The other morning, I woke up to a soreness in my shoulder. Not only was it sore, but I could barely move it. I started thinking, "What did I do that made my shoulder so sore?" I sleep on my back so I knew that wasn't it. I haven't lifted anything heavy in a while. Nor have I been in any wrecks. Then it hit me, as I walked by my Nintendo Wii, the thought struck me. "Not the Wii," I told myself. I shrugged it off, got dressed, and headed to work. As the day progressed, my arm started to fell better. No pain and no soreness. When I got home that evening, I decided not to play the Wii incase I did hurt my shoulder some how. The next day when I woke up, all was fine. Again, no pain and no soreness. That night, my fiancée came over and wanted to play the Wii so, being the man I am, I had to throw in some competition. We played for around 2 hours. After losing to her in almost everything we played, she left. Shortly after that I went to sleep. To my surprise the next morning, the pain and soreness was back. That answered my question. The Wii was the cause of my shoulder pain; commonly known as "Wiiitis." Below is an article, where a doctor actually diagnosed "Wiiitis."

BOSTON (Reuters) - "When Dr. Julio Bonis awoke one Sunday morning with a sore shoulder, he could not figure out what he had done. It felt like a sports injury, but he had been a bit of a couch potato lately.
Then he remembered his new Wii.
Bonis, 29, had spent hours playing Nintendo's new video game in which players simulate real movements. Bonis had been playing simulated tennis.
It was not quite tennis elbow, he decided.
"The variant in this patient can be labelled more specifically as 'Wiiitis,'" Bonis, a family practice physician, wrote in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine.
"The treatment consisted of ibuprofen for one week, as well as complete abstinence from playing Wii video games. The patient recovered fully."
Wiiitis -- pronounced "wee-eye-tis" -- is the latest ailment to develop from the video game era, beginning with Space Invaders' wrist in 1981, which was caused by the repeated button mashing required by the popular arcade game.
Nintendo's Wii game can captivate for hours and "unlike in the real sport, physical strength and endurance are not limiting factors," Bonis of the Research Group in Biomedical Informatics in Barcelona, Spain, wrote.
"What convinced me to send the case report was that a friend of mine, after playing 'Wii Sports' suffered from a similar complaint," Bonis told Reuters in an e-mail. "I have not found other cases in my clinical practice, but it is probably an underdiagnosed condition."
It is not the first time Nintendo has received attention in the medical field.
In 1990, a Wisconsin doctor characterized the thumb soreness brought on by pushing the buttons on a controller as "Nintendinitis" after it affected a 35-year-old woman who played a Nintendo game without interruption for five hours.
With virtual golf, boxing, baseball and bowling already on the market, "future games could involve different and unexpected groups of muscles," Bonis said. "Physicians should be aware that there may be multiple, possibly puzzling presentations of Wiiitis."
Bonis said he still plays the games, "but I try to use it with moderation. Sometimes it's hard to do!" "

Article: http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN0616721120070606

Ok, we have all heard what is said about people who sit inside and play video games all day. They are lazy and do nothing but eat potato chips and get fat (I know, my mom tells me the same thing). Well, Nintendo has come out with something that will change the way gamers are viewed forever. I am talking about the Wii Fit. I have yet to try the Wii Fit, but from what friends and family say, it is awesome. Wii Fit comes with a balance board and the Wii Fit game.

With nearly 200 computers in the library system, it is not uncommon for the I/T Dept. to be forced to reinstall the Windows operating system for computers here and there. As a matter of fact, it's a day-long process and although it's time-consuming, it's usually a no-brainer until....

Microsoft makes an "improvement" that they to call "Windows updates". When they do that, it makes reinstalling the operating system downight frustrating. Nearly a year and a half ago, they released a major update called "Service Pack 3" for the Microsoft XP Professional OS.

Now, if you don't know by now, you can't buy a computer with Windows XP anymore. I think Microsoft stop selling those back in the summer of 2007. That means if you go to the store (or online) and buy a computer, you are stuck with purchasing Microsoft's latest OS, Windows Vista.

(As an FYI, there were two different versions of XP: Home and Professional. While there are four different versions of Vista: Home, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate).

However, right before they stop selling and providing support for XP machines, they can out with SP3. Now, I am not a Microsoft hater, just a "consumer watchdog". I use Microsoft products everyday both here at work and at home. (This is a good place to sigh.) The problem with Microsoft choosing to release an update like this is that if it has "bugs" then they don't necessarily "have-to" fix those bugs and that leaves us with computer "that aren't acting right" (as my grandmother would say). That also means that if you are not a technie, then you will probably take your computer to somewhere like Best Buy. If that doesn't work, you get frustated and buy a new computer (as my grandmother would do). I think you see the benefit for Microsoft here, don't you? I know far too many people who have made Microsoft rich off of the number of computers that they have bought throughout the years (just ask my grandmother) but that's for another blog posting......

Soon after SP3 came out, I probably reinstalled Windows on 5-8 library computers and each one of them crashed soon after SP3 was installed it. As I backtrack my thinking to try and figure out what was different this time as opposed to all of the other times that I had reinstalled Windows, I realized that it was SP3, which took nearly an hour by itself to install. That made the whole Windows reinstallation process now - a day and a hour. :-) Unfortunately, I had to reinstall the OS on each of these computers at least once more leaving SP3 out of the picture and all has been well since. (Even Best Buy doesn't install SP3.) Just a few weeks ago, I was "checking up" on one of pre-SP3 computers and have since found SP3 did installed itself (if you have automatic updates turned on) and strangely enough it hasn't crashed - yet!!!!

So, if you have a XP Professional on your home (or small business computer) and it begins to act strange after installing Windows updates, you might want to check Add/Remove Programs to see if SP3 is installed. Even though some in the "tech world" have said that Microsoft has made "the appropriate improvement to SP3 to prevent problems", I still don't trust it and a year and a half later, I still do not install it on any of the library's Windows computer. Hopefully, you won't find yourself having to reinstall Windows because of SP3.

In the past decade we have seen gaming go from a joy stick with pong, to a controller that looks like it can drive your car. It is also evident the technology that is available to us. Gamers can tell you first hand the leaps in technology that we have made. I want to talk to you about the consoles that are on the market today.

I want to start out with the PlayStation 3. Sony has been around for a long time and they have been in the video game business for a while as well. They are the creators of the "PlayStation." The picture to the right is the PlayStation 3. Like the name describes, it is the 3rd installment in the PlayStation family. But this system does more than just play games. The "PS3" can be hooked up to the Internet and used like a computer. Since you can hook it up to the Internet, you can also play your friends online via the PS3. (They must have the same game to play.) Another awesome feature about the PS3 is it is a BluRay player. It will play all your BluRay movies. The memory in the PS3 ranges from 40 - 80. Of course the higher memory, the higher the cost. Over all a good system and the cheapest form of BluRay.



Next up is the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360, or 360, is made by Microsoft. The Xbox in general has not been out that long, but has made a big impact on the gaming industry. The 360 is the 2nd installment of the Xbox. This system has been made popular thanks to the "Halo Trilogy." Like the PS3, you can play your friends online. (They must have the game to play with you.) But unfortunately, the 360 cannot browse the Internet. The 360 plays games and DVDs only. At one point, Microsoft was making HDDVD players for the 360, but the HDDVD era has come and gone. The 360 is a great system. It is also cheaper than the PS3. You have 3 choices to chose from when purchasing a 360: The cheapest system is around $199 for the Core System (no hard drive), the next system is $299 (with 60GB hard drive), and the Elite System is around $388 (with 120GB hard drive). Overall great system.



The last system I want to discuss is the Nintendo Wii. When Nintendo made the Wii, they had the family in mind. This system requires more then just sitting on your couch. This is an interactive gaming console that requires you to move the Wii Remote More body action than thumb action. The Wii has some pretty cool features as well. The Wii has a built in wireless adapter for those who have wireless Internet. Just like the PS3, you can browse the Internet. Some of the popular games for the Wii are Mario Cart and Wii Fit (which was sold out in most stores for Christmas). The Wii has built in memory (I am unsure of the amount) and it has a slot for a SD card. An SD card is what you digital camera uses to store pictures. It is the cheapest all around system at $249. The controllers are cheaper and the games are cheaper. If you are looking to involve you entire family, no matter the age, then the Wii is what you want.

All of these systems are good. I currently own a Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii and I enjoy playing both of them. If you have a child or a teenager that has been begging you for a new gaming console, I hope this helped you out. Once again, Happy New Year and happy gaming.

Even though this is a new year, a lot of Gadgets from 2008 are still in high demand. Of course a very popular item this past Christmas was the Navigation (GPS) system for your vehicle. I don't know about you, but every time I went to a BestBuy or Walmart, they were always sold out. Navigation systems vary in prices so it is hard to tell. If you buy them from a store, I would estimate the price $100 - $300.


Another item that has been popular since the very first day it appeared on store shelves is the iPhone. The iPhone is made by Apple. This is not your ordinary cellphone. I would consider the iPhone a mini laptop. The iPhone has a fully capable HTML browser that is great for checking your email, Facebook, and MySpace. You can also view YouTube videos. Another cool feature about the iPhone is it has a touch screen. Since it is made by Apple, the iPhone can be used as an iPod. The newer phones have 2 different amounts of storage: 8 GB and 16GB. This is a great phone and will be around for a while.

Overall, this year looks promising, as far as technology goes. Mac and Windows are looking to launch some nice and innovative things this year. Be on the look out for them, because of you have a teenager at home, chances are these items will be on birthday and Christmas lists for a long time. Once again Happy New Year from the I/T Staff and best wishes to all of you in 2009!