[Gllug] RSI: Was VACANCY: Site Reliability Engineering

[Nix]

On 11 Mar 2009, Stuart Children verbalised:
> Funny you should say that... :( I've been pretty fine for years [1], but last
> couple of weeks things have got bad. My right thumb in particular - pain over
> the top of the first knuckle, swollen, stiff (doesn't want to flex very far -
> though it can). Been to the doctor who's ordered an x-ray and we'll see what
> he says after that, but "RSI" is screaming in my head. I wouldn't have
> expected it to come on so suddenly though.

Looks like RSI to me, although mine never got swollen to any great
extent: just painful. The knuckle pain is definitely a symptom.

> I do use a tackball at home, and I asked our desktop people for one at work

A tackball? Isn't that somewhat painful? ;)

> today. I've had brief plays with a MS split keyboard before but it never sold
> me. I'd be intrigued to try a Kinesis/similar, especially now I have pains I
> can measure improvement against!

MS split keyboards never agreed with me. The lack of contouring sucks
and the keys are really in the wrong places for my typing style.

> This has made be think of other ways to reduce key strokes and use the mouse
> less.

There are several window managers specializing in total keystrokedom
which you might want to look at. I'm using awesome at the moment, which
is both heavy on the keyboarding, and scriptable...

> "sticky" modifier keys, ie: so you press Ctrl then X, rather than
> having to hold Ctrl.

If that's useful ISTM that your typing style is flawed. You should never
hit a modifier key on the same side of the keyboard as the key you're
holding down, or with the same hand: this is why the modifier keys are
duplicated on both sides of the keyboard.

>            Alternatively, forcing yourself to use both hands (one on each
> key) - rather than stretching across the keyboard with one hand.

This is another advantage of split keyboards: you are *forced* to learn
to type like that. (I used to be a high-speed reach-across two-fingerist
myself. The Maltron cured that.)
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