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alternatives to the ordinary old mouse?

N

NTB

Diamond Member
My right arm and shoulder have been bugging me for a while, the end result of (I assume) a combination of several car wrecks and plain old repetative stress. Unfortunately, if I want to get anywhere, I still have to drive, and I'm a programmer by profession, so I'm not getting away from computers any time soon, either 😛 So I'd like to find and try some alternatives to the run-of-the-mill PC mouse, and see if that helps. The best I've come up with so far is a graphics tablet...anybody have any other suggestions?

Nathan
 
Sure!

Trackball.

You can find ones that you could keep in your lap and control with just your thumb. You can get quite proficient with it, too. The only problem is that the market for trackballs is pretty weak these days, and, as a result, few peripheral vendors bother making them anymore. You can find good ones on ebay, sometimes new-in-box from old inventory surpluses. There's a decent underground community of trackball afficiandos so I suggest google searching a bit and reading some forum threads. I recently discovered geekhack.org while searching for the skinny on the best keyboards money could buy (I settled on some nice buckling spring boards from Unicomp). There is some trackball discussion there, so check it out.
 
I was going to suggest trackball as well. When I had one of my shoulder surgeries I borrowed one from a friend and it was perfect, used it just as nerp described except instead of it sitting in my lap I had it resting inside my sling.

Logitech still makes a few, check them out:
http://www.logitech.com/index....s/trackballs/&cl=us,en

The one I used was the old version of the TrackMan. You may want to go into a Fry's or something to check out if the thumb-ball or finger-ball version is better for you.

EDIT: also google for ergonomic trackball for more options.
http://www.google.com/products...onomic+trackball&hl=en
 
I'm surprised that trackballs have fallen out of favor so hard. It seemed for a time that they were going to replace traditional mice and the market was overflowing with interesting trackball designs. Maybe FPS gaming had something to do with it. I think trackballs make a lot of sense for many people who aren't worried about insta-twitch response. And with a quality trackball and a few weeks of regular use, one can be just as quick with one as a mouse.
 
My personal choice for the past 5-6 years has been the Wacom digitizing pad. There is also a USB touchpad, and, there are many trackball variations - including those built into keyboards.

TB
 
I've been using Logitech Trackman Wheel mouse for the past 8 or 9 years now. For a while in there Logitech stopped producing them. Then about 2 or 3 years ago they brought them back. There was a pretty good public outcry for them that made Logitech bring them back.

If its just the right arm that bothers yyou then maybe you should get some proctice with using your left hand. You can go into the control panel and flip the buttons around so the right button fuctions as the left click.
 
I used to love the Trackman thumb balls when they first came out, but I didn't replace mine when it broke ~5 years ago since there weren't any new models available. Glad to see them available again as they are a very good and viable input option to mice.
 
Originally posted by: mpilchfamily
I've been using Logitech Trackman Wheel mouse for the past 8 or 9 years now. For a while in there Logitech stopped producing them. Then about 2 or 3 years ago they brought them back. There was a pretty good public outcry for them that made Logitech bring them back.

If its just the right arm that bothers yyou then maybe you should get some proctice with using your left hand. You can go into the control panel and flip the buttons around so the right button fuctions as the left click.
Click to expand...

That would take a whole lot of practice 😛 Some medical issues when I was little left me with a decided lack of coordination and fine motor control. I'm naturally right-handed, and my right arm & hand are mostly normal. My left always has been considerably weaker; somehow I learned how to type, but that's about all it's good for 😛
 
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