RE: OFF-TOPIC: re. tendonitious

["Tom Robertson" t-r@xxxxxxxx]

Dear Folks:

Tendonitis really shouldn't be off-toptic at all, should it?

If your arms ache so you can't hit the XyKeys, then where are
you.

A suggestion I found to stop what ends up being tendonitis.

Get a yard stick and place it where you can reach it easily.

Sit straight in the chair you use to write with your computer.

Close your eyes and put your hands out in front of you in their
most comfortable position.

Kind of feel around to see what really does seem the most
comfortable.

Hold your hands where they are and open your eyes.

Try to keep one hand right where it was, and with the other get
three measurements.

The first is from the floor to the tips of your fingers.

The second is measure the clearance distance from your desk,
because chances are the keyboard height will be lower than your
desktop.

The third measure is to get the slant on the back of your hands.

Your keyboard should be set to the height of your first
measurement with your hand on the "home" keys.

The second setting for your keyboard should be to the slant of
the second measure.

The slant will probably be just the opposite of the direction you
keyboard is tilted with by those cute little flippers on the back
of the board that makes it tilt toward you.

 >From my experience, and according to several typing teachers I
asked and one champion speed typist, the heel or any other part
of your hand should not rest on anything. If it does, you are
probably cramping your writing style.

Anybody have anything to add, subtract, or change from this?

TR...

The mouse location is found the same way.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-xywrite@xxxxxxxx
> [mailto:owner-xywrite@xxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of ...
> Sent: Friday, May 21, 1999 5:25 PM
> To: xywrite@xxxxxxxx
> Subject: OFF-TOPIC: re. tendinitis
>
>
> ≪ I've recently re-learned the lesson, acquiring tendinitis
> from mouse-bite. ≫ --Wendell Cochran re "kbd diamonds"
>
> What causes RSI is improper wrist positioning, not mice
> or keyboards per se. I got it from a keyboard so early that
> my right wrist had been in a splint 24 hours a day for
> several months before the first stories appeared that
> associated the condition with keyboard use. Although I'd
> noticed that typing was my most painful activity without
> the splint (which forced me to position my hand the right
> way), I still hadn't made the connection because I'd already
> used computer kbds for several years. What had caused the
> damage was the way I'd adjusted to a keyboard with a much
> lighter touch than its predecessors.
>
> ≪ In addition to aspirin & abstinence I've bought a Cirque
> touchpad (magic!) & learned keystroke equivalents for many
> mouse motions. ≫
>
> I can position my wrist with my touchpad in a way
> guaranteed to produce RSI if I persist. In fact, it seems
> easier with my touchpad than with my mouse. If you believe
> that using a touchpad in and of itself will prevent
> recurrence of your tendinitis, good luck.
>
> ≪ Cirque's Web site & 'support' insist that its touchpads
> are for the Microsoft stable of operating systems (only),
> but at least one model works almost equally well under
> Linux. ≫
>
> If a linux driver is important to you, why didn't you buy
> a Synaptics? The developer http://www.synaptics.com/
> enthusiastically promotes the linux driver that's available
> http://www.pdos.lcs.mit.edu/~cananian/Synaptics/ for its
> touchpads.
>
> ≪ the gods meant fingers to stay close to the home
> position. ≫
>
> Maybe. They certainly meant wrists to be elevated
> with computer input devices. ... 
>
> Ciao. --a
>
> ======================================= adpFisher
>  nyc
> 	xyWrite 3 supplements !xyWise and !xyWiz +
> 	Wolfgang Bechstein's seafaring adventures:
> http://www.escape.com/~yesss/
> ========================================