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Exterminate your desk: How to remove your mouse

nickbusey.com

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Re: Exterminate your desk: How to remove your mouse

#51

Post by NickBusey »

lesona wrote: post #49
NickBusey wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My previously favorite keyboard, Das Keyboard, has a rotary encoder for the volume control, and it's fantastic. I agree that sliders and encoders could/should be used more. There are plenty of great MIDI devices out there that offer them, I should play around with some of them for day to day stuff like this rather than just music.

Previously favorite? I'm looking for something to replace my current KB, and I was wondering what your current favorite is/why you like it better than Das keyboard.

Current favorite is the UHK, linked in the article. Main reason is the split, secondary reason is the firmware for things like the mouse keys and custom layers.

Re: Exterminate your desk: How to remove your mouse

#52

Post by throwaway675309 »

stevebmark wrote: post #42

It's funny he mentions RSI, using a mechanical keyboard with greater key travel distance is worse for RSI than a flat low travel keyboard. The mouse is also much more efficient than the keyboard for many tasks, including in Vim. Reaching for the mouse doesn't affect the muscles related to RSI. In fact, for RSI, I'd say ditch Vim to avoid having to type constantly, since it's just a text editor, and use an IDE which g…

It actually depends. The type of keyboard is not necessarily as important as the manner in which you depress the keys. RSI is usually caused by performing an action that isolates a muscular movement.

So for example, you might have a mechanical keyboard which may have a longer vertical travel, but if you depress the keys through the usage of the weight of the arm and let gravity do some of the work, you might be able to ameliorate some of the potential causes of RSI.

Source: studied ergonomics including the Alexander technique and Taubman for piano, some of which applies to computer keyboards.

Re: Exterminate your desk: How to remove your mouse

#53

Post by doix »

xupybd wrote: post #38

I've played this game before. It's great if you never change what you're doing. If you get a new project that requires a new IDE or VM solution you spend hours setting things up again. The mouse is more flexible and better suited to getting work done. This seems relevant. https://xkcd.com/1205/

It's the other way around in my opinion. If you learn something like vim/i3/cli tools it's relevant for future projects.

If you invest time learning IntelliJ, they'll release an update and move everything around. Now you'll be searching frantically and clicking randomly until you find where things are.

Re: Exterminate your desk: How to remove your mouse

#54

Post by m463 »

Tuckerism wrote: post #26
m463 wrote: post #17

wow, that keyboard looks painful. Really, why would you use a hard wooden wrist rest? what a mess. I had trouble with my palms years ago, and a soft wrist rest was the solution. Your palms don't have high pressure points, the weight is spread out. This means the system of strings and pulleys from your muscles in your arms that control your fingers can function well, and long-term. The skin slides across soft material…

I was really surprised at how much more comfortable my wooden wrist rest is. As another user pointed out, getting the elevation all I needed. Definitely one of my favorite upgrades to my setup (and definitely easier to keep clean).

Although I realize people don't take unsolicited advice, I would still suggest you try it with a nice memory foam wrist rest at some time. adjust the level.

I can type for hours and hours this way. It also makes a nice elbow rest (although you also shouldn't lean on your elbows for hours, can affect your bursa)

Re: Exterminate your desk: How to remove your mouse

#55

Post by esafak »

OGWhales wrote: post #43

Semi-related rant titled “Almost everything on computers is perceptually slower than it was in 1983”: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/927593460642615296 It’s about the way software is designed around having a mouse, even when it doesn’t make sense.

Computer users of the day were experts, and they were accustomed to using a CLI. Today's users are less computer savvy, and use more applications, which means they can not memorize everything. That said, I do wish more applications provided better keyboard support, like IDEs do with reconfigurable shortcuts. Keyboard macros used to be a thing too.

Re: Exterminate your desk: How to remove your mouse

#56

Post by xupybd »

doix wrote: post #53
xupybd wrote: post #38

I've played this game before. It's great if you never change what you're doing. If you get a new project that requires a new IDE or VM solution you spend hours setting things up again. The mouse is more flexible and better suited to getting work done. This seems relevant. https://xkcd.com/1205/

It's the other way around in my opinion. If you learn something like vim/i3/cli tools it's relevant for future projects. If you invest time learning IntelliJ, they'll release an update and move everything around. Now you'll be searching frantically and clicking randomly until you find where things are.

Yes that's my point as you change tools you have to learn new keys.

It's fine if you can dictate your tools are only vim/i3/cli. I haven't had that luxury.

Re: Exterminate your desk: How to remove your mouse

#57

Post by BeefWellington »

bluGill wrote: post #33

> but takes more time than you think, and definitely slows me down. Are you sure? I mean have you done a real test with an independent observer using a stopwatch? Back in the 1980s Apple did run those tests and were able to setup many situations where an experience keyboard user was still faster with a mouse - but they all claimed to be faster with the keyboard. Now to some extent they were gaming the tests (not all…

I mean, sure, but Apple at the time also had a vested interest in showing mice were better for productivity.

IME, having actually worked on replacing an old mouse-less DOS package for a company in the past, it was 100% faster for the employees to use keyboard shortcuts for everything. In fact, it was their main complaint about the new package they were trying to substitute for it -- it slowed their workflow down dramatically. Some of that was down to unfamiliarity with mice but most experienced users of a given bespoke system that need to do quick data entry can mentally map out how many tabs it is to any given field, and I'd bet even money they can get where they need on any given data entry form faster than a person using a mouse.

In this era of web based UIs though, we've lost complete use of keys that can provide specialized functionality with one button press (what the F1-12 keys were designed for). Software just isn't designed to be keyboard-first for the most part these days.

Re: Exterminate your desk: How to remove your mouse

#58

Post by [deleted] »

el-duderino42 wrote: post #50

Hmm, so while he was busy optimizing and learning and tweaking his keyboard setup, others invent game changing programming languages like Go, and then also write text editors that make heavy use of the mouse, and of mouse chording: http://acme.cat-v.org/ So I’m sceptical whether this approach of spending ages on this really is that productive, cost-benefit-wise. Usually it doesn’t stop there, but this optimization be…

[deleted]

Re: Exterminate your desk: How to remove your mouse

#59

Post by ChrisLTD »

huy-nguyen wrote: post #36

Does anyone have experience with both Shortcat ( https://shortcat.app/ ) and Homerow ( https://www.homerow.app/ ) to make a comparison?

Shortcat was closer to Vimium for me, so it’s what I’ve stuck with. I wish it was open source though. I’m a bit wary of giving accessibility permissions to such a small close sourced app.

Re: Exterminate your desk: How to remove your mouse

#60

Post by midoridensha »

m463 wrote: post #17

wow, that keyboard looks painful. Really, why would you use a hard wooden wrist rest? what a mess. I had trouble with my palms years ago, and a soft wrist rest was the solution. Your palms don't have high pressure points, the weight is spread out. This means the system of strings and pulleys from your muscles in your arms that control your fingers can function well, and long-term. The skin slides across soft material…

>Your wrists are warm.

This is a bad thing in the summer.

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