On Fri, Dec 14, 2001 at 12:34:50PM -0600, Matt Wagner wrote: > Timothy Wilson writes: > > Hi everyone, > > > > Over the last week or so I've been experiencing some very mild numbness and > > tingling in my left index finger. Also, it occasionally twitches > > very slightly. Is this an early sign of RSI? Is it time to shell out 300 > > clams on that Kinesis keyboard? (http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/) > > Tim, > > I started to get this a while back also. > > My wife -- who is an architect and spends a lot of time in front of > the computer with Autocad -- gave me a set of her strap-on wrist > guards. They have worked perfectly. Here's a curmudgeonly point of view, not inconsistent with your report. RSI / Carpal Tunnel / whatever, is just the name given to a symptom that is a result of the development of a population of undisciplined/unskilled typists large enough to need to name their symptoms. No, I'm not picking on anyone or calling anyone unskilled. But, the fact remains that I had a great-aunt who was a member of a typing pool for decades, back around the middle of the last century. She typed something around 120 w.p.m., as did anyone else who worked there, and they did it for eight hours a day, every day. For years. Not one of them ever had to quit or even complained of these symptoms. And there were many thousands of professional typists employed all through not just our country, but the world, and it took the invention of the computer to bring to the forefront of the public consciousness the malady known as RSI or Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. The difference is that the trained professionals were all told one important thing when learning to type: "Sit up straight and KEEP YOUR WRISTS UP." Whenever I find myself getting sloppy, or slouching, or resting my hands on the keyboard -- and I use a laptop a lot -- I lift my wrists up and continue, and they get better. And that's the same thing your wife's wrist things force to happen. So, whatever works for you. :) Next time: "Health Food Makes Me Sick." -- "Trying to do something with your life is like sitting down to eat a moose." --Douglas Wood