On Voice Coding • Hacker News Board

Re: On Voice Coding

#11

Post by busterarm » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 3:43 PM UTC

melling wrote: post #6

busterarm wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been typing just about 4-16 hours a day going on 30 years now without RSI. Fingers crossed.

Isn’t that sort of like saying, I smoked 2 packs of cigarettes for 30 years, fingers crossed? Some people are more susceptible to problems. This was on HN several years ago. http://www.looknohands.me/ You can be in your 20’s and have a problem.

I also worked with someone in a remote capacity who insisted on using Dragon Naturally Speaking and his communication on technical topics was unintelligible. It clearly wasn't working, but he insisted and everyone who worked with him suffered for it.

And now he's not working in tech anymore and is a field engineer doing repetitive labor with his hands...

Re: On Voice Coding

#12

Post by geewee » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 3:43 PM UTC

meddlepal wrote: post #7

ijidak wrote: post #4

FYI, I thought my programming career was over due to RSI. Now, I only type while wearing long-sleeves. And of course, I still have to take regular breaks. I no longer suffer RSI symptoms. I'm guessing because it increases blood flow to the area and perhaps the warmth helps keep ligaments and muscles flexible and loose. Simple solution, but took a while to figure out. Hopefully this helps someone reading this.

How do the long sleeves help? Cushion?

Probably also warmth, increasing blood flow. Particularly important if you also have cold hands.

Re: On Voice Coding

#13

Post by geewee » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 3:44 PM UTC

reportgunner wrote: post #10

ijidak wrote: post #4

FYI, I thought my programming career was over due to RSI. Now, I only type while wearing long-sleeves. And of course, I still have to take regular breaks. I no longer suffer RSI symptoms. I'm guessing because it increases blood flow to the area and perhaps the warmth helps keep ligaments and muscles flexible and loose. Simple solution, but took a while to figure out. Hopefully this helps someone reading this.

I remember reading some guy's article where he said wearing fingerless gloves helped him with RSI because he was actually sitting right below the AC fan the whole time.

Probably this one: https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/11/18/rsi-solution/

Re: On Voice Coding

#14

Post by geewee » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 3:45 PM UTC

ijidak wrote: post #4

FYI, I thought my programming career was over due to RSI. Now, I only type while wearing long-sleeves. And of course, I still have to take regular breaks. I no longer suffer RSI symptoms. I'm guessing because it increases blood flow to the area and perhaps the warmth helps keep ligaments and muscles flexible and loose. Simple solution, but took a while to figure out. Hopefully this helps someone reading this.

Long sleeves and fingerless gloves definitely help, especially if you're the type to always have cold hands.

(I've written about my experiences with RSI as well: https://www.gustavwengel.dk/overcoming-rsi)

Re: On Voice Coding

#15

Post by elorant » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 3:45 PM UTC

ijidak wrote: post #4

FYI, I thought my programming career was over due to RSI. Now, I only type while wearing long-sleeves. And of course, I still have to take regular breaks. I no longer suffer RSI symptoms. I'm guessing because it increases blood flow to the area and perhaps the warmth helps keep ligaments and muscles flexible and loose. Simple solution, but took a while to figure out. Hopefully this helps someone reading this.

For me the best way to fight RSI was weight lifting exercises to strengthen my palms. That and a trackball.

Re: On Voice Coding

#16

Post by PaulRobinson » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 3:45 PM UTC

rijoja wrote: post #9

How well would this work in an open office setting, especially if several people are using it?

I suspect this setup would not be ideal as background noise getting worse would be annoying for all concerned and even more challenging than an open plan office already is, and your colleagues might not appreciate this unless you're already surrounded by people talking all day (e.g. support or sales teams on calls).

That aside, in terms of worrying about your mic picking up other people's voices and the voice dictation getting confused, most dedicated microphones these days (i.e. not ones that are built into your phone's headphones), are pretty good at background noise reduction.

I've not used the one OP recommends - I'd never have considered a table based mic like that before - but the noise reduction on the Plantronics Blackwire 3215 headset I use is so good that if I move the mic boom a few inches up or down away from my mouth, people can't really hear me on calls. It's superb at getting rid of background noises, and if somebody else was in my home office using voice dictation it would not be picked up by my headset.

Re: On Voice Coding

#17

Post by nemo1618 » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 3:48 PM UTC

ijidak wrote: post #4

FYI, I thought my programming career was over due to RSI. Now, I only type while wearing long-sleeves. And of course, I still have to take regular breaks. I no longer suffer RSI symptoms. I'm guessing because it increases blood flow to the area and perhaps the warmth helps keep ligaments and muscles flexible and loose. Simple solution, but took a while to figure out. Hopefully this helps someone reading this.

Same, but for me the cure was John Sarno. Unfortunately RSI seems to be one of those disorders that everyone cures differently (if at all!) and you just have to stumble around until you find a method that works for you.

Re: On Voice Coding

#18

Post by ulisesrmzroche » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 3:51 PM UTC

keymone wrote: post #5

melling wrote: post #2

“I type fast enough that I have never had much use for snippets in my text editor. Perhaps if I’d used them more effectively, I would not have developed the RSI symptoms that I have!" Often we have discussions about advanced code completion on HN. Many developers feel they don’t need it, or that it gets in their way, for example. Reading stories like this convinces me even more that our editors (tools) need to be sma…

We should use better languages. Better understood and integrated with the editor and better at expressing every level of abstraction. cough pretty much any lisp cough

Or you could take a short break every so often

What we really need are better programmers

Re: On Voice Coding

#19

Post by melling » Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 3:53 PM UTC

nemo1618 wrote: post #17

ijidak wrote: post #4

FYI, I thought my programming career was over due to RSI. Now, I only type while wearing long-sleeves. And of course, I still have to take regular breaks. I no longer suffer RSI symptoms. I'm guessing because it increases blood flow to the area and perhaps the warmth helps keep ligaments and muscles flexible and loose. Simple solution, but took a while to figure out. Hopefully this helps someone reading this.

Same, but for me the cure was John Sarno. Unfortunately RSI seems to be one of those disorders that everyone cures differently (if at all!) and you just have to stumble around until you find a method that works for you.