131–140 of 297 posts
[0]: http://www.abarry.org/likelytobeforgotten/wp-content/uploads...
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Been using M570 too for some time. However recently I've read that some research suggests that thumb-operated trackballs might do bad things to your thumb and that finger-operated trackballs (like Kensington Expert) are less risky. Worth keeping in mind and digging deeper. (Don't have K.E. but planning to try it out)
Thanks for the heads up on thumb-balls not being a perfect solution. Do you have any links handy?
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-trackballs/a... > "Should you switch to a trackball?"
> If you’re adult-sized, it’s nearly impossible the keep the shoulders in a natural, pulled-back position while typing on a keyboard. I have to disagree with this.. I'm 6'1 and had bad posture for most of my life. I had the same issues with pain that you describe. But recently I've put a lot of work into it having better posture and I don't have any problems anymore. You just need the right desk/chair height and sit…
I don’t know, there really is something to it - i bought a Zsa Moonlander keyboard last year which is two split halves. I instantly felt a comfort i’ve never had before or since around my shoulder blades. It was really satisfying. That said, i sold the keyboard after only a few months and i’m back to a normal style keyboard so it wasn’t that big a deal clearly.
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Thanks, good luck to you on finding a completely pain-free solution! This is the late 90s, so neurologists and other doctors weren't very useful at all. One even suggested surgery to correct my problem which got me really scared I might be out of the profession and wondering what I could do. What I found out was that there's a nerve that runs all the way down your arm into your hand/wrist, and when I twisted my right…
Is it a "vertical mouse" or something different? examples I've heard of: https://www.logitech.com/en-us/products/mice/mx-vertical-erg... https://us.anker.com/products/a7852
https://ergonomictrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/pen-m...
I'm not endorsing the one above, just showing what it looks like. The one I had from the late 90s was wired, with a big roller at the tip instead of it being optical.
The main thing is that when you hold a pen, your hand is more up and down rather than flat to the surface of the table, like when you're holding a mouse. Having it up and down is a more natural position for the hand relative to your body and doesn't force it to be twisted away from the body so that I could hold the mouse. That twist was was pinched my nerve for me.
Coincidentally, I just started using two keyboards for related but different reasons - left-hand mousing. I started developing tendonitis in my right thumb from mousing. Didn't matter whether mouse, pad, or ball - everything wore on it. So, I learned to mouse with my left hand, but this presented another problem - keyboard shortcuts. I found it was difficult to keep reaching over to my left side with my right hand, w…
1. "Essential Hand Stretches For Guitarists or Any Instrumentalist" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSrfB7JIzxY before, during and after typing.
2. When typing, hold my hands out limp like a zombie and move my whole arms and torso to hit the keys with limp middle fingers.
3. 2 keyboards. 2 mice. One set in the normal placement. Another keyboard in my lap. Another mouse on a pedestal to the left of my chair. Switch which device I'm using every few minutes.
In a few months the pain was gone and hasn't come back. I still get a bit tingly a decade later if I type a lot. But, besides that one year, I've always spent way more time reading code and thinking about code than actually typing code.
Or just use a split keyboard, there are some dozen available nowadays: https://github.com/diimdeep/awesome-split-keyboards Personally, I'm using a Dygma Raise, after testing the Ergodox for a while. And the Dygma is really mostly perfect IMHO. I would prefer it to have an ortholinear layout, and an additional row with F-Keys (layers can be cumbersome when hands are not at homerow-position). But the build-quality and…
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Note, the Kinesis Advantage is the one with "cups" that have keys in them in single keyboard. The Kinesis Freestyle is split into two halves and unlike the Ergodex or similar it's just a standard keyboard layout which makes jumping back and forth between other computers less of a hassle.
I picked up a Kinesis Freestyle 2 last year, with the longer (20" I think) cable, and it's been wonderful. Standard QWERTY, and the cable is long enough that I'm in a comfortable typing position leaning fully back into my chair with my arms sitting on the armrests. Only complaint is that the macro buttons off to the side just emit standard key presses (eg Cut sends Control+x), which I guess means I should look into t…
I think it is a better choice than the pro, as it costs the same once you purchase the wrist rests (which the pro comes with).
You can re-macro every key on the board, and the macro stays with the board if you move it to a new computer.
> I tried a few of those Kinesis split keyboards. Too squishy for me. Not far enough apart. The CherryMX Kinesis split keyboard was is too clickey for calls and screenshares. Muscle memory made it difficult to switch. This is a really cool hack, and I’m happy that the author found a solution for their pain that works for them, but this bit confused me. Kinesis are keyboards with separated key clusters, but not split…
I found R-Go Tools Split to be a nice and light keyboard for my mobile rig. The only annoyance was the throbbing light in the corner. But a patch of tape fixed that. The stock cable wouldn't allow placing the parts as far apart as in the article though. https://www.r-go-tools.com/products/ergonomic-keyboards/r-go...
It's not about the keyboard. It's about the lack of a strength building regime. Humans are not built to sit behind a desk. A strength training regime like Starting Strength or Stronglifts 5x5 is what the average office worker needs to survive their career RSI free into old age
> I tried a few of those Kinesis split keyboards. Too squishy for me. Not far enough apart. The CherryMX Kinesis split keyboard was is too clickey for calls and screenshares. Muscle memory made it difficult to switch. This is a really cool hack, and I’m happy that the author found a solution for their pain that works for them, but this bit confused me. Kinesis are keyboards with separated key clusters, but not split…
> Kinesis are keyboards with separated key clusters, but not split keyboards. When one says split keyboard I think they are normally talking about things like the Ergodox EZ/Moonlander Kinesis has also their freestyle-line, which are physically splitted keyboard. But traditionally, the name refers to the split of the key-segments, not the whole keyboard. Until a decade ago, there barely where any real split keyboards…
Indeed, I saw the title of this post and I wondered if the poster was looking for a setup similar to the Freestyle... and it turns out they were!
I made the switch a couple of years ago from a standard layout mechanical to the "Kinesis Freestyle Edge RGB" (nominally a gaming keyboard, but I don't use the gaming features) and would not go back. This device can't achieve quite as much separation as the "dual keyboard" approach in this blog entry, but it's not too far off.
As for the switches, in addition to the mechanical version with its various switch options, they also make a rubber dome variant of this keyboard, which happens to be cheaper.
