On Dec 7, 2007, at 4:43 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
[This message has also been posted to linux.debian.user.]
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Andrew Sackville-West
wrote:
If you need that amazingly insightful gift for someone (yourself?)
this year, check out www.clickykeyboards.com for real IBM
keyboards. Mine just arrived and I'm in heaven.=20
Also known as the Carpal Tunnel special.
Humbug. If you learned hot to type *properly* on a real IBM Selectric
(hint: you never pushed the key down past the "click", certainly never
to the stops), using a clicky keyboard today won't cause you carpal
tunnel any faster than a squish-box typed on improperly will. The
click was meant to simulate the action of the typewriter ball smacking
the paper for those of us who learned how to type on typewriters.
Most carpal tunnel is brought on by typing done with angle of the arm
and wrist all wrong, etc. Basic ergonomics.
To start with, real speed typists raise their hands off the board (the
long "wrist rests" on most modern keyboards, especially laptops,
simply didn't exist on typewriters -- people also didn't use them on
their laps!). Incorrect technique is far more "risky" than using a
"clicky" keyboard.
Learning how to type properly isn't an activity undertaken by many
people anymore. Heck, taking a basic computer operation course with
the basics of input/output, files, and how computers work isn't done
either -- and look how confused the average untrained user is by
simple tasks on a computer. We point them at a complex device with no
training and expect results. Ridiculous.
Look up some old typist-training books sometime and research how
typists on typewriters got above 80 WPM. You'll find the techniques
to avoid carpal tunnel in most of them.
Some people are also simply more prone to it, but seriously -- the
keyboard's always far less "at fault" (since our society always wants
to blame something on externalities than on one's own behavior) than
the typist's technique.
Blaming carpal tunnel on a particular type of keyboard smells funny to
me. I'm not buying. I'm surprised many people have. Of course,
there's a fiscal reason -- carpal tunnel claims and legal cases are
quite lucrative.
--
Nate Duehr
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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