have I discovered a new disease?
I've been writing more than my share of "papers", etc in the past month. On my IBM Thinkpad T42. Recently I have noticed that both heels of my outer palms have become uncomfortably irritated -- the result I am sure of having them on the keyboard's palm rests for 10 hours at a time. The solution: I am trying to lift my wrists up so that only my fingers touch the keyboard. And I will be taking a break at the Social Network conference, this Tuesday thru Sunday. But I am wondering if this is a new phenomenon, or others on this list have experienced it. I do like Thinkpads for reliability and keyboard feel, but I notice that their palm rests are a bit rough. Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________ S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Room 418 Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-7162 Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php Elvis wouldn't be singing "Return to Sender" these days _______________________________________________________________________
There have been burns on various portions of bodies, depending on where lap-tops have been placed. Best --u At 13:46 Uhr -0500 19.1.2008, Barry Wellman wrote:
I've been writing more than my share of "papers", etc in the past month. On my IBM Thinkpad T42.
Recently I have noticed that both heels of my outer palms have become uncomfortably irritated -- the result I am sure of having them on the keyboard's palm rests for 10 hours at a time.
The solution: I am trying to lift my wrists up so that only my fingers touch the keyboard. And I will be taking a break at the Social Network conference, this Tuesday thru Sunday.
But I am wondering if this is a new phenomenon, or others on this list have experienced it. I do like Thinkpads for reliability and keyboard feel, but I notice that their palm rests are a bit rough.
Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________
S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Room 418 Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-7162 Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php Elvis wouldn't be singing "Return to Sender" these days _______________________________________________________________________
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You should try hooking up an external keyboard for those longer sessions. I used to get problems with my wrists hurting after a while of typing on my laptop so I made my own external setup with keyboard, mouse, and monitor and now I'm much more comfortable during long periods of use. Plus, I'm on a white macbook and the hand gunk tends to build up less now. On Jan 19, 2008 12:46 PM, Barry Wellman <wellman@chass.utoronto.ca> wrote:
I've been writing more than my share of "papers", etc in the past month. On my IBM Thinkpad T42.
Recently I have noticed that both heels of my outer palms have become uncomfortably irritated -- the result I am sure of having them on the keyboard's palm rests for 10 hours at a time.
The solution: I am trying to lift my wrists up so that only my fingers touch the keyboard. And I will be taking a break at the Social Network conference, this Tuesday thru Sunday.
But I am wondering if this is a new phenomenon, or others on this list have experienced it. I do like Thinkpads for reliability and keyboard feel, but I notice that their palm rests are a bit rough.
Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________
S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Room 418 Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman<http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/%7Ewellman> fax:+1-416-978-7162 Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php Elvis wouldn't be singing "Return to Sender" these days _______________________________________________________________________
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The palm rest is for when you're resting your palms when you're resting, not for resting your palms while typing. Proper ergonomics actually dictate that you should never have your palms rested while typing. The best way to check if you're being ergonomically correct is to look at your joints. From your shoulders to the tip segment of your fingers, each joint should be successively lower. In other words, your wrists should not be higher from the ground than your elbows and your knuckles shouldn't be higher up than your wrists. This is why proper ergonomics requires keyboard rests (or true laptops with external monitors) cuz your segments should each be going down and your eyes should be seeing the monitor at 1/3 down the screen. I'm sure you're not the only one who spends 10+ hours a day on the computer, but you're damn lucky to not have carpal tunnel issues if you are indeed resting your wrists that way. Having dealt with CTS for 14 years, I don't wish it on anyone, so I'd encourage you (and your students) to look into structuring their typing in an ergonomic way. Then, it doesn't matter how rough the palm rest is. <grin> {{hug}} danah On Jan 19, 2008, at 10:46 AM, Barry Wellman wrote:
I've been writing more than my share of "papers", etc in the past month. On my IBM Thinkpad T42.
Recently I have noticed that both heels of my outer palms have become uncomfortably irritated -- the result I am sure of having them on the keyboard's palm rests for 10 hours at a time.
The solution: I am trying to lift my wrists up so that only my fingers touch the keyboard. And I will be taking a break at the Social Network conference, this Tuesday thru Sunday.
But I am wondering if this is a new phenomenon, or others on this list have experienced it. I do like Thinkpads for reliability and keyboard feel, but I notice that their palm rests are a bit rough.
Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________
S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Room 418 Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-7162 Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php Elvis wouldn't be singing "Return to Sender" these days _______________________________________________________________________
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Dear ailing AIR-ers - This is a useful publication: Egoscue, Pete (with Roger Gittanes) 1999. Pain free at your PC. New York: Bantam Books. He insists that carpal tunnel is only a symptom, rather than the cause. He's got 45 minutes of exercises included (per day). At least if one did the exercises, one wouldn't be typing . . . I have all had forms of RSI including (no one wants this one) frozen shoulder. Brought on by the PhD thesis coupled with knitting and crochet for relaxation. Two years later it is almost cured through a medical intervention, 4 months physio coupled with a strong swimming program and massage. Overall, I recommend massage once every two weeks. It stays in check most days, but not all . . . There is also the dreaded 'mouse shoulder' described John Dvorak - I got rid of that by using a trackball. Cheers, Denise Denise N. Rall, PhD Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW 2480 AUSTRALIA Tues: Room T2.17, +61 (0)2 6620 3577 Mobile 0438 233 344 http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/esm/staff/pages/drall/ Virtual member, Cybermetrics Group, University of Wolverhampton, UK http://cybermetrics.wlv.ac.uk/index.html Make the switch to the world's best email. Get the new Yahoo!7 Mail now. www.yahoo7.com.au/worldsbestemail
I co-authored an office design and ergonomic work guide whilst at British Telecom c. 1983/4. We (in the Furniture and Fittings Policy Group, if you can believe it) thought it was moderately successful - having been received well around the company. One essential 'rule of thumb' was to get the seating height and geomtery right as well - and watch good professional concert pianists - who hold their body, arms wrists and hands just as described by Danah, above the keyboard not 'slumped' down. You might well rest your hands and palms, as I do from time time, on padded rests, but never rest them whilst you are working on the keyboard. <snip>
Recently I have noticed that both heels of my outer palms have become uncomfortably irritated -- the result I am sure of having them on the keyboard's palm rests for 10 hours at a time.
I have fairly serious calluses in those two areas, and have for a number of years. Nothing heavy enough to take a podiatric appliance to, or anything, but definitely toughened skin. I would say that my ergonomic habits are less than awesome, but my carpal tunnels only bother me for a day or so every three or four months. Usually after I've been working entirely too hard.... :-) --elijah
--- Barry Wellman <wellman@chass.utoronto.ca> wrote:
Recently I have noticed that both heels of my outer palms have become uncomfortably irritated -- the result I am sure of having them on the keyboard's palm rests for 10 hours at a time.
Cure: Dragon 9 Naturally Speaking It is really quite good. And I would suspect that speech to text is going to grow and grow =~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~= Cybertelecom :: Federal Internet Law & Policy www.cybertelecom.org Earth Day Every Day :: Stop the Paper Chase Recycle. Reuse. Dont Print Banner Pages. Read in Electronic Format. http://www.earthshare.org/tips/paper2.html
participants (8)
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Barry Wellman -
danah boyd -
Denise N. Rall -
Dominic Pinto -
E.W. -
elw＠stderr.org -
Robert Cannon -
Ulf-Dietrich Reips