USB ergonomic warm mouse rants, values, news & views

USB Ergonomic Warm Mouse from IGMproducts.com
$24.95 Free Shipping & No Sales Tax

Heated Mouse - Free Shipping + No Sales Tax

IGMproducts.com announced today a partnership agreement with ValueRays® USB Heated Ergonomic Computer Accessories. IGMproducts.com, owned and operated by i-GlobalMall.com, Inc. is an authorized ValueRays® online retailer. ValueRays® manufactures infrared heat warm mouse, heated mouse pad, heated computer keyboard pad and the Mouse Hand Warmer® blanket pouch.

All ValueRays® heated computer devices will be carried by these online stores:

IGMproducts.com
Warm-Mouse-Heated-Keyboard.com
ValueRays.com

Plus, as a stimulus for shoppers, ValueRays® is offering FREE USA Shipping and NO Sales Tax for purchases made at the websites listed above.

Each of the ValueRays® products serve a purpose when used separately. When used together, they create a very warm environment for a person who has cold hands when using the computer. ValueRays® heated mouse, warm mouse pad, warm keyboard pad and mouse hand warmer blanket can be purchased separately or in a variety of 2, 3 and 4 piece sets.

To learn more about ValueRays® heated computer gadgets visit any of the website listed above or by clicking the link below. To contact us, please write to: Webmaster(at)ValueRays.com.

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Exercises to Keep Your Mouse From Biting You
By Jonathan Huie
If you use your computer a lot and you are of that certain age, you recognize when your mouse is beginning to bite you. It may be your mouse hand cramping, your lower or upper arm muscles, your shoulder, or perhaps the opposite shoulder knotting in sympathy. Don't wait until you are suffering, try these hints to avoid "mouse shoulder" and its cousins.

1. Take a break every hour, if only for a minute. Many short breaks are more effective than a single longer one.

2. Stretch your arm tendons. Extend your arms straight out to your sides, forming a cross with your body and arms. Start with your palms facing the floor. Pull your hands up and back, tightening your arm tendons. Repeat 10 times slowly. Now, pull your hands up and back, and twist your arms clockwise and counter clockwise - remain in the cross position while twisting your arms like wringing out a wet towel. Do NOT do anything that hurts - even a little.

3. Perform the same towel-wringing motion with your arms extended overhead, then in front, finally extended straight down.

4. Take a short walk. Exaggerate swinging your arms as you walk.

5. Get two light weights - perhaps five pounds each. Raise the weights with your arms extended to your sides, then with your arms extended to the front. Raise the weights over your head. Finally, lower the weights behind your shoulders and raise them back to overhead.

Even if you only take a minute's break, and even if you only do the first of these exercises, do it every hour.

Jonathan Lockwood Huie is an author of self-awareness books. He has been dubbed "The Philosopher of Happiness" by those closest to him, in recognition of his on-going commitment to seeing Joy in all of life.

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Using Your USB Port to Heat or Cool Yourself while Working at Your Computer
by Susan300 from Associated Content

With new computers rolling off the assembly line with 6 or 8 USB ports standard these days, (and some with as many as a dozen!), you must be wondering what to fill up all those ports with, right? Wonder no longer. Now you can offset the high energy cost associated with heating and cooling your workspace by using these nifty USB-powered gadget to heat or cool yourself.

Everything on this list is completely powered by plugging into a USB port...

USB Heat Slippers Dual ~
Finally! A way to keep my toes worm while they're dangling under my computer desk. These dual heat slippers by Thanko are even individually powered, just in case one foot is naturally warmer than the other. (Haven't we all had that happen!)

The USB Heat Slippers Dual works with both Windows-based machines and MACs, and even has an optional adapter to turn a regular house hold outlet into a USB port, in case you really have used up all those extra ports on your computer.

The slippers are washable, and the heating insert can even be removed and placed into a regular pair of shoes. Very handy for the office. Use your slippers in 'stealth mode' so that your co-workers don't get jealous.

Each USB powered slipper can reach a temperature of up to 50 degrees. Stave off the creeping winter chill with a pair of these ingenious foot warmers. Just don't forget that your feet are attached to your computer when you get up and start to walk away.

USB-powered Seat Warmers ~
Because sometimes it's not your feet that are cold. Put this warming pad onto your chair seat turn up the heat to your butt! Varying temperature control allows you to customize the heat on your seat.

USB-powered Seat Cooler ~
Of course, sometimes your butt is already too hot, right? For those moments, you'll enjoy this companion product, the USB-powered seat cooler! This slim and comfortable seat cushion adds a bit more padding underneath, while funneling cool air right where you need it most.

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3D connexion SpacePilot 3D Mouse from bhphotovideo.com
priced under $400.00

3d input immersion softmouse

Global Geo Supplies Acquires SoftMouse® Product Line from Immersion Corporation

Global Geo Supplies, Littleton, Colorado announced its recent acquisition of the SoftMouse® product line from Immersion Corporation (NASDAQ:IMMR). The acquisition positions Global Geo Supplies as the largest volume provider of 3D computer mouse products worldwide.

The SoftMouse® 3D computer input devices are principally used to create three dimensional computer models based on two dimensional imagery taken via satellite, aerial camera, and radar.

CFO Services, LLC, Denver, Colorado (CFOServicesNow.com), owned and managed by Kira Riedel, is providing pre- and post-transaction advisory services to Global GEO Supplies.

Guillermo Gallo, Co-Owner of Global GEO Supplies comments regarding the acquisition, "We believe that market demand for this product will increase hand in hand with the demand of vector mapping products generated by the GIS (Geographic Information Systems), street/car navigation, and web mapping industries. Such vector products are mainly produced by human operators in stereoscopic workstations, of which a 3D control device like the SoftMouse is a required component. Global Geo Supplies is excited to continue the technical development of the 3D mouse and related products to provide the market with the highest quality products possible. We are confident that our customers will continue to find new applications for these products and we want to innovate with them.”

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Bringing technology into the classroom
from Daily Heral Tribune

All hands are raised in Fraser Sewall’s math class. Kids clamour to answer the problem – 40 minus 10. A student is picked and the remaining 15 students collectively sigh. She touches the screen and counts back 10 squares.

Problem solved. The correct answer receives a cheer from the class. Next question and the hands are up once again. “Everyone is willing to volunteer, that’s for sure,” said Sewall. “You don’t have someone in the back who doesn’t want to try.”

Today the Grade 2 students at Clairmont Community school are learning to subtract by 10. For Sewall, using a Smartboard, or an interactive whiteboard, makes his lessons engaging and exciting. “Anything that draws their attention is positive,” said Sewall. “If you look at what kids are doing, so much of it is on a big screen TV at home. They seem to be able to relate to it.”

A Smartboard is simply an electronic touch-controlled whiteboard hooked up to a projector and computer. The projector puts the computer’s desktop image onto the whiteboard and acts as a monitor. Users can write on the whiteboard with a special marker, or use a finger to control computer applications by pointing, clicking and dragging, much like a computer mouse. The price tag of a Smartboard ranges from $4,500 to $5,000, including installation.

“As a teacher, it brings in a lot more possibilities in the classroom, being able to access the Internet as well as all the resources it comes with,” said Sewall. Alberta Education wants to ensure all classrooms in the province are equipped with technologies that promote innovative teaching and learning. The Innovative Classroom Technology – a three-year initiative – puts $18.5 million per year into the school jurisdictions.

When Clairmont Community school opened in January, all the classrooms in the K-6 school were equipped with a Smartboard and a projector. “Everybody is engaged,” said Sewall. “The students that may otherwise not be paying attention seem to be drawn into it.” Carrie Sutton, a Grade 6 teacher at St. Patrick Catholic school, can’t quite put her finger on it.

In all her 12 years of teaching, engaging students has never been an issue. Her quiet, authoritative approach to teaching commands her classroom. Since adding a Smartboard to her room, her passion for the profession has increased and her students are more captivated. “I am a little bit more alive,” said Sutton. “I am kind of a quiet. The kids are more excited about it (and) so am I.”

Sutton said the large screen with options for video, pictures and audio draws her students in time after time. “It has allowed me to bring in a lot of visual and digital media into my lectures and my teaching,” said Sutton. “You know how pictures are worth a thousand words.” And if students are drawn in, that means better understanding. “I have three science units that are now Smartboard-ready,” she said. “I have two that aren’t. I am finding, overall, their final test marks on the final exams for the Smartboard lessons are 20 per cent higher, which is huge.”

Sutton was intrigued with Smartboards after taking an introductory session at last year’s Mighty Peace Teachers’ Convention. Her classroom is the only one in St. Patrick which has a Smartboard installed. “I was excited,” she laughed. “I really wanted one in my room. I have always been keen about technology. I don’t know what I would do if I had to let it go.” Like her students, Sutton is mesmerized by the bells and whistles the board offers. Even when she is not giving a lesson, she will use the screen to show the time or a map of the world.

“Students are used to colours and pictures and video,” she said. “Being able to bring all of those things into your lessons just makes them come alive.” There is a downside to all this new technology. Her workload hasn’t decreased one bit. “I am spending more time because I am looking for images, for video and for interactive things,” she said. “Then once you have developed it, it’s there until they change the curriculum.” Chris Ruhl has used a Smartboard for two years in his Grade 4 classes at Alexander Forbes school.

"As a profession, we’re trying to get away from doing the pen and paper,” he explained. “Everything is more inquiry based.”Ruhl uses the Smartboard for most of his lessons. He said every subject from music to science could be used on the interactive whiteboard.

“In kindergarten, teachers can use it for counting and manipulating shapes,” he said. “You can put up a piece of text on the board and there’s a highlighting feature to show the kids for comprehension.” Ruhl said the possibilities are endless as Smartboards gain steam across the province and more and more teachers post ideas and suggestions to online forums and webpages. “It makes the lessons a lot more interactive with the students,” said Ruhl. “They are excited to get the chance to come up and do things on the Smartboard. They are not just sitting and looking at things on an overhead or something written on the board.”

Ruhl is the Smartboard guru at Alexander Forbes. He has helped his colleagues find a comfort zone from which to utilize the board. “Some teachers were hesitant who had never used a Smartboard,” said Ruhl. “We have a Tech Star Award where somebody does something and we highlight it to the rest of the staff.” There is a problem of falling into the trap of using the interactive whiteboard as a glorified overhead. But Ruhl says the technology is needed in the classroom. In my opinion, this is a video-game culture,” said Ruhl, 34, “Kids’ brains are tuned to watching the bright colours, seeing the movement and it is a way of introducing a teaching method in a way they are familiar with.”

Sutton agreed and said today’s students need to be more tech savvy. And this should start in the classroom. “Right now my kids are preparing Powerpoint presentations on issues they care about in the community and in the world,” she said. “I am hoping they are learning to be presenters and be excited about using technology. If you see something all through school, when you get out to your job you won’t be scared.”