Archive for the ‘rsi’ Category
Upgrade 08
I have spent yesterday and today working on upgrading my home PC. It is a five yearly ritual that I observe.
These are the components:
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 3.0 GHZ (E8400)
- Memory: Kinsgton HyperX DDR2 1066MHZ 2GB kit
- Motherboard: ASUS P5Q-Pro
- VIdeo Card: ASUS PCI-E 512MB 9400GT
- PSU: Widetech 550W
- Mouse: Evoluent Right Hand
Total cost: 814.63
I bought Evoluent mouse as I feel that my right hand is stiff at times, I think the Microsoft Optical Mouse that I use might have something to do with it. I hope it can spare me from RSI.
The one on the left is the new PC. The pic on the right is the old PC that is going to be my sister in law’s PC and Jet was working on it 
Beating RSI
There was a programmer who loved his programming craft very much. For him there isn’t much of anything else in the world that he enjoys more than coding and building applications. Out of the blue one day his hands were in excruciating pain, he just couldn’t type or moved his mouse anymore. The GP diagnosed him with RSI, he would need to take a break from typing for an unknown period of time. It was a completely devastating news for him. It would meant that not only he no longer can do the thing that he loves most but he would need to find another form of job to support himself. Depression got the best of him for few months and sadly it eventually lead to him committing a suicide.
If the story scares the heck out of you, then I have succeeded to get my point across. If you do a lot of typing, please look after yourselves.
And if you ever find yourselves in the similar situation to the above story, don’t give up, here is a testimony of someone who has overcome RSI How I beat RSI. Make sure you consider the possibility of not being able to code for the rest of your life, do you have other passion, do you have other capability or interest that will allow you to work in different field, do you have some sort of income protection insurance? You know we never think of these things until it’s too late.
So during this holiday season, I decided to give my hands as much rest as possible. Which means that:
- I will not program as much (I was thinking to do some ColdBox/Transfer coding before).
- I will be using mouse with left hand. I will be looking at alternative devices such as trackball.
