- Jan 4, 2001
- 41,596
- 19
- 81
Another update on this now, beyond what's in the OP:
Still going with the G500.
It helped.....for awhile.:\
I'm not sure what I'm going to have to do. My wrist is starting to bother me from the twist, and the index finger is acting up. If I had a good, non-intrusive way of immobilizing that middle joint, it'd help considerably. Using a large metal brace makes it feel a lot better, but it means I can't use the index finger to control the extra buttons on the mouse, nor use it for scrolling the wheel. (This mouse seems to be made under the assumption that a person's hand consists of a thumb and index finger, and maybe an ancillary digit to control the right button.)
I'm absolutely in love with the scroll wheel though. The ability to toggle between scroll modes is nice, and it's very useful in Pro/E when I need to zoom in and out to click on tiny details. (It'll be better once I can swap out my ancient 128MB Quadro card - it turns out that the guy next to me, who does no 3D work whatsoever, somehow ended up with a 1GB Geforce 9800 in his PC; we only just noticed this a few days ago. So, yeah, there's going to be a small hardware change next week.)
Short of custom building a mouse that works the way I'd expect a basic interface device to work, or having my hand surgically altered to fit the archaic devices available, or devoting the rest of my life to making some kind of brain-implant to control a computer....I'm not sure what to do next.
Any interface device I use is almost certainly going to involve clicking a button repeatedly. And Evoluent seems to have the only upright mice on the market, and they have some significant issues, at least as far as I'm concerned.
(Clicking buttons tends to move the mouse itself due to the direction the pressure is applied, so the computer frequently thinks I'm trying to drag something when I'm just trying to click. The wheel I used on the last VerticalMouse revision I saw was in that smooth "ultrascroll" mode, without the little "notches" or whatever they are which delineate when the mouse will send a "Hey you, Scroll!" command to the computer. And the pinky side of my hand just pretty much rubs against the desk, which inhibits the ability to make fine movements due to things like small amounts of sweat.)
The other downside - I'd love to make use of the nice videocard I bought at home, but my hand starts to ache just from putzing around on the forums, and I just don't feel like putting up with it to game. (Woe is me.)
Doctor/surgery time, or what?
With more and more time being spent in virtual space, either at home, work, or both, it seems like the interface systems are in desperate need of an overhaul. So much of their design seems to be inherited from long long ago, when the concept of ergonomics had scarcely even been thought of. (I have seen some interesting new designs, but they cost many hundreds of dollars. That's not quite the sort of progress I'm looking for.
)
Semi-related: I think my ideal interface device would be some kind of mutated combination of the Datahand Professional II and a VerticalMouse. Each hand would also act as a pointer control, allowing for control of two cursors on the screen at once, or possibly use some kind of average of the motion of both hands to act upon a single cursor. I might also want some level of wireless foot control worked in as well.
Edit: I've had the G500 for nearly 9 months now. The scroll wheel is showing no signs of wearing out, and I do abuse the toggle between free-scrolling and regular scrolling, mainly to use it as a brake. The wheel still spins very well, and when it's in the regular scroll setting, it does just fine.
Still going with the G500.
It helped.....for awhile.:\
I'm not sure what I'm going to have to do. My wrist is starting to bother me from the twist, and the index finger is acting up. If I had a good, non-intrusive way of immobilizing that middle joint, it'd help considerably. Using a large metal brace makes it feel a lot better, but it means I can't use the index finger to control the extra buttons on the mouse, nor use it for scrolling the wheel. (This mouse seems to be made under the assumption that a person's hand consists of a thumb and index finger, and maybe an ancillary digit to control the right button.)
I'm absolutely in love with the scroll wheel though. The ability to toggle between scroll modes is nice, and it's very useful in Pro/E when I need to zoom in and out to click on tiny details. (It'll be better once I can swap out my ancient 128MB Quadro card - it turns out that the guy next to me, who does no 3D work whatsoever, somehow ended up with a 1GB Geforce 9800 in his PC; we only just noticed this a few days ago. So, yeah, there's going to be a small hardware change next week.)
Short of custom building a mouse that works the way I'd expect a basic interface device to work, or having my hand surgically altered to fit the archaic devices available, or devoting the rest of my life to making some kind of brain-implant to control a computer....I'm not sure what to do next.
Any interface device I use is almost certainly going to involve clicking a button repeatedly. And Evoluent seems to have the only upright mice on the market, and they have some significant issues, at least as far as I'm concerned.
(Clicking buttons tends to move the mouse itself due to the direction the pressure is applied, so the computer frequently thinks I'm trying to drag something when I'm just trying to click. The wheel I used on the last VerticalMouse revision I saw was in that smooth "ultrascroll" mode, without the little "notches" or whatever they are which delineate when the mouse will send a "Hey you, Scroll!" command to the computer. And the pinky side of my hand just pretty much rubs against the desk, which inhibits the ability to make fine movements due to things like small amounts of sweat.)
The other downside - I'd love to make use of the nice videocard I bought at home, but my hand starts to ache just from putzing around on the forums, and I just don't feel like putting up with it to game. (Woe is me.)
Doctor/surgery time, or what?
With more and more time being spent in virtual space, either at home, work, or both, it seems like the interface systems are in desperate need of an overhaul. So much of their design seems to be inherited from long long ago, when the concept of ergonomics had scarcely even been thought of. (I have seen some interesting new designs, but they cost many hundreds of dollars. That's not quite the sort of progress I'm looking for.
)Semi-related: I think my ideal interface device would be some kind of mutated combination of the Datahand Professional II and a VerticalMouse. Each hand would also act as a pointer control, allowing for control of two cursors on the screen at once, or possibly use some kind of average of the motion of both hands to act upon a single cursor. I might also want some level of wireless foot control worked in as well.
Edit: I've had the G500 for nearly 9 months now. The scroll wheel is showing no signs of wearing out, and I do abuse the toggle between free-scrolling and regular scrolling, mainly to use it as a brake. The wheel still spins very well, and when it's in the regular scroll setting, it does just fine.
Last edited:
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