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Kensingtion WiFi Locator

Not very sophisticated but super-quick and easy!

Why don't you just get a Kensington WiFi Finder
for 16 to 20 bucks

described thusly

The only WiFi detector on the market today Completely hassle free --
no more booting up your notebook to find a WiFi signal Detects most
available WiFi networks with the press of a button Three lights
indicate signal strength Compact and lightweight - fits in your
pocket. Detects 802.11b and most 802.11b/g signals from up to 200
feet away Filters out other wireless signals, including cordless
phones, microwave ovens and Bluetooth networks No software or
computer required

When I first saw this, I started to do the "who needs a USB LED light?" kind of groan until the idea started to grow on me.

Kensington wifi finder

It's a small dedicated wifi finder/key fob.

Kensington has a simple product that will find 802.11b and g signals and let you know strength.

WiFi Finder

Priced online from $20-$30.

Kensington has a simple product that will find 802.11b and g signals and let you know strength.

WiFi Finder

Priced online from $20-$30.

Why PDA? Why not use this?

The Viewsonic keyboard I got for free with my PC is just garbage, it has thousands of useless keys that I accidentaly bump and switch apps or something. Worse still, the Function keys are disabled by default in favor of some "office" keys. So I got a Kensington "keyboard in a box" usb keyboard on my PC. It was made for macs, but it works fine on the PC...and it has no stupid internet keys, and it doesn't have acres of useless plastic. It is also a lot cheaper than apple's keboards.

I'm using a Kensington Optical Elite mouse. It's got a button for every finger, plus you can program 2 combos, giving you functionally 7 programmable buttons and a wheel. Who needs a Start Menu when you can program a Pop-Up menu into any button?

20 bucks at Circuit City - can't beat it.

If you would have had a nice old MacWorld subscription, on the March 2003 issue, on the back was a great add for the kensington studiomouse, which is wireless, and has a cradle

Studio Mouse

Beautiful mouse, but, there, question answered, and mice evolution goes on.

I agree with you on the dirt bit. Our lab is quite clean, but little bits of detritus do seem to catch in between the trackball and the base from time to time. They appear to have a new optical model here . I have yet to use one or see it in action.

(Insert various japanese USB toothbrushes / heating blankets / radios / fans etc here)

Not really because it needs network connectivity, but because there is POWER on some of the pins. You can just ignore the data pins.

AND I will also be able to partition the hard disk to toss Red Hat 9 on it, providing me with a powerful portable UNIX workstation that supports 3 button functionality RIGHT on its built-in mouse pad...

   (Try that with a Mac!)

Okay, I think I will.

It has three buttons and a scroll slider instead of a wheel (which may also act as a button).

More at their site, plus a few more details in their sales sheet (pdf).

(On some Kensington models, the third button doesn't do anything without the drivers. Not sure about the StudioMouse).

It has three buttons and a scroll slider instead of a wheel (which may also act as a button).

More at their site, plus a few more details in their sales sheet (pdf).

(On some Kensington models, the third button doesn't do anything without the drivers. Not sure about the StudioMouse).

Kensington has this little wireless gem that seems to have no scroll wheel. Their text talks about scrolling though...

Kensington has this little wireless gem that seems to have no scroll wheel. Their text talks about scrolling though...

I assume by contextual menus you mean that little menu next to the curser that has options like open or create archive?
OS X has native multi button support, including scroll wheel and 3rd button, and in classic most companies make an extension for their mouse that lets you add multi button functionality to the finder

To address the original question thow, I also find the scroll wheel to be clunky, useful, but clunky. I however found the Kensington wireless studio mouse which has a 3rd middle button and a touch sensitive scroll pad(something like a mini track pad). It eliminates the chunkiness of a scroll wheel, but leaves the functionality intact. Their wired version features the same button layout, if you don't like the freedom of wireless.

I assume by contextual menus you mean that little menu next to the curser that has options like open or create archive?
OS X has native multi button support, including scroll wheel and 3rd button, and in classic most companies make an extension for their mouse that lets you add multi button functionality to the finder

To address the original question thow, I also find the scroll wheel to be clunky, useful, but clunky. I however found the Kensington wireless studio mouse which has a 3rd middle button and a touch sensitive scroll pad(something like a mini track pad). It eliminates the chunkiness of a scroll wheel, but leaves the functionality intact. Their wired version features the same button layout, if you don't like the freedom of wireless.

This is simply a (il)logical progression:

Fan->Toothbrush->Hot Cup->iGrill

1. FlyFan ? USB Fan
   http://www.kensington.com/html/1265.html
2. USB Toothbrush
   http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/akiba/hotline/20030 222/image/tooth1.jpg
3. USB Hot Teacup
   http://www.dct-net.co.jp/special/usb_hot.html

props gizmodo!

I am sooooo sick of hearing about the 1 button Apple mouse. If people prefer a 2 button mouse, go ahead and plug in a 2 button mouse. I could sympatize the complaints if the OS did not support it but this is not the case. I just bought my wife a Ghz 15" TiBook and she was bitching about the track pad and the one button so I got her this and she is perfectly happy.

Repeat after me. REAL mice have FIVE buttons...

The buttons on a mice shall not be six, nor shall it be four. It shall be five.
Three is right out. Five shall be the numbers of buttons on a mouse.

Oh yeah? Well my mouse hooked up to my OS X box has TEN buttons and they rock!

>When I am on the road there is no space to pull out my little baby optical mouse and a hard surface to use it on. Tried playing Medal of Honor with the trackpad? Entertaining to say the least.

Solution.

>The keyboard as well leaves a lot to be desired.

1 + 2 = Solution.

>This sort of includes the LCD monitor, too.

I agreed. But now I'm staring at the UXGA LCD on my laptop, and I think I've finally found something in an LCD that looks as good as my Mitsubishi DiamondScan 20H CRT. It'll be a long while before they integrate anything into a PC laptop that beats out a modern CRT, though.

The beauty of "man grep" while surfing the 'net, while fiddling with perl, while ripping songs to MP3. Just think of it as another windowing system over another unix. But with pricey hardware. :)

As I stated in another follow-up, I challenge you to show me a Palm/phone that does not have a keyboard, other than the now-ancient Samsung SPH-I300.

I am not saying that there should not be Palm/phones out there with keyboards. However, I would want to see *one* without the keyboard.

As far as Grafitti vs. keyboard goes - I have a Visor for about a year with a Kensington keyboard. Two points: A) For quite a bit of things, I was faster with Grafitti. B)It was very nice to have the *option* of bringing along my keyboard or not.

As I also said in my other post, I wrote my post explaining what I want, and gave some logic to show that it is possible I am not alone.

What is this - no one on Slashdot can submit a comment stating their own *personal* preference? Two people attack my post saying this.

So I come back at you - you say you use a keyboard. Should every Palm have one because *you* prefer one?

well, i dont know about the scrolling capabilities on the mac, but i say buy a mouse

I know it isnt what you are looking for, but even the scrolling drivers that i have for my synaptics pad dont do that great of a job, and end up being more hassle than they are worth

there are a lot of nice mice out there, including mini mice that do a nice job

Kensington pocket pro this mouse has a retracting cord, and it works perfectly

How about this, or this, or perhaps, this, or what about this one, or even this old thing.

--

How about this, or this, or perhaps, this, or what about this one, or even this old thing.

--

How about this, or this, or perhaps, this, or what about this one, or even this old thing.

--

How about this, or this, or perhaps, this, or what about this one, or even this old thing.

--

How about this, or this, or perhaps, this, or what about this one, or even this old thing.

--

This is actually something that has all sorts of potential, particularly with truly flexible and durable material. Xerox is also far from being the only company working on this - I think I've seen press on at least three, all with different technologies.

Consider the advantages of having an e-book using flexible, durable electronic paper. Make a sheet, perhaps eight inches by twelve. Put a couple of seams on it so it can be folded down to ~4x8. Now make it flexible enough to roll into a cylinder around (or inside) a 1.5-inch tube holding batteries, a few MB of RAM, and either flash memory or a memory card socket (memory stick or the MMC cards in Palms would both be good sizes).

Go through all the above, and what would you end up with? Something easy to read[1], easy to carry[2], capable of holding a large number of books (including school texts with illustrations, etc.), low-power[3], easy to use[4], and inexpensive[5].

Sure there'd be drawbacks - the lines across the page at the seams might be as much as an eighth of an inch apiece disrupting large images (affecting what % of books?); the display might be black & white (though this would likely change quickly); the display might wear out after a few hundred rollings/unrollings (so make it socketed); it might not be readable in the dark (so add a port for a Flylight-like LED).

With the exception of the electronic paper itself, there's nothing that would keep this from being manufactured today, probably for under $200. If there's enough market for e-books, I wouldn't be surprised to see something very much like this within two years.

1. Even at 150x150 resolution this wouldn't be difficult to read, and I suspect that higher resolutions would be quite achievable.
2. If you don't think you could conveniently carry something that size, you haven't thought about it.
3. Part of all of the e-paper stuff I've seen is that it consumes very little power - one black & white solution actually needed power only while changing what was displayed. You could probably run something like this for months with two AA batteries.
4. Most e-book readers have very simple controls - you could probably get by with no more than 4 buttons (power, up/down, select) though 7 would probably be more convenient (add left/right & back).
5. Everything I've described here is basically a low-end Palm with a funky display.

I agree, the first thing I do is toss my pro mouse in a box with it's brothers when I get a new machine. They are nice mice, but I use a 4 button trackball, and there is just no going back. However, before I used the trackball, and was stuck with the one button mouse, I did easily find software that would translate a click and hold as a command click, eliminating the need for the modifier key. I assume that some enterprising shareware author has come up with or is working on a similar solution for OSX

for 20$ more info at http://www.kensington.com/products/pro_cas_d1334.h tml

I'll avoid the theoretical for a moment and just speak to this:

My web designer friends are damaged for life because of mice, and yet we persist... Where do we go from here ?

Just thought I'd mention that when I started showing symptoms of RSI I went out and bought a couple of trackballs and a couple of Wacom Stylus tablets.

For design work, the Wacom products spoil me rotten, and though it hurts me to say so I've had nothing but luck with the Microsoft thumb-controlled track pads.
Though if you have political problems with them try the Kensington (which are excellent) or Logitech versions. I might try the new Logitech units myself actually.

It really changed the way i work, any desktop I loose to the tablets is mitigated by not halving to mouse around. So anyway, no more pain for me.

Kensington has some great mice that work for both lefties and righties.

Regardless, Trackballs are always in the same place, require far less movement to get accross the screen, are much more precise and accurate, and never get "lost" on the desk. Further, there is no need for a mousepad, and there is less risk of injury. Problem with some trackballs, the same as mice, is that some are right/left hand incompatible.

The Kensington TurboBall is a great trackball. I've been using mine for several months, and I haven't a single complaint (and I am picky!).

http://www.kensington.com/products/pro_mic_d1028.h tml

It's got a big, two-finger operated ball, four buttons plus a clickable wheel, ambidextrous design, and USB/PS2 connectivity.

I highly recommend the Kensington TurboRing trackball. I got one for my father when his ancient Mouse Systems trackball finally bit the dust, and it has been nothing but pleasure for him to use. It fits nicely in your (right) hand, and the scroll ring is a stroke of genious, in my humble opinion.

I have no idea what to say if you're left handed. I have yet to see any left-handed trackballs, only a few that are handednedd-agnostic - that is, they are equally uncomfortable in either hand.

My favorite pointing device of all time is the Kensington TurboMouse trackball. Four physical buttons, one chord. I bought it for my Mac clone, and the software it came with allowed me to do all sorts of amazing things. Program a button to save bookmarks in Netscape? Sure. Avoid Apple's control-click workaround for having one-button mice? Sure. Build a whole menu of things accessible with the click of a button? That, too.

Now that I'm running Debian, I don't get all those wonderful features (although I suppose I could if I bothered). But I still have a three-button trackball that's large enough to use with the palm of my hand or with several fingers instead of a single fingertip, and has the potential to do even more.

The TurboMouse equivalent for the PC is the ExpertMouse, which looks to be exactly the same trackball I have (except for the wiring). Newer solutions include the TurboBall (four buttons, large ball, and a mouse wheel), which I might consider as a replacement for my TurboMouse if I ever buy a newer machine; and the Orbit, which only seems to have two buttons, but still has a large ball.

My favorite pointing device of all time is the Kensington TurboMouse trackball. Four physical buttons, one chord. I bought it for my Mac clone, and the software it came with allowed me to do all sorts of amazing things. Program a button to save bookmarks in Netscape? Sure. Avoid Apple's control-click workaround for having one-button mice? Sure. Build a whole menu of things accessible with the click of a button? That, too.

Now that I'm running Debian, I don't get all those wonderful features (although I suppose I could if I bothered). But I still have a three-button trackball that's large enough to use with the palm of my hand or with several fingers instead of a single fingertip, and has the potential to do even more.

The TurboMouse equivalent for the PC is the ExpertMouse, which looks to be exactly the same trackball I have (except for the wiring). Newer solutions include the TurboBall (four buttons, large ball, and a mouse wheel), which I might consider as a replacement for my TurboMouse if I ever buy a newer machine; and the Orbit, which only seems to have two buttons, but still has a large ball.

My favorite pointing device of all time is the Kensington TurboMouse trackball. Four physical buttons, one chord. I bought it for my Mac clone, and the software it came with allowed me to do all sorts of amazing things. Program a button to save bookmarks in Netscape? Sure. Avoid Apple's control-click workaround for having one-button mice? Sure. Build a whole menu of things accessible with the click of a button? That, too.

Now that I'm running Debian, I don't get all those wonderful features (although I suppose I could if I bothered). But I still have a three-button trackball that's large enough to use with the palm of my hand or with several fingers instead of a single fingertip, and has the potential to do even more.

The TurboMouse equivalent for the PC is the ExpertMouse, which looks to be exactly the same trackball I have (except for the wiring). Newer solutions include the TurboBall (four buttons, large ball, and a mouse wheel), which I might consider as a replacement for my TurboMouse if I ever buy a newer machine; and the Orbit, which only seems to have two buttons, but still has a large ball.

My favorite pointing device of all time is the Kensington TurboMouse trackball. Four physical buttons, one chord. I bought it for my Mac clone, and the software it came with allowed me to do all sorts of amazing things. Program a button to save bookmarks in Netscape? Sure. Avoid Apple's control-click workaround for having one-button mice? Sure. Build a whole menu of things accessible with the click of a button? That, too.

Now that I'm running Debian, I don't get all those wonderful features (although I suppose I could if I bothered). But I still have a three-button trackball that's large enough to use with the palm of my hand or with several fingers instead of a single fingertip, and has the potential to do even more.

The TurboMouse equivalent for the PC is the ExpertMouse, which looks to be exactly the same trackball I have (except for the wiring). Newer solutions include the TurboBall (four buttons, large ball, and a mouse wheel), which I might consider as a replacement for my TurboMouse if I ever buy a newer machine; and the Orbit, which only seems to have two buttons, but still has a large ball.

I bought a laptop about two years ago and wanted to find a good case for it. I spent hours going through the targuses et al at Staples. None of them were what I wanted. You can put a laptop in them all right, but there wasn't any room for books/binders. Just crappy "file" storage. I went to the net and found the Kensington Saddlebag. You can fit binders, books, etc. easily into it. The front pouch had room for storing pens/pencils, my TI-86 calculator, a zip drive and a floppy drive. The padding is good, too. It can be carried over your shoulder, in your hand, and there's a pouch in the back that stores bookbag style straps which are useful if you commute on bicycle.

Nowadays I'm rarely without it, even when I leave my laptop at home. It has the great feature of not looking like there's a laptop in it either. I highly recommend it.

The only thing that bugs me is that I only have a single-button mouse. There's supposed to be a key toggle that activates a right-click, but it doesn't work for some reason. I've had several linuxheads try to remap the key combo, but it just doesn't want to go -- thus rendering the Gimp and some windowmanagers useless.

When I first started using LinuxPPC this was a big issue for me (being a long-time X user). I specifically went out and bought a Kensington Thinking mouse and it works great. It's an ADB device with 4 buttons. (Unfortunately, LinuxPPC only recognizes the first three, and I was so looking forward to binding actions to MB4. :-) You may have a hard time getting your hands on one though, as their website says that it's been discontinued. Supposedly you should be able to use their ADB Turbo Mouse (a trackball also with 4 buttons), but I can't vouch for that.

If you read the ADB specs, there are actually two pointer protocols: the original one and a newer multi-button protocol. Theoretically, LinuxPPC will work correctly with any device that supports the new protocol (handler 4, if I remember correctly). Of course, you probably will have a difficult time finding out if a particular product supports this without just buying it and trying it.

USB devices are a different thing altogether (about which I know very little).

The only thing that bugs me is that I only have a single-button mouse. There's supposed to be a key toggle that activates a right-click, but it doesn't work for some reason. I've had several linuxheads try to remap the key combo, but it just doesn't want to go -- thus rendering the Gimp and some windowmanagers useless.

When I first started using LinuxPPC this was a big issue for me (being a long-time X user). I specifically went out and bought a Kensington Thinking mouse and it works great. It's an ADB device with 4 buttons. (Unfortunately, LinuxPPC only recognizes the first three, and I was so looking forward to binding actions to MB4. :-) You may have a hard time getting your hands on one though, as their website says that it's been discontinued. Supposedly you should be able to use their ADB Turbo Mouse (a trackball also with 4 buttons), but I can't vouch for that.

If you read the ADB specs, there are actually two pointer protocols: the original one and a newer multi-button protocol. Theoretically, LinuxPPC will work correctly with any device that supports the new protocol (handler 4, if I remember correctly). Of course, you probably will have a difficult time finding out if a particular product supports this without just buying it and trying it.

USB devices are a different thing altogether (about which I know very little).

I also have a Kensington Saddlebag and like it. It's not a really good backpack; the straps aren't all that well designed and it tends to wiggle more than I'd like (it needs a waist strap), but it has a nice shoulder strap for "tote bag" style use and the grab handle is a real handle, not just a loop of webbing to hurt your hand with. It's great for doing the "short connection mad dash" at airports.

It does hold a fair amount of stuff; spare batteries, CD portfolio, etc.

Note that there are two versions, one with black trim and one with ugly brown trim. The picture on Kensington's website will give you the idea. (CompUSA only carried the ugly brown one last time I checked...typical.)

Forget Logitech, go for Kensington. Over the years I've tried a few of the Logitech trackballs and they've all bit. The little thumb-balls offer limited control, certainly far less than I get with a regular mouse. Maybe it's just my thumb, but I found myself twitching the ball through the need to hover it unnaturally over the little ball. Last year I picked up a MarbleFX and, while the bigger ball is smooth to operate, the shape of the unit is still too awkward; it's not terribly ergonomic and it still demands too much of the thumb both in operating the ball and pressing the awkwardly-placed buttons.

Kensington's trackballs are another matter altogether. Where the Logiballs require a lot of focus on the thumb, the Expert Mouse is all fingertip operation. Very smooth to operate, very comfortable to use, the only task required of the thumb is clicking a button. The ball is a nice size, the buttons well-placed. I've recommended them to co-workers who were having shoulder problems from mousing and later had them come back and thank me. Even the little Orbit, while a little small for everyday use at a workstation, makes an ideal notebook pointer. Beats the pants off the lame touchpads, tiny marble-balls and mid-keyboard titmice built in to the units.

If Logitech would get over their fascination with thumb-orientation and small balls and produce something fingertip operated based on the MarbleFX ball and mechanism they'd probably have a winner but until that happens I'm not dropping another CA$130 on one of their devices. I've done it too many times and regretted it each time.

Forget Logitech, go for Kensington. Over the years I've tried a few of the Logitech trackballs and they've all bit. The little thumb-balls offer limited control, certainly far less than I get with a regular mouse. Maybe it's just my thumb, but I found myself twitching the ball through the need to hover it unnaturally over the little ball. Last year I picked up a MarbleFX and, while the bigger ball is smooth to operate, the shape of the unit is still too awkward; it's not terribly ergonomic and it still demands too much of the thumb both in operating the ball and pressing the awkwardly-placed buttons.

Kensington's trackballs are another matter altogether. Where the Logiballs require a lot of focus on the thumb, the Expert Mouse is all fingertip operation. Very smooth to operate, very comfortable to use, the only task required of the thumb is clicking a button. The ball is a nice size, the buttons well-placed. I've recommended them to co-workers who were having shoulder problems from mousing and later had them come back and thank me. Even the little Orbit, while a little small for everyday use at a workstation, makes an ideal notebook pointer. Beats the pants off the lame touchpads, tiny marble-balls and mid-keyboard titmice built in to the units.

If Logitech would get over their fascination with thumb-orientation and small balls and produce something fingertip operated based on the MarbleFX ball and mechanism they'd probably have a winner but until that happens I'm not dropping another CA$130 on one of their devices. I've done it too many times and regretted it each time.