Tech: Ergonomic mouse experience?

Subject: Tech: Ergonomic mouse experience?
From: Dave Swan
Date: 29 Sep 06 - 05:48 PM

What's your experience been with ergonomic mice? I'm looking for something other than a trackball which will get my wrist out of rotation. I've not found many reviews of mice, and those I have found are not very well written. So, has anyone got an ergo mouse which works well?

Thanks ,
D

Subject: RE: Tech: Ergonomic mouse experience?
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Sep 06 - 06:14 PM

Dave...I only have regular mouse, but I DO have a little program that allows one to do most mouse functions without clicking. I found it when I was having wrist & hand cramping.

If you'd be interested in trying it, I could post it....if you are on a PC, that is, not Mac or Linux.

(This is a free version...the later versions have gone payware)

Subject: RE: Tech: Ergonomic mouse experience?
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Sep 06 - 06:20 PM

A search on that program brought me to this page, where the guy who wrote the program now promotes his program, along with 'different' hardware.

Subject: RE: Tech: Ergonomic mouse experience?
From: catspaw49
Date: 29 Sep 06 - 06:54 PM

A mouse? You're worried about rotative motions? Carpal tunnel?

Folks, let me explain here.

I recently saw a photo of ElSwanno working on a "Thwak Board" for his ox team. Many of you don't know this but Dave really does enjoy ox driving. Seriously......yeah, well..........I know....Dumber than a box of rocks.............

Anyway I was told that he was working on a harness in the picture but it didn't seem to resemble one....so I pissed away an afternoon trying to read up on this simpleass pursuit and came to some interesting info from a site in Burma where they KNOW oxen. Turns out that it was a harness piece of sorts but not in the normal sense of the word. The thwak board hangs on a pivot which you can see in the photo and goes behind the ox acting as a deflector for anal discharge...read: flying shit.

Now why in the hell in this day and age a grown man would work an ox team is beyond me but I am happy to see Dave is protecting himself against the elements, so to speak. He also wears safety glasses and a button up shirt for particulate that bypasses the Thwak Boards. AND, he has that one element that I am told is important to all ox drivers.....a monstrous and cheesy moustache. This filters particulate that might, god forbid, go up the nose or in the mouth.

Geeziz, I think I'm gonna' hurl chunk..............

This is why I am surprised you can give a turkey about a friggin' mouse! You risk a mouthful of oxen shit and you're concerned about some wrist pain............And when I think of you cleaning that hairy thing on your lip.....................oh god, here it comes again.........................

Mouse my ass.....

Spaw

Subject: RE: Tech: Ergonomic mouse experience?
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Sep 06 - 07:03 PM

"Mouse my ass....."

such images that come to mind!

Subject: RE: Tech: Ergonomic mouse experience?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 30 Sep 06 - 12:57 AM

A colleague at work has one of those funny ones that is attached to her keyboard - it has soft pads on each end for her wrists and the tracker ball has been extended to four roller bars and a large clicky pad in the centre. She can use these with both thumbs or her forefingers if she prefers and it's been a great boon to her. It spreads the work over both hands so that she's not always in the same position.

Personally, I have trouble with my right hand (I'm left handed) after a cartiledge problem some years back. I use a pen mouse and pad, which has served me well. The biggest problem has been keeping track of the pen - no cables so it's easily knocked off or carried away! Because I'm a two handed typist, I'm not always resting on the mouse hand.

Good luck with whatever you choose....

LTS

Subject: RE: Tech: Ergonomic mouse experience?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 30 Sep 06 - 01:05 AM

Of course, it's not to be confused with aerodynamic mouse experience, which is what I had at 5.00am yesterday morning.... when Raven kitty decided to bring me breakfast in bed.

LTS

Subject: RE: Tech: Ergonomic mouse experience?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Sep 06 - 01:58 PM

I use a Logitech TrackMan wheel (track ball) so I don't move the thing (it isn't a mouse and doesn't need a pad) and I don't move my wrist. I move my thumb on the ball and I love it.

Here it is. They also have a cordless version.

These things come with the ball in different positions so you're moving different fingers or parts of your hand. I'd suggest going to someplace like Fry's or CompUSA and going up and down the mouse aisle and see how they all feel.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Ergonomic mouse experience?
From: catspaw49
Date: 30 Sep 06 - 03:29 PM

I don't see how the track ball thing can work unless you have a great big screen or super eyesight or something. Take a look at this picture of woman using a Track Ball and see if you don't agree. Plus as far as Dave is concerned, I think that his balls, small though they might be, would provide painful interference with the Track Ball.

Ya' know.....Since Dave does have unlimited access to ox shit, perhaps something might work made from that particular resource. Seriously. One of the many subjects I covered in my reading about ox teams in Burma is that they use ox dung for a variety of purposes including burning for heat. I also know that if you can't build a mouse out of the stuff, you can use it for curing Carpal Tunnel without surgery.

For years the Burmese have had problems with the "Wave Hello"(or goodbye) motion of the hand and as this is a common motion associated with ox team drivers they found a special blending of herbs mixed with the ox doody made a healing poltice which they called a Howdy Doody. Might work for ElSwanno!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Tech: Ergonomic mouse experience?
From: Dave Swan
Date: 30 Sep 06 - 08:54 PM

Well.....ol' Catspaw is right, once the ox's Patterson dilates you have only a few seconds to dodge the flying Patrick coming your way, so it's a good idea to have a deflector on hand.

D

Subject: RE: Tech: Ergonomic mouse experience?
From: GUEST,Nellie Clatt
Date: 30 Sep 06 - 10:21 PM

We don't have mice, we have enough trouble with the rats.