Hand Exercises to Increase Your WPM

mikesmullin — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 01:43:48 -0600

I don't know how many other people can type 120 wpm; I imagine there are a lot, but I just haven't ever met any. As a programmer and a guitarist, being able to work quickly and efficiently with my hands is important to me. That's why these videos demonstrating actual hand exercises are pretty cool.

Besides strengthing the hand, improving dexterity, coordination, and preventing carpel tunnel syndrome, these double as great party tricks. Check it out!

The Story...

Greg Irwin is a guy from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio who decided to develop his ability to play EVERY instrument. He realized three special skills were required: auditory (the capability of the ear), mental (the ability to process rhythms, harmony, and melody), and physical (strength, dexterity, and coordination).

The first two were agressively trained in formal coursework. However, the physical skill was noticably absent.

After talking to hand surgeons, physical and occupational therapists, as well as sports medicine professionals, Greg found that, although there were programs for rehabilitation for the hand, there were none for advancing the ordinary hand to a higher level of strength and coordination. So, Greg developed his own exercises.

That was in 1980. Since then Greg has has developed several products and programs to increase the strength, coordination, and dexterity of your hands and fingers. He also has some pretty fun video clips from his TV appearances on Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, and others.

Getting Adobe Reader to Read to You

mikesmullin — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 01:01:45 -0600

I find myself reading more and more PDF eBooks lately, and I am impressed by the accessibility functionality built into Adobe Reader that lets it read the book to me. Sometimes I listen to it speak while I read; trying to utilize as many learning faculties as possible simultaneously in order to increase retention. Here's how you can do it too:

View > Read Out Load > Read to End of Document

View > Automatically Scroll

It uses the built-in speech engine in XP which is Microsoft SAM, which is pretty old as many of us techies can recall but you can actually download new SAPI 5 voices that sound great. For example, Cepstral Text-to-Speech has several neat voices like Shouty (Drill Sargeant), Whispery (Scary Movie), and Dog (Animal Translation).

Depending on the kind of reader you are, or your mood, it's a lot of fun.

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Hand Exercises to Increase Your WPM

Getting Adobe Reader to Read to You