How I beat wrist pain

Back around 2000 I got a copy of Starcraft and began playing it quite heavily, not very well, now that I come to think of it since I only finished the first scenario, but in prolonged sessions nonetheless. This is when I began to notice numbness on my wrist and hand during and after play, which began to grow as time went by. I won't go into the gory details of how much this distressed me since that's over and you're not really interested in that. Fixing my problem took me many years and trips to many blind alleys. Following is what helped me and what didn't. First, though, the usual disclaimer that you should not take the following as medical advice and if you are in need, you should consult your specialist.

What didn't help me:

• Switching doctors and anti-inflammatory drugs
• too much is likely to become deleterious

• Switching hands
• worked for a while, but then both hands began to hurt

• Splints
• I found that these only add to the pressure and after a couple of weeks they get grimy

• the 3M vertical mouse
• good concept though

• the P5 glove
• this one worked almost well, but before long my arm tired of holding it up and moving it around

What did help me:

• Voice-recognition
• granted is slow and a bit expensive but now I can go hours on end

• a touchpad
• I noticed that I could hold pain at bay much longer while using one of these. I got one that plugs into a USB port for alternative input (easycat from adesso)

• Macros (I reviewed Quickmacros a couple of weeks ago)
• crushed repetitive tasks

• scheduling tasks
• following a schedule and sticking to it reduced the chances of overdoing anything

• foregoing games
• this was the toughest one. After some years I did play Doom3, but only just one hour on weekends. Took me a year to finish it . Nowadays I could play regularly, but just choose not to

What I didn't get to try:

• The smartnav hardware which tracks head movements
• I may yet get one of these, but I suspect that I would get the sore neck from using it

• Other stuff from enablemart.com
• this may be the place to go for your assistive technology requirements. Has lots stuff, tried none of them except the voice-recognition. Many of the offerings here feel very expensive, but one of those may be just the solution for someone with a special problem

What could help:

The John Sarno and Fred Amir books that I'll  mention in an upcoming post on overercoming back pain. Any of these two could be your permanent cure.

Silman's Complete Endgame Course review: Endgames 1

This is just an opinion, but I think I'm not too far off: chess endings are the most difficult phase of the game. Paraphrasing from the back cover of Polgar's Chess Endgames: "'Fewer pieces, fewer problems' Endgames are proof that this is not the case". Minefields abound, proper tempo calculation is needed, apparently few players bother. This is an opportunity! If one could master, or at least get hold of the ropes, one could confidently, safely anchored in theory, steer the game to an endgame and just watch the opponent flounder and sink.

There is yet another obstacle to be surmounted. To use the theory, one must learn it first and many of the books and software out there are beyond even reasonably rated players. I think I have found the book that can get us over the hump.

Silman's Complete Endgame Course is one of the most popular endgame books nowadays and with reason. Mr. Silman is a US player, coach and an International Master. Also, he has a clear and very agreeable writing style. His Understanding Chess  column in Chess Life was one of my favorites back in the 90s. His endgame course book is very unlike others in the field. Instead of starting with pawn endgames and then moving on to minor and major pieces endgames, he rather organizes his material according to player's strength. This is the key of this book. You only have to read when it's appropriate for your level and then move on as your strength increases. Why is this important? First, as said, endgames are very tricky. Starting off at pawn endgames, which are the trickiest of all, can demoralize the reader and even if he somewhat manages to go through the material, it is unlikely to help him much if his strength is not on par with what he just read. Second, lower rated players are the least likely to survive into an endgame. They will probably blast or get blasted in the opening or middlegame, and so need the least amount of knowledge. Better start modestly: If one perseveres, one can learn a little more, and then a little more; all according to what one may need most at any given time.

Chess is meant to be fun, and it is no fun when you have to go through reams of variations which do not relate to you. That's another aspect of this book. Only what is relevant is given. Other manuals and books seem to be easily waylaid by beautiful variations or artistic concepts, which ultimately have little practical value. All these are nixed here. The concept is explained and the main line plus two or three relevant variations are given; not more. So, at the end (wink) what must be remembered is very compact.

At the conclusion of each rating section there is a chapter summary and some problems for the reader to solve and check his grasp on the concepts. The last two sections do not have problems and are somewhat different than the rest. The first one is geared to master level players and explains some useful strategic ideas rather than concrete configurations. The other one gives chess endgames to enjoy from the greatest endgame players according to the author and some funny tactics & situations. An always useful further reading section is also included at the very last.

Having read the whole book, I can say that it really encourages progress. I find it hard to find anything wrong with it. The book size is a minor problem. Two or three positions are scarier than what the author reveals (these are #279, 287 and 291). Does the course  really work? Effort and time wise I would say it really does. You just skip all other alternatives and get directly to the juicy parts. Performance wise, in my experience, I have better results now, but still feel I need refreshers, either by rechecking the material or looking for more exercises elsewhere, but my guess is that this would also be true for other books.

Best endgame instruction I've seen so far


The Table of Contents can be found here

Microsoft OneNote: Core Programs 2

If you have been a Microsoft Office user over the last decade, you might have noticed a small purple colored program creeping in over time. It might have started, with just a menu item, then an icon in the taskbar. As of now it is still gaining ground on the cloud nearing par with the better-known applications  Word and Excel. This program is OneNote.

OneNote is a notetaking application. You can think of it as a digital notebook. Remember the ones you used at school back in the day? Word already lets you input text and organize your notes, so what's the need for another such program? The beauty of OneNote is that it lets you input text anywhere on the 'paper'. You are not limited to guidelines, paragraphs or even paper size. This is a boon, because it lets you convey your creative ideas just as you want them, and just as you would using pen and paper. And that is just half of it. The other half is that when you have those notes you care about in the program, you can easily search through them with just a keystroke, or mouseclick. Oh, and it is not just text. You can also insert pictures, videos, sounds, math formulas and doodle around. If you are blessed with a handwriting that the computer likes, it can even digitize it into searchable text.

Once I began to dig deeper into it, I began to pass all my notes to it. Even if I use pen and paper initially, if I really want to keep what I have written, I promptly transcribe it to OneNote. And there is another benefit: your notes are always neat. Rearranging and deleting do not result in smudges and unsightly pages as would in physical paper.

And still more: Access. With the current shift to cloud computing, you're not condemned to have your notes locked up in your desktop's hard drive. Via Microsoft's free SkyDrive service you can save your notes to the cloud and make them available to your other various devices, such as tablets and smartphones. Doing so also lets you have multiple people work on the same notes simultaneously. A great way to collaborate. Synchronization is automatic.

So far I have only tried the iPad app on the mobile front. This one still has a long way to go, but you can edit and read your notes, even if they are displayed not quite right. Doodles and ink notes are not supported as of now and tables can only be viewed but not edited. Also, it can sometimes be slow regardless of your Internet connection speed. Too much processing going on I guess. If your device has a full-fledged browser, you can log on to your SkyDrive account and have more functionality there.

The only other downsides to OneNote as a whole that I have come across, is that there is no search-and-replace feature and that synchronization can sometimes have conflicts. For me, these are minor complaints.

Evernote

There are a fair amount of alternatives to OneNote. One of the best-known is Evernote. Its main virtue is its ubiquitousness: you can get it for about any platform out there, which lets you easily consolidate what you jot down on the go with everything else. You can also include audio, photos, which are text searchable, and videos. Having said that, it only has limited functionality and doesn't compare with a full-fledged features in OneNote. There are free and paid versions of this one. Gave it a few tries, didn't like it.

Zoho Notebook

I have not tried this one, but it looks very interesting. Almost as a clone of OneNote!  If you hate mainstream programs, check out this one. Free for personal use.

Quick Macros Review: Core Programs 1

For us, computer users, there is a group of four or five core programs that are so useful that figuratively we cannot live without. Each of us has different preferences and needs which  reflect in what we use. The rise of mobile devices and applications has shifted the focus towards smartphones and tablets, but there are still some persons, like me, that prefer the larger screens and more computing power; that is why my core programs are still run on a PC. I thought to review them for anyone out there who is listening, because these might prove useful to them too. I'll start in this post with my macro program.

I'm a man of routine. No, I don't mean that I'm boring, but that I lean towards a more ordered life. Part of that is trying to eliminate wasted time. Doing the same things over and over again can take big chunks of your life. Now, that's boring. Even with computers, most people still have to fire up the machine, open the browser, open the several favorite webpages one reads daily, navigate within those, write several mails with perhaps identical headings if the job requires it, and once in a while process a large number of items, such as files or filenames, cell contents in Excel, or the like. Wouldn't it be wonderful if one could achieve this and more with just the press of a button and more efficiently to boot? Well, this is what a macro program can do for you.

My favorite macro program from the start, bar none, is Quick Macros. Quick Macros is developed by Gintaras Didzgalvis and as of this writing is in version 2.3.3.7. I first began to use it back in version 1. It is lightweight yet powerful. For my purposes I only use a sliver of its potential, yet, I doubt that anyone who gets deep into it will be disappointed. It is accessible, requiring from you just some basic programming concepts.

Writing a macro script is fast. You can write something useful within a minute or something more elaborate if the task requires it. The language is clear and intuitive. The code itself is color-coded for easy navigation. For those less inclined to programming, there is a handy integrated recorder that lets you record the precise mouse movements and keystrokes you wish to replicate in the future. With  just that you are good to go. There are several triggers for launching a macro. You can trigger one with a keystroke, mouse click or movement, window event, and even by time. The macro runs until it finishes, gets stuck, or if you decide to end it prematurely by pressing the pause key.

If the need arises, you can export/import the macro files or even make a .exe file to run on another computer that doesn't have quick macros.

The documentation is a bit abstruse, but by looking at the examples one can figure out what each function does most of the time. There is a forum at its homepage with active participation of Gintaras. Answers to most questions can be found there, which sometimes take the form of "how can I…?".

Probably the biggest caveat is that you cannot run two macros simultaneously. Yet, most of the time one can think of a workaround. Also, do not assume that the macros work instantaneously. They do take their time following the script you give them, which can take a while for longer ones. This is normal and still a much better deal than doing the tasks by hand. If I remember rightly, it takes a 10th of a second to pass from instruction to instruction; what takes a longer while is waiting for events to happen, such as waiting for a window to be created.

So far I have used it to launch Internet radio at a certain time, install media players and other programs quickly, resize several windows to a preferred layout, automate futures order entry, play chess with just my voice (more on that on a future post), fill in databases easier, kill pop-up windows, and even edit other macro codes within the same QM screen.

The most obvious alternative is Autohotkey which is free. I tried it a couple of times, but I found the learning curve much much too steep and the flow of writing and launching more difficult. Nonetheless, it also has great capabilities. AHK once could pull off something that I just couldn't  get QM to perform.



Screenshot



This is paid software ($40), but you can try it out free for 30 days. If you're in need of something of this sort, it is well worth it.

www.quickmacros.com/

Cherry Tea

During my childhood, my family had a cherry tree in the garden and I liked it  much. These are  also very popular over at Japan. They believe them very beautiful and frankly, they are. When they bloom, they are a sight like no other.  The pink petals, which are soft and delicate, blow with the wind in spring.

It may come to a surprise that these petals can be collected and added to foodstuffs such as pastries. Accordingly, it is not a too much of a stretch to have them in your tea. Tokyo Printemps (the name will surely vary from merchant to merchant) is a cherry flavored Japanese green tea sencha. I gave it a try after giving it a sniff at my local provider. The green leaves are mostly whole and so are the  dried petals.  Most of the flavoring appears to come from added essential oils. The aroma, unsurprisingly, is cherry like; but when I open the packet at home it gives me an unusual sensation: I feel as if I'm unwrapping a present from a loving daughter. True! 

For a pot you need about the usual quantity of leaf. The taste is also like cherries, but not so much like the fruit itself. The grassiness of the green tea is subdued or almost entirely cloaked. Care must be taken to not oversteep it as the flavor can get overly intense resulting in what I would call cherry sting.

I believe this would make a very good tea for a morning tea party.

The downside, at least for me, is my own palate which has been accustomed to years of artificial cherry flavoring in medicines and the like. When I drink it, I am sometimes reminded of those; and medicine is not something you want to be reminded of when drinking your pleasant tea. The case is also similar to that of the Soleil Levant from Hediard, which instead of tasting like oranges, tastes like children's medicine. I know, I know: it is the medicine that tastes like oranges, not the other way around. With the Printemps, you can avoid this by not steeping it too much. Oh, there is also the lesser a complaint  in that it is not fit for re-steeping.

If you're a cherry fan or at least have a passable interest, do ask for this tea, but if you're like me you might probably want to pass on this one and just watch the flowers.

Bible Quartet

Even if you're not a religious person you should really read the Bible. It is arguably the most important book out there and is very likely the best book ever, even if you don't believe a word of it. It has everything:  history and myth,  uptightness  and eroticism, rules to live by and habits best to avoid, genocidal super villains and divinely infused superheroes, acts of mercy and despicable crimes,  tragedy and unintended comedy, miraculous births and the walking dead, psychology, espionage, deus ex machinae, poetry, a possible UFO abduction, and blood and guts galore. What other book can give you so much?

We, modern readers, have a bit of a problem reading it nonetheless, because we cannot directly relate with the names and places and many of the characters that are in there; Nebuchadnezzar could easily be the name of an evil character in a science fiction novel. Also, the prose is not like what we used to nowadays. So, there's  somewhat of a hurdle to be overcome and thus we need a bit of help and patience to get going.

What I will call loosely the Bible Quartet could be your ticket and I review it here.

The Good Book

The Good Book by David Plotz is the account of Mr. Plotz's first encounter with the Bible. He is of Jewish background and had been acquainted with the Bible before but only in passing. He tells us all the unexpected things one can find when one really commits himself to read the Bible from cover to cover for the first time and without no extra layer of material or interpretation. The result is a very enjoyable book which puts forth many of the apparent inconsistencies and funniness that's in there. For those who have not read the actual holy texts, the good book can work has to crash course on the contents of the Bible. Around the middle he takes a break and goes archaeological digging at Israel and he shares us that as well. He stops his reading at the end of the Old Testament, but that's not the end of his book. He finishes by giving us reasons why we should read the Bible and with what we really want to know: what impact it had on him. He delivers by describing the changes in him  both intellectually and spiritually. As an added bonus, we have an appendix with the best (and worst) parts of the Bible in list form. Thoroughly recommended but seriously consider a second reading of the Bible, this time with  with interpretation, for you might be missing out by staying just with the anecdotal.

Five stars

The Year of Living Biblically by AJ Jacobs.

Mr. Jacobs is also secular Jew. He began to suspect that he might be missing on something by not being as religious as he could be, so he set up a challenge for himself.   What he attempted and achieved in this book is to live by the Bible for a year. The challenge was to be the "ultimate fundamentalist" following all the rules he could find simultaneously: no picking and choosing allowed. Early on, he takes a very wise decision in consulting experts on difficult or ambiguous rules. This gives us insight about how some of the difficult portions have been resolved for practical life. Also to his credit, Mr. Jacobs sticks to his commitment no matter how difficult or awkward it is for him at times. As with his other books, his wife gives him plenty of support, challenge and humor. Like Plotz, Mr. Jacobs gives us his insights at the end of the book, but these are less satisfying as he is more sparse. This may be because throughout the book he gives his feelings and experiences in real time, which leaves not much for later reflection. This is the book that finally pushed me to read Bible in its entirety. Also highly recommended.

Four stars

The Year of Living Like Jesus by Edward G Dobson

Of the four this is the oddest in more than one aspect. In no way this is a bad thing. First off, Dobson is the only fully fledged Christian of the group, an evangelical pastor nonetheless. He was inspired by Jacobs's book and attempted to do likewise, but with a Jesus flavor. Consider for a moment what it would take to be like Jesus for a one year. Ready? I expected Dobson to take a smooth ready set road, but he surprises by taking another viewpoint and going cross-country. He starts one direction taking the outward aspects first giving us a day by day account of his occurrences very much like Jacobs, and working from there. Midway through though, his circumstances change and he adapts the project. On the second half, he draws more from his previous experiences and preaching  giving us real life examples and how they relate to Jesus's teachings while providing his own take on trying to follow Him. As with the others, he goes beyond his comfort zone and commendably tries out new aspects of living his faith. Like the others too, he's very honest about giving us his failures. His stories and experiences makes this book worth more than one reading.

Three stars

The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose

In Roose's case, he was a liberal atheist to begin with. He was associated with Mr. Jacobs and decided to take on a challenge to his own. He attempted to take a semester on Liberty University, "America's holiest University", passing himself as one of the flock. From start to finish, this poses a quandary as he longs to disclose himself to the fine people he meets, studies and lives with, but cannot do so without ruining his project. To allay suspicion he joins in as many activities as possible and live the fullest Liberty experience as he can. The result for us, is that we get to know the ordinary life of a Liberty student without having to enroll. Towards the end of the semester circumstances turn serious as he unintendedly becomes a focus of attention in one, if not the most, important event of Liberty's history. This book is more internally reflexive than the other three as the author wrests with conflicting emotions. As I see it, this is because in the other three cases, the projects are mostly in the open. In this one, he has no one on site to fully share, except us. If you have more than a passing interest in Liberty, The Unlikely Disciple is the book for you.

Three stars

Other recommended books:

• Asimov's guide to the Bible
• The Antiquities of the Jews by Josephus (available also on Librivox)

De-essing part 2: Get a hardware de-esser

Conceptually this is not a good solution but it might be worthwhile. What about buying an actual hardware de-esser and plugging it between the source and the output? As far as I have seen, there is no reason for this not to work. Take for instance the DBX 263x de-esser. I have not tested this, but as I see it, you could purchase a pair of these (one for each channel) and plug the output from the pre out jack on your amplifier and sending back the signal from the de-esser to the amplifier through the main in jack. Of course, you would need to have an amplifier that has such jacks or similar. The setup stays analog all throughout. The DBX has no on/off switch but consumes very little wattage and if you're lucky you might get a pair of these at eBay under $100. The biggest downside to them is that they might look out of place on your system as they are unattractive in appearance.

More on de-essing:

De-essing part1: Easier cartridge alignment

De-essing part3: at440mla review

De-essing part4: Laser turntable

De-essing part5: Software