Ask HN: Software engineer with broken arm, any tips? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Software engineer with broken arm, any tips?

6 pointsspapas8211 comments

I broke my right hand after a hard fall in the rain (I am right handed). Any tips on how to improve my computer usage with one hand?

TIA

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Sorry to hear about your arm, hope you have a speedy recovery!

I don't have a real tip, but when I broke a finger on my left hand, I was surprised how many of the keys I use as a programmer are on the left side. I mostly work in VS Code, PyCharm and SSH sessions .

Thank you very much.

Some pro tips on how to use voice-to-text (from engineers who broke their arms):

- Sub-vocal dictation (mic): https://youloop.leftium.com/NvVbCqDgfCs/520~733?speed=2

- Handy - Free open-source speech-to-text: https://hw.leftium.com/i/44302416

Hello the Microsoft seems interesting ! unfortunately I have tried handy and was not very accurate in Greek

Granola or Wisper flow should help you a bit, or with some research you can find open source alternatives which can work locally using on device LLM.

Thank you very much. Wispr Flow is great and it also transcribes my primary language, which is Greek

Speech to text has come a long ways. Personally dislike it, but even then, have found myself using it on occasion.

If you’re using an LLM as part of this, it was already faster at typing, so lean into that.

I have tried to use an open-source program, Handy, but it didn't work well for Greek. So I switched to Wispr Flow, which was recommended by another friend, and it works very well.

Don't break your other arm too. Just kidding, sorry for your injury and get well soon.

As for a real tip, since you mentioned software engineer specifically, I think you are using the keyboard a lot, so you obviously must've looked into voice/speech to text related stuff, but for the mouse usage, I can recommend those small form factor wireless/bluetooth keyboards with the touchpad portion in the top center, those are fairly easy to use even with the non dominant hand (or even with the fingertips of the broken side, if you can move those). I won't link here directly, but they look like small game controllers and are relatively cheap, are also called media pc keyboards or home theater, media center keyboards etc.

Thank you i'll try it!

You can burp the worm with your other hand. It will feel strange at first if you're not used to it.

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