Like many of us, I've used a large number of pointing devices on computers.  A finicky ball mouse on an Atari ST, laptop touch pads, the little red nub on a thinkpad, touch screens, keyboard embedded trackballs, and even a gyro mouse.  For day-to-day work, however, it was always a standard, run-of-the-mill optical mouse.

After many years I started to notice my forearm and wrist was getting sore from mouse usage, so I switched hands and the pain went away.  I suspect that is just a temporary fix and eventually that wrist too will begin to suffer.  Then what?  I've run out of hands.

I saw on Amazon recently a sale of the Logitech Trackman Marble.  It was well reviewed and $19.99.  The most remarkable thing about it was that folks who suffered from Carpal Tunnel felt the pain go away after using this device.  The ergonomics of a stationary "mouse" and a big rolling marble seemed to alleviate the issue.  So I ordered one.

I've been using the Marble for over a week now and can say it's quite a nice change from a typical mouse.  I don't miss moving my mouse to the edge of its mat, having to pick it up, drop it down further back and then continue the motion to get the pointer further across the screen.  That was a real nuisance while holding down a mouse button.  With the marble you just keep spinning the ball.  No hand gymnastics required!

The downside is that while the Trackman Marble includes buttons for Previous and Next page for web surfing, it has no scrolling mechanism.  A scroll wheel is something I've gotten quite used to having.  It's almost bad enough to shelve the Trackman, but thankfully someone has written a Windows app that lets you use the big marble as an omni-directional scroller while holding the Previous Page button.  It's called MarbleScroll.  http://www.fewprojects.com/marblescroll-for-logitech-trackman-marble/  If that link ever dies, I've attached the version of the app that I'm using to this message.

The Good: Never "runs out of space".  Ergonomically superior.  Works with either hand.
The Bad: No built in hardware scrolling, but fixable with software.
The Ugly: Dirt build up on the marble could get ugly, but it pops out for easy cleaning.

For less than the cost of a plate of ribs, the Logitech Trackman Marble is a great alternative to your standard mouse.

I used this one for a while, and it didn't do much to alleviate the forearm pain I was experiencing, but I think that just changing my arm position has helped (the mouse is typically elevated now, and my whole arm rests on a level surface with the mouse.  Not that I minded the trackman - I actually like it when I got used to it.  I did find that if I ever needed to move it, its shape made it awkward to grip, and I wound up dropping a couple of times, which brings me to the real reason I wound up replacing it: if you drop the ball and get a nick in it, you'll very quickly get tired of how the ball jams at a certain spot when the nick catches on the little nub that keeps the ball from contacting the bottom of the cavity.

Good to know!  My work set-up is pretty stationary, so luckily the Trackman won't be moving around.  I can see how getting a nick in the marble would spell its doom though.