Hardware That Literally Doesn't Stink? 683
gtaylor writes "You know that new computer smell? Some people (like me) get sick from it. Can Slashdot readers provide good suggestions for mice or keyboards made from ceramic, unlacquered hardwood, metal, etc, non-plastic headphones and microphones, screens like the new metal-framed cinema display from Apple, etc? (Wood is not necessarily right if it's glued or varnished.) I have a Sharp Plasmacluster air purifier that is very helpful but the fewer volatile organic chemicals released in the first place, the better. I'll also need a chair (leaning to the Herman Miller Mirra chair) and an adjustable metal/hardwood desk. High-density hard synthetics like polypropylene (a popular material at Ikea) or acrylic are also inert enough to be fine if they have no plasticizers - suggestions for a full office set-up welcome."
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
That's not the only thing (Score:3, Interesting)
If they're anything like the CDRs I buy, this guy's must be hell for him...
Furniture (Score:3, Interesting)
As for computers - try getting a second-hand mouse and keyboard (grab an IBM Model M if you can find it), as the plastic softener emissions degrease over time. For monitor, perhaps a metal-beveled LCD model could work. LCD's do have the benefit of not creating static fields in front, which tends to attract dust on to the skin (which people sometimes react to).
Re:Organic food (Score:5, Interesting)
You'd enjoy reading this [directessays.com].
More on topic though, it seems many more people today are allergic to all kinds of things than in the past, and it seems the more a society offers "hygienic", "pasteurized" or otherwise sterile food products and other products, the more kids growing up in that society get sick from over-reactivity to the things they weren't exposed in their youth.
I mean, just look at the french: they have all manners of un-pasteurized cheese and they seem to fare quite well on them, but when someone from the US and eats some of that cheese, that person usually gets a good hard case of "tourista", if you see what I mean.
That's proof that if you don't expose your body to stuff all the time, you become over-sensitive to said stuff. That's not necessarily better than letting your body learn how to deal with the stuff itself...
Re:Oh, patients... (Score:2, Interesting)
Would you happend to know a solution for that kind of problem?
Is that an allergy or a dissease?
Thanks
Re:Maybe the cat isn't the problem (Score:5, Interesting)
However when her daughter takes the cat off to college, she feels dramatically better. She says that's it the stress that her daughter gives her.
She also notices that she gets hives and a runny nose when around other cats... and she honestly thinks she might be allergic to them. Just not her cat.
Congrats with the chicken thing. Reminds me of the old joke:
"Hey, doc... I get palpations everytime I eat chicken."
"Great, don't eat chicken. Next!"
Davak
Very nice but, for the price... (Score:5, Interesting)
"It takes about 15 working hours to finish a complete one solid wood keyboard, starting from a carefully chosen piece of lumber up to the polishing and testing of the final product. Because of this labour intensive and careful process, Wood Contour can only deliver a limited amount of items per year, since we want to guarantee you that the quality we deliver is the best in the world.
keyboards
Solid Wood PC Keyboard - Ash
$1,115.00
Solid Wood PC Keyboard - Beech
$1,115.00
Solid Wood PC Keyboard - Cherry
$1,115.00
Solid Wood PC Keyboard - Mahogany
$1,115.00
Solid Wood PC Keyboard - Maple
$1,115.00"
While browsing I also found this [woodcontour.net]
Stone mice and keyboard and screen...
quite expensive, with the whole set a more than 7000$... but hey, here it is!
NASA Might help (Score:5, Interesting)
So I think a starting point me be with This guy. [weblogs.com] Here also. [nasaexplores.com] I don't know if they would release any info to you about what items you may find tolerable but it might be worth a shot.
Re:Tried an Obecalp Spray? (Score:4, Interesting)
Obecalp spelled backwards is placebO.
I haven't heard that one in a while. I once had a huge list of names people and doctors used for placebos and such when they wanted to hide what they were from paitents or such (often during old clinical trials and such if I remember correctly from what the page said.)
Re:Oh, patients... (Score:4, Interesting)
There are multiple causes and each has different treatments. Many forms are actually very difficult to treat, but luckily we have several new medications that are more effective.
Here's a good place to start reading [nih.gov]
Do yourself a favor a see a good allergy or derm doc... dermatitis can be very tough on a person in multiple ways--including their social life. Getting it under control will really change your life.
Re:A thought: get over it (Score:4, Interesting)
metal plating (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Oh, patients... (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps it wasn't the cat, but the "instant meals" that the cat brought it and hid somewhere in the crawlspace or bedroom.
My parents started having this rather awful smell in their bedroom. Since the door is always kept closed (to keep the cats out), and everything is kept spotless, dusted and washed every other day, we knew it couldn't be the furniture or decorations. After a couple of days, when the smell became rather strong, we found a partially eaten dead mouse, hidden behind the wardrobe. Our cat had sneaked in, when the door had been pushed open by a strong gust of wind.
Now, we keep a look out for any "surprises". Usually this is given away, when he shoots through the cat-flap, backs himself under the table and starts making growling noises. Then someone has to negotiate the hostage release.
Re:Oh, patients... (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually it's a pretty well studied connection [nih.gov].
Re:Oh, patients... (Score:2, Interesting)
Allergies suck.
Re:Oh, patients... (Score:4, Interesting)
When I was in my senior year of high school, I one day woke up with a massive headache. That headache lasted 8 months. I kid you not, it never ever went away. Luckily it seemed to decrease throughout the day, so I did manage to get some sleep. I became almost insomniatic (sp?), usually falling asleep at 4 in the morning and waking up around 12:00 noon (but always waking up dizzy).
I had to become home schooled even though all the school counselors thought I was making it up (despite the fact that I was going to be valedictorian). I got the headache midway thru October and it wasn't until the end of December that the doctor finally figured out what I had (Cytomegalo virus & Chronic fatigue syndrome). He gave me an anti-bacterial and said I would just have to wait until the virus naturally went away.
I then became mildy depressed and lost all interest in life. I felt absolutely horrible and had no enjoyment in my life what so ever. After I found out I would not become valedictorian (around the end of May) because I was not 'putting in enough effort', I became so spiteful of life that I broke down.
I felt I had been wronged for no reason, as if God himself had punished me.
It was then I took action. I had read that some people with the same conditions as me could sleep better with white noise. I went to my garage and pulled out an old television set (the kind that don't automatically blue screen on loss of signal) and set the volume to high.
I did this for a week for about 12-14 hours a day until I cringed at the sound. My headache finally subsided to a small trivial pain and then finally went away.
To make a long story short, I then went to the prom with a great girl that I first met when I picked her up for the prom and graduated a week later. One week after graduation I found out I was top of my class. Turns out my biology teacher purposely delayed grading my work because I had not personally attended his class...
Anyways, sometimes you just have to draw the line and put up with life. If you really have a problem with new computer smells then I hope you find comfort somehow, but chances are it's a just 'mental thing'. Please, for your own sake, try to get over it. Then just take what life gives you and try to make the best of it.
Re:A thought: get over it (Score:1, Interesting)
However, MCS is a real condition and I used to suffer from it (no hypochrodria!).
I was heavily blasted with insecticide, as well as unknowingly having chronic synthetic chemical exposure, and developed mild MCS several years later.
It is very real condition, and it is horrible. I was exposed to some flyspray and my throat lost sensation. I was exposed to some food-colouring unknowingly, and I became nausious and my head felt like it had a band around it. I could go on...
So why the hypochrondriacs do exist, please don't dump of that these people all have psychological problems. It is not nice to be physically ill and have everyone mocking you like some laughing stock.
Re:Oh, patients... (Score:3, Interesting)
But, in the 7ish years since I graduated and started wotking, I have noticed that the percentage of practicing engineers lacking common sense is much lower. Not zero (or even close) but much, much lower than engineering students.
I'd even go so far as to say that even those very-highly-intelligent engineering students that happen to lack common sense do not do well in the industry.
With apologies to the perl quote that inspired it, I think the primary virtues of engineers are (in this order:) laziness, hubris, sensibility (common sense,) enthusiasm, and communication skills.
Raw wood, eh? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Oh, patients... (Score:2, Interesting)
And there's the issue - one of being comfortable around plastic - as opposed to actual VOC levels.
But be that as it may -
If it were me (and I'm reasonably sane) - and I was -that- sensitive (which is a big assumption, because like others here, I think this is just a bunch of hooey better dealt with by psychiatrists and anti-depressants and such), I'd leave the thing on, for fear that the plastic cartridges in my pens would leach VOC's into the air that would cause my hands to break out.
I'd be more worried about all those UV rays you're putting out to break down these trace chemicals than the VOC's. But then, real problems like skin cancer and premature aging would suit a hypochondriac just fine too.
But hey... hypochondriacs have money, or health insurance, or both. I say, make the case out of metal if it helps you sell them. Charge a lot - that's my advice; people like to pay. And thinking the air is clean does more for these types than actually breathing clean air. Nothing like preying on the weak and the (mentally) sick.
Suggestions (Score:2, Interesting)
As to the computer hardware, I would be most suspicious of the cables and other flexible parts. They will have more plasticizer than the rigid parts. I have had mixed success with wiping down especially stinky cables with alcohol.
Next be suspicious of parts that get hot, like the circuit boards and power supply.
I have used the strategy of buying used equipment, just make sure it wasn't previously owned by a smoker.
For new equipment, my strategy is to burn it in, i.e. buy hardware in the summer and run it constantly with the windows open.
Also be careful with laser printers. The toner can release styrene (the monomer) which can sensitize you. By heating the paper, they release noxious material from what was put in the paper on purpose as well as what the cellulose fiber absorbs during storage.
Most allergists will tell you to kill your cat. If you sincerely believe ritual sacrifice resolves health problems, consider it. If you try to boost the efficacy of this approach by using a human victim, be warned that you will probably end up in jail.
The typical allergist will run a bunch of scratch tests. When you show no reaction, they will inject the material. When there is still no reaction (but you react to histamine) and you still have severe allergy symptoms and start naming names of compounds you recognize in the air (I have two degrees in chemistry) they will tell you those are irritants, not allergens. So, the post that said they test for almost everything was highly exaggerated. They test for known allergens, especially those that are known from the time when most people lived on farms. Your "irritants" are produced by big companies who can afford to lobby your government.
There I just saved you a couple grand that you can put toward buying a good air filter.
Despite what is in a lot of the comments posted, your chemical sensitivity (or chronic fatique or fibromyalgia) is probably quite real, but don't dismiss the idea that it may be a symptom of an underlying condition. In my case, it was mitochondrial disease.
You will also find that a lot of medical personnel will tell you your problems are in your head instead of trying to help, especially if they don't get it right with the first guess.
Be warned that way too many physicians get through school by using frat files, cheating on exams, and cramming instead of trying to understand basic principles of biology and chemistry and getting good at problem solving. Hopefully you will find ones who took their education seriously before the others cause permanent harm.
Good luck!
Re:Oh, patients... (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh, I see. Sorry about that
Why don't I see many falling bridges then (Tacoma Narrows and such remarkable but isolated examples aside?) (that's 0 personally.)
I see lots of bad semiconductor designs (both processes and individual devices.) It's hard to make a chip, but in the process from specification or idea to crystallized sand wafers, a lot of smart people with common sense (i.e., they know when close enough is good enough) work on it. Each specializes on rather small parts of the design (more or fewer depending on design size and designer talent breadth, as I assume it is with bridges and roads.) So it gets done, but it fails a lot. And we re-make them (at huge cost -- lower than bridges, of course, but in the millions each.)
Bridges rarely fall. Is it because civil engineers are that good, or the building standards are perfectly tuned in the balance of cost/safety? Or material science is so advanced that it's "cheap" to build an unbreakable bridge?
Or it is because of a lack of competition?
That is, since usually only governments can afford bridges, and since the spending of government is controlled by politicians, and since more than zero percent of politicians corruptly and unfairly award contracts to their friends/benefactors (they even occasionally get caught,) then succeeding at CivE allows for a larger margin in price (cost of implementation) than semiconductors because you can charge more when your comany knows it will get the job? I'm not saying that's the case -- I'm asking.
I think you can see this isn't a troll or attempt to bait flames -- I'm really curious.
Re:keyboards (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Never underestimate psycho-somatic effects. (Score:3, Interesting)
Now you'll hear from a better source:
I have AD/HD. If I try to read a book I'm not into, whether I have to, want to, or both, I'll be lucky to get through a paragraph with my train of thought intact. Or sitting in the same place I was when I started. But if I read a book I'm into, I might take a break to eat something after six hours. If I try to do anything else, I'll be thinking about that.
It's not just reading, of course, but that tends to really emphasize the effect. ADD is poorly named, not an attention deficit but control disorder.
So your litmus test might be vaguely applicable, if you ask: what games did they play? How many? How frequently did they switch? How familiar were they? In each game, how did they play? How persistent were they with frustrating/boring parts? How do all these factors change from time to time over a period of months and years?
Of course, it's no longer a litmus test. But then, no accurate litmus test for AD/HD is known, not that people aren't looking. That "psychological" testing can be very accurate, but can be also not, breeds the sort of skepticism your story connotes, and that causes all sorts of problems for those of us that, believe it or not, really do have it.
That AD/HD is overdiagnosed should not detract from the fact that it is simultaneously underdiagnosed.
Re:Maybe the cat isn't the problem (Score:3, Interesting)
Then, about the first time he came round to my house, he sat down on the sofa *exactly* where my cat likes to sit. "Oh aye", you could see the big, fat, friendly but rather bad-tempered cat think, "Can't have this, I want my seat back!" and promptly launched himself at my mate from the top of one of the bookshelves. And wouldn't leave the guy alone. Hey, and guess what? No allergy, and no allergy to other cats.
Re:Oh, patients... (Score:2, Interesting)
Wa la!
pet PEAVE!
COULD care less!
One foul swoop!
web sight!
totally wrapped about something!
early adapters!
and I could go on much longer. Where does all this begin, MTV?
Is this real ? (Score:2, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)