julianhopkins.net - Geekzone

RSI – Don’t use a wrist support!

nospam@example.com (julian) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 10:35:44 -0700

I think I have an Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) problem coming on – the wrist of my ‘mousing hand’ has a nagging pain most of the time, and it immediately gets worse when I start using the mouse or typing. It’s a problem, because my work basically involves typing and surfing the net (could be worse ), and I spend easily 8-12 hours a day on my computer.

So, I went surfing (ahem) to find out more, and found out some surprising things from a reliable source, Cornell University: on mousing, and on typing posture.

• First of all – don’t use a wrist support, especially the soft gel ones!

“research has shown that using a wrist rest doubles the pressure inside the carpal tunnel” ( Professor Alan Hedge, Cornell University)

At least, if you do use one, put the heel of your hand on it, not your wrist. The reason for this is simple: try laying your arm flat on a table, you’ll notice a curve up at the wrist

therefore – you don’t want to be putting pressure at exactly the point where your body is designed to avoid pressure! This is addressed in an alternative wrist pad by Ergoguys
• Also, move your mouse from your elbow, not by flicking your wrist. Resting the heel of your hand on the wrist support pad is not going to help this though.
• Your ideal posture should not be a straight back, but actually leaning slightly backwards. The wrist should be lower than the elbow, and the keyboard lower than the wrists. So a keyboard that slants upwards is not good – notice how the keyboard in the picture slants downwards.

Source

For this a decent chair is important, the problem is they are expensive, I find that the standard cheap office chair does not have good height control – but I’ve tried putting a cushion on mine to lift me up a bit higher. And a box to put my feet on, otherwise they dangle a bit (short legs!) which is not good either.
• I’m also trying to use my mouse with my left hand to give the right a rest. It’s a bit fiddly, but doable.
• Finally, take regular breaks. One useful way to do this is to have a software that reminds you, and forces you to stop by temporarily blocking your computer – I have installed Workrave (free OpenSource) which is nice because it gives you exercises to do, and has cute sheep The problem is, it doesn’t always seem to always remind me – maybe because I use Vista (unfortunately). There are other similar ones out there too.

There are more things, but these stood out to me. So, take care of your body – do something to improve your habits today!

l33t sp34k

nospam@example.com (julian) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 07:15:27 -0700

Leet is a coded form of writing developed in the 80’s and used (initially at least) by hackers and the ‘elite’ of the networked world.

1t (4n g3t pr3tt¥ (0mp£1(4t3Ð, but for the uninitiated (like me), you can you go here

It’s a leet translator that does leet at various degrees of ‘leetness’

1t’s 4 l33t tr4nsl4t0r th4t d03s l33t 4t v4r10us d3gr33s 0f ‘l33tn3ss’

1t’$ 4 £33t tr4n$£4t0r th4t Ð03$ £33t 4t v4r10µ$ Ð3gr33$ 0f ‘£33tn3$$’

17’$ 4 £337 7r4n$£470r 7h47 Ð03$ £337 47 v4r10µ$ Ð39r33$ 0ƒ ‘£337n3$$’

17’$ 4 £337 7r4||$£470r 7|-|47 Ð03$ £337 47 \/4r10µ$ Ð39r33$ 0ƒ ‘£337||3$$’

17’$ 4 £337 7®4||$£470® 7|-|47 Ð03$ £337 47 \/4®10µ$ Ð39®33$ 0ƒ ‘£337||3$$’

Found out about it thanks to 3POINT8.

There’s also another one here, which translates both ways.

Why I don’t like Vista

nospam@example.com (julian) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 11:13:48 -0700

• I can’t use Google Desktop Search
• The Explorer keeps on losing my ‘View’ settings (i.e. I like to have folders in ‘List’ view, and it frequently switches to other views)
• Although I have indexed My Documents numerous times, it still tells me the search will go faster if I ‘add to index’

• I have had more blue screens than a buggy Windows 95 beta version
• The ‘Problem Reports and Solutions’ tells me to install ‘Update for Windows Vista (KB943899)’ (the second one below)

So I download and tell it to install, and then Vista tells me

Continue reading "Why I don’t like Vista"

Free software

nospam@example.com (julian) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 17:54:12 -0700

I learnt about this very useful site the other day – it’s called Giveaway of the Day and the principle is very simple: every day one program is made available for free.

You have to download AND install it the same day (which I didn’t know at first and so missed a useful looking program). The programs are all bona fide software without any adware or spyware or anything.

Seems too good to be true almost… but so far it all seems totally legit. The programs are usually the relatively basic, stripped down versions, and they do not offer any free updates or support.

Once you download and install it, you run a little activation key program that gives you the serial number.

Today I downloaded the one in the picture above – could come in use for my research: how many times have you wished you were able to record things on YouTube, for example?
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Using the Event Viewer tool in Vista

nospam@example.com (julian) — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 11:44:52 -0700

--Another one that I couldn't post it here due to another problem to do with a 'mod_security' module on the Apache sever (apparently, I don't understand what it was) - I will blog about that in the Geekzone at some point--
I had the "host process for windows services stopped working and was closed" error again, and had a look around.

The Vista Help says that “the cause could be smaller programs, such as extensions… check with the software publisher to see if there is an updated, DEP-compatible version available, or try uninstalling the program.”

DEP is “Data Execution Prevention”: basically it is a service that stops programs that may be damaging your system (i.e. viruses, etc.); “If a program tries running (also known as executing) code from memory in an incorrect way, DEP closes the program.” (the Help file again). The program it’s closing here is svchost.exe: being something apparently quite important to Windows, it’s kind of worrying that it shuts it down, but everything else seems to continue fine…

Anyway, I Googled the error message and came across a few similar issues: here and here

They mentioned using the “Event Log”, so I decided to try it. You go to Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer, and get this

Continue reading "Using the Event Viewer tool in Vista"

Acer Aspire 5580 and Vista Home Premium – the Experience...

nospam@example.com (julian) — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 17:10:48 -0700

Well it’s been about two weeks since I started using this, and I can’t say the experience has been great. Here are the issues I have faced.

+ Wireless connection.
The eNet Management dialogue box intermittently announces that the internet has been disconnected, then usually announces that it is (re)connected straight after. Ongoing downloads are disrupted, though today while on Skype I noticed it happening, and there was no problem with the line... This fed into another problem: I set up a direct cable connection to see if there was any difference (it worked fine), but then the connection dialogue box for the cable connection would occasionally pop up (I assume because it was trying to ‘reconnect’ after the wireless went down – since I have told it not to try to reconnect this has stopped). Yesterday my Opera was working fine, but for some reason Firefox kept trying to connect with the cable connection – I would have lost a long post if I hadn’t saved it on my computer too.

I contacted Acer support about this problem and was not too impressed: the first guy didn’t try to find out what model etc. I was using, then when he heard I had ‘intermittent connection’ problems he told me to disable the Norton Internet Security that comes bundled with the laptop! I asked why, he said it was a known problem with Microsoft, and told me it would be in the knowledge base; I checked and it wasn’t; I then asked why was there a ‘known problem’ with something that Acer supplies and recommends... He passed me onto his supervisor who asked me to try the cable connection; I also emailed him details of my wireless router etc. He emailed back a day later saying they have tested on their side and there were no problems and asked me to bring in my laptop for diagnostics... not a useful solution. I asked him to escalate it and/or send me details of how to do some diagnostics. No answer yet. Score for Acer support so far: 4/10.

++Update 11/09/07: Eventually I just removed the eNEt Management from the Startup folder. It doesn't seem to make any difference without it.
Also: This is a link for Acer users with Vista; it also has a link to get a new eNet application if you want it.++

+ The sidebar.
Sometimes the items in the sidebar would change place for no reason. Also: after booting up Windows told me that the sidebar was not working, it is investigating it, and will tell me when it has a solution. I reckon it may have something to do with the Google sidebar that annoyingly tried to install itself when I installed Google Desktop. This happened a couple of times, so I have now disabled the sidebar as it doesn’t really do a lot for me, apart from having a big clock and date.

Continue reading "Acer Aspire 5580 and Vista Home Premium – the Experience..."