Hmmm....I am enjoying my new desk, but I find that I still have a tendency to lean over and hunch up as I go, which makes my neck and shoulders hurt. I suspect if I put my laptop up on a stand of some kind (David has one that tilts and is adjustable), that will probably help counter my hunching motion. Kevin also suggested that one of those wrist rest thingies might be good for my arms -- the last time I did a lot of typing on a daily basis, I ended up with shooting pains in my forearms, which were pretty darn annoying.
So I guess this is a call for suggestions from y'all -- what products do you recommend (compatible with a 12-inch Powerbook), which will make my situation more ergonomic? I know there's a wealth of information out there on this subject, but I find it difficult winnowing through all the kazillion products to figure out which ones actually help!
stands are good, but another option might be to put it up on a stand where the monitor is up at monitor height, and use a seperate keyboard and mouse when you’re at the desk. A bunch of my coworkers do this, to good effect.
Jed does this, but when I try using his system, I find it disconcerting — also, I have yet to find an external keyboard that has anything near the pleasure of my Powerbook keyboard. And I don’t much like unplugging everything every time I move the laptop, which I expect to still do at least once a day. So I am resistant to this solution, at least for now. 🙂
Do you know about the wireless keyboards? They’d at least eliminate the need to unplug stuff.
It’s true that PowerBook keyboards are particularly nice, though.
Another option is what I do at home: have an external monitor that you connect to the computer, and put that at eye height.
The basic ergonomics issue with laptops is that you can’t have the keyboard at the right height and the monitor at the right height at the same time. Laptops just aren’t ergonomic, unfortunately. Some day I hope they make a PowerBook with a detachable screen that you can put on a stand up above the keyboard.
I am now vaguely leaning towards a combination of iCurve and a wireless keyboard/mouse. See this review for detailed comments on ergonomics and a photo of what it would look like. But I’m not willing to do that unless I can find a wireless keyboard that feels really good to type with.
I don’t think I have time to deal with this before WorldCon, but once I get back, a trip to the Apple Store will probably be in order.
You seem to have found a solution already, but I’m behind, so:
I really like the soft feel of the PowerBook keyboards, and for my desktop systems, use a Sun USB keyboard, which I actually like a little better. The keys are a bit deeper, but still fairly shallow and soft.
I keep being surprised that no one sells laptop keyboards with USB interfaces…