On Wednesday, October 8, 2003, at 08:57 AM, Adam Hewitt wrote:
Hi All,
After working with computers for the last 15 years and working with
computers for 7, I have really started having problems with RSI in my
mouse hand. This has recently been compunded further by the purchase of
my awesome iBook and the use of its trackpad.
My question for the list is, what mice do you guys use or recommend
that
are ergonomic enough to reduce the damage I am doing to my hand? I
guess
the ultimate mouse I am looking for would have to also be portable so
that I can take it with my ibook, but not as important as comfort.
Cheers,
Adam.
Howdy
Triple J's Dr Karl advises that 'new' users should initially use the
mouse with their least
favored hand, as I am right-handed this was my left hand.
Aside from the practical advantages of freeing up my most skillful hand
to do
more demanding tasks (typing, nose-scratching etc) as a result I am now
'ambi-mouse-erous'.
It only took 6 weeks or so till my left hand was as good as my right at
mousing.
This may seem trivial on the surface but I'm contantly seeing
advantages, eg on very
messy desks, using the dreaded iMac puck mouse with its awful cable,
trainning,
using two computers at once (not often though;) etc.
So at the very least you could possibly halve the negative effect by
trying this out.
Might I also be so bold as to suggest using the least amount of effort
to 'mouse' and
minimal grip-time too :)
At one point I was developing a sore index finger knuckle (from mousing
as well as
old war wounds I believe), since I began using the puck mouse it has
ceased.
I put this down to the extra bending the end of my fingerwent through
with the puck mouse.
The normal mouse was keeping it straight, forcing the joint not the
tendons and muscles,
to take all the load.
Hope these anecdotes help
Cheers
Paul Kitchener
