Hand Problems, Mouse Problems, Computer Peripherals

Polar Bears Love the Cold - Many of Us Do Not!

Coming out of hibernation each winter is a relief for those of us who suffer from the cold. People with Raynaud's, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Poor Circulation, and a wealth of other ailments cause our extremities to become too cold to handle. So, like the polar bear who comes out, so do our hands for a few months of relief. The down side is dealing with air conditioning and chilly spaces with ceiling fans and low temperatures. It's not much different. To keep warm while using the computer, USB infrared heaters provide therapeutic deep healing relief to hands, fingers, wrists and arms.

Build Muscle While Checking E-Mail
By Nick Barber

Working out your forearm or biceps may be as easy as checking your e-mail or playing a game of Pong with a hack that lets a handgrip exerciser function as a computer mouse. University of Melbourne Ph.D. student Florian Mueller created the device, which is on display at the Computer Human Interface conference in Boston. He said the project cost about US$10. "It's a little bit like the Wii, but it's very exerting," said Mueller, referring to the Nintendo game console.

A handgrip exerciser is a handheld piece of exercise equipment that can be squeezed to work muscles in the upper and lower arm. Some are digital, like the one Mueller used, and can display the amount of force achieved with each squeeze.

Mueller built the Mousegrip using sensors from an old mouse and incorporating them into the handgrip. Once it's plugged in, the computer recognizes it as if it were a mouse. A single handgrip moves the cursor along only one axis, while two handgrips will give the user a full range of motion on the screen. One handgrip moves the cursor up and down and another moves it left and right. In order to reach the bottom right corner of a computer screen both handgrips would need to be fully depressed, a difficult task for those who don't regularly exercise their arms.

Mueller demonstrated the Mousegrip with a version of the computer game Pong. When the handgrip was not being used, the paddle would remain at the top of the screen, but when the handgrip was fully depressed -- using about 50 kilograms of pressure -- the paddle would move to the bottom of the screen. Mueller encouraged passers by to only use one hand, but some needed two.

"We don't only believe that exertion makes you stronger, but also creates stronger social bonds with other players," Mueller said, mentioning that the game could be played over the Internet with players on different continents.

Mueller doesn't plan to commercialize the Mousegrip, but does plan to release a boxing game in the coming months. Players will be able to hit an interactive surface while using the Internet to compete against others.

Disable your Computer Keyboard & Mouse Before Cleaning

by Ryan

If the computer is on and you want to clean the mouse or keyboard without shutting down the system, check out Toddler Trap. It’s a free utility that will temporarily disable the mouse and all keys of your computer keyboard so you can safely clean the hardware without having to worry about making any accidental clicks. It may also be used to lock the track pad of a laptop prior to cleaning.

While it is possible to lock a computer by hitting the Windows + L keyboard shortcut, the advantage with Toddler Trap is that it doesn’t change your screen so if you are watching a video on YouTube or listening to some music, you can clean the computer parts in parallel. Once you are done with the cleaning, hit the lone close button to reactivate the mouse and keyboard. If you ever spill a drink on the keyboard, this utility may save you some "precious" time because you won’t have to wait for the computer to shut down before wiping the wet keys.

Computer Peripherals – Now at Online Shopping Stores

by Tom Lopez

Computer Peripherals are the external devices which act as a periphery adding a host of functions which depend upon the computer to be carried out.

Some of the common peripheral devices are printers, scanners, disk drives, tape drives, microphones, speakers and cameras. These computer peripherals can be broadly classified into storage, input and output devices. These include peripherals like pen drives, DVD players, CDs, DVD – R drives, keyboards, mouse, USB mouse, speakers, gaming keyboard, projectors, USB Flash Drive, Wireless Mouse, Web Cameras, pc monitors, TV Tuner cards and so on.

All these computer peripherals enhance the capacity and work of a computer. When joined with main computer, these peripherals increase the work manifold. For example printers and scanners when included in the computer, reduce the time work for taking out the print outs or scanning the pages. Similarly, a pen drive can carry huge amount of data from one place to another saving the bulk to be carried. Similarly are the other computer products.

Computer peripherals are mostly found in large electronics market locate in each major city of India. One can easily purchase these from this market where you will find a variety of computer peripherals being sold at various prices. But in such markets, it is very difficult to differentiate between a real product and a artificial one. One has to by his guts and knowledge. Some of the computer peripherals are very costly, so in this case, it is better buy them from a branded showroom than to buy from an open market.

On the other hand, it is advisable that you buy such peripherals from online shopping sites like Home Shop 18, where not only the prices are low than the MRP but also the products are genuine. You can shop for them online, order the products for home delivery and once the product reaches your hands, you can pay for them. Good enough for things like Computer Peripherals which do not require to be seen before the purchase. As these are branded products coming from the company itself, one can think of buying them from a online shopping store. Try one of the leading online shopping stores and see the benefits attached with it…

Authors suggest to you purchase best computer peripherals like printers, desktop, pen drive, laptops, headphones, webcams, hard disk drives, keyboards, mouse and many more.

The hand is a very complex structure including joints, muscles, bones and ligaments. Treating the hands with care is important for computer users. Computer-related hand injuries are on the rise. There are Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI) and Cumulative Trauma Disorders (CTD) affecting every part of the hand. Using the computer in a healthy manner can help offset hand injury. Infrared heated computer devices deliver a steady flow of deep penetraing therapeutic relief to the computer mouse hand and keyboard hands. Combine the use of infrared heated warm mouse, warm mouse pad, warm keyboard pad and mouse hand warmer heated blanket with proper breaks and exercise.

Easy Help for Hurting Hands
from the National Women's Health Resource Center's e-newsletter

To stay fit, we work on strengthening everything from our hearts to our calf muscles. Our hands often get no exercise attention at all — that is, until they start hurting.

Hands may ache from repetitive motion or overuse if you enjoy tennis or other racquet sports, have a computer-based job or play a musical instrument. Arthritis also causes hand pain. Even without those specific stressors, the numerous bones, muscles and ligaments in our hands and fingers literally carry the load of many daily activities and sometimes hurt as a result.

Hand stretches and exercises to build strength and flexibility are effective ways to keep your hands pain-free. The following hand helpers take just a few minutes; done daily, they can ease the ache.

Hand Helper #1: Simple Stretch

Open hand flat.
Make a fist, keeping thumb straight, outside fist.
Slide fingertips up palm until they come close to the base of your fingers (or as close as you can without feeling pain).
Hold stretch for a few seconds.

Hand Helper #2: Hand-Wrist Stretch

Open hand flat.
Make a fist, keeping thumb straight, outside fist.
Bend wrist downward toward palm.
Straighten fingers and stretch wrist in opposite direction.
Repeat for each hand, up to 10 times.

Hand Helper #3: Squeeze Play

Scrunch a piece of paper into a small ball in your hand.
Squeeze and repeat. (We told you these were easy!)
You can also do this exercise with a tennis ball or small, flexible rubber ball.

Hand Helper #4: Thumbs Up

Hold hand flat, palm up.
Bring thumb in to touch the base of the little finger.
Swing thumb away and back out to side.
Then touch thumb to each fingertip, one by one, forming an "O."
Repeat several times.