Silent Mice for Silent PCs?

UnrefinedLayman asks: "In the quest for a silent PC, one item that seems to be consistently overlooked is the mouse: it's one of the more noisy computer components if only by virtue of the fact that it is a staccato noise. I don't notice my fans or hard drives very often, given that they are constant background sounds whose levels don't noticeably change. My mouse, on the other hand, makes a very audible *click* each time I use it, and while providing a pleasant tactile feedback, it keeps my girlfriend awake during my late-night work sessions. So I turn to the Ask Slashdot community: have you found a silent mouse for your silent PC? Numerous Google searches have yielded little. It's not as though it's impossible, as touch pads for laptops have been around for quite some time, and the iPod makes great use of the technology. ThinkGeek also sells a force-free keyboard with a "mouse replacement" built into it, but while the keyboard technology looks very promising, I prefer to stick with a mouse (not to mention something a bit cheaper). Mouse manufacturers have long touted optical mice as being superior to their trackball cousins for having no moving, mechanical parts, but it seems like they're overlooking the most obvious and still mechanical function: the buttons themselves! So what say you Slashdot? Are there force-free, truly non-mechanical and silent mice out there to be had?"

Comments

Blast it!

[Ske]

You just made me notice how loudly my mouse clicks. *sigh* Thanks for ruining my weekend! (-;

Come on over to my house...

[R2.0]

And you can have your choice of keyboards:

IBM Model M
Omnikey 102
Ortek MCK-142

All nice & clicky...Oh.

Nevermind.

Other hand?

[Kj0n]

My mouse, on the other hand, makes a very audible *click* each time I use it...

Why do you use your other hand?

*ducks*

The mouse isn't the problem

[peeping_Thomist]

If your gf is busting your chops over this, you have much more serious problems than a loud mouse. Lose the gf, keep the mouse.

Razor Boomslang

[squisher]

There is a mouse out there that does not click when you press the button: http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/gaming/66 89/
At least the older model they sold like 2 years ago did not click because that would make the sniper move the mouse about 1nm and then he'd miss... ;-) Maybe a little expensive but a very precise and good mouse - except that maybe the zero-force approach makes you click more often then you intend =). I heard though that you get used to it.

~Squisher

Women

[Anonymous Coward]

Try this, it works great for me: Go to bed when your SO goes to bed.

Actually, that's probably what she's really asking for anyway. I'm sure when you fix the mouse clicks she'll complain about the keyboard. Then when you fix that she'll complain about the excess heat coming from the processor. Then when you freak out on her for being absolutely crazy she'll say "but I only wanted you to come cuddle with me instead of working on your computer."

Of course, if you wanted that advice, you wouldn't be Asking Slashdot. So drop the female and make a robot, or something.

Lessons on "Asking Slashdot"...

[jtheory]

When the editors post an "Ask Slashdot" question, they aren't doing it to help the person asking the question. They post it because they think it might be a problem shared by lots of people. You, the original questioner, are not the primary audience of these posts. You're just one of hundreds of thousands of readers, some of whom are just looking for the funny responses, some of whom have similar problems, some who's curiosity is piqued (because hey, I've never seen a silent mouse... let's see what people say) and some of whom just want to get a frist pr0st out there.

Slashdot's moderation system is designed to keep the content as helpful as possible to the general readership (which includes you, but also includes lots of other people).

Lots of the posts that you are slamming in your response were good posts -- they just weren't useful to your specific situation. Well, they're still good posts. Someone buying a new computer might like to know that they can get s silent Mac mouse. Someone with a yen for taking stuff apart might like to read how they can mod their mouse to silence it. Personally, I was sorry to see that there doesn't seem to be a standard-but-silent mouse (and I think you knew that already, since you've been searching for a while), but I might get one of those TouchStream keyboards on ThinkGeek to try it out... it looks cool. I thought the "learn how to avoid using the mouse" is a decent solution to your actual problem, which is noise. There are plenty of silent keyboards, some with touchpads (which would also help). If you know all the key combinations, you can certainly reduce the need for the mouse.

I guess my main point is that I was kind of shocked by your reaction to a decent discussion on an interesting question. If you didn't find what you wanted, maybe it's not out there at the moment... that's no reason to flame a bunch of people offering helpful advice for free.