what have you done for me lately?

[dkogan]

Spring cleaning at work. Huge wheeled cardboard crates in the hallway get filled up with monitors, staplers, that sort of thing. Mostly nonfunctional, I imagine.
I scavenged enough to reconstruct at home the keyboard tray I have at work, something like $180 if you buy it (as I recall, Oracle purchasing pays the 'retail' $450). I had a tray at home

Comments

[countrycousin]

Superb summary. I don't have this problem, so I can't comment in detail. But I've been retired for 8 years now, and spend more time reading than typing. I'm on the computer all day, but typing only a small fraction of that time. I suspect that is a major factor in my case. Doesn't much help those who have to type a lot.

Good luck.

[dkogan]

Thanks.

Yeah, it helps when the typing is sporadic. I kind of had the problem in college, but because there was never a consistent schedule of computer use, it never set in. Then I started working, and was doing a lot of typing in my spare time, and it just flattened me in a couple of months.

One of my coworkers went 'What? But you just started working!' Yeah, real helpful. '-_-

[digitalemerald]

Have you tried a trackball? I have occassionally had inklings of developing carpal tunnel and find a trackball helps a lot.

[dkogan]

Thanks... I've heard that it could help, and tried it briefly in stores and such. Found it kind of awkward, made me think it would wreck the fingers/thumb moving the ball. (Of course, Dvorak wasn't exactly natural at first, either.) I'll try it out more if mousing becomes an issue.

I use the keyboard for what I can (which is almost everything), and the problem started from too much keyboard-specific use, hence the not really looking into mice till this year.

Touchpads

[saebel]

I loathed them when I first got my laptop, but I think in the end it's what saved me from carpal tunnel due to extensive home use versus the shit mouse and setup at work.

I'm going to try one of these at work, after going through about three different incarnations of mice (including more novel ones): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16823166003

Of course, the keyboards aren't inherantly Dvorak, but...

Re: Touchpads

[dkogan]

I've played with touchpads, but didn't like them too much at the time. I'll give them a fair shot along with trackballs if need arises.

Fingerworks made a keyboard where the entire surface is a touchpad, so you can alternate between typing and mousing without moving your hands. They seem to be out of business, but you could probably still get their stuff. I've played with a coworker's for a bit, and it was pretty impressive. Ridiculously expensive, of course.

None of the keyboards I've used are physically dvorak. You can swap the layout with the windows language menu (or with some ugly scripts in unix).