Replacement Knee after Seven Weeks

1 December 2011. Yes, and much of the time I have forgotten about my knee. Except when I bend my leg, or go to kneel down. Kneeling isn't easy, and I try not to put too much pressure on the knee, but I can do it.I still do my exercises, but have given up on the Physio class.

I saw the Consultant for the 6 week checkup and signoff a week ago, and he was very pleased, and said that I could get back to cycling and swimming and driving. I didn't tell him that I tried the bicycle while in my fourth week post-op, and have been cycling around the block since the five week mark. Today I cycled into Wimborne for a haircut.

The consultant also suggested that I could lower my saddle to force the knee to bend some more, so last night I lowered it by about half-an-inch. Today I didn't even notice that. I'll have to lower it some more.

In order to write this I booted the computer into XP a few hours ago, and it wouldn't let me proceed until I had installed Service pack 3, and then LibreOffice wanted Java, so it took a while.  So, three hours to do a five minute thing.

New Knee- After three weeks

At some point I am going to say it is better than the old one was. I don't have pain when I walk anymore, but I am not yet back to cycling.

Three weeks in and I have given up on crutches and sticks for everything except going downstairs. That means that I have to bring the crutch upstairs, so that it is there to use going downstairs.

The leg will still not straighten out completely. The best is about a 7 degree angle. This is probably because it was bent for so many years while I was limping along with the Arthritis. The problem to me is that it does not bend more than 100 degrees from the straight, and this is not quite enough bend to cycle comfortably. I am still doing my exercises, but have now added the cycling machine, because the effort of going over tdc is forcing it to bend, and I have got to work that to increase the angle.

I do not like doing the lunges, where I try and force the knee to bend. The other exercises are all easy now.

After the exercises the knee always feels as if it is blown up and swollen, though it doesn't look it. Sometimes it is hot too.

I am very happy that I can get around without pain, but I'll keep on pushing.

Will I ever get this knee to bend as much as the other? Only time will tell.

Two weeks after my Knee Replacement

Today (Friday) the nurse took out the staples. It is two weeks since I had the knee replacement operation, and all indications are that I am healing well. I came home after only three days, instead of the usual 4, but that is because of the facility that I exhibited with the Zimmer frame and crutches. I am still using crutches, one around the house and both when I go out. I guess that I haven't been doing the exercises as often as they specified, but the document from the hospital said six times/hour, but not for how many hours in a day! I saw the Physio on Wednesday and she gave me some different exercises. Because I have limped for so many years favouring the bad knee, the muscles at the back of the knee seem shortened, and I have to work to stretch them. Funnily enough, now that the staples have been removed, I seem to be able to do the exercises with less pain. I probably shouldn't be surprised at that because it is not just one or two staples, but there were 31 over about 20 centimetres. Yesterday I seemed a bit depressed, but now that the staples are out, and it wasn't as bad as I expected, I am in good spirits again. Everyone is very surprised that I have had it done so quickly, including the Doctor. He thought it would be running up to January, and I was prepared for that. After all I had been working up to it for a number of years. This summer it had got to the stage where the knee was bothering me in bed and making it difficult to get to sleep, which was the Doctor's criterion for the time to have it done. Now that it is done, well, it is still bothering me in bed, but less each night, so things are looking up. I keep on Measuring the angle compared to how much I could bend the leg before, and we are not there yet. The medical people measure it from the angle when it is straight, I have always measured the angle between the thigh and the calf. But then they have a large plastic protractor, I have to do it mathematically. More thoughts on this later.

Who said that libraries were dull?

So we have lost the vote to keep our library within the folds of Dorset Library Service (DLS). http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-14230634 What are the next steps? Because it was only by a small margin the Ad-Lib team think that we do not have grounds for a legal challenge. But one of us thinks that the chair that cast the deciding vote should have voted for the status quo, not the change. One of the points that was continually made was the need to make savings. I would like to know how much saving is going to be made by releasing 9 libraries into the wild, rather than the initial proposal of 20 libraries. We must keep in mind that this is not (perhaps) closure of the libraries, but making them community run, with some help from DLS. Part of the preparation is getting them up to scratch, and the costs of doing this are part of the reasons for making them community run, so that is not a saving. Also the costs of converting the Library Management System (LMS) to a sub-system for the freed libraries must be considered. Possible option 1: expect and promote a government u-turn, or a judicial review. Option 2: Challenge the decision, or argue that Colehill Library should not be included, because the maintenance costs were invalid (refenestration). Any other reasons? Option 3: do nothing and watch it close. Should we ask DCC how much the costs of closing it down are, decommissioning and removing the building, redundancy and pension make-up, etc? Option 4: Put in the effort to run it ourselves, as the county want us to. None of the present Focol Committee are willing to put in that effort – it is major. As part of the responsibility of any community group taking on responsibility for the local library, the group would need to: 1. Provide a robust business plan to demonstrate that the community led arrangements are sustainable and acceptable. 2. Formally constitute a group/organisation to run the library. 3. Consider registering as a charitable body as this may bring some financial benefit such as business rate relief and the possibility of applying for grants. 4. Be responsible for the lease of the library building or provide other suitable community space 5. Maintain the building 6. Be responsible for the premises related running costs of the community library premises 7. Make necessary insurance arrangements 8. Be responsible for health and safety for safe use by building users, volunteers and DCC staff supporting the service 9. Be aware of its safeguarding responsibilities for children and vulnerable adults 10. Recruit and supervise volunteers to provide the service. 11. Be responsible for the books on loan from DCC and work to any agreed processes (???) relating to the library offer 12. Decide on convenient opening hours for the local community. 13. Provide and maintain a minimum number of opening hours to be communicated to the general public and to Dorset County Council. This is to ensure that the stock and services supported by the County Council can be accessed by the local community. From Report [5] Appendix 7, page 84. The big one is item 10 – supervise. It is continual, and Volunteers will consider this duty(?) as a lower priority than other things in their life.

Definition of Engineering

One of the best definitions of Engineering that I have come across. It was in 'Geekonomics'(2008) which is a book about the real cost of insecure software and how badly built most commercial software is today. I used Irfanview with the OCR plugin to scan and convert it to text.

One of Skill in the Art To design and build an Interstate requires engineers-lots of them. Engineers do not spontaneously generate, however. Engineers must be educated and trained, ridding them of the bad habits that come from ignorance, misunderstanding, and the foibles of the craftsmen that preceded them. As such, engineering is not an art, though it can be considered by some to be an artful science, embracing nature's complexity, yet remaining able to "simplify to nature in its essence.'' On the whole, however, engineering is about systematic application of scientific and mathematical principles in the design, construction, and pursuit of practical ends such as buildings, bridges, machines, and processes. Engineering, and in particular engineers, must conform to certain requirements that craftsmen and artisans might at times conveniently disregard. Moreover, those who wish to call themselves professional engineers must graduate from accredited universities and be formally licensed and registered in their skill. In this context, the career path associated with software construction challenges the notion that "software engineering" is true to its name. In fact, software engineering-though perceived as a modern skill-remains firmly entrenched in the craftsmen's discipline, much akin to blacksmiths and textile weavers of the pre-industrial era whose handcrafted items could certainly be considered elegant constructions but could not necessarily be considered feats of systematic engineering. As cherished as the output of craftsmanship may be, the shortfall of the craftsman's discipline is that product quality is largely dependent on the craftsman's talent and expertise-not to mention that a craftsman's work is very, very expensive. Nor is it consistently repeatable. Like any handmade item, software applications that perform similar functions might be entirely unique in design and implementation. The similarities between a hand-woven basket purchased from Wal-Mart and the software residing in the bowels of a financial institution are unsettling. In short, the U.S. Interstate and the automobiles that travel upon it were not built by craftsmen, nor could they be. Armies of craftsmen certainly built the Pyramids of Giza and the Great Wall of China, but these are considered World Wonders largely because they were not repeatable.

Wireless differences

For years I have been teaching wireless technology using a series of concentric circles to show the distances capable by different data rates of WiFi transmission. (This is all changed now that 802.11n is available). This was always assuming that the devices were using the same antenna, because it was never my remit to go into antenna design.

Here at home I have been using a ZyXEL G200 USB wireless device for a couple of years, which according to my computer has a 16% signal strength at the position and range that I use it. This device uses the ZD1211 chipset. Recently I borrowed a USB wireless stick manufactured by Belkin, and it gave me a marvellous 40% signal strength.

After that, what's a guy to do but buy one of those, and here's where the trouble started. The Belkin part number was F5D7050. From e-bay I bought a Belkin Wireless USB stick, but unfortunately it was a F5D7051. Just one digit different, but it used the qualcom chipset, and I couldn't make it work at all, not even under XP. It is supported in Linux, despite what this site says:
http://linux-wless.passys.nl/query_part.php?brandname=Belkin

So I sent it back, and bought another, but got the right part number this time. It works, but no better than my ZyXEL. What's up? Look at the chart – It is a v4003 version – and has the same chipset as the ZyXEL.

I wonder what chipset was in my original borrowed unit? And do I now have to teach range and speed based on the manufacturer and the chipset used?

A student who has let us all down.

I feel deeply let down by this student and his attitude to work, and our response to him. He attended the first class, and the last two classes of the year(part), did not hand in his assignment despite the fact that the hand-in date had been delayed. He raised Mitigating Circumstances after the assignment was marked at '0' and now has an extension on the hand-in until January 10th. I feel that this is not fair to the other students on this unit. I feel so strongly about this that I would like to get someone else to mark it as I do not think that I can mark it in the same spirit that I marked the others. I think that allowing mitigating circumstances under such situations does not reflect well on my university.

We are all experienced in handling the excuses that students give. One excuse is acceptable, but when a person makes many excuses for the same thing, they are lying/ dissembling/ playing us for a fool. Every time that I have spoken with him I have been given a different variation on the story. Doesn't he realize this, or does he think that we are stupid.

I feel that even though this student's parents phone in and support him, they are not giving him the right support to make sure that he attends and get the degree that he could obtain. They are making excuses to support his non-attendance.

He thinks he is a big cheese, but I know that he is performing the same stunts in his other units, and letting down his partners there. It won't do any good in the long run, as he now has extensions on hand-ins until January, when he also has an exam to prepare for.

A last effect is that he will never get a good reference from anybody who has taught him. All he will ever get is the minimum that we can give. Many references that I do ask about attendance, performance in class, how well he gets on with others, and truthfulness. I can't give a positive answer to any of these.