cascading effects

[cellio]

A few months ago I was talking with my ophthamologist about the difficulties of sitting at a computer all day (eye-strain headaches, which I could mitigate somewhat by doing ergonomically-bad things and getting neck/shoulder/wrist aches instead). She said that's because I need computer glasses rather than trying to use one pair of glasses for everything. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my employer would even pay for this -- cool!

The nice thing about this is that the glasses can be focused at a more-normal distance, which means I was able to push my monitor back on my desk instead of keeping it at about 8-10". It's now at about 20", give or take. (I did have to change some font settings and some apps, like Outlook, don't respect all the settings, but that's managable. And I'm used to the software world not fully supporting the visually-impaired.) That, in turn, meant that I could finally support a second monitor -- commonly available in my company, but I could never get that much screen in visual range before. But now...

My second 22" monitor arrived yesterday. My plan had been to set it up in portrait mode (which would allow me to have more than 45 lines of text visible in an emacs buffer), but my graphics card's default driver doesn't support that. There is a newer driver, but it has other issues.

But, my computer is coming up on the end of its lease, which means I'm going to have to move off of it in a few months anyway. So, worst case I wait a few months to be able to rotate my monitor, or best case maybe I'll be allowed to switch early. Moving to a new computer is a pain in the butt, especially with all the security exemptions and stuff (to install non-standard software), so I never would have expected to find myself saying "I hope I can replace my computer soon". :-) (Holy cow, I just realized this will be computer #5 for me... maybe I can safely delete the archives from #2.)

I wonder if I can get a trackball or similar pointing device, too. Not to replace the mouse -- to augment it. This is a lot of screen to move across, and I'd like to spare my mouse hand the broad traversals. (I've never been any good at fine control with a trackball or touchpad, but if I could have both that and the mouse... I assume I can plug in two USB pointing devices and they'd both work, and that trackballs etc come USB these days. Something to check.)

Comments

[yuggazogy.livejournal.com]

Trackball is definitely worth it. I even game with it on first person shooter type games with mine (Logitech Marble Mouse, comes as USB with detachable adapter for use with PS2 ports). Mine is the big honkin' Centipede-type trackball rather than the smaller thumb-controlled ball.

[cellio]

Thanks. What factors make the Centipede-type work better for you than the thumb-style?

[yuggazogy.livejournal.com]

Comfort level, ergnomics, and (for me), more precise control and less thumb fatigue. Really, as with anyone asking me about mice/trackballs/etc, I'd recommend going to your closest electronics supply chain and test driving a few in-store before purchasing.

[cellio]

Definitely agree on the test-drive. Test-drives can rule things out easily enough, but they still aren't very good for telling you what something will be like after several hours, so other input is good too.