Trackballs

I've noticed that during the past few months, my right wrist and arm become quite uncomfortable after a couple of hours at the computer. It's pretty annoying, and a bit worrisome...I don't want to develop carpal tunnel syndrome and have my arm become useless by the time I turn 30.

I understand that mice are pretty much a necessity for gaming, but I think that a trackball would be a lot nicer for desktop use. To be honest, though, I don't really know much about fancy input devices, and there aren't a lot of stores where I can try out different trackballs around here. I'd like to know if anyone uses a trackball instead of a mouse, and what kind of trackball is the most comfortable to use without costing lots of money.

Thanks in advance!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by RacinReaver

If your arm is getting tired after just an hour or two, it's probably the way that you have your mouse situated on your desk. Try looking up a guide to proper ergonomics for mousing somewhere online. My guess is that your mouse is either 1) situated too high for how you sit, 2) sitting too far away so you have to reach for it, or 3) you need to constantly tug on the wire because it's getting snagged on something or most of the cable is hanging behind your desk and you need to pull it up every time you move the mouse backward.

Do you feel the same problem when you use every other computer you've worked at?

My computer at school has a pretty bad ergonomic setup...the mouse is too far away from me and set too high. However, I find that my wrist will eventually begin to ache no matter what computer I'm using, even if the desk and chair are set up properly. My desk at home is set up very close to what all of the ergonomics guides that I've read suggest, but my wrist will still ache after a few hours at the computer.

I did play around with a TrackMan Wheel at Best Buy (eww), but it actually seemed a bit too big...I seem to have pretty small hands (I can't even use a Dual Shock comfortably) and my thumb couldn't reach the ball very well without sliding away from the buttons and wheel. The Logitech Marble seems like a decent choice at this moment, but especially after seeing StarmanDX's post, I am a bit worried about buying one without trying it for a bit.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I use a Microsoft Optical Wheel Mouse at home...it's almost the same as the mouse you linked to, except without side buttons. At school, I use a Razer Pro|Click v1.6, which is actually the best mouse that I've used...I think that the high sensitivity lets me move it around less, and it slides really easily.

Both mice will cause my wrist to ache after a while, though, which makes me even more worried that I've already done some damage to it. I don't have any pain when I'm typing, though, so I'm probably not developing carpal tunnel just yet...I hope.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by RacinReaver

Any chance you could take a picture of your current setup? I don't know anyone else that's young and has the problem of an aching wrist after mousing for an extended period of time.

I don't have a digital camera handy at the moment (though I've finally saved up enough to buy an SLR, so that will DEFINITELY be changing soon!), but I do try to follow the basic ergonomic guidelines as best as I can. I have my mouse and keyboard set up close to my body so I don't have to reach for them, they're very slightly below my arm level, and I don't bend my wrists when I'm using either of them.

At my desk at school, the mouse is placed too high, but I still avoid bending my wrist when I'm using it...for the most part, it's light and sensitive enough that I only need to use my fingers to work with it. I can't really change the desk layout or chair height, so that's the only thing I can really do there.

In both cases, though, after a couple of hours of pretty much anything that involves a lot of mouse usage (FPS games can be particularly bad), my wrist will start to hurt a bit. The actual ache isn't so bad yet, but it still worries me a lot...I'm only 19, and I don't want to wind up so bad that I can barely use a computer.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by russ

Perhaps you should try a vertical mouse. A coworker of mine has one of these and he loves it.

That's actually a really interesting-looking...um, thing! Is it only sold through their website, though? I'd really have to try one out before I paid that much money for any input device, or at least buy it from a website that had a fairly lenient return policy.

I was speaking idiomatically.