Carpped Out
Beware the mouse. It looks harmless. But it has no loyalty: After working with it for hours on end, you might notice that it has stolen the strength from your wrists.
Let us examine the facts. I have been working long hours, due to commitments at my job. And, I think that I have been messing around with my computer here at home more than usual, too. (Last night's failed attempt to get my digital camera to work with linux is a case in point.) In the last month at work, I had installed a new trackball mouse. (The trackball is operated by the thumb, and I got it because I feared that my wrists were getting sore.) Now my wrists and thumbs feel sore.
And there are interesting problems to solve. I need to upgrade my server kernel. My webserver had gone done at about 9am this morning, due to a drop in the ISP connection, so I need to write some code to help make it more resilient to those kinds of problems. I am thinking about kicking off a big effort at refactoring our database code at work.
Maybe I need a new hobby.
Or, better yet, if they (who?) can come up with a better human-computer interface. Yeah, that's it. Something that doesn't require one to move fingers in a repetitive way. Eye-ball tracking? Brain-wave sensing?