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Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole
41–50 of 187 posts
Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole
#42I would have been perfectly happy if Microsoft had just kept making the Natural 4000 forever. Logitech has some 20+ year old designs they keep producing because for some people they're perfection, and I'd hoped Microsoft would continue likewise since it's been well over a decade with the 4000 too. But nope, it's dead, and the replacement isn't nearly as good.
I used the 4000 for a number of years, but found that it was causing problems in my right shoulder. The reason is the inclusion of a full numpad makes the keyboard so wide that your mouse hand has to sit really far to your right, causing your shoulder to be in a position of constant rotation and eventual strain. I eventually took a hacksaw to it to remove the numpad, which improved things - but it was the main reason…
Have you ever tried switching to using your left hand for the mouse. It is generally recommended for ergonomic reasons even if you don't have a keyboard issue. It'll seem weird to your brain at first, but I got used to it pretty quickly, as did everyone I know who has tried.
When I was in grad school (before I had any ergonomic pains), I had my mouse on the left side at work, and the right side at home - so I was using both configurations daily.
Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole
#43I love my Kinesis Advantage 2 and would never describe it as old fashioned! If anything it has a look that follows it’s function and happens to not look like the sleekest thing. But one should not look at the keyboard anyway. :P
I discovered revently that the Kinesis was featured in the background of the film Men in Black, as a futuristic keyboard. The prop department had painted it black and the wave of consumer demand was the reason for them introducing a black version, like the one I have.
Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole
#44Your audio narration widget that plays in sync with the paragraph is really cool. I am going to borrow the idea and add it to Narration Box :)
Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole
#45I would have been perfectly happy if Microsoft had just kept making the Natural 4000 forever. Logitech has some 20+ year old designs they keep producing because for some people they're perfection, and I'd hoped Microsoft would continue likewise since it's been well over a decade with the 4000 too. But nope, it's dead, and the replacement isn't nearly as good.
What don't you like about the replacement (nit the sculpt, the actual new design)? I consider it strictly better (namely because of the space bar being better).
Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole
#46The problem with learning an alternative keyboard layout is that it makes you suck at QWERTY. I didn't realise how much I type on other people's keyboard until I tried to learn Dvorak.
Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole
#47I use a slightly configured Kinesis Advantage 2 and colemak as my keyboard layout (I used to make the Kinesis do the colemak, but now its just qwerty and the OS handles colemak). I find typing on it extremely comfortable. I've also found these beneficial: https://www.mycarpaltunnel.com/ I like Ergodox, especially because of their super flexible configuration, but I dislike the flatness of the keyboard compared to the…
There are keyboards for people who want a truly ergonomic input system and there are keyboards for fanboys
Kinesis advantage 2 is for the first kind and ergodox is for the fanboys
The most efficient tools are usually the most ugly and boring ones
Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole
#48I used to have consistent but relatively mild wrist pain from using a standard keyboard all day, but I was able to alleviate that once I switched to a split ergonomic keyboard which I made.
For anyone who also wants to get their feet wet in the world of custom keyboards it certainly isn't as daunting as you might think. You don't have to necessarily go ortholinear, and you certainly don't have to stray from QWERTY. In fact, just learning to properly touch type and making sure the "right" fingers are hitting the right keys goes a long way with a split keyboard.
I found a lot of my own wrist pain was from the unnatural position that your arms and wrists are in to support a non split keyboard + the unnecessary hand/wrist movement to hit keys with the "wrong" fingers. An ortholinear (or at least column linear) keyboard can go a long way in teaching you where your fingers are supposed to go as long as you are willing to spend a weekend or two learning how to type again.
If you are thinking of diving into making your own, I would recommend the following vendors for kits:
https://keyhive.xyz/shop https://keeb.io/ https://www.littlekeyboards.com/
Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole
#49When people learn Colemak, sometimes they unconsciously try to "ground" their fingers on the home position, and that makes typing very strainful indeed when typing on the middle columns.
When typing on the middle column, make sure that your fingers float freely, and the middle and ring fingers should move along with your index finger, e.g. when pressing the 'H' key, the middle finger should be hovering approximately between the 'J' and 'K' QWERTY position.
Re: Down the ergonomic keyboard rabbit hole
#50...And you will never be able to use a random keyboard it in the world again...
Plenty people who use ergonomic keyboards also use a laptop keyboard directly all the time and there's few complaints about that. Are you talking from experience?
I use a Kinesis and Dvorak. I have no trouble at all switching between the Kinesis and a macbook keyboard (which is also set to Dvorak) but I'd definately be slow to type English (back to normal person typing speed), and writong code in vim would be a nightmare if I was forced to use a random machine and not able to switch the layout.
Luckily, you can switch easily to Dvorak on most systems for the last couple of decades. Something that's less true once you start inventing your own layouts (though I think Colemak, Neo and Workman are decently suppprted).
Also, people who learned to touch type QWERTY suggest you can swap back even after learning a new layout. I never learned qwerty that well but return to standard nerd level of familiarity.