egg timers & dual keyboards

Ken Boucher wrote:
>For a short period, I had a pair who was so non-confronta-
>tional that I had to set up a machine so that he had his
>own keyboard and mouse. He simply couldn't say "please
>pass the keyboard".

Phlip <phlip2005@wrote:
Y'all have since gone to dual keyboards, right?

I took the team to dual keyboards when I found myself reaching under
the arms of my pair partner, who had ignored all my verbal requests
for the keyboard, and they grabbed the keyboard with both hands and
wouldn't let it go. After several episodes of this, I got a second
keyboard for all the team pairing workstations. Keyboard and mouse
hogging was still a problem, but at least one wouldn't have to engage
in a physical fight to get the keyboard ;-one just needed to
take action when the other wasn't doing anything.

We found that dual keyboards made it easier to switch control between
partners: It was easier to give up control, and easier to get it
back later. We found that it helped.