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Review Of The New Apple Mouse
Noctrnl writes: "Just caught this review of the new Apple optical mouse over at CNN. Looks like Microsoft may finally have some competition for the optical IntelliMouse."
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This is slightly off topic but I rant whenever I get the chance. WHY ARE LEFT HANDED PEOPLE BEING NEGLECTED !!!!!
I tried once to get an ergonomically correct left haded mouse. aparantly it doesnt' exist and for teh few comapnies that make one I have to pay more money. I have also used those sun mice with the grid pad and it is impossibel to use. I have to cross my eyes and turn the pad upside down for it to work I cant' take it. one of my greatest deleits in life is watching a right handed person try to use my computer.
Okay, I use a Sparc10 a lot, and calling that disaster of a mouse a breakthrough is an insult to, uh, lots and lots of stuff. viz.
1. It requires a special pad. If you lose the pad you have a serious problem. If you damage the pad you have a serious problem. If the pad is not big enough you have no other option. If you want a picture of whatever on your pad you're out of luck.
2. If you rotate the pad 45 degrees or more, the mouse fails to work. I find it absolutely amazing that a company like Sun that makes such hot-ass stuff would ship a mouse that fails to work if the pad is rotated. Of course, Sun, in their infinite wisdom, failed to put any grip stuff on the bottom of said pad just to ensure that I get a nice break every 15 min. to re-align my mouse pad.
3. Who here hasn't had to walk over to a rack-mount with a keyboard and bring a binder for a mid-air mousepad? Does Sun make binders for their optical mice?
4. The mouse itself is shaped like a paperback. Very ergonomic... if you're a robot.
5. The buttons are a half centimeter wide. Is Sun getting kickbacks from the Very Narrow Button Company?
If the Sun optical mouse is a "technological breakthrough" then I'm hooking up with the unabomber...
2 1337 4 u!
Background: At the computer labs in the school I went to, they kept a tight hold on those mice. You had to give them your ID, and they returned it when you returned the mouse. Apparently they had a rash of thefts. To which I say, they ARE nifty toys ;-) Oh, and the help desk people used to come to me for any Sun questions. What the hell made them think I knew anything?!!?? Of course I did, but that's irrelevant.
me: this mouse you gave me doesn't work.
"help" desk: did you try cleaning it?
me: I wiped it off, yeah, and I wiped off the mouse pad. still nothing.
hd: did you clean the ball?
me: there is no mouse ball.
hd: well, that's the problem then. it needs a ball.
me: no it doesn't. it's optical.
hd: where did you get that?
me: from you. less than a minute ago.
hd: oh, it must be broke.
me: okay then. Can I have a new one?
hd: no.
me: why not?!?!
hd: you broke it.
me: I didn't have a CHANCE to break it. I just got it.
hd: then why didn't the person before you say it was broken?
me: Because they broke it
hd: I don't believe you.
me: Fine. You don't have to. Just give me my id back.
hd: I can't do that.
me:(growling) and why not?
hd: Because you broke it.
repeat this for another 15 minutes or so. sigh.
Bad things often happen to good people,
It is up to them to see that they remain good.
Erm, anyone got a nice flat mousepad sized black hole?
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
I always read this Apple propoganda that one button is easier. Um, no. I just helped my technophobic mom set up her system. Double clicking was a much harder concept (esp. as to when you double and when you single click) than left-click. It's time for Apple to face facts: Their choice of single-button mice was a design mistake which sacrificed functionality for alleged gains in usability, but which in truth forced people into contorted responses to restore the functionality.
Single Buttons: it's just a bad idea.
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
I'm getting quite tired of this "Sun had optical mice back in the early fourteenth century" thread.
The Sun optical mouse (which I've used since 1990) is NOTHING like the new "optical" (actually CCD camera) mice.
The Sun optical mouse contains an LED which shines onto a reflective, gridded mouse pad, and is detected by a simple light detector. This means that you have to use the (slippery, glass-like) mouse pad, and you have to move the mouse in the same coordinates as the mouse pad (since the mouse pad itself is gridded). I tend to move my mouse in a slightly diagonal (top left to bottom right) motion, and it's annoying that I can't just slightly change the orientation of the mouse--I have to move the whole pad.
The new Microsoft (and presumably Apple) mice use CCD cameras, which means that they don't require some easily-cracked-or-dented, hard-to-replace mouse pad.
The bigger problem is probably that we use the term "optical mouse" for both mouse systems, when they really don't have that much in common.