The Most Powerful Mouse in the World

Seumas writes "Check out the Durapoint stainless steel industrial mouse which has bee thrown off a five-story building, submerged for hours, run-over by an 18-wheel truck, beaten with a hammer, used as a hockey puck, thrown across a room and stepped on countless times. It's even theft-proof. Even the pentagon is considering using it. At $279, it isn't cheap -- and it sure isn't an ergonomic wonder, but it might be your ticket if you do your computing strapped to the underside of a Mac truck." If only it had 3 mouse buttons!

Comments

It is a tough mouse

[sys$manager]

I know someone who has a machine shop with high speed milling machines. The machines use an oil/water emulsion coolant sprayed on the tool, which creates a fine oil mist in the air. The oil mist mixes with dust and makes this ultra sticky crud that gets in everything and doesn't come off, no matter what you do.

This mouse has been working fine in this environment for 3-4 years, along with a similar keyboard with a stainless steel case and rubber membrane keys. I can't keep a ball mouse working at my house for 6 months.

Re:Why?

[JatTDB]

The mouse is made to be used in hazardous environments, the kinds of places that would kill your average mouse within a few days, if not hours. So, let's say an average lifetime of 5 days in these environments for one of your mice. That's 365/5*$20=$1460 a year. Quite a bit more than $279. Actually, using your $20 average mouse price, if your environment could kill 14 mice a year, then this mouse saves you money.

But I Thought

[dmatos]

The most powerful mouse in the world was susceptible only to Limberger cheese... That's right, here he comes to save the day, MIGHTY MOUSE is here to stay.

Personally, I always thought Speedy Gonzalez was *way* cooler than Might Mouse. Yeeha! Yeeha! Andele! Andele! Ariba! Ariba!

Re:What about the computer

[Svartalf]

Picture a typical "industrial" situation. Noisy. Messy. Loads of vibration and contaminants in the air, etc. Standard computer equipment gets KILLED in this world. You usually find embedded and hardened PCs in this world. An ordinary mouse or trackball would die rather quickly in this world. This one wouldn't.

A military, or more appropriately, combat situation will be at least 10 times worse conditions than the industrial setting.

It's not a mouse.

[AJWM]

Just a very, very short joystick.

Did it "pass Russia"?

[Ektanoor]

A truck in California, a fall in Sweden? Bring it to us in Russia. If it survives then they can certify it for real and claim as the real thoughest mouse... Meanwhile it is only a though mouse...

I would like to see it pass -50, dropped into the coffee mug, being mistakenly taken for the ashtray, occasionally plugged into the power socket, then being kicked by one though sysadmin in Quake. And being sadistically tested by dozens of users - "Though yeah? Let's see then.."

Once I saw how canadians brought a though truck into a Siberian town. A big bright shiny Kenwood. The Kamaz looks as a tiny family car in front of it. Russian mechanics looked at the american monster and warned that it wouldn't hold up too long. Canadians answered that they have Kenwoods working in similar climatic conditions in their North... Two weeks, BHAM! The main axis turned into a small mound of steel sand. And the guys got stucked in their base without supplies... Well five guys in a whole filled Kamaz. Running 80-120Km/h through the Taiga, frozen river beds at -50 they brought the supplies to the canadian group... A whole trip of over 300Km through Siberia...

So, while it is not "Russian certified", it's only though...

Ouch

[TheFlu]

...thrown off a five-story building, submerged for hours, run-over by an 18-wheel truck, beaten with a hammer, used as a hockey puck, thrown across a room and stepped on countless times.
The mouse may survive, but what about the user?

Penguins love mice. The Linux Pimp

I'm Sorry, But

[dmatos]

isn't this more of a crappy joystick than a mouse? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the defining characteristic of a mouse that you move the device to move the cursor?

This chunk of metal had a button on top that you push to control the cursor speed and direction, similar to those awful joysticks you find on laptops. Plus, it comes with all the holes necessary to bolt the damn thing to the desktop. I'm pretty sure you couldn't move it around then. Geez, I was expecting some rugged optical-mousing technology. Colour me disappointed.