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Look, no hands

looknohands.me

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Re: Look, no hands

#121

Post by ChuckMcM »

melling wrote: post #38
ChuckMcM wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll admit that bothered me too. RSI is real and it is crippling, although it is also almost completely curable with surgery and some physical therapy [1]. However, I found her story of working on tasks that typically need arms and hands, without them, pretty awesome. So on balance the story worked for me. [1] http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/carpal-tunnel-... -- If you feel tingling in your fingers when…

You are confusing RSI and carpel tunnel. You don't treat RSI with surgery.

The author wrote: "... ended up working roughly 10-15 hours per day. I felt very proud of myself for working so hard and I remember joking about my arms the day I started noticing a slight tingling sensation in my fingers. if I had only known..."

She called it RSI and described classic carpal tunnel. Without the additional detail provided by the author, carpal tunnel is consistent with here description.

Re: Look, no hands

#122

Post by liveoneggs »

mvandy wrote: post #69

I'm Michelle (the girl in the video). This thread is really fascinating to me. I'll add some more details to the discussion below. I was diagnosed with epicodylitis (tennis albow) and I tried a range of different treatments: electrical therapy, accipunture, anti-inflammatory tablets and some kind of light therapy(?) But without any results (probably why I can't remember the last treatment). Also notised there were so…

You might be interested to learn about John Ousterhout- a pretty famous computer guy with RSI.

http://web.stanford.edu/~ouster/cgi-bin/wrist.php http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ousterhout

Re: Look, no hands

#123

Post by bsimpson »

rebootthesystem wrote: post #112
rebootthesystem wrote: post #29

I stopped using mice, knobs (IBM/Lenovo) and touchpads (built-in or external) probably twenty years ago. A few months into an intense design project I started to feel burning pain on my wrists. I was working 18 hour days, 7 days a week. Yes, if I was awake I was in front of the computer. This was a hardware and software project and I was doing it all. This meant lots of precise motion at times. Running Solidworks or…

Here's a good picture of the desk: http://i.imgur.com/tFVcegp.jpg That's what a garage hardware startup looks like! A bit of a mess but some of my most productive time was spent in that room designing hardware, writing FPGA, embedded and workstation code. Oh, yes, doing our website too. Crazy times. It was a year and a half of 14 to 18 hour days, 7 days a week from inception to launch. Behind the camera there's the r…

This looks way more like a normal desk than I expected. Is that the "cavity" you referred to?

Re: Look, no hands

#124

Post by jberryman »

jenandre wrote: post #105
mvandy wrote: post #69

I'm Michelle (the girl in the video). This thread is really fascinating to me. I'll add some more details to the discussion below. I was diagnosed with epicodylitis (tennis albow) and I tried a range of different treatments: electrical therapy, accipunture, anti-inflammatory tablets and some kind of light therapy(?) But without any results (probably why I can't remember the last treatment). Also notised there were so…

you may want to look into finding someone who teaches alexander technique: http://www.alexandertechnique.com/ helps lots of musicians and others with repetitive injuries.

I was going to suggest this as well. I found it was too difficult for me to apply it totally successfully to my playing, but studying it has been great for just everyday life and computer stuff where I tend to have a lot of unnecessary tension.

Re: Look, no hands

#125

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

melling wrote: post #109
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't read through all of your notes, but did click on a few links. I've studied a bit of nutritional medicine along the way. Have you looked at any research or anecdotes on anti-inflammatory supplements for RSI? Any irritated condition is characterised by inflammation. The most common medicines prescribed for RSI are anti-inflammatories. So it stands to reason that RSI is tissue-damage, caused by repetitive stra…

If you have any good blogs that discuss this, I'll add it to my notes. I'm always skeptical of supplements but I want to aggregate all thoughts on RSI.

Not off the top of my head. I'll keep it in mind.

Re: Look, no hands

#126

Post by rebootthesystem »

bsimpson wrote: post #123
rebootthesystem wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a good picture of the desk: http://i.imgur.com/tFVcegp.jpg That's what a garage hardware startup looks like! A bit of a mess but some of my most productive time was spent in that room designing hardware, writing FPGA, embedded and workstation code. Oh, yes, doing our website too. Crazy times. It was a year and a half of 14 to 18 hour days, 7 days a week from inception to launch. Behind the camera there's the r…

This looks way more like a normal desk than I expected. Is that the "cavity" you referred to?

Yes. The key in many ways is the piece of wood used to suppport your forearm at the correct height. As I said before, you want your hands to droop onto the keybaord and trackball. Also, note that the trackball is positioned to be able to hit the "Enter" key on the numeric keypad with minimal motion.

The arm support is sanded down with 800 grit sandpaper and then treated with Tung oil. The edges are generously rounded. This makes it very smooth and comfortable.

I should also note that the underlying structure is welded steel. I tried drop-down trays on conventional desks. They are flimsy and have enough give to make them uncomfortable. The cavity on my desk is strong enough to stand on so it feels very solid during normal use.

Re: Look, no hands

#127

Post by snowmaker »

PL1 wrote: post #91

Have you checked Dr. Sarno's approach for RSI and related problems. If you have tried all those options and they didn't work you should definitely give a try. You can check a story very similar to mine: http://www.pgbovine.net/back-pain-guest-article.htm Disclaimer: I am CS PhD student in a top tier US school. Suffered from RSI, tried everything. Was cured by Dr. Sarno's technique.

I was also cured from RSI by Dr Sarno's approach. I highly recommend you give this serious consideration.

Re: Look, no hands

#128

Post by melling »

arafalov wrote: post #99

I had RSI 3 times. The first time I did not know what it was and ended-up not being able to hold a pen. Took many months of recovery and I was lucky my doctor knew what it was. I had heat treatment, some sort of laser and vibration therapies and a couple of other things. Don't know which of them helped, but they sure did. The second time, I was in a different country and was sent to a surgeon. He had no clue what RSI…

Is this Cold Laser Therapy?

http://www.rsitips.com/cold-laser-therapy/

http://www.brooklinephysicaltherapy.com/page4/page18/

I've never heard it mentioned before.

Re: Look, no hands

#129

Post by sdfjkl »

Upon watching the video, my first thought was: I should try this! Not because I have RSI (used to though), but because it seems an excellent solution for keeping my hands on the keyboard whilst having a third "hand" for the pointer, thereby increasing overall speed and efficiency. If it is possible to achieve the same accuracy, this should be great.

I even happen to have one of those touchpads.

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