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Ambidextrous ergonomic keyboard and trackpad that others won't borrow.

I had problems with my hands about 12 years ago.  My right elbow and shoulder hurt and my hands had a dull ache.  I was able to fix my right arm by moving the mouse from the right hand side to the left hand side of my keyboard.  This brought it in closer because the left hand side of the keyboard is closer to the user because it doesn't have a numeric pad on that side. It still wasn't perfect.I wanted to fix both my hand and shoulder worries with a balanced keyboard and trackpad approach. 

The keyboard fix involves using a keyboard designed around the movement of human hands and arms. In my case this turned out to be the Kinesis Advantage keyboard with the Cherry mechanical key switches.  Keyboard snobs really like the mechanical switches. I understand why after 10 years on my original keyboard. They have a great feel.  The Kinesis Advantage moves some of the most common keys from the weak pinky fingers to to the more powerful thumbs.  Kenisis splits the keyboard so that the user's hands are closer to shoulder width apart.  The keys and key wells are cupped and sloped to limit the amount of hand and finger travel required for typing.  The keyboard also has the advantage that it is relatively narrow saving desk or keyboard tray space. The main downside is the learning curve. It took about 2-3 weeks of exclusive use to become proficient. 

The Kinesis Advantage has an open space between the two key wells that seems like the perfect place for a pointing device that can be used by both the left and the right hand.  I thought about mounting a trackball or IBM style stick pointing device.  I really wanted something larger that didn't have right/left handed buttons and fully supported gestures. There are small trackapds available on EBay.  None of them were large enough for me to easily drag across a multiple monitor setup.  FingerWorks used to make the large iGesture capacitive full gesture track-pad before they were bought by Apple.  Their technology got rolled into the Macbook zero-button trackpads and the Apple Magic Track-pad.  I attach the trackpad to the center of the keyboard with Velcro. I can use either my left or right hand with the trackpad in this position.  


I own two of these setups, one for home and one for work.  My hand and shoulder discomfort is probably 10%  or less than it used to be. It always surprises me that people will buy an expensive monitor and then the cheapest keyboard and mouse they can fine.  A techie's hands are their tools. Their value makes them worth the cost of a customized solution.

This keyboard trackpad combination has the side benefit that no one every wants to use your computer while you are away. They have no idea how to operate the keyboard.

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