I've worked as a full time telecommutor for 5 years, for two different companies. Both are located over a thousand miles from my house, and I fly in once a year for meetings.
I think it's great. I get to spend more time with my wife and kids, I can better allocate my time, and I'm much more focused than I was in the office.
It's important to (a) have a decent network connection, (b) have a separate office that you can close the door and keep out the rest of the world, and (c) have a strong sense of when to take a break. The last is very important. Everyone I talk to assumes it's hard for telecommutors to keep from being distracted, but for me the opposite was true. I used to work 80 hour weeks, because the computer was always at most 30 seconds away, and there was always work to do...this was very unhealthy. You have to take breaks, and you have to resist the temptation to make the home-office your only life.
But I highly recommend the experience. I think it's the wave of the future, allowing people to stay in small communities and spend more time with their families.
History is interesting, but I think personal experience is more important. I don't really care about typing speed; I can touch type with both layouts. But a Querty keyboard will give me wrist pain in the matter of an hour, whereas the dvorak layout lets me type for several hours without pain. To me that's the true test. In addition, I've never met anyone who can touch type on both keyboards and prefers Querty.
Of course, neither layout can overcome the limitations of a keyboard whose keys are lined up in horizontal rows, but my DataHand testimonials aren't suited to this thread.
An X-mapping will work except for ONE key, the comma, which fails to generate the correct code when shifted.
So Datahand sent me a ROM to fix it. I should note that I have a DH-200 (older model.) Also, it took me a lot of back and forth to get datahand to do this. They have a VERY limited staff. They're helpful once you can get a hold of them and if they remember to call you back:)
I think dvorak vs. querty doesn't matter as much on the datahand, because your fingers move so little in either. But it helps to know dvorak so that when you have to type on a standard keyboard, you can survive a little longer.
Now I just want someone to build a notebook with a datahand keyboard in it. Lugging the two handsets around isn't feasible.
I'll have to do a "me too" post. I tried various so-called ergonomic keyboards before the datahand, and was still suffering badly. I was to the point that 5 minutes of typing would cause my hands to knot up, and was looking for an alternate career. As a last resort, I bought a DataHand, and after a couple weeks I had no pain in my wrists, and haven't had any since.
There is almost no movement required of one's fingers on this thing, and your hand is kept in a very natural position.
It is an expensive keyboard, but well worth the price.
BTW, other things that help are a good chair, a low desk (most are too high, I took a saw to mine), the dvorak layout (which I use on the datahand) and a coffee break once an hour or so.
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I've worked as a full time telecommutor for 5 years, for two different companies. Both are located over a thousand miles from my house, and I fly in once a year for meetings.
I think it's great. I get to spend more time with my wife and kids, I can better allocate my time, and I'm much more focused than I was in the office.
It's important to (a) have a decent network connection, (b) have a separate office that you can close the door and keep out the rest of the world, and (c) have a strong sense of when to take a break. The last is very important. Everyone I talk to assumes it's hard for telecommutors to keep from being distracted, but for me the opposite was true. I used to work 80 hour weeks, because the computer was always at most 30 seconds away, and there was always work to do...this was
very unhealthy. You have to take breaks, and you have to resist the temptation to make the home-office your only life.
But I highly recommend the experience. I think it's the wave of the future, allowing people to stay in small communities and spend more time with their families.
History is interesting, but I think personal experience is more important. I don't really care about typing speed; I can touch type with both layouts. But a Querty keyboard will give me wrist pain in the matter of an hour, whereas the dvorak layout lets me type for several hours without pain. To me that's the true test. In addition, I've never met anyone who can touch type on both keyboards and prefers Querty.
Of course, neither layout can overcome the limitations of a keyboard whose keys are lined up in horizontal rows, but my DataHand testimonials aren't suited to this thread.
An X-mapping will work except for ONE key, the comma, which fails to generate the correct code when shifted.
:)
So Datahand sent me a ROM to fix it. I should note that I have a DH-200 (older model.) Also, it took me a lot of back and forth to get datahand to do this. They have a VERY limited staff. They're helpful once you can get a hold of them and if they remember to call you back
I think dvorak vs. querty doesn't matter as much on the datahand, because your fingers move so little in either. But it helps to know dvorak so that when you have to type on a standard keyboard, you can survive a little longer.
Now I just want someone to build a notebook with a datahand keyboard in it. Lugging the two handsets around isn't feasible.
I'll have to do a "me too" post. I tried various so-called ergonomic keyboards before the datahand, and was still suffering badly. I was to the point that 5 minutes of typing would cause my hands to knot up, and was looking for an alternate career. As a last resort, I bought a DataHand, and after a couple weeks I had no pain in my wrists, and haven't had any since.
There is almost no movement required of one's fingers on this thing, and your hand is kept in a very natural position.
It is an expensive keyboard, but well worth the price.
BTW, other things that help are a good chair, a low desk (most are too high, I took a saw to mine), the dvorak layout (which I use on the datahand) and a coffee break once an hour or so.