Atlanta ASP.Net MVC Developer/ Architect
Technology
Reduce back and/or neck pain with a 50 cent cardboard box
Jun 14th
Virtually all software developers eventually experience neck and/or back pain. Mine gradually increased from light neck pains in 1995/6 to being unable to work one day in 2001. Doctor’s advice: “stop doing what makes it hurt”. Useful… Earlier today Martin Fowler posted “Back pain is a common issue, but everyone’s pain (and treatment) is different”. Indeed it is, but he also posted a photo that invoked a “Fingernails dragged down a blackboard” response from me. It’s a photo of programmers at work; many IMO asking for neck/back problems in later life.
Let me share the research that has kept me pain free for ten years. I am not qualified in this area, these are just the findings of a long term computer programmer (done little but code from 1981 to 2010, and hope to keep it up until The Singularity makes us obsolete) :
- Move your screen(s) up to eye level
- Every time you exercise do neck stretches
- Read a book on back pain and/ or neck pain.These cover common issues work for many people, read the many glowing reviews on Amazon
Screen at Eye Level:
This should be common sense. I work looking forward not down. Peering down compresses neck vertebrae – probably not good for extended periods of time. Commons sense says “mix-it-up if you can”, don’t sit in the same position all day. Personally I alternate between a regular sitting workstation, standing workstation, laptop on a box (or whatever’s handy at the time) and casual surfing using an iPad like a book (not looking down at a laptop). Combined with regular exercise and stretching I still spend almost all waking hours in front of a computer. Of course from time to time I become lazy, and stop stretching after running/cycling; the pain starts creeping back. Returning to regular stretching always cured it (so far, touch wood!)
Sitting workstation:
I use an ergonomic Zody Chair using vesa arm mounts. Yes, I have hauled these to client sites. We just moved house and I don’t have a photo handy
Standing Workstation:
These can be cobbled together very cheaply. Skip those expensive stand/sit combo workstations and build another work area in your home office. The following photo shows a $100 Ikea kit. Notice the two mice? I used to have pain in my mouse button fingers. Learning to use a mouse left handed and swapping between them cured that too. Props to Paul Swan for the mouse tip – he’s a total Genius from my undergrad CompSci degree, now working on the Windows Server team.
Laptop on a box:
The title of this post. Being in my late thirties peers are starting get aches and pains. Many on Facebook complain of sore necks from laptops. If you listen to only one piece of my advice, Put Your Laptop on a Raised Surface when using it. Oh, and and wear sunscreen 
Notice I use a real keyboard and wireless mouse than can be used in either hand – these cost peanuts compared to a Doctor’s visit. This is a great setup for short term client engagements – they always have something to stand a laptop on.
Can a $10 Book from Amazon really help?
The books I purchased in 2001 were an incredible help. I am not suggesting these as an alternative to a Doctor’s advice, just worth considering if your Doctor has been of no help.
Hopefully this posts allows some to extend their coding careers. Please take this advice as just that, general common sense advice.
Bye-bye Mac OS X, hello Win7
May 26th
Over the last eighteen months many shiny toys appeared in our household:
. MacBook Pro 13″
. 2x Mac Mini
. 2x iPod Touch
. 2x iPad
Using DOS and Windows since the mid 80′s it was time for a change. Vista was never reliable on any of the three machines I tried, Microsoft fanboys were killing creditability in the user group scene – heck it got to the point where saying ‘Google’ was not permitted. It would immediately be corrected to ‘Bing’, sometimes by a chorus of fanboys! This anti-Google sentiment has to stop. Fanboys may go “Rah-Rah, Bing-Bing-Bing”, but how many of them command respect from peers? Many competent people stopped attending Microsoft events.
So how did OS X work out? Well it’s certainly a good operating system, does most things I need but obviously is not going to run Visual Studio anytime soon. Lack of open source software was a major gripe; 7Zip, KDiif3 and many other great open source projects just don’t exist for the Mac.
Snow Leopard was a total flop, costing me hours in lost time as it broke our HTPC which was running Hulu and XBMC. Initially Mac fanboys jumped all over me for criticizing it the day after it was released, but over time the general consensus is that Apple needs public beta testing before releasing an OS upgrade. A few service releases later Snow Leopord works fine but lacks the snappiness of Win7.
Apple hardware is fantastic. Developing on a MacMini is heaven thanks to virtual silence. The tiny form factor helps reconfigure workstations, keep a clearer desk etc. Using a MacMini as a HTPC is a little expensive but totally worth it, low power means low heat and they’ll happily live in a cupboard. New Minis also support two digital monitors, IR remote, bluetooth, latest WiFi, GigaBit internet and have a stack of USB ports. The 13″ MacBook Pro cost $1200, plus the cost of after market 4GB RAM and an Intel SSD. With the SSD and Win7 it’s plenty fast even for a demanding developer. The quality keyboard and touches like back-lit keys, multi-touch trackpad etc make it easily worth the extra cash. Oh and using OS X battery life is nine hours for the latest model – I see over five hours with WiFi and Bluetooth on a 2009 model.
So why the move to Win7? “It just works” scream most Mac users when you ask them “Why a Mac”. True for basic users, but not people like us. Hours can be wasted with simple tasks like trying to format a non Apple external hard-disk. This where the experience breaks down. Problem with Windows are generally solved with a quick Google search. Certainly not the case for OS X, with the hard disk users were berated online for not buying a Apple branded hard disk. I have Bluetooth problems with a Microsoft mouse and have never been able to resolve it other than rebooting. Do you use two monitors? Fine, that works… oh you have one in portrait mode (like I do)? Ain’t gunna happen in OS X yet sorry. HTPC? What you did not buy an Apple TV unit? The Mac Mini work well as a HTPC but does not support font scaling like Win7. I found a hack which works in some cases not other. Of course almost those cool HTPC open source tools don’t exist for the Mac, ironically XBMC is one that does and it’s almost as stable as for Windows.
Conclusion:
Hopefully this posts helps you consider if OS X is for you. It’s a good OS, but Win7 is so much better in so many ways. If you want something that “just works” for simple tasks I highly recommend an iPad. That device is so simple I bought another for my Parents. They grasped it quickly and are having few problems. Also the design of the iPad apps means it’ll be very hard for bad guys to devise a virus for them. Macs don’t get PC viruses they get Mac viruses, I would wager the iPad will be virtually virus free.
Atlanta User Groups I recommend
Feb 2nd
A friend just asked me what .Net groups are good these days. Atlanta is the Software Capital of the South which means we have many great groups in town and I watch them all for interesting topics, but these are the three I personally attend most often:
http://www.meetup.com/AtlAltDotNet/ this is great for new ideas and decent technical depth. It is a fairly new group still finding its feet
http://www.iasahome.org/web/atlanta Atlanta’s IASA chapter – always has super-smart people in attendance. Most meetings end up being a discussion (or argument!) with few punches pulled. The best part? BS artists are shot down very quickly and most never come back
http://www.atldotnet.org this is the ‘main’ .Net User Group in town and excellent at delivering high level introductions to topics. Networking is very good here too as local MVPs etc are at most meetings
Other .Net focused groups are http://www.atlantamspros.com and http://ggmug.com. A good attempt to list all relevant groups is http://www.devcow.com/usergroups but I don’t believe it is currently maintained.
Hopefully that helps a few people looking to learn more and network