should have raised hell about it at the time.
I've been guitly of holding the mouse in expectation of using it and hence placing my wrist under tension for a disproportionate amount of time compared to the actions of pointing and clicking.
At home I put the mouse on my knee because its in a position my arm naturally falls to. Looks odd, can be a nuisance when mouse falls on the ground but it doesn't hurt.
Although I'm still far from applying best practice, the discomfort I sometimes get is nothing like as bad as it was. I used to curse screwdrivers and round handles, (still do sometimes). Power drivers and proper grippy handles make life a lot easier and less frustrating.
Best wishes to all those looking for a remedy.
(I realise some wit may find ways of modifying this post for amusement - I welcome it).
Hmmm.. when I returned from a weekend in France, I was asked for my passport, not my driving licence...
Perhaps things are different in mainland Europe...
"News of the pilot follows an opinion poll suggesting 80% of people backed a national ID card scheme"
I seem to recall that a certain Mr S Hussain was elected by 100% of all voters. So who were those people jumping up and down on his fallen statue????
You may well laugh but it surely won't be long before all chairs, tables and park benches will be able to interogate your cash/credit/"smart" cards.
Personally I don't wan't have to wear metal pants to protect my tackle, just because some nosey _______ wants to check how many credits I have left, or whether my ID card has been remotely tagged "watch this citizen - he eats curried snickers bars so he must be a threat".
Next time you sit in the park drinking your beer, ask yourself why it is that those squirrels seem less afraid than they did yesterday...
That sounds close to the truth ;-)
You can configure Firefox to use Macromedia Flash.
Refer to http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/faqs/flash.html
It works for me anyway. There were security issues relating to older versions of Flash Player. The new one seems to be ok.
Do subsequent versions of Satan have fewer vulnerabilities? ie resistance to garlic, silver, crosses, upright pentagrams, white witches, holy water, Billy Graham etc?
Cathy's sister actually did flash her tit's. Ok, not on the show in question but there were some pics of her pole dancing on the web...
^~*#0$0£! decides to sue all corporations with 9 letters in their name. A spokesman from sanitation experts MacroTurd declined to comment after their attempts to reregister their name in binary failed due to an inadequate field in the registration database.
Really impressive looking piece of engineering.
"Invulnerable" and "Outlook" are not words I would associate with each other however...
It affects your senses!
Time for a mithril helmet.
What we need to find now are hitherto undiscovered lakes which do not contain brine. Diversity is important in nature just as it is in the market place.
Lakes of vegetable oil, spring water or spicy tomato sauce would surely help complete the range of products for an eager market place.
Paris Hilton !
The Quasar was and remains a very remarkable motorcycle. I doubt if more than a handful of Slashdotters have even heard of it.
This bike could cruise all day at 100mph providing comfort and economy (around 80mpg). BMW did produce something that seemed to be influenced by it.
http://www.quasarworld.plus.com/
http://motobykz.co.uk/Quasar.htm
Too damn right. This gave me a sense of humour failure.
...Fart tax
You guys across the pond think its funny to laugh at the eccentricity of our way of life and the crap we have to put up with.
What you don't realise is that your polititians get ideas from watching what goes on over here. So I hope you are still laughing when they decide to copy
the new taxes that are rumoured to be coming:
Breath tax,
Beard Tax,
Baseball cap tax,
T-shirt tax,
skateboard tax,
belch tax
and wait for it...
My dog has three heads and my neighbour is a car eating spider.
A warm PC case, soft silicon lined apertures, a throbbing hard drive, a stimulating mpeg...
Yes!!!!
You could use your case as a...
Coffee dispenser and watch the latest X-prize space video!
Caveat: I'm not a Geek.
A few years back, my mother bought a computer like item for me from a charity shop. It turned out to be a Canon word processor. It was so easy to use that in the space of two minutes, I had plugged in the wall adaptor, switched it on, typed up a test page and printed it.
Two minutes! It seems crazy that many GHz PC's take longer than that to boot up.
Do not underestimate functional simplicity when it comes to getting real work done. I'd also consider a Psion 5 myself. My one concern is a question of their robustness. "Normal" PDA's are not designed with authors in mind and colour displays suck battery juice bigtime.
Good point.
On the other hand...
Porsche Escort? Ford Boxter? Lada 911 Carrera...
I think I've stretched that one too far...
"and it's like the dutch boy trying to hold back the north sea with his finger"
Reminds me of the story of the boy who put his finger in a dyke and got a slap in the face...
I found this site http://www.marssociety.org/ which has plenty of links. These guys are obviously keen to explore the options for getting to Mars and figuring out feasibility issues viz accomodation, environment, making use of the availble materials etc.,
I feel that it would benefit us to engage in further autonomous exploration. Whilst it is true that we ought to look after our own planet, it is also true that on Earth there is a tendency to make excuses for not taking part in technological progress.
Sadly, not content to stiffle any chance for choice and progress in the future, mankind actively engages in regression. If this is what the people want, there may be nobody left to cash in the betts on how long it takes for us to become extinct through ignorance.
Where is Harri Seldon when we need him?
AFAIK both Windows and Linux have their vulnerabilities, strengths and weaknesses. I've made my choice and you've made your's. That's cool.
I've got nothing against windows fans it's just their operating system I can't stand
Re "cats sleeping with dogs"
Seriously,there was a song about that already. "Can your pussy do the dog?"
I just broke my all time Klines (Kolour Lines) record today. To get my meagre 708 points, a lot of bouncing spheres had to go up in flames.
Now just imagine we get KGlines...
Thousands of exploding gnomes !
Kentucky Fried Gnomes?
So who's going to be first to use a cluster of these in a notebook.
;-)
Sure you'll have to use an external keypad and mouse...but you'll also be able to cook cheese and ham toasties with the lid down
How do you overclock the user?