[Geeks] Experiences, opinions and recommendations for ergonomic keyboards and mice?

[Andrew Janke]

I think there are a few others of us here in the same boat... :)

Myself:

  * Dragon Naturally speaking on a Vista Laptop via Synergy (GNU
software) to a Linux box.
  * Microsoft Ergonomic keyboard 4000. (havent yet resorted to the Ergo Kinesis)
  * Microsoft Comfort Mouse 3000 combined with a Microsoft Ergo mouse
(wierd looking one)

Although the most important things to do:

   * Get that keyboard and mouse at the correct height. Take a saw to
work, do whatever it takes.
   * Learn to touch type.  (ie: use all your fingers and spread the load).
   * Learn to use bash/the shell/etc for what it is good for.  My
.bash_aliases file is below (for example)
       Anything that amounts to one less keypress is good!  My most
used function is the c() one...

Other tricks such as things like this in your .vimrc will help a lot too:

   au BufWritePost * if getline(1) =~ "^#!.*/bin/" | silent !chmod a+x
<afile> | endif

ie: automatically "chmod +x" any file that you are editing if it
starts with "#! */bin/"

In short, make changes now! :)  I am sure that Jon Harlap and Sebas
will add their own experiences.. :)

---

# lots of funky completions
if [ -e /etc/bash_completion ];
then
   . /etc/bash_completion
fi

# aliases
alias rm="rm -i"
alias cp="cp -i"
alias mv="mv -i"

# CMR
alias gc="ssh -L 3000:numbat.cmr.uq.edu.au:2200 ajanke_0315 at sshd.cmr.uq.edu.au"
alias gl="ssh -p 3000 localhost"

# host aliases
alias ga="ssh alj225 at dc2.anu.edu.au"
alias gb="ssh -A rotor at ben.lclust"
alias gd="ssh -A rotor at donald.lclust"
alias gf="ssh -A feeble.bic.mni.mcgill.ca"
alias gh="ssh ajanke.selfip.com"
alias gm="ssh -A rotor at mavis.anu.edu.au"
alias gmu="ssh -A rotor at murdoch.lclust"
alias gp="ssh poinecom at platypus.cbr.hosting-server.com.au"
alias gs="ssh -A shadow.bic.mni.mcgill.ca"
alias gy="ssh -A yorick.bic.mni.mcgill.ca"

alias rgd="ssh -A root at donald.lclust"
alias rgf="ssh root at fatcon.lclust"
alias rgmu="ssh root at murdoch.lclust"
alias rgz="ssh -x root at 132.216.56.61"

# finger savers
alias .b=". ~/.bashrc"
alias a="animate"
alias au="sudo apt-get update"
alias ai="sudo apt-get install"
alias ap="sudo apt-get remove --purge"
alias C="cd .. && l"
alias cb="./configure --with-build-path=/usr/local/bic --prefix=/usr/local/bic"
alias cb2="./configure --with-minc2 --with-build-path=/usr/local/bic
--prefix=/usr/local/bic"
alias cm="./configure --with-build-path=/usr/local/mni --prefix=/usr/local/mni"
alias cx="chmod +x"
alias dh="df -h"
alias di="display"
alias d.="du -sh ."
alias d*="du -sh *"
alias e="exit"
alias g="gimp-remote"
alias h="history"
alias i="inkscape"
alias k="keychain --eval ~/.ssh/bic-dsa-key"
alias l="ls -F --color=auto"
alias la="ls -al -F --color=auto"
alias ll="ls -l -F --color=auto"
alias lw="ls -1 | wc -l"
alias n="LANG=en_AU.utf-8 nedit -create"
alias m="make"
alias mk="make -k"
alias p="pwd"
alias ps="ps -u rotor"
alias q="qstat -u rotor,rodell"
alias qh="qhost -q"
alias ql="qstat -u rotor,rodell -f | less"
alias qw="qstat -u rotor,rodell | tail -n +3 | wc -l"
alias pi="ping -c 3"
alias r="register"
alias rl="sed -n '1!G;h;$p'"
alias s="sudo"
alias ss="ssh"
alias t="top -d 1"
alias ts="tail -f /var/log/syslog"
alias tf="tail -f"
alias v="vim"
alias vb="vi ~/.bashrc"
alias w="watch"
alias wl="wc -l"
alias wq="watch --no-title qstat -u rotor,rodell -f"
alias xt="xterm -bg black -fg lightgreen -sl 5000 -sb -rightbar -fa
Dejavu -fs 10"
alias xf="killall metacity; xfwm4 --replace&"
alias xx="xxdiff"

# finger saving functions
c () {
   if [ "x${1}" = "x" ]
   then
      cd
   else
      cd "${1}"
   fi

   ls -F --color=auto
   }

d () {
   if [ "x${1}" = "x" ]
   then
      display *.jpg *.png
   else
      display "${1}"
   fi
   }

cs () {
   cat `which "${1}"`
   }

vs () {
   vim `which "${1}"`
   }

fwl () {
   for i in `ls -1d *`
   do
      echo -n "  $i: "
      ls -1 $i | wc -l
   done
   }


a


On Fri, Apr 4, 2008 at 9:52 AM, Dr. Sridar Narayanan
<sridar at mrs.mni.mcgill.ca> wrote:
>
>  Fellow Geeks,
>
>  Age and far too many hours/day in front of a computer have given me
>  recurring bouts of repetitive stress injury/carpal tunnel syndrome. I'm sure
>  some of you are in the same boat. Do people have any experience (positive or
>  negative) with so-called ergonomic keyboards and mice? If I get enough
>  replies, I'll post a summary.
>
>  Cheers,
>
>  Sridar
>
>
>  _______________________________________________
>  Geeks mailing list
>  Geeks at bic.mni.mcgill.ca
>  http://www2.bic.mni.mcgill.ca/mailman/listinfo/geeks
>



-- 
Andrew Janke (a.janke at gmail.com || http://a.janke.googlepages.com/)
Canberra->Australia +61 (402) 700 883