A New Zealand ergonomics company is working on a lying down ergonomic workstation meant to simulate the weightlessness that astronauts experience in space. At a $7,000 + US price tag, they better be good (for $7,000, I expect it to actually do my work for me and make coffee to boot). The article mentions that…
Ergonomics Cartoons
A friend sent me a link to a few ergonomics cartoons. I didn’t think much of the first couple but the last one made me laugh out loud–perhaps a testament to reading too much Science Fiction & Fantasy where the heroes are always being tortured. “No wonder your arm aches. Shackles should be placed at…
Patent Fights over Ergonomic Keyboards
Did Microsoft swipe the idea for their “Natural” Keyboards? William Louis of TypeRight Keyboard Corp. claims to have invented the V-shaped ergonomic keyboard with wrist rests in the 1990s, 18 months before Microsoft started producing their Natural line of keyboards. He hasn’t been too successful with his lawsuit in seeking damages (Microsoft steamrolled over them…
One Gig of Memory Still Not Enough?
I don’t know how many novelists (or in my case, wannabe novelists) there are out there who use voice-recognition software to write, but I suppose this applies to anybody who works with large MS Word documents. Whenever my documents reach 100 pages or so, Dragon NaturallySpeaking slows waaaaaaay down. Basically, it becomes unusable. I was…
The Carpal Tunnel Helpbook Review
The Carpal Tunnel HelpBook by Dr. Scott M. Fried is subtitled “Self-healing Alternatives for Carpal Tunnel and Other Repetitive Strain Injuries.” It’s a fairly short paperback, just over 100 pages, but provides a good introduction to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and other repetitive strain injuries (hence the title), and I would recommend it for those who…
10 Stretches You Can Do at Your Desk
There are number of sites out there that give you some stretches or exercises you can do at your desk (it’s a good idea to take breaks every 15-30 minutes as a preventative precaution against RSI). I thought I’d share this one. It’s quick and easy, with cartoons to illustrate the stretches. I love the…
Dragon NaturallySpeaking Service Pack 2
Service Pack 2, an update for Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7.0, has been out for a few months (maybe a year; I’m not the swiftest about checking for updates). According to the long list of “fixes” on their web site, it’s supposed to fix a lot of things that needed, well, fixing. The only two things I…
Favorable Review of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Edition
The Sydney Morning Herald published a user’s very favorable experience with Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile edition which allows you to dictate into a recorder while away from the computer, then upload your work into the computer, either as text or into a wav file. The author notes that the system only works with “digital recorders that…
Dragon NaturallySpeaking Service Pack 2
Service Pack 2, an update for Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7.0, has been out for a few months (maybe a year; I’m not the swiftest about checking for updates). According to the long list of “fixes” on their web site, it’s supposed to fix a lot of things that needed, well, fixing. The only two things I…
Virtual Keyboards
Apparently, Samsung and Nokia are racing to put out virtual keyboards. These keyboards will be integrated into their mobile phones. I’m not a huge cell phone user, but phones aside, I’ve got to say, I love the new keyboard alternatives that have been coming out in the last couple of years. More options for those…
Dragon NaturallySpeaking, how I love thee…
Ever notice that the one word in the whole document you don’t know how to spell is the one word Dragon NaturallySpeaking doesn’t recognize?
How Clean Is Your Mouse Ball?
StreamingMediaIQ posted an article today on Mouse Ergonomics. It’s pretty basic stuff, but I must admit, I’d never worried about cleaning the dust out of the bottom of my mouse before. Here’s a quick summary of the tips offered in the article: Make use of keyboard shortcuts to alleviate the amount of clicking and dragging…