I certainly consider my fingers long enough to be nuisance. There are hardly few disaster-free moments in my life for the sheer reason of not knowing where to put my extremities - I slap people around me accidentally and get parts of me pinned up between the door and the jamb (believe it or not, it's no unusual occurrence for me get that bony part of my hip bumped and bruised with the door knob when I close doors behind me as I pass through).
I am that klutzy. So imagine all 5 foot 7 inches of me hunched over the microscopic HP Mini 1001TU and my spidery hands all a sprawl on the keyboard and that lilliputian trackpad as I write this post.
You're right; not a pretty sight.
And it's also not a comfortable typing experience for me either. I could very well sit up straight on a chair with the Mini on a desk and then squint at the text editor in blogger.com. However, my constantly having to reach for the trackpad is quite cumbersome - I lift my entire hand off the keyboard and then lower it so my index finger would now rest on the trackpad surface. Or anchor my wrist on the Mini's lower chassis' edge and pivot my hand to reach the trackpad.
No wonder I end up feeling like my wrists were run over, mangled by a car on the street after a significant amount of typing on a laptop! It's the trackpad.
Or maybe it's just the way I use the trackpad. Remember how tech people would say netbook ergonomics are mainly for children? Well, that can be true indeed. Look at how my 7 year old nephew positions his hands on my HP Mini 1001TU as he prepares to use it (I had to lure him to want to use the Mini by telling him I got a new game installed).
Or maybe not.
My latest endeavor is trying to acquire this tracking technique/skills. Not really easy to shrug old habits off. And this is just proof of my having nothing to do but bum around this holiday.
Edit: Doesn't work for me. External USB mouse remains the best option.
6 comments:
My thumb works horribly on the trackpad: very erratic motion, sometimes won't move the cursor at all. It seems to require the flat pad of my index finger to get smooth motion.
Ever since i started using a netbook, i had to get used to keyboard shortcuts. Nothing like good old spark, quicksilver applescripts and automator (presumably butler too, but i don't use 'im) to get me through the pain. Tracking using the thumb really stained my palm.
Now that I've tried it for quite some time, I realized it strains my hands more than usual.
Now as to why this little boy is quite comfortable with this, I think I have 2 reasons:
1) the size of his hands - his a 7 year old kid.
2) it's how he's always used the trackpad according to his mom, my cousin, and his 10 year old older brother.
Oh bother, I'm back with my trusty index finger.
But the keyboard on the Mini 1000 is identical to the one on the 311c, right?
So with just a usb mouse you should be ok.
5'7" :)
This is a ggreat post
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