Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A prototype watch, raising hope for Parkinson’s

blogs.microsoft.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 110 posts

Re: A prototype watch, raising hope for Parkinson’s

#41

Post by ams6110 »

Lewton wrote: post #37
erlehmann_ wrote: post #12

> As part of her work, Zhang researched the root cause of tremors. She spent six months, off and on, building prototypes. She sometimes worked in her London home, soldering wires to PC boards and tinkering with coin cell motors to create vibrations. She tested early versions with four other people with Parkinson’s, producing promising results for three, spurring the idea forward, she says. This paragraph reads like t…

New comments always start at the top

Not always. I've had new top-level comments get placed below an already highly upvoted top comment.

Re: A prototype watch, raising hope for Parkinson’s

#43

Post by wavefunction »

khazhoux wrote: post #39

Looks like nice work. I think. I couldn't find the details and didn't want to spend the full 15 minutes reading. This style of writing is very frustrating. 1. Introduction. We set up for something dramatic. In this case, a Parkinson's sufferer is about to see her life changed. In another recent story, a maternity nurse is about to birth her first child, and we were teased she would die after giving birth. Now we're a…

Couldn't you just search for "Microsoft"+"watch"+"Parkinson's" and spend, let's say, two minutes selecting a "just the facts" article?

You probably spent those two minutes writing your post.

Re: A prototype watch, raising hope for Parkinson’s

#44

Post by Tempest1981 »

erlehmann_ wrote: post #12

> As part of her work, Zhang researched the root cause of tremors. She spent six months, off and on, building prototypes. She sometimes worked in her London home, soldering wires to PC boards and tinkering with coin cell motors to create vibrations. She tested early versions with four other people with Parkinson’s, producing promising results for three, spurring the idea forward, she says. This paragraph reads like t…

This is a PR piece, and it's very interesting. Seems like we're all in such a hurry to de-bunk it, demanding scientific details and open source. If Apple published this, would the reaction be as cynical?

Re: A prototype watch, raising hope for Parkinson’s

#45

Post by curiousDog »

cperciva wrote: post #15
elorant wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can this be a PR piece? For starters, there isn't even a product. And most important, this is Microsoft, not some up and coming start-up that's craving for exposure. Microsoft is a behemoth when it comes to ad spending. If they had a product to market they wouldn't need some native advertising article, they'd go in guns blazing.

Microsoft is actively rebranding itself from "evil megacorporation" to "innovative doer of good".

That's pretty much every corporation these days though. Facebook, Google, Amazon starting a permanent homeless shelter etc.

Re: A prototype watch, raising hope for Parkinson’s

#46

Post by khazhoux »

wavefunction wrote: post #43
khazhoux wrote: post #39

Looks like nice work. I think. I couldn't find the details and didn't want to spend the full 15 minutes reading. This style of writing is very frustrating. 1. Introduction. We set up for something dramatic. In this case, a Parkinson's sufferer is about to see her life changed. In another recent story, a maternity nurse is about to birth her first child, and we were teased she would die after giving birth. Now we're a…

Couldn't you just search for "Microsoft"+"watch"+"Parkinson's" and spend, let's say, two minutes selecting a "just the facts" article? You probably spent those two minutes writing your post.

I spent about 10 minutes writing my post and it was very cathartic.

The article is teasing the reader. It could have easily explained the basics of the device in one or two sentences at the top. The two main questions the reader has are "Does this work?" and "How does this work?" The writer is just being cute by not getting those answers out of the way.

Re: A prototype watch, raising hope for Parkinson’s

#47

Post by wiz21c »

nom wrote: post #30
0xFFC wrote: post #4

I don't know. Is this normal to cry when you see something like this. Or I have to go to psychiatrist especially considering I have symptoms of BPD.

It's called empathy.

It's called "being manipulated". OK, I'm a bit cynical here, but calling this "empathy" alone sounds a bit simple to me...

Re: A prototype watch, raising hope for Parkinson’s

#49

Post by giancarlostoro »

khazhoux wrote: post #46
wavefunction wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't you just search for "Microsoft"+"watch"+"Parkinson's" and spend, let's say, two minutes selecting a "just the facts" article? You probably spent those two minutes writing your post.

I spent about 10 minutes writing my post and it was very cathartic. The article is teasing the reader. It could have easily explained the basics of the device in one or two sentences at the top. The two main questions the reader has are "Does this work?" and "How does this work?" The writer is just being cute by not getting those answers out of the way.

Because I felt the same and wound up looking up another article here's one that does precisely that:

https://www.fastcompany.com/3066610/how-a-vibrating-watch-he...

> A new watch-like device has changed that: Strapped on Lawton’s wrist, it counteracts the tremors through vibration.

Re: A prototype watch, raising hope for Parkinson’s

#50

Post by oneplane »

Sounds more like an advertisement for Microsoft and Windows while it actually has nothing to do with it. It's almost as if a good idea went through a PR processor that tries to turn it into a 'nice story' while also replacing normal words with branded words. It's annoying as hell to read, and instead of remembering the good idea behind this piece of personal electronics, it only leaves me with the bad taste of corporate marketing.
Post reply on HN