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

[gregbo.livejournal.com]

I may need computer glasses also. I've been having some shoulder problems lately, which seem to be better now that I've switched back to an older pair of lenses. These are an older style of lens that are oval (rather than rectangular). The newer pair of lenses I have is not as wide at the edges, which my eye doctor at the time told me would actually be good for my vision, but it doesn't seem to work so well for computer use. To his credit, he suggested that I think about getting bifocals, but I think I'd rather have two separate pairs of glasses.

I will probably have to look into ergonomic keyboards and mice as well. For now, I've switched to higher magnification and larger font sizes. The screen does not have to be close to me, and I can extend my arms, easing the stress on my shoulders.

[cellio]

I already had bifocals, so I was trying to read the computer screen through just the bifocal part. (I can't read it at any distance through the distance part of the lens.) I still do this at home, but it's less of an issue there because it's a smaller screen, I'm not spending as much time at the computer, and it's just less intense all around.

I'm not sure how getting bifocals will solve your computer problems. You probably don't hold reading material (books, newspapers, etc) at the same distance that you'd like to place your computer monitor, do you?

My new computer glasses are computer-distance-focused for the main lens with bifocals (so I can read papers too). Eseentially, I inverted the lenses -- instead of using just the bifocal I now use everything except the bifocal when looking at the computer screen. This is working out much better for me even aside from the change in focal distance. More glasses real-estate means more computer-screen real-estate.

I've found that lens shape makes a huge difference, by the way.

My keyboard is nothing special, but I find that the right mouse makes a huge difference for me. I also have a little foam pad attached to the back end of my mouse -- think of it as a mobile wrist rest. That helps a lot. (I also have a wrist rest for the keyboard, one of those firm-but-adaptable gel-like things.)

Good luck in finding a combination of tools that works for you. It can take a lot of fussing, but your eyes, hands, shoulders, etc will thank you.