OT: ergonomics and vertical mice

[Bill Campbell]

On Thu, Mar 28, 2013, Andrew Gould wrote:
>On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 4:06 PM, Michael Hipp <michael at redmule.com> wrote:
>> On 2013-03-27 1:21 PM, Andrew Gould wrote:
>>> Does anyone out there use vertical mice to prevent or alleviate wrist
>>> pain?  I was wondering whether keeping the hand in the "handshake"
>>> position matters, ergonomically speaking.
>>
>> I used one for a while during a period when I was having lots of arm and
>> hand pain. The idea of putting the hand in a vertical position seems
>> logical but I just didn't care for it. Seemed the dexterity, speed and
>> positional accuracy suffered greatly. And it just seemed to bring about
>> a different set of discomforts. So I abandoned it after a while.
>>
>> I went to see a local chiropractor a few times for the various pains I
>> was having and he did me a lot of good. I now use a normal mouse with
>> one of the Microsoft Natural "humpback" keyboards and don't have much
>> trouble.
>>
>> I also swapped out most of my editors for ones with Vim mappings. I
>> believe this also helped a lot.
>>
>> But all the above is just FWIW. keyboards, mice, chairs, monitors,
>> seating positions are very individual things and each person will have
>> to find what works best.
>>
>> Michael
>>
>
>Michael,
>
>Thanks for the input.  The idea of using keys more and mice less makes
>sense.  I'll finally justify buying my vi cheat-sheet coffee mug!
>
>I saw a massage therapist yesterday.  Based on her observations of my
>right shoulder, she thought that the problem was far more likely to be
>the positioning of the mouse than the axis of my hand.  I ordered a
>mouse pad that attaches to the arm rest of my chair, which should fix
>that problem.  I also found a vertical mouse for $16, so I decided to
>give it a try.

I agree totally that the positioning of the mouse relative to the keyboard
is critical.  I've been using a desk with the monitor and keyboard in the
corner for decades now.

When I first tried it was with a desk with a keyboard tray below the desk
height, but without room for the mouse next to the Microsoft "Natural"
keyboard so the mouse was higher on the desk itself.  I found this to be
extremely uncomfortable so now have the keyboard and mouse on the desktop.
This is higher than the normal keyboard placement so requires a chair that
can be positioned so my arms are basically horizontal from the chair arms
to the keyboard and mouse.  I'm pretty tall with long legs so this works
very well, but person with shorter legs might want to have some kind of
foot rest to be comfortable.

The mice I use are rather ancient, the 3-button Logitech Mouseman without a
scroll wheel.  I find this much more efficient than one with a clickable
scroll wheel in xterms and X11 where I use the middle button extensively to
paste selected text.  I bought a case of these mice when we were building
systems many years ago, and still have quite a few new in the box.

Bill
-- 
INTERNET:   bill at celestial.com  Bill Campbell; Celestial Software LLC
URL: http://www.celestial.com/  PO Box 820; 6641 E. Mercer Way
Voice:          (206) 236-1676  Mercer Island, WA 98040-0820
Fax:            (206) 232-9186  Skype: jwccsllc (206) 855-5792

More laws, less justice.  -- Marcus Tulius Cicero (42 BC)