Re: [sudo-discuss] hacking broken ankles (knee scooters, etc)

It's pretty cool how fast the designs change for these "peg leg" companies, and how quick the prices drop. I'm not sure if it's because of globalization*, quicker product cycle times, China, and/or the fact that these may or may not be FDA certified, etc. You mention LegFlex, which just launched to great fanfare, but there's already a similar product on the market, iWalkFree / iWalk 2.0 that I'm ordering... it's $150 and it dropped from $600 or so a few years ago. I'm also seeing the knee scooters, and their prices have plummeted from several hundreds $ to under $199.  Are these cheap medical prices good or bad? I'm wondering if the prices would be this low if these were automatically covered by health insurance and/or medicaid. As it stands they are only optional, so that might be why the prices are low. All other medical devices tend to keep their prices exorbitantly high.  I just saw a self-professed "redneck" hack of a knee scooter - it looks pretty cool and definitely expands my definition of "hacker" http://www.2coolfishing.com/ttmbforum/showthread.php?t=167720 I'm wondering how creative, industrious and skilled I can be "hacking" my walking aids in the upcoming weeks. It's a lot harder than programming ;)  ============================= Romy Ilano romy(a)snowyla.com On Mon, Jan 13, 2014 at 9:00 PM, Jake <jake(a)spaz.org> wrote: oh no romy that sucks! well, people used to use prosthetic legs which were basically a lower leg that you kneel on top of.  so picture an upside-down L and your bad leg is bent at the knee 90 degrees.  your lower leg is strapped onto the top part of the upside down L. you put a bunch of padding on the top, and use padding on the back of your calf, and then you can wear it for hours and walk on it just fine. people whose feet or legs were chopped below the knee walked around on such things their whole life. like this: http://gajitz.com/running-start-temporary-prosthetic-for-lower-leg-injuries/