Work – Pleasure Mix – Tired Eyes, Head & Neck – working on your PC

Anyone today working in an office can spend the entire day on the computer working – Sitting and staring at your screen or screens.  Many in today’s world work through lunch, coming in earlier and working late.  All this time in front of your computer can be very bad for your health, your eyes and your body.

I am sure you have heard and most likely have tried the 20 or 30 minute break, look around, stand up and move around, but how many of us really do that – not many.

Well I came across a great little program that you can get from Portable APPs – these are those applications that you can launch from a USB key so you can run these programs on your work machine, home machine – set them up and have the program follow you.  I have gone one step further and have loaded up the loader and programs on my DROPBOX account so I can get to them anywhere, anytime.  I don’t have to worry about a USB key.

You set up the times for a quick break, a coffee break and it pops up with warnings and exercises to do when your taking your short break.  I think it is GREAT!  I loaded up today and have really tried hard to follow it, I have made a few changes to the timing to make it work with my work flow and I will continue to use it at work.

Workrave is a program that assists in the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). The program frequently alerts you to take micro-pauses, rest breaks and restricts you to your daily limit. Please refer to the feature comparison for a complete list of features, and how the program performs with respect to other programs on the market. The program runs on GNU/Linux and Microsoft Windows.

Welcome to Workrave

Getting Organized – Kids need help – some Adults as well!

I think today more than any other time, being able to organize is a key life skill that we all have to MASTER! 

Technology has given us some great advancements and I improved a lives in certain ways.  The same technology that has improved our lives has also given us an always on life style – there is very little down time and way too much information for anyone to manage.

There are books and seminars that you as an adult can attend or read, but what about our kids.  How are we going to help them master this very difficult process.  For some it can be really easy, but I think for most it is something that has to be learned and our kids need our help.

Ten Ways to Help Your Child Get Organized

by Coordinated Campaign for Learning Disabilities

Developing good organizational skills is a key ingredient for success in school and in life. Although some people are by nature more organized than others, anyone can put routines and systems in place to help a child “get it together.” The Coordinated Campaign for Learning Disabilities has compiled a list of strategies that you can use to help your child get — and keep — her life under control.

1. Use checklists.
Help your child get into the habit of keeping a “to-do” list. Use checklists to post assignments, household chores, and reminders about what materials to bring to class. Your child should keep a small pad or notebook dedicated to listing homework assignments. Crossing completed items off the list will give him a sense of accomplishment.

Read more on FamilyEducation

Microsoft “Collective Defense” – Joining forces to fight Internet Attacks

Being National Cyber Security Awareness month there are lots of news flying around.  Microsoft had a few things to say about the subject. 

We can increase collective computer security by taking cues from the healthcare industry, argues Scott Charney, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Trustworthy Computing. Charney outlined this position in a recently published paper entitled Collective Defense: Applying Public Health Models to the Internet

In a post on the Microsoft On the Issues blog, Charney writes, “Just as when an individual who is not vaccinated puts others’ health at risk, computers that are not protected or have been compromised with a bot put others at risk and pose a greater threat to society.” Charney says that Microsoft will provide and promote research and development to follow the public health model in computer security while still supporting user control and privacy.

Download the Paper

The only item that people will have issue with is the overhead to get it done.  Key will be how this is implemented and how itself can be protected from abuse.   People might also have issue with ISP controlling this as their track record with a lot of consumers is not the best.

As this issue gets bigger something like the idea above really does have to come into play.  With Smart phones and items like the Ipad more and more people who have never been on the internet are using it.  These people just don’t understand what they should and shouldn’t do on a daily basis.