Re: Health Problems Related to the Geek Lifestyle

* Damien Hull <dhull@digitaloverload.net> [060405 18:58]:
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> Could those of you who have carpal tunnel or similar health problems
> comment on this?
>
> I would like to know if my excessive computer use will give me carpal
> tunnel or not. I do have a slight pain in my mouse hand/wrist/arm. My
> left hand/wrist/arm isn't as bad but there is also a slight pain.
>
> I would like to avoid a trip to the doctor.
  FYI: My wife is a Physical Therapist and my setup meets with her
  approval. However, she would tell you that there are many individual
  issues like heigth, arthritic issues, spinal curvature, etc.
  Here's my setup:

  1)Monitor: 18-inch LCD. Removed from base and placed on a hand-made
  cradle so that it is just a few inches above the keyboard (I'm 5'6")

  2)Keyboard: Logitech small form-factor (like a laptop keyboard),
    10" by 4.75".

  3)Pointing device: Logitech 4-button trackball. Mounted touching
    right side of keyboard

  4)Numeric keypad: belkin USB free-standing. Mounted touch keyboard
    on left.

  5)I use primarily emacs and vim for editors

  6)Keymapping.
    . swapped capslock and left control key so that control key is next to
      my left pinky
    . mapped windows key to Super modifier key (second key to left of spacebar)
    . mapped TAB key to Hyper modifier key.
    . mapped right control key to TAB.
      (took a *little* getting used to, but Control-I does TAB in most
       linux apps anyway)
    . left and right alt keys are adjacent to spacebar
    Vim is pretty agnostic regarding the extra modifiers, but emacs
    really shines with keymapping. The result is that pointing device
    work is really minimized (and I like the fact that the trackball
    stays in one place).

  The relatively low monitor placement is better for *my* neck, again,
  as my wife would say, placement should take into consideration height
  and individual spinal configurations.

  PTs are generally cheaper than doctors.

  MTCW
  -tj-
  
  :-) my main physical problem is that although I'm now a programmer, I
  still eat like a bushrat and my wife (who's very trim) gets offended
  when I don't have seconds. So I've put on weight ...

-- 
Tim Johnson <tim@johnsons-web.com>
      http://www.alaska-internet-solutions.com
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