Hacker News Reader

Comment by televisionsaval | Hacker News Reader

I think the whole trackpad idea is stupid and unusable (like anything that needs software correction for physical layout idiocy) and I blame Apple for its prevalence. Apple could make an entirely worthless product and within 4 years everyone would have to copy it.

View on HN

That's like, your opinion man.

The trackpad is a fantastic input device. I use it exclusively when on a laptop, and on a desktop I'll use both a mouse and a trackpad.

Hmm, a novel style. What determines which you use at any given time? Do you just switch back and forth at random to keep things interesting?

The mouse is better for precise pointing, and the trackpad is better for scrolling (especially horizontal), and multi-touch gestures.

Agreed… but really only for macs. That’s where it’s beautiful.

I even use their larger external trackpad with the mini. But on work supplied machines and such I use a conventional mouse.

It’s not even because everyone else's trackpads are fucking garbage (they are). It’s that systems that aren’t macs just weren’t built around using one.

Some of the slightly-less-trashy bits of 3rd party software try to bridge the gap, but it’s not the same.

> It’s not even because everyone else's trackpads are fucking garbage (they are). It’s that systems that aren’t macs just weren’t built around using one.

Great news for users depending on accessibility

Not to support the idea that good touchpad is apple’s monopoly, but I and most people I know stop having wrist pains by giving up the mouse. If we’re talking about a stupid idea that’s both inefficient and a health hazard, the mouse is it. All the other pointing devices (trackball, trackpoint, rolling mouse etc) make sense one way or another

Needing a 3rd hand for a peripheral is naturally a flawed idea. The only reason I prefer the mouse over the palm trackpad is because it can't interfere while probably still having to use it occasionally. The track point and trackball were better interfaces than both but they weren't a great platform for making Apple look innovative.

the 3rd hand wasn't event what I meant by inefficient, it more that you need an extra surface to move some pointer and do the least possible amount of HCI data transfer. It's so... lame in this age of mobiliy

Yea, moving the burden from your wrists to your finger joints is surely a genius idea and the epitome of health

It would be an adequate argument if such finger pain existed

I'm not sure about the overall argument.. But I think arthritis of the fingers manifests eventually for most people who work with their hands and finger movement combined with any compression on tendons exacerbates carpal tunnel syndrome. Ergonomic I/O makers are essentially experimenting on the population, but less ethically as their bias is in using a bunch of nonsense to further a dialogue that supports whichever patents they obtained.

Personally I don't believe anything requiring 3 hands could be adequately tested given the freedom of movement given to the subject. I think only 2 hand home row keyboard use with specific additional positioning requirements has a flake of scientific rigour. (This is why I could only honestly support the track pointer in the home row as the least risky of the choices as it is the smallest deviation from something with a foundation.)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com