I am just back to Delhi after visiting my home town Muzaffarpur in Bihar, where my brother Pankaj gifted me a set of Microsoft Keyboard and Optical Mouse. The casing of the desktop set impressed me a lot and today, when I connected the new hardware to my PC, I was thrilled. As I write this post, I’m excited to use the new keyboard as if it’s a piano. It’s a great gift. My fingers are doing magic; running and dancing like a lady upon a white horse. Its music. Oh!

It has been over 20 years since I am using computers; and I promise I never had such a wonderful experience with a keyboard. I must also share with you as to what impressed me most after opening the hardware pack – It’s a ‘Health Warning’, tagged to the wire. It also had a reminder: ‘Do Not Remove This Tag’. Wow! What an honest warning (read information)!! I am inclined to share the warning with you –

“Use of a keyboard or mouse may be linked to serious injuries or disorders.

When using a computer, as with many activities, you may experience occasional discomfort in your hands, arms, shoulders, neck, or other parts of your body. However, if you experience symptoms such as persistent or recurring discomfort, pain, throbbing, aching, tingling, numbness, burning sensation, or stiffness, DO NOT IGNORE THESE WARNING SIGNS. PROMPTLY SEE A QUALIFIED HEALTH PROFESSIONAL, even if symptoms occur when you are not working at your computer. Symptoms like these can be associated with painful and sometimes permanently disabling injuries or disorders of the nerves, muscles, tendons, or other parts of the body. These musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) include carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, tenosynovitis, and other conditions.

While researchers are not yet able to answer many questions about MSDs, there is general agreement that many factors may be linked to their occurrence, including: overall health, stress and how one copes with it, medical and physical conditions, and how a person positions and uses his or her body during work and other activities (including use of a keyboard or mouse). The amount of time a person performs an activity may also be a factor.

Some guidelines that may help you work more comfortably with your computer and possibly reduce your risk of experiencing an MSD can be found in this “Healthy Computer Guide. You can request the CD version of this “Healthy Computing Guide” at no charge by calling 1 (800) 360-7561 (in the United States only).”

Well, at a time when even tobacco packaging warning messages are not displayed in true letter and spirit, Microsoft is indeed very conscious of the harmful effects of computer use. Are its competitors prepared to make public aware with regard to such information being extended by Microsoft?

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Copyright © 2009  Neeraj Bhushan.  All Rights Reserved.

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