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Comment by fhd2 | Hacker News Reader

As someone who has suffered from RSI, my advice is to not fix a problem you don't have. I've been there, and it just cost me money.

In my case, I didn't need a curved keyboard or a split keyboard, those things ended up in the cupboard. I just had to get rid of the numpad to change my position from awkward to healthy. So, for me, this keyboard is actually interesting, the variant without the numpad that is.

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Why does the numpad make your position awkward by its presence? Can't you just pretend it's not there? Every keyboard I've owned since the late 80s has had a numpad and I've hardly ever used it.

Oh never mind, I see your reply to the top post below now. Because it moves the mouse too far away.

It's because it takes up space and puts the mouse further to the right. Tenkeyless fans like how you can have the mouse in a more comfortable place.

You have to move your hand more if there is a numerical part. Make the keyboard narrower and you reduce hand movements by a lot. And that helps.

It forced me to either move the keyboard too far to the left or the mouse too far the right, the former causing wrist pain in both hands, the latter causing pain in the right wrist.

So, what fixed my pain was the smaller keyboard, not the lack of a numpad. The numpad just happends to be a big, expendable chunk :)

One of the keyboards I got in order to fix this was a Microsoft ergonomic keyboard, which includes the numpad and is also wider than what I've used before. So getting an ergonomic keyboard actually made things worse in one case.

I had the same problem and solved it by switching the mouse to my left hand. It was awkward at first but then I got used to it.

I move my left hand about three inches to get the mouse. With my right hand (using the old MS split keyboard) it was nearly a foot!

But then how do you cut and paste? Ctrl-Z, X, C, V are going to be hard to reach if you're mousing with your left hand.

Context menu select?

With a mouse in your off hand? That's got to be slower.

Southpaw here. Right thumb on left ctrl, zxcv are all right under my fingers.

This problem never came up for me.

I am an Emacs user with both keys either side of Space bar mapped to Ctrl. And I use Ctrl with either hand using my thumbs bent inwards (or sometimes with my palms).

I also try to use mouse minimally.

I've moved numpad to the left instead:

http://www.a4tech.com/product.asp?cid=1&scid=1&id=54

Southpaw copy/paste/delete shortcuts: ctrl-insert, shift-insert, shift-del

A friend of mine did the same to improve his ambidexterity (he's a surgeon and fine motion is important to him). I can't get used to it though.

I very rarely use my mouse while working, and most of the time I stick to touchpad or trackpoint navigation when I need the mouse.

This is one of the reasons I absolutely love the trackpoint: it allows me to use a mouse without my fingers leaving the home row, and the buttons are conveniently placed where my thumb already is. I'm saddened that the trackpoint is a rarity on laptops these days, I hope Lenovo won't drop it as well.

FWIW, when I used focus more on networking rather than development, I always used the numpad for typing in IP addresses. I found it was much faster to use it rather than moving horizontally across the number keys, but YMMV of course. Disclaimer: have a DAS Model S at work and home...can't really do without it (at least when the alternative is a terrible laptop keyboard)

I switched my mouse over to the left side of my keyboard (despite being decidedly right-handed) to avoid the numberpad issue. In the end I still had to ditch straight keyboards to avoid RSI.

(I've since gotten a keyboard without a numberpad and switched back, but I can still use a left-handed mouse pretty well. It's one step below having a trackball as far as confusing people who try to use my computer goes. :P)

I usually use a thumb trackball, but once when my wrist pain got pretty bad I started using one of the ambidextrous trackballs with my left hand for a bit, it was actually pretty nice.

For a long time I used the Filco tenkeyless with Cherry MX brown key switches, together with an Evoluent vertical mouse. That particular combination was very good for my wrists.

Unfortunately, the Filco tenkeyless can be a bit tricky to find (and of course are not backlit).

I have one of these as well (majestouch tenkeyless). My girlfriend routinely threatens to throw it out the window (which would obviously be devastating), but I am holding on to it tightly. In my excitement I bought a version without key markings. In retrospect, this was kind of silly. Theoretically it was supposed to promote touch typing, and so consequently increase my speed. In reality, I don't really notice a difference, and it mostly just serves to deter friends and family from using my computer (probably both a positive and a negative outcome).

I had the tenkeyless "ninja", which basically means the key markings were on the front instead of the top. It was a nice compromise.

I also use the Das Keyboard "ultimate", which has blank keys. I rarely look at my keys anyhow, so it's mostly a conversation piece at the office :P

There's a newer mechanical tenkeyless keyboard that's pretty cheap, the CM Storm Quickfire Rapid: http://www.amazon.com/CM-Storm-QuickFire-Rapid-Mechanical/dp...

It's a "gaming" brand keyboard I guess but it's half the cost of a Filco and comes in 4 different switch types. I just got one, seems pretty nice, although I only use it for gaming and my MS Natural 4000 for typing. Though I wish MS would make a tenkeyless version of the Natural 4000, because I do dislike the extreme width (they're making a new wireless ergonomic keyboard that's tenkeyless but it has scissor switches and I don't really like switches with little travel - almost went crazy when they gave me an Apple thin keyboard during an internship, and I quickly went to their old computer parts storage and got an older Apple keyboard to avoid losing my mind).

Actually the successor to the 4000 is what you are asking for. http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/p/sculpt-ergonomic-d...

I am a Filco 10 keyless and wouldn't go back. I find it crazy that we have this 5" of obligatory keyboard everywhere as through everyone really needs a specialised desk calculator. Its where the mouse is meant to go!

The only drawback I have found is some 3d modelling tools assume a keypad in their default settings. Obv. you can remap the keys but its not as natural and makes following tutorials harder. If I were to use these more I would consider purchasing an external keypad but not to permanently give up such prime desk real estate for it.

Try this: http://www.contour-design.co.uk/products/rollermouse-red

I have it at the office and it's just amazing.

I read through that page and it doesn't seem to explain how it actually works. With only one roller how do you move the mouse up and down, left and right?

You roll the roller for up/down, move it left/right for ... wait for it ... left/right :)

It's really intuitive.

What happens when you reach e.g. the rightmost position of the rod?

A mouse has "infinite" movement, the rod only has infinite vertical movementent, unless I'm missing something.

There's a "button" on the end of the rod. If you slide the pipe fully over and depress the button, your mouse will continue to travel horizontally.

I was confused at first but I realized I was looking at the scroll wheel surrounded by mouse buttons. Cursor movement is done with the "bar" above the buttons/scroll wheel. Move left/right in a finite lateral motion or up/down in an infinite scroll motion.

Imagine a long rod. Slide a shorter pipe onto it. You move on the X-axis by sliding the pipe left/right on the rod. Move on the Y-axis by rolling the pipe. Click by pushing the entire contraption down.

Yeah, the RollerMouse is awesome. Turned out not to be a good solution for me, but I had no trouble operating it.

My wife uses one of these, and it has completely eliminated her RSI. Great product.

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