I’m experiencing a wierd bug. Been having it for some time now. I haven’t posted about it before since its only been annoying, but not really setting me back. And I have trouble defining and explaining the bug. Today it crossed the line into actual annoyance.
The bug occurs when I’m writing, using the keyboard on my laptop. Both when I write in browsers, like when writing this post, and when I write in openoffice. So its not limited to one program.
In webbrowsers what happens is that all of a sudden the browser loads the previous page in the tab. Like I told it to go one step back.
In OpenOffice something similar happens. The curser jumps up in the document.
I used to have this bug when touchpad-tapping was enabled. I have a habit of drumming my thumbs on the touchpad when typing. Therefore I’ve disabled tapping on the touchpad.
The bug is reocurring, however I have not found a way to reproduce it. It might be a key combination I accidentally hit when typing away, but I’m not sure.
Does this occur if you disable the touchpad completely? I understand the problem completely, I’m a ‘drummer’ too by nature. But:
On some schools they had a project on e-learning. A lot of attention was paid to workspace, ergonomics. I was told that only recently they discovered that a lot of fysical misery can be avoided if you have your lower arms on the table/desk that a laptop/keyboard is on. Your personal energy comsumption is reduced by over 75% this way. I was so amazed that I tried to change my way of working. Got used to this within a week, and I’m going to stick to it, since I’m actually less tired overall at the end of the day, no back pains, neck strains etc.
Why this story? Because of the side effect: I stopped drumming on the touchpad. It’s immediately back if I don’t have the space to put my arms down.
I’m already resting my arms on the table/laptop. I have a feeling that might be the problem. I’m resting my hands on the keyboard, my lower arms on the edge of the laptop. My hands constantly near the touchpad. I could try and disable it completely. Is there a function to do this automaticly, when there is a USB-mouse plugged in?
Lots of laptops have a button to switch off the touchpad. Some have an option in the BIOS. Mine has neither.
If you have a synaptic touchpad, there’s a couple of apps, that can switch it off permanently/on a hotkey.