Best E-Reader for bed-bound arthritis sufferer?

[Chi Cygni]

Originally Posted by Beryll Snyder

And I am wondering what the persion in question wants.
Meanwhile we have more than 200 posts - deliberating every possible and impossible angle what the person might need.

Looks to me she doesn't want anything. And if I'm not mistaken we're discussing what may work for her. Anyway...

[Joykins]

Originally Posted by Shopaholic

My hubby's cousin just killed her laptop by not turning it off. She fried the motherboard by overheating it. I don't think she had the thing for a year & she killed it.

Computers should be set up to go into an energy saving sleep mode after a certain amount of inactivity. Also, sometimes laptop heat sinks get dirty and this may cause a laptop to overheat. My brother got rid of the overheating problem on his wife's laptop by cleaning it (there are risks to doing that, because you take the laptop apart).

I had/have to keep my work one on because of shared drives that people may have hit overnight.

[speakingtohe]

That is scary. They shouldn't generate that much heat when they are sitting there unused.

At one time (70's) it was often considered bad to turn computer off as more damage could be done by power supply spikes.

Helen

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Carnyx

Good point - it's not absolutely necessary to shut down. I used to do the same at work, sometimes for weeks, much to the lament of my old bosses and colleagues. Still I somehow always *magically* remember to shut the PC down at home - maybe something to do with the electricity bill!?
Seriosusly though, if I were setting up a PC for a new user I would encourage them to shut it down when not in use(for more than say 1 hour) for a few reasons: money, noise, safety, viruses/bots, dust sucked in by fans. Plus from my experience, the longer a PCs left on the stranger it will act.
Here's some more about it:
http://www.helium.com/items/641838-w...n-the-computer
Thanks,
David.

The problem in this case is can she turn on the computer? If she can, I'd go for sleep mode after say an hour of non-use.

[Carnyx]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The problem in this case is can she turn on the computer? If she can, I'd go for sleep mode after say an hour of non-use.

If it were a tablet on a remote controlled stand then possibly. If it were anything else, then probably not unless some clever voice control could be rigged to power on/off.
Anyway, you've got to walk before you can run and we're just going to look at an E-Reader to begin with. If she is able to interact well with an E-Reader then we *may* look at a tablet later down the line. That's a lot of ifs though.
Thanks,
David.

[elemenoP]

I have to admit, I have been following this thread like a serialized novel. May I ask a question? David, what is your relationship with the woman in question? I'm just curious!

eP

[Carnyx]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

I have to admit, I have been following this thread like a serialized novel. May I ask a question? David, what is your relationship with the woman in question? I'm just curious!

eP

Thanks for the reply elemenoP.
Wow - must make for a hell of a boring novel!
OK - my mother used to work with the lady many years ago until she took ill and had to stop work. She's always sent us kids birthday cards and mum always used to take us to see her on Christmas Eve when I was a kid. That eventually stopped at some point, all us kids went away, mum got ill bla bla bla.
Anyway the last few years I've been asking mum why we don't go see her and she always said stuff like "the carer says she doesn't want visitors", "the carer says it's difficult". I honestly thought this was a smokescreen and she was afraid to see her in case she'd deteriorated or something. Anyway I finally wrote to her this Christmas asking if I could go and see her just so I could test the water. A new carer called saying she'd love to see us and we went to see her.
It turned out the previous carer had been keeping people away, extorting money, and generally treating her very badly over many years, so this explained the stonewalling.
Hope that answers the question!
David.

[Krystl]

Hi David.

ummm nope, not boring--gotta go with elemenoP on this one. I believe you are earning quite the fan-following here.

That is just a sad story and makes this all the more interesting to follow. And to be honest, so many various options presented is just amazing me--everyone has a different angle and are working together focusing on the problems at hand. It's like you gave the forum a giant puzzle to solve. It's almost better than sudoku.

The solutions are fascinating and really quite eye-opening to the options available. I, for one, am learning heaps! (Plus distributing karma to the problemsolvers is fun.)

[Carnyx]

Originally Posted by Krystl

Hi David.

ummm nope, not boring--gotta go with elemenoP on this one. I believe you are earning quite the fan-following here.

Hi Krystl,
Well thank you very much for the kind words and support. It's much appreciated, though I'm quite embarrassed because I haven't done much at all here. I feel like I've done a bad job really, or maybe I shouldn't have even undertaken it in the first place. Anyway, maybe it looks better than it is or something? I do appreciate the support though - positivity is a rare commodity in this world, especially on the WWW.

That is just a sad story and makes this all the more interesting to follow. And to be honest, so many various options presented is just amazing me--everyone has a different angle and are working together focusing on the problems at hand. It's like you gave the forum a giant puzzle to solve. It's almost better than sudoku.

It is a sad story isn't it? I feel very bad that this was happening and we weren't aware, but luckily someone special was around who took action.
Ha ha, I wish it was Sudoku! I fear that I'm not capable of cracking this puzzle though. It's quite a lot of pressure when it's an important cause, but you don't feel you know what you're doing. Tough to explain that I think. It's like a circus clown being asked to disarm a bomb strapped to Mother Teresa or something. Yeah OK ... stay away from analogies.

The solutions are fascinating and really quite eye-opening to the options available. I, for one, am learning heaps! (Plus distributing karma to the problemsolvers is fun.)

Yes, so many good points and suggestions. I've really appreciated all the input from everyone on this. Any way I look at it, it's greatly improved my knowledge and has put me in a better position to advise on what to go with, and how to get books. Even if the solution is not ideal, it will be a lot better than if I'd chosen without this advice.
Thank you for your kind support.
David.

p.s. your English is far too good

[Krystl]

David, thank you for your response.

Waiting for the outcome of this and the solutions decided upon. I also hope to hear from others with similar problems and their solutions.

Technology has really come a long way and can be used to improve the quality of life for so many and creating barrier-free(r) lives.

[Carnyx]

Originally Posted by Krystl

David, thank you for your response.

Waiting for the outcome of this and the solutions decided upon. I also hope to hear from others with similar problems and their solutions.

Technology has really come a long way and can be used to improve the quality of life for so many and creating barrier-free(r) lives.

Krystl,
Yes it would be good to hear from more people faced with similar problems and what solution they reached. The potential is *definitely* there for technology to improve the lives of immobile or disabled people. It's just a shame that the driving force of technology is biased towards able-bodied and mobile people for obvious profit reasons.
Thanks,
David.

[speakingtohe]

. It's just a shame that the driving force of technology is biased towards able-bodied and mobile people for obvious profit reasons.

Profit drives technology. No way around it.

It is a far greater shame when institutions, publicly funded or private, allow abuse (and usually they are aware of it on some level and ignore it due to lack of staff, legal issues involved with terminating employees etc.) and still maintain public approval and/or funding.

Worse than that are the relatives, friends, or aware individuals who do nothing but hide their heads in the sand. And those who block/oppose social advances in health, welfare, standards of living for the disadvantaged in any category because it might raise their taxes.

Last but not least are institutions such as the arthritus society (name your country) who seem to be remarkably stagnant in any sort of progressive activity. I am singling them out because I cannot think of another correct name at present, but the options provided for those who are crippled, chronically ill, blind etc. seem to me well rooted in the last century and expensive to boot.

Helen

[Carnyx]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Profit drives technology. No way around it.

It is a far greater shame when institutions, publicly funded or private, allow abuse (and usually they are aware of it on some level and ignore it due to lack of staff, legal issues involved with terminating employees etc.) and still maintain public approval and/or funding.

Worse than that are the relatives, friends, or aware individuals who do nothing but hide their heads in the sand. And those who block/oppose social advances in health, welfare, standards of living for the disadvantaged in any category because it might raise their taxes.

Last but not least are institutions such as the arthritus society (name your country) who seem to be remarkably stagnant in any sort of progressive activity. I am singling them out because I cannot think of another correct name at present, but the options provided for those who are crippled, chronically ill, blind etc. seem to me well rooted in the last century and expensive to boot.

Helen

Yes I agree with much of that. It's s sad moment for the human spirit when those with power and authority turn on those who are most vulnerable.
I find the pricing of assistive devices just cynical. They will say it's lower uptake and they have to cover R&D costs. Unfortunately people will always put an inflated price tag on these things ... because they can. The real question is why don't governments spend more taxes on that kind of thing.
Cheers Helen,
David.

[Carnyx]

Hi all,
I came across these useful tables on Wikipedia on my travels. There's a comparison of E-ink readers, non-E-ink readers, and supported formats.
I imagine many of you have seen this or something similar already, but here it is for those who haven't:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...e-book_readers

David.

[BearMountainBooks]

And of course sometimes it isn't finding a solution (the right e-reader) that helps at all. For the person in question, sometimes it's just knowing that someone cares enough to ask, to visit or to try.

You're a good egg.