driesb@neabbs.UUCP (DRIES BESSELS) (05/14/89)
Today, doctors in Holland admitted the seventh person into hospital, sort of jokingly admitting that this person was suffering from a severe case of what they call "Mackintoshitish". THis is a rare muscle deficiency, caused by repeatedly pressing the buttons on a computer mouse, a piece of machinery, designed to replace the keyboard. These doctors warn very strongly against the use of this so-called mouse since it strongly detoriates the upper hand muscles and seems to reflect on ALL the muscles in the hand used to operate this device. Quote from a concerned doctor: "If you are using a computer now and intend to use it longer, please revert to the keyboard since that is much safer" best regards Dries
gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu (05/17/89)
Re: Macintosh-itis (mousing wrist/hand disorder)
This sounds like a lot of bunk to me. Several national magazines
recently carried articles on "Computeritis", medical problems caused
by computers. All the people involved WERE USING MAINFRAME
WORKSTATIONS (e.g. the keyboards of the LA times computer system).
They discussed carpal(sp?) tunnel syndrome and other icky things that
can happen to your fingers, wrists, and arms through using a VDT.
If it weren't for the macintoshes in Switzerland, by now 75 people
would have been admitted to the hospital for keyboard overuse
syndrome! 8-)
Don Gillies, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Illinois
1304 W. Springfield, Urbana, Ill 61801
ARPA: gillies@cs.uiuc.edu UUCP: {uunet,harvard}!uiucdcs!gillies