Plaid - 35 summers [chill out]
Posted on February 4, 2012
Plaid is a British duo that makes electronic music [wikipedia].
Their song “35 summers” off their album “Scintilli” is cool.
But the accompanying video goes a lot further. It does have a symbolic depth on numerous layers.
Really very beautiful.
Filed Under Chill Out, Health | Leave a Comment
One handed computer and mouse usage [shift or control click]
Posted on January 21, 2012
I show how I control-click through a list of file with one hand. Shift-click works the same.
- The thumb operates the control key.
- The hand pushes the mouse.
- The ring finger clicks the left (regular button 1) mouse button.
The motions are relatively subtle and relatively precise.
Filed Under Tricks and techniques, Tricks one handed | Leave a Comment
Unlauter: SF DRS (Schweizer Fernsehen) wirbt fuer Otto Bock [Missbrauch Billag-Gebuehren]
Posted on January 18, 2012
Das Schweizer Fernsehen (SF DRS) strahlt am 16. Januar 2012 in der Sendung “Puls” einen Beitrag mit dem Titel “Gesundheitsthemen - Hightech-Armprothese - Nicht nur optisch nahe an der Hand” von Hellwi Braunmiller aus, der einseitige Werbung fuer die Otto Bock “Michelangelo”-Hand liefert. Dieses Produkt hatte vorgaengig bzw. bislang ja gar nicht ueberzeugt.
Filed Under "Bionic" prostheses, Brands, Disability and the public, Media, Media publishing hyped up distortions, Otto Bock, Otto Bock Michelangelo hand, Prosthetics, Support | Leave a Comment
Ossur Upper X liners are ill shaped, their relatively cylindrical shape causes chronic congestion eczema of the stump [tech report]
Posted on January 11, 2012
As i just checked past correspondence it turns out that I had written to the sales contact of Ossur Europe on December 14th 2009.
I had informed them their product Ossur Upper X (which I was equipped with) causes me both eczema at the stump end and, furthermore, constriction of my arm at the elbow - simply because they mass produce stump liners for cylindrical shape rather than my real stump shape which obviously is more conical.
In other words, their liners fit a stump that has the same circumference at any position (cylindrical shape) - whereas my stump is a bit more muscular, thick and wide at the elbow and thin and bony at the end (conical shape). That is the case because I am very active and keep fit, because I move a lot and do sports.
Now, Ossur advertises to be “the go-destination for athletes that want to be active” but that is not met by their products - the liners are geared towards amputees that, in fact, have cylindrical stumps. Legally, Ossur cannot be held responsible as they advertise to be a manufacturer for people that “want to be” active much rather than catering towards people that actually “are” active.
So given all that, I had asked them to produce the liner with a conical shape.
More specifically, I had written them the following text (in German, just for the record):
Mit dem Upper X Groesse 14, der vorne am Stumpf zu locker ist, habe ich nun vorne am Stumpf deswegen kleine Taschen, in denen der Schweiss sammelt und wo die Haut daher zu Ausschlag, Pilzinfekt und Ekzem neigt. Am Oberrand neben dem Liner ist dieser viel zu eng, dort habe ich vom starken Druck auch schon kleine Blasen gehabt.
(…)
Daher meine Bitte: - koennten Sie die Upper X Liner alternativ leicht konisch anbieten, vorne beim Pin sollte er etwas enger sein als hinten
In other words, I explained serious dermatological consequences of their liner design.
Rather obviously, I never got an answer.
Filed Under Brands, Health, Ossur, Support | Leave a Comment
Cherry computer keyboard with built-in trackpad [overuse reduction]
Posted on January 8, 2012
To reduce overuse of my (left) hand, I systematically started to introduce rules and focus of attention. Rarely is it necessary to find some other product that I can use.
Computer mice are known to pose a possible risk for overuse and carpal tunnel syndrome. So finding good mice is one thing, finding good keyboards a second thing - but putting the hosed arm to good use the best.
Filed Under Activities of Daily Living and Sports, Health, Overuse Reduction, Support, Using a Computer with Keyboard, Mice and Other Devices | Leave a Comment
Less Than Four amputee online community is a spam magnet [list]
Posted on January 2, 2012
The Less Than Four amputee online community (lessthanfour.org) appears to act as spam magnet for social networking spam. The moderators apparently could not care less. Founder is Josh Sundquist.
Many of the spammers are allowed to remain as active users and actually use that to re-spam members. I have notified the website managers repeatedly but it appears that they side with these spammers. This is a peculiar behavior and I would like to know why it is necessary, in the view of the website managers of Less Than Four, that amputees are getting spammed. Obviously that is a rhetorical question. There is no reason why that should be. And so there exist no explanations or excuses either.
I am putting the spammer messages that I got so far down below, here, so we can refer to them whenever needed at any later point in time.
Filed Under Disability and the public, Impact of visible disability on non-disabled people, Media publishing discriminating content, Support | Leave a Comment
Ask the prosthetist time is over. Ask the experienced user. The Six Questions Patients Ask Over and Over [alternative take]
Posted on January 2, 2012
The Amputee Coalition of America (ACA) certainly is a group that is alleged to actually go through as ’support’ group. I would assume they even pose, act, portray themselves as such.
The board member and directors list of the ACA also contains Pat Chelf (Otto Bock Healthcare), Jeffrey Lutz (Hanger Orthopedics), David McGill (Ossur), Leslie Pitt Schneider (Otto Bock Healthcare), Terrence P. Sheehan (Adventist Rehabilitation Hospital of Maryland) and Scott Stevens (University of Tennessee Medical Center). While the ACA website claims a majority of board representatives are amputees that clearly is not the case. it actually appears that the amputee community is seen as a business opportunity because I can tell you for free that so many industry representatives on one board are not there for fun and play. They are there to see that motions passed and decisions made are in favor of their companies.
In the view of someone like me, who looks at amputee issues as comprehensive well argued unilateral interests, there is a conflict of interest was I to regard the ACA as amputee support group.
Because given reality, an amputee support group will, among other, provide:
- means to enforce our interests against these of insurances; insurances are known to take our money in for sure (hence ‘in’-’surance’) but only pay back in selected instances, causing permanent problems for amputees;
- means to enforce our interests against these of prosthetic component manufacturers; these are rumored to manufacture crap parts they sell at dream prices;
- means to enforce our interests against the medical establishment; they may not mean harm but at times they may be ill-informed and ill-trained, not able to provide diagnosis or treatment for situations they simply do not know anything about as arm amputations are relatively rare;
- means to enforce our interests against these of prosthetic technicians; obviously, technicians make money by selling parts we could buy directly, they may lack product information and training, and they may contain relatively strange attitudes and views about disabled people;
- means to enforce our interests against these of academic researchers; academic researchers use research keywords of ‘prosthetic hand’ and ‘prosthetic arm’ or ‘rehabilitation’ but do not provide any real improvement for amputees at all - much rather, they play with useless parts to write up academic ideas about rehabilitation that have not seen reality in decades.
Quite obviously, doctors, component manufacturers and other involved people do not always mean harm. But they do infiltrate amputee support networks as part of the extended lobbying they are doing. So when a prosthetic technician writes answers to questions that concern me as well, let’s see whether we can find some alternative answers.
So, Jeff Lutz CPO took it upon himself to answer - all by himself - the following questions in an article published by the Amputee Coalition of America (link) whereas we will see some alternate answers as follows.
Filed Under Disability and the public, Prosthetics, Support | Leave a Comment
Tweaking Ossur parts to actually function - Icelock pin lock repeatedly loosening [tip]
Posted on December 28, 2011
Ossur customer service appears to have no time, Ossur Facebook censoring removes relevant request posts - so the company must do their darnedest to create the impression that their parts function and customers happy. It is indeed possible to work with Ossur parts though, despite what definitely comes across as questionable attitude and questionable engineering.
The system that I was set up with to use contains
- Ossur Upper X silicone liners, and
- Ossur Icelock pinlocks used for prosthetic arms (Icelock UX 721 and similar)
Both are problematic and yet, prices are massive.
This post is about the pinlock.
Filed Under Brands, Ossur, Pin lock, Prosthetics, Support | Leave a Comment
