Ctrl-Space in Eclipse without Pressing Ctrl-Space

I've just started using Eclipse and I noticed that when I start typing a local variable name it doesn't come up with suggestions like Visual Studio does until I press Ctrl+Space. Is there any way to get it to do this automatically? I find Ctrl+Space an awkward key press.

These bugs (and a solution if you use Eclipse >3.4) may be of interest to you:

A. Allow more character triggers as @Samuel said (fixed in 3.4 onwards):

https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=159157

Change the default in Auto activation triggers for Java to ._abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

B. Allow content assist everywhere automatically (not fixed):

https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=101420

What works:

Change the Auto activation triggers to .abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ_

You're unlikely to type anything else to get assist started.