Over the past few days I’ve been suffering from pain in my right wrist when I work on the computer for too long. While my first idea would be RSI, I definitely hope it is not the case, but I’ve been taking precautions just in case.
As we all know, SL requires a lot of mouse movement, and quite often long conversations to be typed out on the keyboard. Yes, going voice would solve the conversation issue, but not everyone feels comfortable with voice communication and then there’s the problem of the language being used. It’s not too hard to have instant translation on written text, but translating spoken words on the fly is a completely different issue.
I have installed Workrave, a small freeware tool that’ll tell me when it’s time for a break away from the computer and the devices attached to it. It allows one to set up regular breaks, going from a microbreak (10 seconds every 3 minutes for instance) to longer rest breaks. I’ve opted not to use the microbreaks but go for a full 5 minute break every 30 minutes. While it brings down my “productivity” with 10 minutes every hour, it will affect my health for the better and ensure a long term benefit for everyone involved.
So, if you suddenly notice that I don’t reply to an ongoing conversation, don’t think anything of it, it’ll probably be my anti RSI tool that kicked in telling me to go something else for 5 minutes. I’ll pick up where we left off when my break is over.
