Upgrades, remedies and a diagnosis

Last Updated on September 30, 2010 by Dave Farquhar

(originally from 5/21/00)
Upgrade Central. I got a steal of a deal on a pair of Antec 300W power supplies, so I did the power supply shuffle this weekend. While I was at it, I also threw in bunches of memory while I had the systems open. My dual 366 runs a lot better now with 320 MB of RAM in it. Never skimp on RAM, especially on dual-CPU systems.

I can’t resist. Microsoft Remedies. Someone sent in some complaints about Outlook, viruses and scripting, which I’d love to post but it takes a lot of effort to do that right now. Suffice it to say, Gary, I think you’re right, but I don’t think Microsoft gives a rip about anything but driving competition, real or imagined, out of business using any means possible. Security and quality be damned. (Notice they’re not exactly falling all over themselves to remedy the performance problems Internet Explorer causes, even though it wouldn’t be terribly difficult to do.)

So, proposed remedies… Put Mehdi Ali and Irving Gould in charge. Who? They’re two guys who knew how to chase short-term profits without stifling innovation. You’re still asking who? Ask any Amiga fan who they are, then duck.

And it’s almost official. I’ve been diagnosed (at least, I have a preliminary diagnosis) with the dreaded carpal tunnel syndrome. I don’t know if it’s a matter of psychology, having been hit too many places with reflex hammers, or the Vitamin B6 shocking my system, but whatever it was, I was a mess Saturday.

Expect updates to be brief and less frequent than before for a while. I’ll do my best to answer my mail, but I’m still trying to devise a plan. (I do feel a bit better today, at least I’m using my shift key, unlike yesterday.) And I wrote this much with the two-finger method, rather than touch-typing–I’m a very fast touch-typist when healthy.

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4 thoughts on “Upgrades, remedies and a diagnosis

  • May 25, 2002 at 10:06 am
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    Do you keep your wrists on the table while you type? I’ve been typing for 27 years and learned on an old Olivetti typewriter (pre-electric). You had to keep the wrists up just to hit a key with enough effort to make it work. I’ve nevered suffered from CTS, but have observed that the people I know who do have CTS are “lazy” typers.

  • May 25, 2002 at 10:27 am
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    Yes, that does affect it. I learned on an Olympia manual in 1989 (my high school was behind the times). That’s why a wrist support is important.

    I also recommend that anyone who does a lot of typing take a Vitamin B6 supplement every day. (One doctor told me at least 100 mg a day; another doctor told me more than 250 mg a day is bad, so I take 100 mg if my wrists feel fine; I took 200 mg when they hurt.) That’s what brought me back from oblivion. Add a gram of flax seed oil or fish oil, and the body has what it needs to repair the nerves.

  • September 17, 2002 at 7:33 am
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    I am looking for information regarding the highest speed CPU that I can put in my eMachine 433i (matherboard-part MBEM508FLOTG from pricecheck.com)

  • September 17, 2002 at 10:07 am
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    If I had to venture a guess, probably a 533 MHz Celeron (the old P2-based Celeron, not the P3-based “flip-chip” Celerons), but I’m not familiar with that board.

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