I mentioned in my last post that the Ergomotion keyboard was a bit too wide for my liking making the classic mistake of hogging up deskspace without leaving room for other necessary input devices. This extra distance your arm has to travel to reach your mouse can make all the difference to your RSI.  I usually complain about this issue with reference to the extra space that the numeric keypad takes up – but more precisely the problem is that there’s usually one section for navigation keys (home, up, down etc) and then another section for the numeric keypad. Which together can be quite a hog on your desk space.

But it turns out that the promotional video shows the original keyboard design, but they pulled back the release date to make a more compact design. If you look at the images of the Ergomotion keyboard on the Smartfish site, or above, you’ll notice that these two sections have been neatly merged now and are nice and tight to the regular key, making it quite compact overall.

So there goes any reservations I had about it. It looks like a really well designed ergonomic keyboard in the truest sense, in that it takes every keyboard issue into consideration. Good job!

An ergonomic setup with all devices set in the same position everyday is not a good ergonomic setup. Change is good. They have taken this idea, and come up with an interesting idea, products that slowly change position/angles automatically. See the video below. Or on their own site.

They say they collaborated with top professionals in the field but they seem to have made the classic keyboard mistake of including a numberpad, which for people with RSI is much more of a disadvantage. See first section in my keyboards post. It’s a wee bit worrying that the quotes in the video are from the engineer and the designer. How about use case comments from rsi sufferers? Great that it looks nice but that’s the last of my worries. Not sure I’m the target market.

Seems like a really good effort at doing something new for ergonomics but I’d like to see a compact, version without the keypad.

Update: Turns out they had already resolved this issue. See update post.

Their mouse is interesting too, and I might check it out at some stage, but again they seem to have approached it from a classic mouse perspective, and added motion. But the base position presents the same problems as a classic mouse, that requires you to twist your wrist slightly, rather than the more natural handshake position of a vertical mouse. So I might hold off and see do they do a version where the base position is more vertical. But because it is so flexible, it might just make up for it. Flexibility is RSI’s worst enemy, so I’ll be keeping an eye on Ergomotion.

I read this book a good while ago now. Not sure why I didn’t review it at the time. Well I do – I actually felt that I’d read so much on the subject that I didn’t learn much from this book. So I didn’t want to be negative about it for the wrong reasons. It’s a really good book – if I had to recommend only book I’ve read so far this would be it I.

It really makes such a difference to understand what is happening to your body and why. A sizeable chapter in this book is geared towards understanding how people get RSI and understanding parts of your anatomy that are affected. There is another big chapter on therapy, but don’t expect to flick through the book and get a quick cure. Take your time, the background stuff is important. Knowledge is power!

As for the therapy / recovery, there’s not a huge amount that you won’t find on this site. All good resources recommend an appropriate exercise routine as the main course of action. And this book is no different. Though everything in the book is fleshed out a but more and there are more exercises.

One new thing I did learn is that poor posture is a symptom of RSI. We all know poor posture can greatly contribute to RSI but I never thought of it the other way around; once you start experiencing severe symtpoms of RSI your posture can get even worse, so it’s a bit of a double battle.

But – I still can’t believe how so much literature on the subject focuses so much on keyboard activity and gives so little column inches to the mouse – or more to the point using a mouse and keyboard together in the least harmful way. So often the use cases are about programmers or typists; keyboardists.

Another downside is that it has a very American slant. There’s a whole chapter about volunteering to become the office ergonomic sheriff. Over on this side of the pond we’re more inclined to want to keep this kind of stuff to ourselves, not shout it from the rooftops and become the resident RSI embassador. Thoiuygh feel free to shout “speak for yourself!”

And you’ve got to love the title. RSI and CPS are NOT the same thing.

So minor quibbles aside, it’s well worth a read. If you’re reading this and don’t yet have a good book on the subject buy it now: It’s Not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome!: RSI Theory and Therapy for Computer Professionals.

• Read my previous review.
• Read why your desktop real estate is so important

Over the years you’ll find yourself gathering all kinds of input devices, to try and find the right one, specially pointing devices, (ie mice / alternative mice). Don’t get rid of them. Get a usb hub and plug them all in. Then whenever you feel pain in your hands; switch things around. Stop using your vertical mouse, and go back to your basic mouse, or use your graphic pad for a few days. None of them are perfect, none of them should be used for 8 hours a day, so give your hands a rest from that exact position and switch around.

It’s a very powerful technique. So powerful, that I think people can very easily assume their latest input device is their saviour; when it probably has a lot more to do with the old switcheroo. Let that be your motto for the next month;

“If it makes you go OOH, try the old switcheroo!”

I was over in Spain last month and it is always great getting a good solid break from the computer. But I know that’s all it is; a break. It’s very easy to think that a week or two might be enough for your damaged nerves and muscles to start repairing and rebuilding themselves but it’s not. The break is great – but don’t expect anything more – it’s just a break. When you get back to your computer, you will be right back where you left off, with the same old aches and pains – and maybe even worse if you’ve also taken a break from your exercise routine.

I’ve read about this in various books too, people have actually gone on sick leave and holed themselves in bed for the duration, thinking this will be some sort of cure, whereas not using those nerves and muscles is the worst thing you can do.

So keep it in mind,; unless we’re talking about a very prolonged period is only a brief reprise, enjoy your break, maybe even use the extra time to strengthen your body – just don’t expect any miracles when you’re back from the hols.

Update. There are a lots of interesting replies, links and blogposts with more videos on their main page. I’m going to go through them all when I’ve time. Interesting to see that half the guys from the lighting team of Toy Story 2 got such bad RSI that they couldn’t wash their hair. I rarely see other people describe symptoms that I share but that’s one of them.

When I got the Wristwand in the post I thought I’d been had. Saw the end off a sweeping brush and you’ve got the Wristwand. But in fairness it does have to be the exact width (ok we’re still in sawn-off sweeping brush territory) –  it is wrapped in nice foam on either end.

It does give your wrists a good stretch though. You just hold either end and raise your arms over your head while twisting at the wrists. Exercises can be easy to forget, so at the very least things like this act as a good prop; a reminder. Even if they’re not the miracle cure some of the pr would have you believe. And the WristWand is less than a tenner,  so no big deal.

• WristWand on Amazon
• www.wristwand.com

Read my post on powerballs for more info.

Launchy is a smart little open source application for launching any application at a few keystrokes. Here’s how it works.

1. Launch launchy by typing alt + space ( Which is very convenient, as they are right beside each other)
2. Type the first few letters of whatever you want to launch and hit enter

It’s that easy. It saves quite a few mouseclicks and trying to find a program in your start menu. An it’s quite smart in helping you find what youre looking for eg. typing Fire will launch Firefox as will typing Fox, in fact F will probably work if you have no other programs beginning with F.

Once you get used to it, you can use more advanced commands but let’s not complicate things right now!

Download Launchy at http://www.launchy.net/