Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Making Mac Monitors More ergonomically friendly

Mac screens have a few design flaws that make it problematic for individuals using the lower part of their bifocal lenses to view the screen.




  1. The stand that comes with the monitor is not height adjustable.
  2. The lower part of the screen has approximately 1.5 to 2 inches edging that makes it impossible to bring the screen down to desktop height.
  3. The process to remove the stand and replace with a VESA mount is not intuitively obvious.  The video below is a great help. 



Video by Geoff Tripoli on the procedure to install a VESA mount on one of several Mac displays - 5:24 min.

Adding a VESA compatible stand will allow the monitor to be adjusted to accommodate a wider range of individuals. Total cost for the upgrade is currently less than $150 US.

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Sitting for extended periods shortens your life - Annals of Internal Medicine


Empty bench - N. Carlson
A September 12, 2017 article in the Annals of Internal Medicine, Patterns of sedentary behavior and mortality in U.S. middle-aged and older adults: A National Cohort Study confirmed what other studies that relied on self reporting have shown.  Sitting for prolonged periods is not healthy.

Accelerometers were placed on individuals in the cohort to measure the total amount of sedentary time and the duration of each sitting period.  The number of deaths in the study participants were checked a median of four years later.  The study found that longer duration (greater than 60 to 90 minutes) of sitting sessions and a longer time spent sitting were associated with all-cause mortality.

The researchers recommended that, "physical activity guidelines should target reducing and interrupting sedentary time to reduce risk for death."  Survival rate was best for individuals who sat for less than 30 consecutive minutes.



Sitting too long can kill you - 46 seconds