Input devices and the avoidance of unfortunate consequences

Post #443,736 by pwhysall 12/5/23 2:05:16 AM 12/5/23 2:05:16 AM Reply	Input devices and the avoidance of unfortunate consequences Following on from https://forum.iwethey.org/forum/post/443728/ I’m pretty much a Mac guy again, with my trusty M1 Pro MacBook Pro being my primary tool of work. I’ve still got a gaming PC because gaming on a Mac is absolute rofflecopters, despite the copium huffed by the Mac Gaming Faithful. I was getting a bit of shoulder pain in my left side (I am sinistromanual) and having been a DSE Assessor in a previous life, I reviewed my setup both at home and at the office and concluded the mouse was the variable requiring adjustment. I got a Magic Trackpad. This took (and still takes) quite some getting used to, because being an old fart, I have some 40-odd years of mouse muscle memory to overcome. Notwithstanding some frustrations arising from basically trying to use the trackpad just like a mouse, it has definitely calmed things down in my shoulder. It helps of course that Apple’s trackpad is the best, and the gesture support in macOS is better than that in Windows. True, some PC laptops are catching up, but they’re not quite there yet.
Post #443,737 by CRConrad 12/5/23 3:04:53 AM 12/5/23 3:04:53 AM Reply	Does Apple hardware -- like that trackpad -- work with PCs? I realise that wouldn't magically transfer those more advanced gestures to other OSes, since that's implemented in software. But I've gathered that Apple's trackpads are the best in other ways too (and it certainly felt that way when I used Macintosh laptops at work a few years ago), like speed and accuracy, and from what I understood that's down to hardware (or perhaps its internal software). So can that Apple trackpad be hooked up to a PC, does anyone know? -- Christian R. Conrad The Man Who Apparently Still Knows Fucking Everything Mail: Same username as at the top left of this post, at iki.fi
Post #443,738 by pwhysall 12/5/23 3:50:02 AM 12/5/23 3:50:02 AM Reply	I believe so, yes. At the end of the day, it’s just a Bluetooth trackpad.
Post #443,741 by drook 12/5/23 12:40:11 PM 12/5/23 12:40:11 PM Reply	I'm looking at getting a new chair with armrests It's the weight hanging from my shoulder for hours at a time that's causing issues. -- Drew
Post #443,742 by pwhysall 12/5/23 3:17:37 PM 12/5/23 3:17:37 PM Reply	Re: I'm looking at getting a new chair with armrests Now that’s interesting. I sometimes find that it’s resting my forearm on the armrest that causes discomfort. Perhaps it compresses tendons or something. To alleviate it, I raise the armrest so high I can’t rest on it (I have a Secret Labs Titan chair).
Post #443,744 by drook 12/5/23 4:40:53 PM 12/5/23 4:40:53 PM Reply	Do you sit back from the desk or right up against it? I have a very shallow desk, so my keyboard and mouse are right up near the edge. I sit fairly far back, knees just about under the edge. I use a mousepad with a gel wrist rest. I end up with my right arm nearly straight, and if I'm not paying attention to it, my shoulder drops down and the entire arm hangs from it. When I've had deeper desks, the mouse sits back a good foot from the edge and my forearm is mostly on the desk. -- Drew
Post #443,745 by pwhysall 12/5/23 4:46:12 PM 12/5/23 4:46:12 PM Reply	Re: Do you sit back from the desk or right up against it? I sit such that I don’t rest my wrists on the desk at all whilst typing, but if I did, I’d probably just about fit the heel of my hand on the desk. I blow hot and cold on the subject of wrist rests. I’ve seen people (back when I was doing DSE assessments at work) get both better and worse with them. I think some people’s wrist geometry works with them, and others not. Something else you might want to consider is a footrest. It’s counter-intuitive, but they do help.
Post #443,749 by drook 12/5/23 10:39:54 PM 12/5/23 10:39:54 PM Reply	Chair first I suspect I just need to sit higher, then get a footrest. -- Drew
Post #443,746 by CRConrad 12/5/23 4:54:13 PM 12/5/23 4:54:13 PM Reply	I remove them altogether, whenever I can. Seems to be getting less often you can do that these last few years, though. :-( But when I hit the jackpot, my work chair is gonna be one of these fuckers. -- Christian R. Conrad The Man Who Apparently Still Knows Fucking Everything Mail: Same username as at the top left of this post, at iki.fi
Post #443,747 by pwhysall 12/5/23 4:59:19 PM 12/5/23 4:59:19 PM Reply	Re: I remove them altogether, whenever I can. Certainly, that’s a chair for the kind of gentleman who takes sitting on their arse very seriously, and priced accordingly.
Post #443,751 by boxley 12/5/23 11:42:29 PM 12/5/23 11:42:29 PM Reply	try standing and leaning over the desk what I do "Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts" – Richard Feynman
Post #443,743 by rcareaga 12/5/23 4:35:28 PM 12/5/23 4:35:28 PM Reply	mouse muscle memory God, don’t I know it. I had associates in the graphics game who swore by “trackballs.” Couldn’t do it. Trackpads, yeah, I get by on my MBP in most applications. For my main production environment, though, and particularly Adobe Illustrator—we’re talking a full thirty-six years’ muscle memory here, since v. 1.1—no, nuh-uh, isn’t happening, pry the mouse from my cold dead fingers, et cetera. claw-dially,

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