Slashdot Mirror

Saw that E-Quill-AirO2bic Mouse yesterday, it's a new item at ThinkGeek. It seems an interesting idea, as you hold your hand sideways while using it (an "optimal Functional Neutral position," as they call it).

that already happened !

One of the great RSI myths is that trackballs are better for you than mice. Repetetive movement of your thumb directly causes harm to your wrist in much greater degrees than does movement of a mouse, especially a properly designed mouse like the Quill.

The second myth is that wrist rests are good for you, which they are not, under any circumstances. By resting your wrist on a pad, you are forcefully reducing bloodflow, and asking for trouble. Your wrists shouldn't lay on ANYTHING.

You can get RSI from typing also. Sticking to a shell doesn't save you.

The most important thing is making sure your wrists don't touch anything, and making sure your chair is such that you can keep your elbows at 90 degrees and comfortably use your keyboard and mouse.

For those of us who require mouses (i.e. when I do design work), I highly reccomend the Quill. It's a bit expensive, but 100x more comfortable and much better designed, especially from the wrist POV. Took me one week to get fully adjusted; now I'm just as accurate with it as I was with my IntelliMouseExplorer (I know that doesn't look possible, but it is; this mouse actually feels MORE natural).

The other important thing is taking breaks. Use DrWrite (which is now built-in to Gnome's Keyboard preference pane) or if you run Windows, use Breaktime by Kadmi software.

You might want to try one of these Quill Mice, theyre expensive as all get out, but they have a nice feel - when you click you can really feel it in different muscles than normal. I tried one out and thought the position was pretty comfortable.