[wplug] OT -- Dvorak keyboard and saving your wrists

[Patrick Wagstrom]

> Another thing I found to help my wrists was going into "Layout
> Options" tab (right of "Layouts") and clicking on "Control Key
> Position" causing it to expand.  If you have the bug in Fedora Core
> 3 (or was it 4) and cannot see the names of the labels, it's the 4th
> one down.  Then select "Make CapsLock an additional Control". :-)
> 
> I find not reaching for the darn control key in it's normal location
> really is a wrist saver.

One last thing on the wrist saving topic.  There's a great little
program called Workrave[1] that gently reminds you to occasionally take
rest breaks and step away from the computer.  It even pops up with
little exercises to do during your breaks.  I've found it to be
wonderful.

Like you would expect, it's fully configurable, from the level of "pause
for 10 seconds every 10 minutes, but let me skip it" up to the draconian
"lock the screen for one minute every five minutes and don't let me
postpone it".  While it may seem moderately intrusive at first, after a
while you wonder how you lived without it.  When I'm hacking, I've found
that the breaks give me a good chance to think about what I've been
writing.

It also counts your keystrokes and mouse movement for the day, so you
can get a good approximation of whether that day was a coding day or
surfing day.  Finally, it's got a network feature so if you use multiple
computers (even Windows and Linux) it will remember how much you have
used the computer that day and keep it all in sync.  Very cool.

--Patrick

[1] http://www.workrave.org/