10-21-2005, 05:30 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Got QWERTY? How Are Those Thumbs Feeling?
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/10/20/D8DC4N8O0.html
"Chris Claypool was addicted to his BlackBerry wireless handheld. Like many users, he never thought twice about pecking away at lightning speed, replying to a wave of e-mails from clients around the globe. Last year, the 37-year-old agricultural sales director from Post Falls, Idaho, noticed a throbbing sensation in this thumbs whenever he typed. He switched to tapping with his index finger, then his middle digit and finally his pinky. But his thumbs pained him to the point where he can't even press the buttons on his TV remote control. After months of aching, Claypool took a break. Now he only uses his BlackBerry to send short messages _ typing with the tip of a pencil eraser whenever his thumbs get sore."
Ouch. I have one word for you. FITALY Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Third party and all of that. However, I am at over 40wpm with FITALY and have been using it since 2000 with nary a sign of carpal tunnel syndrome. I've never heard of anyone getting carpal tunnel from using a pencil and don't see how using a stylus is much different. The only bad thing about popup keyboards is they take up way too much screen real estate on square screens, so using it on a Treo 700w or the HP Messenger series would be less than ideal. What about those of you with QWERTY keyboard devices. Notice any pain or do any exercises to prevent problems?
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10-21-2005, 05:38 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 6,305
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I type so slow I doubt I could ever hurt myself! :lol:
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10-21-2005, 06:39 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 150
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Wow, this is lame. I've been using thumboard based PDAs for 3-4 years now (Revo->TG50->NX70->UX50->4350->Jasjar) and my thumbs are just fine.
May I coin a new phrase?
"METACARPAL THUMBOARD SYNDROME"
:devilboy:
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10-21-2005, 07:07 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 1,185
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Guilty! I can attest to this as a real problem. But, I can also say without a doubt the comments by the "industry" about frequency are valid. After about 6 months of responding to somewhere around 150-200 emails a day (I was on the road 5 days a week) I started to get real weird tingle/sharp pains on the edges of my thumbs where I made contact with the thumb-board. It usually cleared up after about 24 hours of no use, but it was a genuine problem for me, but I wouldn't call my use of the BBerry "average" by any means.
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10-21-2005, 10:30 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 357
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I only just got my first Pocket PC with thumboard. I'm craving craving craving a release of Fitaly that I can install which won't screw things up. In other words, a Windows Mobile 5 version. I've had to reformat a few times due to Fitaly related problems.
Unfortunately, the Fitaly people don't respond to emails about problems or future release date requests.
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10-22-2005, 05:34 AM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 5,616
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fwiw, when using thumbboards, you're not supposed to type with your thumbs; you're supposed to type with the fingers of one hand. I've got a scan from a newspaper somewhere with all that kind of info in it. I'll see if I can find it and then I'll post it for all you keyboard-enabled device folks.
__________________
iPhone 4! ☠☠☠ Mid-2010 15" MacBook Pro! ☠☠☠ Gateway LT2102h! ☠☠☠ Dell XPS M1210!
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10-22-2005, 05:54 AM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 5,616
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... check my media file:  Preventing%20injuries.gif (Size: 68.5 KB)
It's cool, isn't it?
__________________
iPhone 4! ☠☠☠ Mid-2010 15" MacBook Pro! ☠☠☠ Gateway LT2102h! ☠☠☠ Dell XPS M1210!
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10-22-2005, 06:00 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 1,185
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by ctmagnus
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Absurd. If that really was the intended way to use these devices there wouldn't be any logic in making them QWERTY (optimized for 2 handed input).
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10-22-2005, 11:37 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 147
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The logic of using QWERTY in most modern keyboards - even tiny virtual ones - is to allow people to locate the letters quickly, following the age-old pattern they know so well. Whether they use one or two hands, or one or two fingers, in neither here nor there. The QWERTY keyboard was originally designed to slow typists down, not optimise speed, so everything we achieve by learning the layout requires a certain rebellion against the system anyway.
The terms "thumb board" and "lap top" shouldn't be taken too literally. Manufacturers are not doctors.
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10-23-2005, 04:45 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 150
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by caubeck
The QWERTY keyboard was originally designed to slow typists down, not optimise speed, so everything we achieve by learning the layout requires a certain rebellion against the system anyway.
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Not that it really matters, but the reason why QWERTY was invented was so that the letters on a typebar didn't collide and get stuck. I think the guy's name was Sholes that invented it, and the incidence of typebar malfunction was supposedly reduced with this new fangled letter system.
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Linear Mode
