Confessions of a Left-Handed Technology User 267
harrymcc writes "Over at TIME.com, I wrote about my trials and tribulations as a left-handed person who uses technology products. An awful lot of them have clearly been designed with the right-handed majority in mind, even when they claimed they weren't. But the good news is that modern smartphones and tablets are very lefty-friendly compared to the devices that preceded them."
Microsoft logo needs an update (Score:3)
The Microsoft logo [fsdn.com] used for this story is outdated [slashdot.org].
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They need to bring back the Bill Gates Borg logo.
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Silly (Score:5, Interesting)
I do know lefties who complain constantly about the injustice afforded them, but to be honest I've never been able to empathize with them.
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I agree. I'm left-handed and have always used a right-handed mouse or trackball. I can't even use a left handed mouse or scissors comfortably anymore. In some ways using a mouse right-handed helps me work faster. I can click on a pull down menu using the mouse, then press a key with my left hand. (At least until Office went to the ribbon interface)
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I'm left-handed and have always used a right-handed mouse or trackball.
This. As a lefty, I can not for the life of me understand how righties mouse and fap at the same time.
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I don't understand the complaints about using a mouse either. Us right handed people are the ones who suffer. Since you want to use the mouse with your off hand, making it much easier to use the phone or take notes with a pen and paper while also using the mouse to do whatever on the computer.
Left handed people thus get a huge choice in mouse designs while still being able to use the mouse in the hand it should be. While us right handers get a crappy choice.
Sure for most things lefties get the short end of
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Because there's a computer on your desk that you are essentially always using, but you also want to note down something and not have to walk to the printer room to get it? You are engrossed in your minesweeper game when someone pops their head into the room and tells you an address you want to note down?
That you can use things with either hand seems completely irrelevant given the very subject is someone complaining that the mouse being made for the right hand is bad for left handed people. So clearly some
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I agree. I'm left-handed and have always used a right-handed mouse or trackball.
Well, what's your definition of left-handed? We should start by discussing this. For most people it's "people who WRITE with the left hand" even if you do everything else with the right one.
I do write with the left, but apparently I do everything else (mouse, knife, and other mundane things) with the right. By the standard definition I'm a lefty but considering that I hardly ever actually write anything down, I don't think anyone who observed me for a few days would call me one.
Re:Silly (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, what's your definition of left-handed? We should start by discussing this. For most people it's "people who WRITE with the left hand" even if you do everything else with the right one.
Depends... I'm left-dominant, but I write with my right hand. According to my parents, I used my left until I reached grade school, and then switched to the right in order to fit in, because nobody else was using their left and I was being teased. Sports, however, I play left in hockey, soccer, baseball, and golf, and when I train in Jiu Jitsu, I practice both sides equally. I *can* write with my left hand in English (my native language) or French (which I learned to write concurrently with English), but it looks like it was written by a 6-year old. Interestingly, with alphabets I learned later in life, like Japanese, I can use either hand, and usually pick which hand I'm going to write with based on whether I'm writing right-to-left, or left-to-right in order to avoid smudging the ink.
Does that make me ambidextrous, left-handed, or right-handed?
(and technology-wise, I don't really care... I have a right-handed trackball mouse right now, so my workstation is set up in a right-handed configuration, but my uncle has his set up left-handed, and I can use it without needing to think much).
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Do you count scissors or pens as technology? Cause, as a left-handed person, those are annoying. But I've never had a problem with a phone, laptop, keyboard or printer. I've always used a mouse right-handed, though - I write left-handed, but I'd feel weird putting a mouse in that hand.
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I notice my lefthandedness everytime I don't use the number pad. In fact, I never enter numbers with the number pad, because I am so used to the number keys on top of the keyboard, which I reach with my left hand.
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I use the number row a bit... for playing Nethack. Never use it for entering numbers. I don't think it's cause I'm left-handed, though, it's just kind of out of the way, and I rarely, if ever, have to enter large numbers of numbers at once.
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Pens? Pens are symmetrical. How would that pose a problem?
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lefties tend to smear it with the heel of their hand as they move across the page
They do but only because they weren't taught to write properly. My mother is a lefty and so was my grandfather. He wouldn't let her write in that screwed up curled wrist method that most lefties adopt. When she became a teacher it was extremely beneficial - the chalkboard would have been a huge challenge had he not been so adement about forcing her to do it using his method (hand not smearing the writing, paper at an angle).
The downside was that she was really strong/fast with cursive yet mediocre/slow with
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The pen itself is symmetrical, but the orthographic system is not. For one thing, with your hand to the left of a pen while writing in English, you drag your hand through fresh ink.
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It is. My thought was more to the pens that have some form of ergonomic grip on them which works better for the right hand, though others have mentioned fountain pens as well.
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I missed the part where he blames the language (or the pen). Well I still dont find it, I guess I do fail in reading comprehension.
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I have to buy a higher quality ball point pen that dries quickly. The worse for me are those erasable ink pens. The best I've found so far are the space pens, the ink flows fairly well, they dry fairly fast and they aren't too expensive. Parker pens are even cheaper, and still pretty good, but I have to write a bit more carefully with them.
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Maybe it's a reference to fountain pens? Now that I think of it, I remember writing nibs on fountain pens working better for right handed people.
Left-handed people often use special nibs with a tilted tip, depending on how they hold the pen and paper.
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Do you count scissors or pens as technology?
Of course. There was no such thing as a pair of scissors before 1500 BC (yes, it's very old technology) and pens before the Indians invented them in 500 BC. John Mitchell of Birmingham started to mass produce pens with metal nibs in 1822, the fountain pen in 1827 and the ball point wasn't manufactured until 1943. Erasable pens have only been around since 1979; I was an adult when that was first marketed.
I'm not a leftie, but I agree, I don't see how a two handed t
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Isn't it mostly the molded shape of the handle that people are talking about about scissors being right handed? If you try to use them left handed, you're basically pushing down on the sharp-ish ends of the plastic mold, rather than it being molded for your hands to grip around.. (though I would think it would still be usable left handed.)
Re:Silly (Score:4, Funny)
You should suggest that they get together and open a store filled with products which cater to the left-handed people to address this persecution. Some sort of emporium of left-handedness. A leftorium, if you will.
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Yeah, I found the whole article pretty bogus. He talks about the left-handed bias in the QWERTY keyboard and switched from a right-handed mouse to a left-handed mouse, killing the benefit. I'm a lefty-favoring-ambidextrous person that mouses with my right because it is a decided advantage. I can mouse and type quite well.
Also, his caption about Jobs being ambidextrous and wearing his watch as a righty was proof that he wasn't? That's stupid. I've adjusted to using "handed" equipment with the intended h
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If it was really as bad as this guy seems to think then leftys would become rightys.
It is not like being gay, it is like not being particularly proficient at a language.
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If it was really as bad as this guy seems to think then leftys would become rightys.
It is not like being gay, it is like not being particularly proficient at a language.
Not really true. There is a well-documented difference in the brain structure of righties vs lefties. That said, anyone can, with some effort, train either hand to do a variety of jobs. After all, musicians (generally) use each hand to perform a lot of tasks in concert [sorry] with the other. I've met several tennis players who succes
you kid, but.. (Score:2)
I had some left handed coffee mugs made, with the logos on the other side.
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Mice got me for a while. Figured it out, still going just fine 20 years later.
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I think it depends on how well you can manage with your left hand.
My brother is a lefty, and in school he was practically forced to try to learn to write with his left hand until they got over it. He's fairly dextrous with both hands, and actually golfs like a righty.
But I know my DSLR camera and several electronic gadgets is set up nicely for a right handed person, and would likely be a pain for a lefty.
In my case, my left hand has never had much fine dexterity. So if I was suddenly forced to do things l
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From what I see the right handed things when it comes to PCs are the numeric pads, and many device buttons/knobs are on the right- monitor, speakers etc.
I wonder who has the advantage
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As a lefty, the only things that really annoy me are clipboards and wristwatches. Both are purposely designed for righties. As for the mouse, I'm so used to the "righty" button locations that I don't even think about it. I tried switching the buttons a few times, but it just annoyed me.
All that said, this isn't exactly a news flash..."We interrupt your regular programming to bring you a special news bulletin: because most people are right-handed, the left-handed are sometimes minorly inconvenienced. Fil
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This, the DS was probably the worst offender. How am I supposed to use the control pad and write at the same time? It was easier to lay the thing on the table, direct the D-pad with my pinkie and write with the same hand. Definitely a design flaw.
Other than that, guns and guitars are the only things that give me problems, keyboards and mice, not so much. Actually I think southpaws may come out a little ahead. Few people draw with a mouse, so it leave you with an advantage when picking out keys and navigatin
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Both the 3DS and the 3DS XL only have left analogue pads by default. Kid Icarus requires use of the pad and accurate use of the stylus at the same time which is near impossible for lefties. Thankfully they saw common sense and allowed lefties to use the add on pad on the right but that's only for the 3DS, the XL model doesn't have the slide pad add on.
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most of the guns - I am using left eye and left hand. Bolt action rifles are simply inconvenient.
I'm left handed and right-eyed, but my left, non dominant eye has better vision. If I have my glasses with me I shoot light rifles and those with shaped grips right handed and heavier guns left handed. Without my glasses I always shoot left handed. I started left handed and then switched to this when I realised how much better I was using my dominant eye. I can cope with the bolt being on the right but shaped grips are just a pain in the backside. I tend to prefer Martini action as they're usually completel
What's the big deal? (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm left-handed and I seriously don't see all of the life-challenges that are moaned about in this article and others, whether they concern technology or not. I'm pretty convinced that life as a left-hander is no harder than it would be if I were right-handed.
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I'm in the same camp.. I can't stand left handed mice. Back in the 80s my dad got me a leftie mouse when I was getting into CAD. I tried it but I couldn't stand it. I was much happier with the right mouse because I was better at typing with my left so I could easily mouse and type at the same time.
When I was doing desktop support I sometime run across the lefties with the mouse buttons reversed too. Those folks will really slow you down.
CD Jewel cases (Score:5, Interesting)
Other than smudging the ink from those awful erasable pens, I never payed much attention to products working or not working for us lefties, until CD's came along. Actually, it wasn't until I watched my right handed friend struggle to open a CD case. Somehow he was awkwardly trying to pry the front open with his right hand, which between the case swinging open against the natural movement of the right arm, and somehow gripping the edges of the lid with his left hand as he held the back, was quite entertaining.
For me it was natural to hold the back with my right hand (hinge side on my middle fingers, other side on my thumb) and then grab the front with my left hand (fingers/thumb along top and bottom). The case just opened beautifully.
It is the only tech device I can think of that worked better for us lefties from day one.
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For me it was natural to hold the back with my right hand (hinge side on my middle fingers, other side on my thumb) and then grab the front with my left hand (fingers/thumb along top and bottom). The case just opened beautifully.
Aside from the fact that CD jewel cases aren't very well designed... I'm right-handed and open CDs exactly the same way you do. My "handedness" never occurred to me while using them.
Does your right-handed friend also open the cover of books across his body with his right hand?
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Actually - he probably does. I observe that people hold books with their left hand and then lift the cover/turn pages with their right. It works because the book cover isn't clipped to the body/pages to limit accidental opening.
I'm not 100% left handed, and have a lot of right handed tendencies (all sports are rh) - I dexterously open books, but sinistrously open CD cases.
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From your description, I think your friend suffers less from any handedness issue - and more from the 10% rule.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Ten%20Percent%20Rule [urbandictionary.com]
You must be 10% smarter than the equipment you are trying to operate.
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Your friend is neither intelligent nor dextrous. Lacking dexterity all he would have to do to open it "right handed" would be to turn it upside down. He also is probably aliterate or illiterate, since CDs open the same way books do.
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me too. books have to be opened this way too if you need to hold them in your hands for some reason.
all of this is valid if you insist to look at the front cover the right way while you open them. otherwise you can simply turn the cd case around, and do the mirror movements; and you can simply do a perfectly symmetrical movement with books.
Some technology is Left-handed (Score:2)
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The Famicom was also the first home system to put the directional control on the left. While many arcade systems had the directional control joystick on the left of the buttons, most home systems of the era used joysticks designed for right-handed operation. The division has continued to this day, with computer joysticks typically being designed for use in the right hand with gamepads and arcade joysticks favoring the left hand.
If Atari had come up with a Gamepad for their 5200 system, who knows, perhaps the standard would have been stick on the right, buttons on the left.
switch hands (Score:2)
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It's not that difficult to switch hands, infact it may be better for you in the long run. Many of the users where I work have switch the mouse from right to left because it's more ergonomic.
Actually, I do this when my wrist cramps up. I'll just alternate back and forth. But I grew up in a family of lefties and I was taught to do all sorts of crap left handed. For some reason they just assumed I was a lefty until I was like two or three and it became obvious that I was not.
Still, I get asked if I'm a lefty a lot. Like when I'm using the mouse left handed, or I'm using silverware, or I pull my wallet out from my back left-hand pocket. I still don't have the same dexterity with a mouse left-hande
Going a bit too far (Score:2, Insightful)
One of the photo captions: "Steve Jobs claimed to be ambidextrous, but as this 1981 photo shows, he wore his watch on his left hand -- a tattletale sign of right-handedness"
Really?! On which hand is an ambidextrous person supposed to wear a watch?
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I'm a leftie and wear my watch on my left hand. I do everything else with my left hand, why not wear a watch there. People always told me the reason I should switch was so I could check the time while I was writing.
Maybe right-handed people are magical and they can continue to write while they are looking at their watch, but for me I always had to stop writing if I wanted to look somewhere else so it's never been a big deal.
Cars (Score:2)
So, will lefties demand to drive british cars in the USA? Right now they are forced to operate the gear lever with their non-dominant right hand.
"Right" Side of the Road (Score:3)
This is exactly how I am explaining to everyone what the 'ideal' (so it won't be confusing) side of the road is to drive on:
Assumptions:
1. There are two side-by-side seats in front, with a center console for instrumentation.
2. One sits on the opposite side of the side of the road one drives on (e.g. drive on the right, sit on the left).
3. Drivers prefer to use their dominant hand for tasks that require the most precise motor control.
Argument:
Since the console, which holds the gear shift, climate control, GPS, stereo, etc. is in the centre, it depends on what the dominant hand is for the majority of the population. If that happens to be the right hand, the console should be to the right of the driver, hence the driver is sitting in the left seat. With assumption 2 that follows the car should drive on the right-hand side of the road.
Lefties can rejoyce themselves in thinking what it would be like for a right-handed person to learn to drive with a standard stick-shift over in the UK.
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3. Drivers prefer to use their dominant hand for tasks that require the most precise motor control.
That task is turning the steering wheel, surely - leaving, in the UK at least, the less dexterous (see what I did there?) hand to do the much simpler task of pushing a stick into a slot.
Lefties can rejoyce themselves
Not in public!
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3. Drivers prefer to use their dominant hand for tasks that require the most precise motor control.
That task is turning the steering wheel, surely - leaving, in the UK at least, the less dexterous (see what I did there?) hand to do the much simpler task of pushing a stick into a slot.
If you were steering with a joystick then I'd agree, but normal car steering wheels (i.e. not racing cars) aren't sensitive enough to need as much precise motor control.
Not that I'm saying this "proves" drivers sitting on left is best, since 90% of all car controls should be easy to use with either hand. The remaining 10% are touchscreen interfaces like GPS and some in-dash systems displays.
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I don't think it's too much trouble. I drove in South Africa for a few days and only had one "no hands on the wheel, grabbing at the door for the gearshift" moment. If the pedals were rearranged, that would be a problem but fortunately they are not.
I usually have the passenger manipulate the climate and audio anyway.
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I'm American, but the first stick shift I learned to drive was British. Oddly, the only controls I had difficulty adjusting to were the turn signals and windshield wipers. I could never remember if they were mirrored or not.
I'm left-handed and British, I drive a manual car and change gear with my left hand. If I've got only one hand on the wheel it's usually my right but I'm cool with both. I've driven the occasional left-hand drive car and after half an hour or so I'm used to reaching on my right for the gear stick, likewise on tractors with the stick in the middle. I don't think it makes a lot of difference.
What I find hardest to get used to is the position of the indicators (turn signals) when I change between cars. The maj
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You can always tell when I've just switched countries: I tell people that I like a clear windscreen before I go around a corner, and when it starts to rain I want the blinker on so my car is easier to see.
"You're holding it wrong" (Score:3)
Most recent example of a hand bias that hit major headlines. While I doubt Apple made this mistake by using only right-handed testers and it likely had more to do with minimal testing in poor signal areas, this problem manifested more frequently with the way a lefty held their phone.
Being a lefty can be expensive (Score:2)
I think the worst thing about it is buying sport equipment. All three of us brothers are lefties, and growing up, we played a lot of sports. A nice set of left handed golf clubs, for example, are almost twice as much for the right handed version if they are even available.
On an unrelated note, in my first engineering course in college my professor said for all the left-handed people to raise their hands, which ended up being more than 50% of the class. Aside from my own home, that's the only time I've ev
up up down down left right left right (Score:2)
I'm ambidextrous. I can screw things up equally with both hands.
Actually, I'm left handed, but I've never had any issue with right-handed devices.. scissors work just fine for me, etc.
Get over it. (Score:2)
Learn to be ambidextrous. It will serve you well no matter which is your dominant hand and it is helpful protection against strokes and such.
Right-handed mice seem odd to me (Score:2)
Magazine flipping (Score:2)
- raises left hand - (Score:2)
Most left handed people (such as myself) learn to handle tools and gadgets right handed. It is a right handed world. In a way this is an advantage, as we southpaws do more and therefore tend to have more dexterity using the "wrong hand" than most righties. This tends to make southpaws somewhat ambidextrous. Watch someone doing a repetitious task -- if they're naturally a leftie, chances are they're using both hands. If they're naturally a rightie, often their left arm just hangs there like a piece of m
things are better now (Score:2)
In second grade, my teachers tried to force me to be right handed. (For which I would like to give a personal "thank you". Oh, and "may you burn in hell".) I got terrible headaches and a bad stutter. (I know handedness as a cause of stuttering is now considered controversial. I can only tell you what I experienced.) In fifth grade I switched myself back. My symptoms gradually disappeared. As a result, I never learned to write cursive with my dominant hand, as those years were spent training a hand t
Confessions of a right-handed user (Score:3)
A few years ago I started setting my desk up lefty: keyboard on the right, mouse on the left. This means that the QWERTY section is dead center and that reaching over to the mouse is a much shorter distance. My typing speed is up considerably and my right wrist no longer bends at a weird angle.
Retraining to mouse left-handed was easy. It took a few days of being a fumbling klutz but now it's completely natural. Having to buy ambidextrous mice really limits your options though.
You lefties DO NOT want a lefty keyboard. That just gets you back to the same dysfunction that I had to escape. I want a lefty keyboard. Does anyone know of a lefty keyboard with light clicky keyswitches (Cherry MX Blues are perfect)?
very left-handed (Score:2)
I consider myself to be very left-hand oriented. I write, use my mouse/trackpad/trackball in my left, play a left-handed guitar, and golf lefty. I'm a switch-hitter in baseball, but prefer my left, and throw lefty. My shotgun is bottom-eject, because I shoot lefty, too.
Right-handed tools are the bane of my existence. I hire contractors to do all my home repairs/upgrades that involves power tools. I won't risk it. As a computer-oriented professional, my hands are too important to lose them, or any of my fing
Swype and lefties (Score:2)
I've found that Swype is a notable exception to the original article's statement that mobile is better for lefties. What makes Qwerty so good for lefties on a keyboard is what makes it so terrible for Swype.
First, the most common keys in Qwerty are on the left, which benefits from the angle at which a right-handed swype-motion attacks. Secondly, when using the right-hand, the keyboard is not as frequently obscured. The thumb always covers the least-used keys, exposing the more frequently used keys (those on
Re:First World Problem Here (Score:5, Funny)
Re:First World Problem Here (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm left handed, but I've never had an issue using mice or trackpads right handed. After a little test right now it seems I also use my right hand more often when using a tablet or smartphone - probably because of the mouse thing.
Random facts that perhaps nobody cares about: I play baseball, golf and hockey with a right handed orientation, but racket games like tennis and badminton left handed. I am more comfortable brushing my teeth and shaving with my left hand, but have recently been occasionally practice with my right just for fun. When I was a kid, I broke my left wrist and so was forced to learn to write, eat etc, with my right hand for a while. It's fun to practice being ambidextrous.
Re:First World Problem Here (Score:5, Interesting)
I also learned to mouse lefty when I started suffering carpal tunnel effects. I have gotten some very weird reactions from people trying to use my desk, including an absurd number of "oh! I didn't know you were left handed!" comments from people who have no reason to know or care what my primary hand is, but suddenly seemed to think it was a big deal. I've had a couple of other visitors actually move the mouse over to the right side of the keyboard, despite the fact they were standing and only needed to use the mouse for a few seconds (easily could have just used the mouse where it was) and one person who went so far as to comment as he moved it "you've got the mouse on the wrong side" like I didn't know where I'd left it.
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Actually, the ones who crack me up are the folks who sit there and cross their right arm over their left so that they can mouse with their right arm. It's like they'd rather play twister while using the computer than use that vestigal left hand they have.
IMHO mousing, like typing, is something inherently left-hand biased. I understand rather a lot of so-called professional gamers mouse lefty.
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Oh yeah, I also play guitar right handed. I actually think this probably gives a benefit to dexterity on the fingerboard, which requires more spacial coordination than simply choosing which string to pluck. So I'm not sure why left handers even want to play using the opposite orientation - especially given that this means you can't just pick up any old guitar at someone's house and play.
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Exactly. For those who have completed Guitar Hero/Rock Band on Expert, it's a fun challenge to go back and play upside down. It's surprising how much actually carries over I found.. I managed to complete first time a couple of tracks that took a bit of practice on my "good" side.
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Right hand on fretboard == left-handed play.
I say this as both a rightie and a guitarist.
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Then again, even on a real guitar it seems like I'd want my right hand on the fretboard, but I don't know how to play so maybe there are important points I'm overlooking.
Anecdotally speaking, yes. I know, it seems counter-intuitive, but from my experience, switching stance to right-hand-on-fretboard is far more difficult than it at first appears.
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Anecdotally speaking, yes. I know, it seems counter-intuitive, but from my experience, switching stance to right-hand-on-fretboard is far more difficult than it at first appears.
As another anecdote, I tried switching sides and found it a lot easier than expected. I actually played some songs better than when I'd first played them the right way around, although it would have helped that by then I knew the song pattern better (albeit back-to-front..)
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I've got a spare acoustic, may be time to string it backwards and give 'er another go...
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Technically when you play an instrument you only play it one way. Your handiness, will often be a factor in your playing style.
I play the double bass and I am right handed. That means I am a little less agile with fingering but better with plucking, and bowing. But with practice the difference is not a big deal.
Besides Brass there isn't too many one handed instruments out there. .
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Righty here, and I can't stand right handed mice (Score:2)
I prefer ambidextrous mice. It probably has something to do with my mouse style--an extreme version of the fingertip grip [razerzone.com]--and I find that *-handed mice tend to want to rotate while I'm using them. I think that *-handed mice are really only good for people with the palm-grip style.
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Re:I'm a lefty (Score:5, Interesting)
As a lefty, I always thought it was a good thing that the mouse is on the right. Mousing isn't something that requires incredible accuracy, and the accuracy it does require is easily learned in a rather small amount of time, so long as my hand was compatible with the ergonomics of the mouse, I was in good shape. And it freed up my left hand for combination keystrokes and shortcuts and one-handed typing, which definitely requires more deliberate movements and precision than right-handed mousing does for a lefty.
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I estimate about 200 clickable items on my screen right now. Some of them are pretty tiny.
My keyboard keys are nice and fat!
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"Mousing", as in your ability to manipulate the mouse. The mouse itself should obviously be accurate.
I just meant the dexterity required in order to be proficient at mousing is very low. It doesn't require extensive training and use to master. For example, my three year old niece's typing is for shit. However, she can get the mouse around and click on things no problem.
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Sometimes I switch the buttons around, sometimes I don't;
Why do lefties switch the mouse buttons?
They're referred to as "left mouse button" and "right mouse button" - not as "index finger" and "middle finger".
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The most invalid example is that of the PDA/tablet, where writing with your left hand drags on the touch-sensitive surface.
That isn't a problem with a data tablet - it's a problem with the English language. If you use a tablet in Arabic, Japanese, or many other languages, lefties have the advantage, and right-handed people are at a disadvantage.
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2. My Sony Vaio laptop. I use right-handed buttons on the mouse but with the left hand (left side). My Vaio has the fan air exit on the left side, so if I'm using an external mouse my hand is constantly receiving a not so nice (specially in summer) how air stream.
Other than that, I've never feel "impeded" by technology.
My Vaio appears to be left-handed. The CD tray is on the left side. The touch pad is placed left of the center line. The exhaust fan blows out the right side.
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Why not just use the arrow keys? That way, the up and down are properly aligned and you can never accidentally shift to the left or right. Then use the insert/delete/home/etc. block of keys for reload, crouch, etc. You can also use parts of the numpad (sometimes) and the keys on the right of the main keyboard area.
left handed guitar (Score:2)
As far as I'm concerned the normal guitar is already a left handed instrument. And righties are at a huge disadvantage. On a standard guitar, where you are picking with your right and fretting with your left, you need more strength in your left hand and the ability to know where your hand is without looking too much.
I love my left scissors. I didn't know they made a proper corkscrew, so I bought a high tech one that you just squeeze with either (or both) hands.
Power switch on most tablets and cell phones me
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You are apparently a one handed typer. Comes from fapping so much.