In addition to the chair, consider the rest of your workspace.
Get a screen that's large and bright enough so you can see it when sitting in the proper position in your chair. A $1000 chair isn't going to do any good if you have to lean forward all day just to see your monitor.
Consider moving your keyboard and mouse off of your desk onto a keyboard tray. When sitting in the proper position with proper posture in your chair, your forearms should be level or pointing ever-so-slightly downward.
Learn to use your keyboard. Don't rest your wrists on the desk or one of those wrist wrests (unless it's really, really thick); this causes your wrists to bend backwards, pinching and fatiguing the nerves therein. Likewise, avoid bending your wrists down or to the side. Hang your arms down at your sides totally relaxed, ape-like. Look at your hand position relative to your forearm: this is the ideal position.
Adjust your chair's armrests to support your forearms above your keyboard, so your back muscles are relaxed. A wireless, ergonomic keyboard placed in your lap with properly adjusted armrests can be very comfortable for long sessions, though you might need a bean bag to get it at the proper angle and elevation.
Learn to use keyboard shortcuts and menu hotkeys. (Microsoft Word be used mouselessly to a large degree; WP can be used entirely with the keyboard.) When you are always taking your hand away from your keyboard to use the mouse, you add stress to your arms and back and lose productivity. If you can find a wireless keyboard with a built-in trackball, touch pad, or trackpoint, so much the better. Look for one where you don't have to remove your hand from the home position to operate it.
Make sure your lighting is such that it doesn't glare in your eyes or on the screen.
Move your mouse to the opposite hand you write with. This will increase your productivity because you won't have to set down your pen to scroll; you'll be able to write as you are scrolling. It'll seem awkward at first, but with practice it will begin to feel more natural.
Have you considered a barkolounger and a flat panel on an arm?
Do situps. Seriously. The abdominal muscles help support your back. My brother started doing situps every day and now rarely has back problems. He's not an office worker; he's a farmer and a forester.
Look around frequently. Stretch. Throw things at your cubiclemate.
Lastly, I am not an ergonomist and your mileage may vary.
With Sprint PCS, there are actually two types of messaging: your standard SMS (only recently rolled out), and Sprint's own ShortMail. (Just to confuse you, they named them similarly, but they are not.)
To send an SMS message DIRECTLY to a Sprint PCS phone, especially older, pre-SMS phones, use aaapppnnnn@messaging.sprintpcs.com address. To send a ShortMail message, aaapppnnnn@sprintpcs.com -- when mail is received here, you'll get an "alert" on your phone that you have a new message, which you then have to log in to a website to read. (I don't know what the point is, why can't they just forward the message to the phone?)
I understand that newer Sprint PCS service and phones have true two-way SMS. The older phones required you to log in to a WAP interface to send and receive messages; the nubmer@messaging.sprintpcs.com address was the only way to send a message directly to a phone.
For only $59.95 (+tax) I'll be happy to go around and correct everything that says 'Tim' so it says 'Timothy'.
All you have to do is email me your bank account number, your credit card numbers (with expiry date and 3-digit security code on reverse -- for verification purposes), all social security numbers you have used, and the addresses of your last three residences.
Re:v6 could help solve some net problems
on
IPv6 is Here
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· Score: 1
One of the nastier ones I've dealt with lodged itself as a subkey in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify. Of course you couldn't delete the file because it was in use. You couldn't kill it because it was a DLL loaded by the winlogon process, which you can't kill. Attempting to remove it from the registry just triggered it to put it right back.
Ended up booting to recovery console and deleting the file there so it wouldn't load, then was able to remove the entry from the registry.
A quick Google search reveals it as "Look2Me". More info here.
So, everybody on here seems to be shouting "just get a cheapo keyboard," and it's true you can find one for 10 bucks or less (USB, remeber the post said "legacy free"). There are keyboard emulators out there for $40-$50, definitely more than even a decent quality keyboard.
However, there are circumstances where you don't WANT a keyboard hooked up: to prevent keys from being pressed inadvertently or by unauthorized people; to save space; because mgt. won't accept a homebrew project; or maybe to prevent keyboard theft.
The best idea I've heard so far (props to another poster) is to use a wireless keyboard and mouse; the receiver stays on the server, plugged in and you take the keyboard and mouse away with you. If security is a concern, get a set that connects via IR instead of radio, and put black tape over the eyes.
Now this is off topic, but Avocent makes wireless KVM switch components, to allow you to KVM to distant computers without the mess of wires.
Absolutely nothing, but stuck-in-the-mud corporate policies along with a stinginess that's tighter than an Al Quaeda security system dictate the use of NT4.
Personally, since Microsoft doesn't seem to be releasing any more updates for NT4, I'd sure like to see them put out a Service Pack 7 so I don't have to go thru the steps SP6a - Post 6a SRP - Windows Updates every time I have to install a new component on an old NT4 system.
For point of discussion, I'd like to list a few energy sources in their rawest state. I'm not arguing pro or con, just hoping to help out the discussion.
Solar. This energy is produced by processes on the sun which release electromagnetic energy in both wave and particle forms. This energy can be converted into electricity by photovoltaic cells; can be converted to kinetic energy in a substance; can be converted to chemical energy usually by photosynthesis (wood, coal, oil); or can be directly used as infrared (hydro, wind), visible, or ultraviolet light depending on purpose.
Nuclear. This energy is produced by the fission or fusion of the nuclei of atoms and is commonly associated with radioactivity. This process is found in naturally occuring materials in the earth, and is believed to be the base form of energy driving plate tectonics, vulcanism, and geothermal activity. Non-natural materials may also be used for nuclear processes. This energy is typically used to generate electricity by inducing kinetic energy in a substance to drive an electric generator. It has also been applied directly by exploiting an uncontrolled fission chain reaction to accelerate and move very large amounts of material in a very short amount of time. Byproducts of nuclear fusion and fission may be used to produce electrochemical potential energy (batteries).
Magnetism coupled with planetary motion. This form of energy concerns variations in magnetic fields, and how the magnetic field is altered by motion and interaction with nearby objects. We can see a practical example of this in the typical rotary electric generator; our concern here is planetary magnetic fields and how they are affected by nearby celestial objects (such as the effect of Moon on Earth's magnetic field). I admit I know very little about this, and I know of no practical exploitation of this by man.
Gravity coupled with planetary motion. More commonly known as tides, this form of energy concerns the gravitational attraction between celestial objects, and how it affects substances on a global scale. We tend to think of oceanic tides, but tides also affect the water in our toilets, the constant known as acceleration due to gravity, and land masses. The typical application of tides is direct coupling to turbines which in turn drive a generator.
I submit that every form of energy you can imagine can be traced to one of the above four fundamental forms of energy creation. We must realize however, solar power is really not a fundamental form; it is rather an abstraction of the other three: nuclear, magnetism, and gravity.
Back when I was in college ('90-'91ish), there was a Yorx CD player in the main lounge. If you failed to hit stop before hitting eject, the CD would launch and impale itself in the ceiling.
I've found that a 8mm cassette case (the kind for Exabyte-style drives) is the perfect size for holding 8 AAs (need to put them in (-) ends together), but it's probably a good idea to throw a rubber band around it for safety.
I don't know if they still do, but Symantec used to have a live DJ running the on-hold music, along with "traffic reports" saying how many people were on hold, and what the average wait time is.
Several years ago, I had occasion to call 3com's tech support. After wading thru several layers of menus, the last option was what kind of on-hold music I wanted to listen to. Something like "Press 1 for jazz, press 2 for classical, press 3 for country, etc."
The worst part about it was that the one time I get to choose my on-hold music, the wait time was less than a minute.
Do not set your heat any higher than 70 degrees, because once it gets warmer than that, a warm draft is uncomfortable. Below that, it feels great. Don't go any colder than 68 degrees or the employees will whine incessantly.
Do not set your AC any colder than 75 degrees, because when the ambient temperature is below 75, the AC provides a cold, unwelcome draft (not unlike your boss looking over your shoulder). Above 75 degrees, the cooling breeze of the AC feels fine. Fudge it up a bit in extremely hot weather to ease the shock when entering/exiting the building (i.e. -- if it's over 100 outside, set the AC to 78 or 80 -- but never go higher than 80).
(I cannot stand to go into a restaurant where they have the AC cranked way down.)
Put a few disconnected "dummy" thermostats here and there so people feel like they are in control. Only you will know which one is the real one.
One other point: allow small heaters and fans at the desk (and plan your electrical system to support the heaters), to satisfy those who are not satisfied easily.
The main advantage of cubicles is price; a key secondary advantage is configurability.
For an individual or team that requires more space, you can easily join two cubicles into one or rearrange the cubicle walls.
Cubicle walls are a LOT cheaper to implement than hard walls.
If you use tall cubicle walls, at least 7 feet, you gain some advantages:
Privacy - employee can confer with others without being distracted or distracting others (it's amazing how much noise you can put up with, but it doesn't take much visual input to distract you)
Wall space - employee can hang personal artwork, and have more space for shelving and storage
Pride of ownership - employee feels "this is my space" instead of "my boss lets me work here and is looking over my shoulder"
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In addition to the chair, consider the rest of your workspace.
Get a screen that's large and bright enough so you can see it when sitting in the proper position in your chair. A $1000 chair isn't going to do any good if you have to lean forward all day just to see your monitor.
Consider moving your keyboard and mouse off of your desk onto a keyboard tray. When sitting in the proper position with proper posture in your chair, your forearms should be level or pointing ever-so-slightly downward.
Learn to use your keyboard. Don't rest your wrists on the desk or one of those wrist wrests (unless it's really, really thick); this causes your wrists to bend backwards, pinching and fatiguing the nerves therein. Likewise, avoid bending your wrists down or to the side. Hang your arms down at your sides totally relaxed, ape-like. Look at your hand position relative to your forearm: this is the ideal position.
Adjust your chair's armrests to support your forearms above your keyboard, so your back muscles are relaxed. A wireless, ergonomic keyboard placed in your lap with properly adjusted armrests can be very comfortable for long sessions, though you might need a bean bag to get it at the proper angle and elevation.
Learn to use keyboard shortcuts and menu hotkeys. (Microsoft Word be used mouselessly to a large degree; WP can be used entirely with the keyboard.) When you are always taking your hand away from your keyboard to use the mouse, you add stress to your arms and back and lose productivity. If you can find a wireless keyboard with a built-in trackball, touch pad, or trackpoint, so much the better. Look for one where you don't have to remove your hand from the home position to operate it.
Make sure your lighting is such that it doesn't glare in your eyes or on the screen.
Move your mouse to the opposite hand you write with. This will increase your productivity because you won't have to set down your pen to scroll; you'll be able to write as you are scrolling. It'll seem awkward at first, but with practice it will begin to feel more natural.
Have you considered a barkolounger and a flat panel on an arm?
Do situps. Seriously. The abdominal muscles help support your back. My brother started doing situps every day and now rarely has back problems. He's not an office worker; he's a farmer and a forester.
Look around frequently. Stretch. Throw things at your cubiclemate.
Lastly, I am not an ergonomist and your mileage may vary.
With Sprint PCS, there are actually two types of messaging: your standard SMS (only recently rolled out), and Sprint's own ShortMail. (Just to confuse you, they named them similarly, but they are not.)
To send an SMS message DIRECTLY to a Sprint PCS phone, especially older, pre-SMS phones, use aaapppnnnn@messaging.sprintpcs.com address. To send a ShortMail message, aaapppnnnn@sprintpcs.com -- when mail is received here, you'll get an "alert" on your phone that you have a new message, which you then have to log in to a website to read. (I don't know what the point is, why can't they just forward the message to the phone?)
I understand that newer Sprint PCS service and phones have true two-way SMS. The older phones required you to log in to a WAP interface to send and receive messages; the nubmer@messaging.sprintpcs.com address was the only way to send a message directly to a phone.
"HTML emails should be banned."
Hear! Hear!
I've got Pine. And it comes from UW, not Italy.
Just avoid all the confusion and legally change your name to 543-21-0987 or whatever your SSN happens to be.
For only $59.95 (+tax) I'll be happy to go around and correct everything that says 'Tim' so it says 'Timothy'.
All you have to do is email me your bank account number, your credit card numbers (with expiry date and 3-digit security code on reverse -- for verification purposes), all social security numbers you have used, and the addresses of your last three residences.
BZZT! A mole is 6.02 x 10^23 items.
One of the nastier ones I've dealt with lodged itself as a subkey in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify. Of course you couldn't delete the file because it was in use. You couldn't kill it because it was a DLL loaded by the winlogon process, which you can't kill. Attempting to remove it from the registry just triggered it to put it right back.
Ended up booting to recovery console and deleting the file there so it wouldn't load, then was able to remove the entry from the registry.
A quick Google search reveals it as "Look2Me". More info here.
So, everybody on here seems to be shouting "just get a cheapo keyboard," and it's true you can find one for 10 bucks or less (USB, remeber the post said "legacy free"). There are keyboard emulators out there for $40-$50, definitely more than even a decent quality keyboard.
However, there are circumstances where you don't WANT a keyboard hooked up: to prevent keys from being pressed inadvertently or by unauthorized people; to save space; because mgt. won't accept a homebrew project; or maybe to prevent keyboard theft.
The best idea I've heard so far (props to another poster) is to use a wireless keyboard and mouse; the receiver stays on the server, plugged in and you take the keyboard and mouse away with you. If security is a concern, get a set that connects via IR instead of radio, and put black tape over the eyes.
Now this is off topic, but Avocent makes wireless KVM switch components, to allow you to KVM to distant computers without the mess of wires.
...for fear I'd be caught dead in one.
Did you see how flimsy those things look? One altercation with a triple-trailer semi-tractor rig and it's goodbye bug, hello windshield.
Lots of tall trees around, you say? There's your answer.... mount it in a tall tree.
Absolutely nothing, but stuck-in-the-mud corporate policies along with a stinginess that's tighter than an Al Quaeda security system dictate the use of NT4.
As to why they haven't released a SP7, read this.
Personally, since Microsoft doesn't seem to be releasing any more updates for NT4, I'd sure like to see them put out a Service Pack 7 so I don't have to go thru the steps SP6a - Post 6a SRP - Windows Updates every time I have to install a new component on an old NT4 system.
Solar. This energy is produced by processes on the sun which release electromagnetic energy in both wave and particle forms. This energy can be converted into electricity by photovoltaic cells; can be converted to kinetic energy in a substance; can be converted to chemical energy usually by photosynthesis (wood, coal, oil); or can be directly used as infrared (hydro, wind), visible, or ultraviolet light depending on purpose.
Nuclear. This energy is produced by the fission or fusion of the nuclei of atoms and is commonly associated with radioactivity. This process is found in naturally occuring materials in the earth, and is believed to be the base form of energy driving plate tectonics, vulcanism, and geothermal activity. Non-natural materials may also be used for nuclear processes. This energy is typically used to generate electricity by inducing kinetic energy in a substance to drive an electric generator. It has also been applied directly by exploiting an uncontrolled fission chain reaction to accelerate and move very large amounts of material in a very short amount of time. Byproducts of nuclear fusion and fission may be used to produce electrochemical potential energy (batteries).
Magnetism coupled with planetary motion. This form of energy concerns variations in magnetic fields, and how the magnetic field is altered by motion and interaction with nearby objects. We can see a practical example of this in the typical rotary electric generator; our concern here is planetary magnetic fields and how they are affected by nearby celestial objects (such as the effect of Moon on Earth's magnetic field). I admit I know very little about this, and I know of no practical exploitation of this by man.
Gravity coupled with planetary motion. More commonly known as tides, this form of energy concerns the gravitational attraction between celestial objects, and how it affects substances on a global scale. We tend to think of oceanic tides, but tides also affect the water in our toilets, the constant known as acceleration due to gravity, and land masses. The typical application of tides is direct coupling to turbines which in turn drive a generator.
I submit that every form of energy you can imagine can be traced to one of the above four fundamental forms of energy creation. We must realize however, solar power is really not a fundamental form; it is rather an abstraction of the other three: nuclear, magnetism, and gravity.
How does the orbit of the moon affect the earth's magnetic field?
Can this variation in magnetism be exploited to generate useable electricity?
Back when I was in college ('90-'91ish), there was a Yorx CD player in the main lounge. If you failed to hit stop before hitting eject, the CD would launch and impale itself in the ceiling.
How can someone as monotonously stiff as Al Gore have rythm?
As much as I'd like to see the spammers spend time in Abu Ghraib prison, the thought of the UN doing ANYTHING scares me.
Here's an EVEN better idea: run linux.
Here's an EVEN BETTER even better idea.
I've found that a 8mm cassette case (the kind for Exabyte-style drives) is the perfect size for holding 8 AAs (need to put them in (-) ends together), but it's probably a good idea to throw a rubber band around it for safety.
I don't know if they still do, but Symantec used to have a live DJ running the on-hold music, along with "traffic reports" saying how many people were on hold, and what the average wait time is.
Several years ago, I had occasion to call 3com's tech support. After wading thru several layers of menus, the last option was what kind of on-hold music I wanted to listen to. Something like "Press 1 for jazz, press 2 for classical, press 3 for country, etc."
The worst part about it was that the one time I get to choose my on-hold music, the wait time was less than a minute.
Comfort range is 70-75F (21-23C).
Do not set your heat any higher than 70 degrees, because once it gets warmer than that, a warm draft is uncomfortable. Below that, it feels great. Don't go any colder than 68 degrees or the employees will whine incessantly.
Do not set your AC any colder than 75 degrees, because when the ambient temperature is below 75, the AC provides a cold, unwelcome draft (not unlike your boss looking over your shoulder). Above 75 degrees, the cooling breeze of the AC feels fine. Fudge it up a bit in extremely hot weather to ease the shock when entering/exiting the building (i.e. -- if it's over 100 outside, set the AC to 78 or 80 -- but never go higher than 80).
(I cannot stand to go into a restaurant where they have the AC cranked way down.)
Put a few disconnected "dummy" thermostats here and there so people feel like they are in control. Only you will know which one is the real one.
One other point: allow small heaters and fans at the desk (and plan your electrical system to support the heaters), to satisfy those who are not satisfied easily.
For an individual or team that requires more space, you can easily join two cubicles into one or rearrange the cubicle walls.
Cubicle walls are a LOT cheaper to implement than hard walls.
If you use tall cubicle walls, at least 7 feet, you gain some advantages:
Privacy - employee can confer with others without being distracted or distracting others (it's amazing how much noise you can put up with, but it doesn't take much visual input to distract you)
Wall space - employee can hang personal artwork, and have more space for shelving and storage
Pride of ownership - employee feels "this is my space" instead of "my boss lets me work here and is looking over my shoulder"
Add in a door for extra privacy
And it's still cheaper than hard walls.