RSI Mouse

[Matt1eD]

I've have some really painful RSI in my right hand particularly.

The weird shaped keyboard apparently were proven wrong and someone came up with one shaped like / \ for each hand and that's a bit weird. But most improtantly I'm looking after a really comfortable mouse (naturally USB & optical - tbh not that fussed with the DPI). I use a notebook about 14 hours a day during the holidays with a four quid mouse and around 8 hours at school with the same mouse. Typing is starting to get painful so I would not be adverse to getting a keyboard aswell.

I don't have great circulation and am not one for breathing properly - both things which Alexander Technique is doing wonders for; however my use of the computer, particularly my mouse hand has been making it really painful and my other hand starting to get early symptons.

Could anyone recommend me a good mouse (and keyboard if you think I should get one). I'm not a gamer and would like one with a decent range. I want a dock to charge it for preference rather than batteries. It must be comfortable and RSI friendly. And would like it to last some time, it's probably worth mentioning that I board at school and I'll probably bring it home at the weekend so should be able (naturally with care) to put up with alot of transport and Also I hate keyboards with extra function buttons on! I am quite fussy about how a keyboard feels and love notebook ones, however I can get used to (am used to touchtyping on lappy sizes) any one.

I don't have alot of money to spend ~£40 max.

Thanks, Matt.

[herulach]

laptop size keyboarsd is probably your problem, if your really serious then one of the ones thats just like a big ball and its just various finger combinations to type would take some learning but sort it.

As far as mice, have you considered a trackball?

Its worth bearing in mind that proper posture is incredibly important when it comes to typing, do you rest your hands on the desk when you type?

[Matt1eD]

laptop size keyboarsd is probably your problem, if your really serious then one of the ones thats just like a big ball and its just various finger combinations to type would take some learning but sort it.

HAd thought about the weird shaped ones, I really want minimal getting used to time (I'm impatient), I'm not sure how much it will work and if it's worth it, however the pain has been getting worse.

As far as mice, have you considered a trackball?

Yes. And I hate the thing!!!!! Sorry, I just can't stand them.

Its worth bearing in mind that proper posture is incredibly important when it comes to typing, do you rest your hands on the desk when you type?

I do rest them, and Alexander Technique has really helped with that, however I still get this pain, and I am very early into my lessons.

Thanks heurlach

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Addy: I'm not sure how much is just I need a differnet setup (I think I'm trying to comfort myself here actually rather than tackle the problem) however I somewhat fancy this.... http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=65807

[herulach]

http://www.maltron.com/maltron-kbd-dual.html

Maybe worth renting one for a week to see what you think? Im sure you could get some kind of allwowance toward one.

Or see this page for other advice
http://www.healthandsafety.co.uk/rsi2.htm
http://eeshop.unl.edu/rsi.html

[Matt1eD]

Thanks had seen the maltrons but didn't know could rent them. Might give that a go. Thanks

[prehensile]

Watch out and rest it until it's fine.

My hands are really strong and I could play eight hours binges every day when I was addicted to urban terror quake mod. It was great fun and I was probably close to the top of the gaming league on that mod. I did all kinds of heavy sports like tennis and rock climbing in my backyard so we talking about seriously healthy hands-I've been playing computer games a lot now and then for about 15 years.

The point is that now I haven't touched a computer for about two years. I use voice recognition and a smartnav mouse. From naturalpoint.

What happened is that one winter I changed flats and was using a PC from a futon and it was awkward using the keyboard. for gaming and stuff I had a very comfortable and ergonomic and I played for awhile in the winter without any trouble at all. But sometimes I would surf online with the keyboard and mouse on the floor to type things into web pages a little bit.

My hands didn't get painful or anything, one day I felt a bit of tiredness in my wrist, the next day it was a bit more, and the next day my hands went completely numb, and I started having loads of pains. I think whatever it was probably had a delayed reaction of about two or three days before some swelling happened in my wrists which is basically carpal tunnel syndrome.

I got a really severely in the end and I couldn't do anything in the house for about three months and then I had a relapse in the summer, but now I am back to being able to cook food with my hands. It doesn't feel like I'll ever be able to play games again without some serious luck, but I've got my computer rigged up so I can say anything and it basically does it including this text which I probably had to make three corrections to.
as I am speaking it.

So more time for producing music then. Gaming was a bit of a waste. Actually I've just completed fear and I'm in the middle of quake 4 by using a saitek game pad with my toes-the keyboard mapping from them allows me to map about 20 keys and I use a smartnav mouse which is basically head tracking like the TrackIR.

The moral of the story is to be really careful because that might well be no warning signs, or you're the buying sliced bread and ready meals for a while. make sure you have a girlfriend at home as well to do all the handiwork.



So keep your hands in good condition, make sure you have a healthy sport that stops the muscles becoming too good at doing fast movements, read plenty about it, never use anything if you are uncomfortable at your hands of coping, give them some rest first even if that means changing the way your brain works.

I would tell you to get a smartnav mouse it is about 150 pounds but then you don't have to use your hands at all for regular work. Which may give them enough rest to heal. try doing plenty of handwriting and putting your room away to do natural hand exercise.

[prehensile]

Also depending on your problem might want to research a k-trak -chances are it might have me gaming again but I've been waiting for a couple of months on my order

[Matt1eD]

I shall quite seriously have a look at the smartnav stuff - it's probably well worth the investment if it will help me but I won't have enough money for some time.

A couple of things are that I'm not really a gamer - however when at school essays are the real drag however a lot of my time is just surfing or sending emails and using IM. However I'm doing more and more work in VS and that's not going to reduce - I feel that a keyboard is essential to that. I'm looking forward to the integrated voice recognition in Vista.

Sport, what sport!!!! My sport is shooting!!! At home I do cycling - however when I have time I play alot of Fives (so that's pretty hand intensive).

Many thanks for your help & advice.... am watching the smartnav vids atm

[prehensile]

I don't know if there is a demo of Dragon NaturallySpeaking professional but if you want to speak to your PC- you might want to try that-I think that if I was writing essays now with complicated words that are easily recognised-dragon just doesn't like small words but long words and academic text should be really good. And then what you do is to go over it and correct any dodgy bits by hand.

You might want to try. But to do have to have a really nice USB microphone to have the best results. I don't but I still just wrote the above without a single error just by speaking slow as if I was speaking to a foreign person. nightmare