One year later

It is about one year since I started using the neuro headset. Since then there have been a couple of changes which have made things easier for me.

Initially, the software could be implemented only on the laptop. There is a pen drive which has the software for the headset. When it was inserted into the desktop, it was not able to receive the signal from the headset for some reason. Since all my files and bookmarks were in the desktop this caused some problems. I used to type some matter in the laptop, mail it to my Gmail account, open it in the desktop and copy/paste it in the relevant place.

Around a couple of months ago, Sujit accidentally discovered that the distance between the pen drive and the headset was too big for the signal being generated when the pen drive was connected to the desktop. He brought a cord from a friend to which the  pen drive can be attached to bring it closer to the headset and checked if this works. (I didn't know that such a cable existed.)  When this was done, the headset worked smoothly in the desktop.

Before activating the headset, 16 nodes moistened with a saline solution have to be attached to it. This takes some time especially since it was becoming difficult to attach the nodes to the headset since the threading had worn out. I then discovered that I could move the mouse pointer without the nodes being attached to the headset. I cannot use the blink function without the nodes so I cannot surf the net like this.

The on-screen keyboard has an autoclick  function. When I position the mouse-pointer over a letter and wait for a second, the letter gets typed in the word processor that I am using. I found that I can type much faster like this without using the nodes because different windows don't keep popping up and the cursor doesn't suddenly go  elsewhere because of inadvertent blinks. I can now concentrate on the keyboard  knowing that the cursor will remain in the correct position. I used to ask Jaya to save whatever I had typed whenever she came into the room.

Fool that I am, I had not realised that I could use the keyboard function 'cntrl + s' to save on my own. Once, before the s/w had been implemented on the desktop, I was typing some matter in the laptop and Jaya had gone to sleep. I thought that the laptop was connected to the inverter and so I could relax and save everything after Jaya got up. Of course, I thought wrong.

The laptop had inadvertently been connected to the wrong plug point and consequently, had been running on battery for some time after the power had gone off. (In Coimbatore, load shedding is at least 10 hrs. a day.) Suddenly the battery was exhausted and the screen went blank. I had lost whatever I had typed for 2 hours. In Very Good Jeeves!, when Bertie Wooster encounters an unexpected hitch while executing his well thought out plan, he muses:

You know, sometimes it seems to me as if Fate were going out of its way to such an extent to snooter you that you wonder if it's worth while continuing the struggle.

Being a glutton for punishment, after the dazed look that one normally gets after a blow on the solar plexus had passed, I typed the whole thing again, this time making sure that the laptop is connected to the right socket. Now I use the keyboard function 'cntrl + s' to save after typing every line. Fate, Ha!

The long and the short of all this is that you have no escape from my regular doses of wisdom. But I know that you folks are a resilient lot who can take the rough with the smooth with equanimity treating both those impostors just the same so I have no  worries on that score.