http://ayende.comAyende @ RahienCopyright (C) Ayende Rahien 2004 - 2021 (c) 202660What I've done vs wrist pains: Use a trackball with a large ball at work and keep on using a mouse at home. This makes you use different kinds of movements for controlling your pointer. I would personally recommend against drawing tablets because they tend to cost to much time to switch to and from. http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment19http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment19Sun, 02 Sep 2007 11:27:09 GMTI use the ms natural keyboard 4000 as well, and love it. The mouse I use is the G5 laser mouse from logitech (http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/mice_pointers/mice/devices/359&cl=us,en). It's worked very well for me. I'm with Søren on the "ambimousdrous". I taught myself to use a mouse with either hand 10 years ago, and haven't had any issues in that time. I switch back and forth frequently, and find some tasks are best optimised for left handed mouse use and some for right handed mouse use. That's one reason I chose the G5 -- you can use it as either a left handed or right handed mouse. http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment18http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment18Sat, 01 Sep 2007 17:09:20 GMTI think the better question to ask is how to use your mouse rather than which ones to use. With the level of use we put into a mouse every single one is going to cause problems. As a consequence I've training my left hand to use a leftie mouse so I can switch back and forth. I prefer to keep the mouse in my left hand at work and when I get home I use my right. Even wear and tear, I've not had a single problem *knock* *knock*. For my left hand I use a Logitech MX610 and for my right hand I use a MX Revolution also from Logitech. http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment17http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment17Sat, 01 Sep 2007 07:22:51 GMTThe things that have always disappointed me in non-vanilla keyboards are the rearrangement of the center cluster (pgup/dwn, del, ins, etc), the rearrangement of the Fn keys (not in groups of 4) and the "F" switch. This keyboard at least sticks with the traditional center cluster layout. I might give it a try. http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment16http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment16Fri, 31 Aug 2007 23:15:06 GMTI've got a Wacom Graphire 6x8 tablet, which works great. I'm a big fan of having a variety of pointing devices, since variety is the antidote for repetitive stress injury. I wrote a bit about my experience with the tablet here: http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2006/06/14/Mouseless-Computing.aspx http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment15http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment15Wed, 29 Aug 2007 23:02:38 GMTI'm a big fan of the 3M ergonomic mouse. I also use the same keyboard as you, and it's definitely the best I've used. http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/ergonomics/home/products/ergonomicmouse/ If your wrist feels sore when you rotate it from it's natural position to sit on a regular mouse, this one may be for you. I've gone completely mouse-less a couple of times. It's possible if you use the number pad as a mouse - Ctrl Shift NumLock. http://www.microsoft.com/enable/training/windowsvista/mousekeys.aspx http://www.ucandoit.org.uk/knowledgebase/stickmousekeys.html It's not that much fun, but a good skill to master anyway, in case you're stuck in front of a computer with a dead mouse :) Kirk http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment14http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment14Mon, 27 Aug 2007 11:16:56 GMTI've been using that exact keyboard with no pain for two years. Life hacker has been feeding the world a steady stream of mouse free tips and utilities: http://lifehacker.com/software/mouser/hack-attack-more-on-mouseless-navigation-217420.php Hanselman likes the vertical mouse: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/DiggingTheNewVerticalMouseHelpingMyCarpalTunnel.aspx http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment13http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment13Sun, 26 Aug 2007 15:16:06 GMTThis site has a good collection of mice and keyboards: http://www.ergocanada.com/ I switched to the Evoluent vertical mouse (http://www.ergocanada.com/products/mice/evoluent.html) and Kinesis Maxim keyboard (http://www.ergocanada.com/products/keyboards/kinesis_maxim.html) a couple of years ago, and I didn't have any wrist pain since. http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment12http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment12Sat, 25 Aug 2007 21:22:53 GMTI switched to the Kensington Expert Mouse (a trackball) a few years ago after getting wrist pains. It's eliminated those now, and I did a full review here: http://www.tobinharris.com/2007/2/5/adopting-the-kensington-expert-mouse I also did a follow up review after using it for 1 year. http://www.tobinharris.com/2007/4/21/the-kensington-expert-mouse-1-year-later That natural keybaord looks great, but the data hands look amazing (if not a bit insane!). I wander if I'll get away with this in my office :) http://www.timthelion.com/cgi-bin/blosxom.cgi/datahands.html http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment11http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment11Sat, 25 Aug 2007 15:00:57 GMTEver tried going out with some friends on Friday and Saturday night? That usually works great for wrist pain! :) (I also have MSFT natural keyboard BTW and would never go back). (I really like you blog too!) http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment10http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment10Sat, 25 Aug 2007 08:23:44 GMTI'm using a simple tablet for almost 3 years now. I'm using the Wacom Graphire 3, only as a mouse. http://www.wacom-europe.com/int/products/graphire4/index.asp?lang=en&pdx=10 http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment9http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment9Sat, 25 Aug 2007 06:53:30 GMTHave you tried one of these keyboards: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinesis_(keyboard) ? I've been using one for about 6 years now. Very good. http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment8http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment8Sat, 25 Aug 2007 04:25:31 GMTIn Writer, try playing with F6 and Tab; you can get to the options on the right once you figure it out. :) http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment7http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment7Sat, 25 Aug 2007 02:04:05 GMTI recently bought Microsoft's Natural Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 (http://kyle.baley.org/ct.ashx?id=070ad8e4-bb56-42f7-b181-42d43635cbf0&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.microsoft.com%2fhardware%2fmouseandkeyboard%2fproductdetails.aspx%3fpid%3d086). It's okay but I don't think I'd recommend it highly. Comments are here: http://kyle.baley.org/ProductReviewsOrHowToEaseBuyersRemorse.aspx I'd look into Evoluent's Vertical Mouse. Might be worth a test-drive but since you likely don't spend a lot of time with your hand on a mouse, it might be more cumbersome to get your hand into that position every time you're forced to use it. http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment6http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment6Sat, 25 Aug 2007 01:25:28 GMTThis looks like it would be very comfortable on the wrist: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2149559,00.asp http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment5http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment5Fri, 24 Aug 2007 22:10:02 GMTHave you thought of using a tablet? I switched to a Wacom Intuos3 6"x8" tablet last year and I love it. It is USD$330 off the manufacturer's website, but it helped significantly with wrist/arm pain. I think it may actually be faster than using a mouse after you're used to its absolute positioning. You could probably get by with a 4x5 ($230); I got the bigger one for work because of my 2x20" and 1x30". If you want a cheaper, not as nice version, you could go for Wacom's Graphire 4x5, which is $100. The tablet will not work if you use Synergy (http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/) the last time I checked, in case you use that. http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment4http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment4Fri, 24 Aug 2007 22:06:44 GMTI started to have problems with my wrists a year ago and bought a couple of carpal tunnel braces for my wrists that I wear while working on the computer and the problem has gone away. The braces were at first awkward, but now I forget they are even there. Your mileage may vary but it appears to have worked for me. http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment3http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment3Fri, 24 Aug 2007 22:05:57 GMTWe all need to become like Zimbu (from Dilbert) so we can operate the mouse with our tail. For myself, I'm kind of a big guy (6'2"), I just go for the largest mouse I can find and that works. I also use that keyboard and absolutely love it.. Apparently Jeff Attwood likes it as well (shown in an image). http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000770.html http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment2http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment2Fri, 24 Aug 2007 22:03:01 GMTWhat I would really like to try is the foot mouse: www.footmouse.com I like the idea of not wasting time moving my hand from keyboard to mouse, which is not a problem in Visual Studio, but becomes difficult to avoid when navigating/testing a web application. It's a bit pricey though. And the quality of the web site makes me wonder about the quality of the product... http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment1http://ayende.com/2735/ergonomic-hardware#comment1Fri, 24 Aug 2007 21:55:39 GMT