Ergonomic Mouse

Ergonomic Mouse

Ergonomics for workplace is being highly accepted by organizations. Everyone is aware of the importance of human resource and hence there is an increased investment for keeping the employees fit and productive. Continuous use of desktops at workplace has lead to many big and small ailments in past. The employee productivity and turnover both have been affected by the same. Those who use computers for more than two hours a day require stretching exercises after every few minutes to reduce the muscle tension that is built by sitting in the same position for long. The most affected areas of body are neck, back, shoulders, head, palms, arms, fingers and eyes. More and more people are affected by carpal tunnel syndrome and repetitive stress disorders. No organization wants an increased expenditure on workplace sickness. Ergonomic furniture for workplace is especially designed for overcoming and reducing these repetitive stress disorders like carpal tunnel syndrome. They try to eliminate the most disastrous body postures. The sole aim they are designed with is the support and comfort that human body requires while working for several hours.

Mouse is an essential element of our computer. It is used for scrolling and clicking anywhere on the screen area. It makes many tasks much easier than they would be if done via keyboard. There are a number of hand and wrist twists that take place while using a traditional mouse during the day. A traditional mouse additionally builds a lot of pressure in the carpal tunnel area during the day. Also, it builds a lot of pressure on forearms while working resulting in a regular pain in wrists, arms and palms. Upon studying the various muscoskeletal, visual and environmental issues relating to computer usage ergonomists designed the ergonomic mouse. It was designed to make the companies aware of the flaws relating to computer usage. The main aim was to provide a way for safe implementation of a comfortable environment for computer geeks.

Ergonomic mouse come in various designs and at various prices one has to be quite aware while making a selection. One must check that the mouse size fits ones arms. It is also essential to check if the mouse builds no or least pressure on muscles. Remember the whole reason for buying an ergonomic mouse is to reduce muscle tension. There is no point buying a mouse that fails to do the same. The most relaxing posture for shoulder and arm muscle is when arms are lifted parallel to ground with palms facing each other. On this premise a vertical ergonomic mouse is better than a traditional mouse. It tends to build least pressure on palm areas, wrists, arms etc. it further reduces the amount of wrist twists during the day thereby eliminating the risks of repetitive stress injuries and carpal tunnel syndrome. The pains in shoulders, head, back, neck etc are also reduced. There are other designs available for optical tracking for smoother and accurate mouse movements. They fit the natural hand contours and act as hand rests in most situations. They fit different hand structures and easily adapt to both left and right hand users.

Civilization 4 and Why I Hate My Office Phone

Civilization 4 and Why I Hate My Office Phone

If you’re familiar with the strategy PC gaming series “Civilization”, you probably know that it’s only slightly less addictive than crack. I’ve never tried crack, but the “word on the street”, so to speak, is that it’s a bit hard to let go of. I recently purchased Civilization 4, which is the latest in the Civilization series. That in itself isn’t so interesting, but what happened to me at my job as a result of it most certainly is. I work as a network administrator for a large insurance company in Illinois.

Part of my job is to repair PC’s as needed, which is quite often considering how many there are around this place. I informed my coworker, also a big civilization fan that I had the game and he suggested I bring it in for a little test run. Against my better judgment, we decided to play a hot seat game during work. “Hot seat” means that one player takes a turn, followed by the other, which is only possible with turn based games such as Civ. We both figured that there would always be one of us to answer the phone in our little repair-shop cubbyhole so we didn’t see how we could possibly get caught. Boy were we wrong! About four hours into a game things started getting interesting.

My civilization found his civilization and we started going to war against each other, as one might expect. I sat down for my turn and my coworker decided to head off to the bathroom. The phone rang, and I didn’t pick up so that whoever was on the other end wouldn’t hear the Civ theme music or the explosive sound of my Panzers running over his infantry. What I failed to remember is that our advanced phone system allows anyone to communicate with us on an open speaker phone provided we aren’t on the phone already. My boss utilized this function since no one answered while I was taking my turn…o.k., actually while I was taking my turn and bragging out loud to myself about how well I was doing in the game. I found myself in his office that afternoon, but luckily I was only reprimanded and not fired. Not only did I get into trouble, my coworker continues to make jokes about it at my expense.

I hate my office phone.

HyperTerminal

HyperTerminal

HyperTerminal is communications software used to connect to other computers over modems, RS-232 serial connections, or telnet. In order to use HyperTerminal, the user will have to know details about the computer they wish to connect to, such as the number to dial or the IP address.

HyperTerminal can be accessed by:

* Clicking Start on the desktop
* Going to All Programs
* Clicking Accessories
* Then Communications
* Next clicking HyperTerminal to start the program

For first time users, a window will open asking you to insert “Location Information”. This will include information such as your country, area code, the way you would like to connect (modem/TCP) or if your phone uses tone or pulse dialing. Then click OK.

A “New Connection” window opens up, allowing you to choose a name and an icon for your HyperTerminal session. After this information has been filled out, use the “telephone” icons on the HyperTerminal toolbar to connect or disconnect a call to another computer.

Other than connecting to other computers, HyperTerminal can be used to monitor the status of your modem. The details of any connection made using HyperTerminal are recorded in a log file. Reviewing this file can be one way to troubleshoot modem issues.