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Microsoft Unveils A Designer Mouse
jeckil writes "Today Microsoft unveiled the new Starck mouse; a new shiny mouse designed to take the 'cool' from other mice such as Logitech or Apple. Microsoft is calling it the 'first museum-quality mouse.' Looks shiny enough to be on a museum display along with other succesful Microsoft products."
The only cause for celebration (their words, not mine...) is more money for a questionable product. I'm not judging the quality of this new optical mouse, just wondering what would make it worth the money (if you "buy", you get links for prices ranging from $25 to $31). Sure it may look pretty, but really, it's another mouse with another pitch from MS about why you should buy THEIRS! Come one, really! A museum piece? I don't think so.
This just doesn't feel like news. It feels like a free ad.
Who knew Microsoft would turn into Apple?
and that word is......pretentious.
Real Picture
The mouse buttons, I believe, run the entire length of the mouse... which will make many palm-resters click accidently.
However, $30 bucks isn't bad...
Looks Like a Space Ship... ZOOOOOM
Looks distubingly like a vibrator to me. But maybe that's just me. Back to my one handed surfing...
"An infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never make a good program."
Wow! That slit down the middle makes me think it's just a vagina. I can't get a better view, but I also imagine the scroll button placement helps to further that logic.
"S+ARCK designed this mouse with a unique, curving hemisphere, which makes it feel natural and puts left and right clicking in the palm of your hand."
;)
Because we all know how some things unnatural feel in the palm of your hand.
What exactly is the point of a pretty mouse when your hand is going to be covering it most of the time, anyway?
Okay Microsoft, listen and listen damned well, as this is the last time I say this... Give me the ORIGINAL natural keyboard, and the ORIGINAL Intelliexplorer mouse... I don't want the fancy million button keyboards, and the god awful small craptacular mice... I want the originals back! You had something good, and you destroyed them... it's not the 'new shiny blue plastic' that will get you sales...
---
Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
Only the maker of antequated operating systems would make a "museum quality" mouse.
Firefox unable to display the "Real Picture".9 /805529762251-072-sRGB.jpg" cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
I get a message
The image "http://www.navarre.com/admaterials/artwork/80552
IE (XPSP2) can however display it - is a problem with the jpg or a bug in Firefox.
im not trying to be all "anti-microsoft" when i say this but that is a really unattractive mouse! im not a fan of apple so much but damn they have a way of making some damn good looking stuff! how much money would it take to get some attractive pc peripherals!
Slow news day, I take it?
ok, 2 and a wheel, but seriously... museum quality?
It reminds me of those "modern" art where it's a blank canvass with a line running down the middle.
To me it's not art... nor does it look good. It's just superficial "designers" (Ugof need silence!) who think people want their mouse to have hidden meaning.
Sure it looks ok, maybe i'd even buy one if I needed to, but I'd rather have function over fashion. Right now I'm using Logitechs MX500... and I think it looks sweet too.
A remote control for the iBrator!
-- n
I realize it's trendy to bash microsoft at every opprotunity, but I think it looks pretty cool myself. I'm loving the optical mice that companies are coming out with these days.
I only wish the rechargable ones battery would last longer. We had to ditch a couple of gyro wireless keyboards/wireless rechargable battery mice units at work cause they got to the point where they would only keep a charge for 4 or 5 hours. They also would miss keystrokes from the keyboard if a palm treo 600 phone was too close to them.
The one really good feature about this new mouse is that it isn't form fitted to your hand, it's gender neutral, I guess, at least from a left or right handed perspective. I'm actually ambidexterous and the last time I bought a mouse for myself there weren't any wireless optical availabl at all that weren't molded for the right hand
I guess when they come out with a wireless version of this I'll be in the market.
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US$30 for a two button mouse with a scroll wheel? I can get the same for less than $10 at Fry's. This is going to compete with the the Microsoft Intellimouse and its 5 buttons? The Intellimouse It has more functionality and I can program Expose to use the extra two buttons on my Mac. Costs about the same too. Come on Microsoft, this is sad.
Happens in Mozilla 1.7 too, so its not just firefox.
thisnukes4u.net
Every six months they get tossed for clean replacements. I mean clean literally, the keyboards in particular gather a ridiculous amount of muck, crumbs, etc.
Anybody crowing this much about the looks of something as promoting of that thing ought to at least provide those he's trying to convince with a 3-D image that can be turned and zoomed in on and such.
I mean, Sheesh, even bluefly.com does as much. And they're not even a technology company.
In short, put up or shut up.
Though I must admit that the idea of buying anything "museum quality" that is going to live within 24 - 36 inches of where I usually eat my dinner is a somewhat dubious notion...
Looks pretty bad to me. I like a flat side, mice I've tried with round sides did not feel very good to me.
My fav has been the Logitech basic optical for a long time. I've bought probably 20 of them. Microsoft's mice have in the past been too fat and tall.
It looks like they hired some real designers this time, but maybe not very good ones.
1. It looks nice, maybe even more than nice. At least they're trying to improve the look of the product.
2. I'm wondering about the functionality, how does it feel in your hand?
Personally, I'll stick to my Logitech MX500 (Mice were supposed to be wired, just like $DEITY intended).
The first time I held my MX500 my first comment was "It feels like a well formed breast I'm touching here, filling my hand in all the right places" (If you're wondering, breasts do have "buttons") and I like the 8 pressable buttons (10 if you count scroll up and down)
I'll try this one in the store, but probably won't buy it for lack of buttons (in handy places as I'm not a big fan of the side-mounted buttons, I click them too much by accident anyway)
This is the sig that says NI (again)
Did his parents have major spelling problems or something?
I don't know, maybe we should ask Prince's opinion...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
I'm 100% sure microsoft did this as more for Mac users who actually care about how peripherals use, as opposed to PC users, who don't mind as much as to how a product looks, although that stereotype is changing....
This mouse is beautiful, and it actually matches the theme of my most recent system.
BUT -- I won't buy it for one reason. It has a cord.
I'm using the Logitech MX700 Optical Cordless mouse with charging station and I absolutely love it.
I thought I would hate this mouse at first because it's not designed for either right or left hand use but since I normally only use my mouse with my right hand anyway I figured I'd overlook that fact.
While Microsoft's new object is designed for either hand, I just can't go back to a cord. I've gone cordless, I've gone optical, and I've gone rechargable. The only thing that can convince me to replace this mouse is one that has all those features as well as being usable with either the right or left hand.
Maybe Microsoft will release a cordless and recharagable version? Until then it's just a pretty mouse on a cord.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
Your posting on Slashdot, how do you know what a vagina looks like?
i have a tablet pc. how long do i have to wait before there is a "sleek, sophisticated, museum quality" stylus for my clicking pleasure? when are people going to catch on that the mouse is a dieing breed.
viva la voice and touch!
Six to be exact, 2 for my use and the others as gifts. They just look to damn awesome. I might buy one for the museum of art later :))
i use microsoft mice since the are on the market - i just like them.. but right click with the pinky? no way. i just simulated it and it's majorly non-ergonomic. MHO..
PAT
SEO Test: TIGI und SEBASTIAN - Online Shop - V
Isn't he the guy famous for making stuff which is considered artistic and pretty (like go to and art gallery and admire) but functionally useless? Is it supposed to be a foreshadowing of Longhorn?
I think Apple's optical mice look much more in place in a museum, with their understated minimalistic look. I also happen to think they are overpriced and suck when you try to actually use them. I mean $49 for one button and no scroll wheel. Now before some rabid Apple fanatics will now try to explain to me why one button is actually better because it leads to less confusion, better ergonomics and that MacOS was designed for one button mice, or whatever, spare your keystrokes. I've been a Mac user since the System 7 days, I know what I want. Apple mice suck. They belong in a museum, not on the desk. I like Apple for many things, but their mice are the ultimate displays of style over substance.
yea, im guessing a lot of people are getting that right now, i just tried it in konqueror and it worked....
problem with the moz engine?
So why is this story under hardware? As soon as I moused over a color choice and saw the actual design, I was ROTFLMAO.
This is a museum quality mouse?
It should be in a museum, right next to all those flying machines that never made it.
I must admit, loathe them or love them, but one thing M$ did get right is the mice. They are perfect, the quality excellent, and imitations are poor.
I saw one of those in the mouse/keyboard aisle at Frys last week. It rated about a ten second look and the word "lame" muttered under my breath.
I like some MS hardware - my current mouse is an optical intellimouse - but this one just looks unusable. Depending on which bits the buttons are, they're either in a totally awkward place round the side, or they run the whole length of the mouse so you can never rest your wrist without accidentally clicking. Give all your users RSI - way to go MS.
"'I pass the test,' she said. 'I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.'"
- JRR Tolkien.
I know that the link to MS Bob was supposed to be funny, but that's software. The track record that I have with MS hardware has been almost uniformly excellent. Everything that I've bought from them bar one game controller, has been well designed and durable. The one thing that they have done right, and better than most everyone else is their hardware.
What was the point of the Microsoft Bob link other than to bash Microsoft over something that came out for Windows 3.1 an entire decade ago?
I've never gotten the Clippy/Microsoft Bob obsession around here.
"other succesful Microsoft products.
That looks really useful. I might finally be able to replace my horribly non-user-friendly Palm Desktop with something a little less intuitive. Please help me get this software!
Seriously tho, are there any copies of Bob still floating around?
1.Netcraft confirms:In Soviet Russia all your base welcomes a beowolf cluster of CowboyNeal overlords. 2.? 3.Profit!!1!
...but as it isn't I'll just have to keep waiting for this instead.
It is good to see that Microsoft lets its designers get out to Comdex from time to time. It seem like this time, they've brought on of the taiwanese mice back with them. Good Work, guys!
I think that most people have never seen BOB. What did they ship - 10 or 11 copies of it?
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
ratpoison
I'm looking forward to show my grandchilds the museum of obsolete MS inventions
tglx
Disclaimer: Thank god, I'm not a laywer and can speak for myself and
nobody else
IBM has a prototype of a mouse with trackpoint scroll stick. Because the trackpoint nubbin is a rate-device, like a joystick, it apparently offers superior productivity to a scrollwheel according to IBM's research (PDF of slides).
Has anyone seen any devices like this? As much as I love the scrollwheel, my finger gets tired scrolling through a long document -- I'd rather just pull on a stick/nubbin and zoom along.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
With something so fine you must lose the cord! Maybe then I'd shell out the money...
There is no belief, however foolish, that will not gather its faithful adherents who will defend it to the death.-Asimov
I've tested the glossy logitech "performance mouse" MX 510 side by side with its form identical cousin the MX 500 and less snazzy grey mouse gives better performance for click response. Apparently the grey plastic is more flexible than the bright translucent stuff.s /product list/US/EN,CRID=19
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/product
I'll summarize the PC mag review for you.
"It sucks".
evil is as evil does
The mouse looks like half an egg with some yolk coming out. Good job microsoft.
The sad thing is that Microsoft Bob wasn't all that much of a failure. The product itself didn't sell all that well, but the animated assistant idea that came from it is still around in today's versions of Office and Windows.
Sure, us Slashdot folks think that it's annoying, but the newbies seem to like it.
Uh, I saw these mice in the shops weeks ago. I didn't play with one but a couple of stores that I visited on my last journey to Tottenham Court Road (where you go to buy consumer electronics and computers in London if you know one side of a CD-R from the other) had them out on display.
They didn't look like anything special and, having read the sales booklet, I don't think that they'll set the world on fire. If anything, they look like the kind of product that will appeal to those who prefer style over substance.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Jesus, I thought that said "Microsoft Unveils A Danger Mouse".
Oh, 'eck.
BytesTemplar.com
Just look at this other piece of museum quality art. It's actually rev 2 since the janitor threw out the original by mistake.
The microsoft mouse looks interesting, but not special, and I wonder how it holds up in the whole ergonomic department, maybe it can come with a matching wrist brace.
D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
We all know how microsoft is seeking to expand its patent portfolio. Besides the obvious one (horizontal scrolling), how many more are wrapped up in the hardware and (*gasp*) the drivers for this? We all know how MS plays the game, do you think Logitech or anyone else would be willing to pay for license fees on n patents?
I've been thinking of a similar solution for a long while: a trackball on top of the mouse for scrolling. This allows 360 scroll directions, which would be very useful for games, but would get very annoying on the desktop where there are only two scroll axes (vertical and horizontal). To get around this, the driver would have a setting for the arc of the axes, from 1 to 90. When the scrollball is moved, the sensors would determine the ball's direction, and if the angle is closer than half the arc width to to axis, the motion is along the axis.
For example, assume 0 is to the right, 90 is up, etc, and the arc width is set to 40 dgrees. Any motion from 70 to 110 would scroll up, 160 to 200 left, 250 to 290 down, etc. Motion outside these ranges would probably need to produce no scroll or scroll on both axes equally (45, 135, 225, 315 degrees), to keep users sane while using 2-axis apps. non-linear scroll motion might be useful to some, but would probalby frustrate most.By the way, for all you patent lawyer worms, this post is prior art
Frankly, Apple's mouse is sexy and innovative (and pretentious). This mouse is (just like Windows) a dull ripoff of the Apple's product. It isn't any of the three.
That microsoft couldn't be bothered to upgrade the drivers for it's earlier sidewinder joysticks and other such devices that run off a game port. Consequence is that if you've any, perfectly functional, devices like this then they're now just junk so far a microsoft is concerned if you wish to run them on XP on a computer less than a couple of years old.
Having been bitten with two joysticks and a wheel there's no way I'm ever going to buy a microsoft peripheral ever again.
Claimed to be optical - why does it have a wire coming out the front?
Also, I recently bought a 'Trust' mouse/keyboard optical combo [£30] which had a mouse shaped rather like that - the lack of angle up the sides [not to mention the side buttons I kept clicking accidentally] combined with the weight of the batteries making it amost impossible to lift with one hand without slipping out.
Needless to say, I no longer trust 'Trust' [not that I particularly did] and the side buttons are covered over with friction tape.
hahahha they sure get funnier and funnier each and every time! Why don't you list all your sucessful products?
John Kerry is a Joke!
the cycles in Tron.
John Kerry is a Joke!
why is everyone saying it's pretty?... oh, wait, you must mean it's pretty.... ugly! Seriously... it doesn't look cool at all...
I agree. It seems it was way ahead of its time if anything. Imagine, a desktop that looked like a desktop. A money program that was a chequebook. Want the time? Check the clock on the wall. Seems pretty straightforward to me. Pretty cool too.
Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
I like their "Black Leather" mouse better....
Product Info (if it doesn't work, search for "black leather")
Image Link
... fit the pieces - quoting Starck "The designer can and should participate in the search for meaning, in the construction of a civilized world" (theirs).
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
is really what it should be called. Perhaps someone at Microsoft thinks that geeks need practice at something...?
a) That mouse is foul
b) Its pug ugly
c) $30??
d) Wired mice are better, generaly lighter so better for the wrist, batteries dont run out, and for the sake of 20 cm of 3mm^2 wire (well not actully ^2 because its round, and I am too tierd) you dont need a big reciver sat somewhere unsightly.
----- irc://irc.slashnet.org/#vendetta
I saw the error, but just pressed the Go button on the URL and it displayed fine. *shrug* Could be that it's giving a 404 error from the /.'ing instead of the actual picture.
Will be the next internet holy war, I'm sure of it. This will make Apple vs. PC or vi vs. emacs look like a playground bicker. BTW, Blue is for pansies, orange IS the S+ark mouse.
You have so much rage you don't even make sense, seriously.
Good luck in the anger management efforts; you're going to need those skills more than ever in about 3 months.
The site is a hysterical send up of Kerry and his band of book burners; it's for the non-intellect and non-irony impaired. You need not have applied.
The idea, my humor impaired friend, is that most people don't announce new products and suggest that they are fit to be placed next to dinosaur bones.
I'm also on gentoo, i get the same "The image "http://www.navarre.com/admaterials/artwork/805529 /805529762251-072-sRGB.jpg" cannot be displayed, because it contains errors." But i'm also using the binary version of firefox (opteron here, and i wanted a working flash pluggin, so the bin is the only way to go). Gotta be a library issue.
" Apple mice are hardly cool...in fact they're a pain in the damn ass to use. "
two different things.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
but it's pretty ugly. Reminds me of those Kobe Bryant shoes that are supposed to look like an Audi TT. Like this here
..that Apple has the software to go with the shiny, modern design.
I've never gotten the Clippy/Microsoft Bob obsession around here.
It's because they're about the only two things that you can justifiably take the piss out of about MS that actually are undeniably bad. All the rest of their software, including IIS, Outlook, Win9x, etc has its good points as well as its bad. At least with Clippy and Bob, the zealots are on safe ground.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
While I have to be paid to run Windows (aka work), I have always been impressed with the quality of their mice. Every Microsoft mouse that I've bought is still functional. And that goes back nearly fifteen years (anybody remember the programming software that Microsoft used to bundle with their mouse?)
:)
I can't say that about the Logitech and various vendor (i.e. Compaq, Digital) mice. So whatever you say about the design (like it, hate it), I'm sure that it will hold up for a long time.
As for making a fashion statement with hardware, doesn't Apple already have a patent on that?
John
I dream in binary.
I heard a lot of complains about that one button is not enough for a mouse. All those complains were by PC users who have never ever used a Mac.
I know some Mac users who bought a two button mouse. I also know a lot PC users (> 50 years old) who do not really know when to press the left, and when to press the right button. My mother uses an iMac and she never missed a second or third mouse button. And I do not want to teach her when she would have to use which of those buttons.
We've had that Stark mouse here in Denmark for well over a month. My girlfriend bougth one because it looks nice, but shes says it works like sh** com pared to her Logitech Mouseman Traveler mouse.
What kind of dog barks "BOFH! BOFH!"? A rootweiler of course...
"Looks shiny enough to be on a museum display along with other succesful Microsoft products."
I am not a Microsoft fanboy, but whether the Mouse is good or bad is a subjective matter. What is the basis for comparing it with Microsoft Bob? Stories like this (along with the other trollish story about Gmail posted earlier today- once again with no data or story to back it up) is making Slashdot a tech tabloid. Editors, please use your discretion more carefully while approving stories.
"When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail." - Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
They just can't compete. Who is this guy?
When are they going to make a follow-up to the best trackball on the market?
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
"So, hating Microsoft's software is a healthy attitude, hating their hardware product isn't."
How then do you feel about the drivers that come with the mouse, and leave that funny icon in the system tray?
Bork!
I did clean it. It stayed broken.
It came preinstalled on the NEC my mother bought back in 1995.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
just once i want to sit my mom down in front of a solaris machine and video tape her trying to bring up netscape or mozilla. I bet it would be hiarious. Does that make me a geek? A mean Geek? Just mean?
It looks like any other mouse.
But it has a racing stripe which makes everything look cool!
Right?
Just got back from looking up this mouse--is it just me or does it not have any buttons? There are two tiny buttons under the thumb, and some buttons above and below the intelliwheel (or whatever the kids are calling it these days), but where'n the heck are the right and left mouse buttons?
Hardware has guided the evolution of the mouse from its origins as a simple, utilitarian tool to its modern incarnation: a statement of individual style.
I think they say it all right there: primary purpose of this mouse is to be a fashion statement.
It falls right into the same bucket as cell phone covers, some of other MS mice as well as some other more useless items.
On a side note, did anyone notice that this mouse does not match ANY other MS-driven hardware?
Took a while to get used to it, but the little pointer button on the IBM and Fujitsu notebook/laptops is extremely easy to use, with either hand. Plus, it takes no extra space like the touchpad or trackball.
If the stark thing makes it to a art museum, the IBM should be in a tech museum. I'll never go back to my splintery Stickel mouse.
Offtopic, Overrated, Redundant, whatever.. Museum mouse? Give me a break.
Translated from marketese, this means that it works equally poorly for both hands. Sorry, I think I'll keep my old asymmetric logictech mouse for a while longer; it might just look like a lump of beige plastic, but its shape fits my hand.
Disclaimer: I work for a company, but I don't speak for them.
Isn't this designed by the same guy that designs that SHIT sold at target? All I wanted was a damn broom, not some purple thing with a big sex toy lookin' handle that looks like it came from Alice in Wonderland.
Honestly, who wants a toaster or a teapot with purple knobs on it? I don't know what the Target people were smoking when the contracted with that guy, but they obviously smoked it all.
Need Free Juniper/NetScreen Support? JuniperForum
technically speaking, if they take a loss on every one sold you are not helping them grow.
But Microsoft Mice in general are good.
In fact, I would say that the MS optical mice are probobly one of the best things to come out of M$.
Unlike the Apple Mouse, the whole left and right side's are buttons. A friend of mine tried one out and he constantly complained that because he rests his hand on his mouse, he mistakingly clicked all over the place. The Apple Mouse, although it has only one button, is only pressure sensitive at the top.
In Opera with JS turnd off I get the same picture no matter which of the 6 colors I click on. In Firefox (with JS) I get two pictures to click on and if I mouse over the red I get the vaginal mouse picture while mousing over the other gets me the same weird what-is-that-thing I get in Opera that doesn't relaly look like a mouse. Goog job there, wingnuts.
Is it worth launching IE to see this thing? No.
Need Mercedes parts ?
"Putting the slash back into slashdot"
Need Mercedes parts ?
Cordless mice - all the ones I've used, and I've used a lot of different ones - suffer from laggy response and poor sample rates.
Can't use them with games for sure, and the low sample rates cause frustration for graphic designers and such.
I've been using mice for as long as they've been on personal computers and even just farting around the computer is annoying for me when using a wireless mouse.
USB mice are fantastic.
The only mouse I really like in recent years is the first-generation standard Microsoft optical mouse with two buttons and a wheel. Not too bulky, not too many buttons I'll never use porposfully (very annoying when you tap the side buttons on the intellipoint explorer behemoth.) Too bad it suffered from poor tracking during times of high movement. The newer ones are better with this, and mostly the same design.
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
This is a cool mouse.
I drank what? -- Socrates
No matter how badly you guys speak of M$, they do sometimes make a nice sleak products such as this new designer mouse. I don't think speaking badly of anything before getting to know deeply about cons & pros, we do not have rights to say if the product is good or not.
buffering...
You know, I could say everyone was a newbie once but how about this: you will be old and stupid one day, too. Have fun while it lasts.
Marxist evolution is just N generations away!
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Hey, Microsoft did something good!
Quick! Bring up Microsoft Bob! That'll change the subject!
Bob was crap. We know. You don't have to keep harping on MS for mistakes made ten years ago.
Stop living in the past. Microsoft (and tons of other developers) does plenty wrong today that we can call them out for without having to drudge up ten years of past history. Plus, if we discuss MS' current missteps, they have an opportunity to correct them. Constructive criticism and all that.
I know bashing MS is required on Slashdot, but whatever you think of their software and/or business practices, their hardware has always been great.
Personally their keyboards and mice are some of the best being made. Logitech isn't bad, but I haven't liked their last couple generations of mice and their keyboards have always been sub-par.
In terms of innovation, MS released its first mouse in 1983, one year before the Mac was launched. Though I don't know if they invented the mouse wheel and optical mice, but they were the first major manufacturer to promote the technology. And though I personally don't like the "natural" keyboards, I know a lot of people that swear by them.
And even though I love Apple's industrial design, their mice are utterly useless. I use an MS mouse with my Mac.
That said, the Starck mouse looks more like an executive desk decoration than a useful mouse. =)
ah, how I laughed. A 'System Requirement' section for a mouse.
Next: Toilet paper; System requirements, Microsoft Windows Toilet 2005.
God help us.
Open Source Drum Kit, LPLC deve board - mjhdesigns.com
I am still using a decade old natural keyboard and an almost as old Microsoft mouse. The keyboard is rock solid and extremely comfortable (it was the one with the reverse lever). It has industrial strength. I will have to say goodbye to the mouse because its rubber feet have worn off, everything else is just like the day that I bought it. The keyboard has survived spills, and it has been thrown to the ground or stored under heavy stuff on transportation, but not even the ink on the keys has started to fade.
The layout of the new natural keyboard is horrendous, especially the arrow keys, and it makes cracking sounds when you rest your hands on it.
Ill take my keyboard with me to the grave. It is the best product that Microsoft has ever made. However, bling bling attracts more customers to a new product, because quality of construction is only noticed once you have had the product for a while. Look, that turd has a flashing neon light and 20 buttons.
Cheers,
Adolfo
Beauty is in the eye of the user.. and from the looks of it, it's ugly. Not trying to troll here, but i'd rather have some ergonomically trained AI/Expert system or perhaps some researcher on body motion or anyone with some idea about how machines and humans interface design a mouse. I don't really care how it looks. For me in terms of a pointing device, it should always be form following function.
I know many good designers and they are without doubt interested in human factors; so ok, I haven't tried this new mouse, but from the looks of it, it's trying to look pretty not function well.
http://www.hawknest.com/
Now check out the language used to hype it:
I'm afraid of what that dangling chord is supposed to be. Good thing it's not in the pictures.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Bah. Cordless mice are too laggy and they don't have good sample rates. Not like a standard USB mouse.
:)
A year ago I would have agreed with you.
Then I bought my Logitech MX700. It actually responds better than my previous optical corded mouse. It is, for me, the best mouse I've ever owned, and it is dead on balls (no pun intended
It also looks sleek while looking functional. Why would anyone want a "museum piece" for a mouse anyway ?
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
Except for two things:
1) Most people who claim they just buy the boxes to install Linux on them or mod them will very likely purchase at least one game. They're also likely to buy accessories. On top of that, I wonder if MS is still taking a loss on the Xbox, since the hardware is so antiquated at this point.
2) Using the machine itself adds to its geek chic, and makes it seem attractive to friends and colleagues, who very likely will not mod the box, or install Linux, but simply purchase retail software for it. This works to Microsoft's advantage since they receive publicity; by supporting them even through piracy one is still popularizing the machine and its 'coolness' factor, which will eventually lead to legitimate game sales.
I'm no MS lover, but why is that Microsoft Bob is inevitably brought up every time this company introduces a new product? It was funny the first time I guess...
Why is MS celebrating the release of a "designer' mouse. Aren't computer mice supposed to be funcional? You don't hang them on your wall for your friends to ooh and ahh over... you hook them up to your computer and grab them with your hand and use them to do things. I don't remember Ford every advertising a "designer" starter motor.
Really, I just want a mouse that's comfortable to my hand, that I can use for long stretches without discomfort, that has buttons and wheels that feel familiar the first time I use them. I'd like to see mice that recognize that human beings come in both left and right-handed varieties, and that those hands can have different sizes. I could give a shit what the damn thing looks like. It doesn't need cool lights or glowing stripes to accomplish its function.
I am NOT a man!
I am a free number!
MOMA bought a Macintosh Cube and other Macintosh items for their permanent art collection. The Cube came with a Macintosh mouse but MOMA bought some additional Macintosh mice to display separate from the complete Cube.
to be placed next to 'Abe Normal'.
I don't care how pretty it is it cannot compare to the Logitech Optical Wireless Trackman. I have owned just about every iteration of Microsofts' Mice. I bout a wireless TrackMan (fingerball/ not Thumb Ball.) I bought the MS Trackball and it was unusable, I gave it away. I have one of the MS Explorer PLus mice and it is very nice. But for $30 off of ebay (refurbed)the TrackMan cannot be beat. It has a ton of usable buttons all over and is really a smooth fit to the hand. Funny thing though they are hard as Heck to find in stores anymore. I bought them for every manned machine in the house, the unmanned, work machines have the left over MS mice to use.
My cat's picked up a Hammer. HEY! Put down that Hammer. Put Down that Hamm...THUNK!
"A hysterical send up of Kerry and his band of book burners"
Really? Hysterical?
Maybe I'm just too stupid to get it, but I can't see anything coming from that site but classic "FUD".
Dig a little deeper, chum.
Excuse me, but I want my clicking under my fingertips, not in the palm of my hand, if you don't mind.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I don't care how pretty it is it cannot compare to the Logitech Optical Wireless Trackman. I have owned just about every iteration of Microsofts' Mice. I bought a wireless TrackMan (fingerball/ not Thumb Ball.) I bought the MS Trackball and it was unusable, I gave it away. I have one of the MS Explorer PLus mice and it is very nice. But for $30 off of ebay (refurbed)the TrackMan cannot be beat. It has a ton of usable buttons all over and is really a smooth fit to the hand. Funny thing though they are hard as Heck to find in stores anymore. I bought them for every manned machine in the house, the unmanned, work machines have the left over MS mice to use.
My cat's picked up a Hammer. HEY! Put down that Hammer. Put Down that Hamm...THUNK!
The Perfit Mouse Optical is perfect really, with three nice full size buttons and a scrollwheel on the side for the thumb, so I can still use a scrollwheel, but it's just waaay out of my price range for a mouse.
Al Qaeda has ninjas!
A buddy of mine had to go back to using his umbilical cord mouse after getting the MX700 because of short battery life issues.
It looks pretty on the desk, but doesn't really do anything. Kind of like a model hired for ComDex.
Yeah, if only Apple would design the exact same products everyone else already has - that'd be awesome!!11
Idiot. I don't think it's Apple that needs a head removed from it's ass...
That said - Logitech has already solved mice design. Here comes Microsoft with another 'innovation' that's really just the same old tired crap in rounded silver plastic. Whatever, Microsoft.
-ZOD-
I'm really considering getting a Powerbook as my next luggable machine, but the fact that it has a touchpad is the single thing holding me back...
Unfortunately, IBM has a patent on the nipple interface, which is why you don't see a lot of other manufacturers with nipples. It's not as if the addition of the thing would add much cost to the device, but they'd have to pay licensing fees.
May we never see th
Keyboard styles come in waves. Every vendor out there inexplicably clones their competitors and drops their old models. Perhaps this is because of the "car mentality" -- if you switch styles frequently enough, a three-year-old keyboard just looks "old".
I remember the flat, traditional keyboards.
Then ergo keyboards were the rage, and I saw a ton of split-keyboard, tilted-away-from-the-center keyboards.
Apparently that went out of style, and then most keyboards were split-keyboard, not-tilted-away-from-the-center keyboards.
Now, it seems that wireless is all the rage.
It's a real irritation, because heavy computer users often become comfortable with a keyboard that they like, and then can't ever get ahold of that keyboard again.
May we never see th
I found one at a garage sale this morning - part of a $5.00 PS/2 (old 80286 vintage PS/2) system. If only IBM would make an updated version of this - same microswitch tech under each key, but add some of the newer features (USB, volume controls, etc). I'm sick of all the membrane keyboards. The keyboards happily on my desk now, and the other parts are waiting for trash pickup monday morning! As for the mouse, I hate the "full length button" crap - I hate that on the Macs, I don't think I want it on my PC!
There's no reasonably priced alternative to Project, for what it does.
resigned
The click mechanism on this new mouse is identical to that of the now quite-old Apple mouse design.
It's a trivial thought to simply cut the mouse 50/50 to give it another mouse button, making it suitable for windows.
The side view of the new mouse is even less original, following an alteration of the curves currently used in the Apple mouse design.
The designer has been particularly unoriginal, as he'd run into the Apple mouse on a daily basis when dealing with design studios. It's not like an accountant coming to this amazing idea, it's just a rip off. Pity.
I think they wanted to say PENTHOUSE-quality but that was just too risque.
Laws are for people with no friends.
I have a very nice mouse, a Logitech Mouseman Wheel mouse with 4 buttons. It's several years old and I can't find it on the shelves or Internet anymore. The wonderful thing is that it fits my hand. It's comfortable. I don't end the day with fingers hurting and my hand cramping.
It seems to me that Logitech finally came up with a great mouse when it produced the model that I have. Now I can't find anything remotely like it. Some marketers have told companies that egronomic is out and "style" is in.
I don't care about style. Ok, that's not completely true, but I don't care more about style than comfort. What I look for first in any user interface component is comfort and ease of use. If it looks good after that, so much the better.
I'd like companies to quit changing things just for the sake of change. Find what works and stick with it. Find better ways to point at things on the screen. Find ways to make it even easier to use a mouse all day without developing repetitive motion disorders. Concentrate on those first and style a distant second.
-All that is gold does not glitter - Tolkien
www.ra
Then that's pretty darn impressive.
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
I heard a lot of complains about that one button is not enough for a mouse. All those complains were by PC users who have never ever used a Mac.
You should stop hanging out with so many Windows users, then.
If you're running native Mac software then a one-button mouse is quite adequate, though mapping splat-click to the right mouse button is rather nice.
But... the Mac ships with a perfectly good X server, and is probably the nicest X based system I've used. Apart from the mouse. Every try using xterm with a single button mouse? Emacs?
So I got myself the nicest reasonably priced mouse I could find to replace the bundled mouse. Three buttons. Scroll wheel. Optical tracking. Cordless. It even has the same design scheme as the mac (shiny white and translucent grey). Who's the manufacturer? Microsoft.
Oh god... a new mouse?!? Whatever shall we do... will it improve my Counter-Strike record? No? Well... then what's the use of it?
...as is says on the web page.
That seems like a problem right there. How many average computer users know who Starck is? How many Slashdotters know? OK, there are probably a lot of Mac user who know. But if you have to say "this product is great because it was designed by Starck" while most people don't know who Starck is, where's the appeal?
Philippe Starck is in fact probably the best-known industrial designer of the last 20 years. He's a celebrity.
But his stuff (among his best known is an orange-juice squeezer that looks like a 3-legged alien landing craft) is the kind that yuppies in the '80s said "Oooh, it's a Starck! I need to get one to display in my condo!" Like I said, there are probably lots of Mac users that Starck appeals to. Anyone who would want a Starck mouse because it's a Starck probably wouldn't be using Windows.
That's not to say this mouse isn't necessarily ergonomic -- I'm sure Starck's underlings took good care of it. But as far as I can tell, the classic "soap bar" MS mouse got the ergonomics right, and I don't think most hands could tell the difference between it and the Starck. (Look at the touted ergonomic features -- smooth form! Ambidextrous! aren't these the basics that any mouse should have?) This mouse is being marketed solely on a designer name.
...was the original Logitech MouseMan+, with the rubber on the sides and the buttons that extended to the edge of the mouse. Looked weird (ugly, even), but it's "the" mouse for (right-handed) people with big hands.
Then they completely screwed it up when they made the optical model, by reducing the size of the buttons (original on the right, optical models on the left and centre).
Currently, the best compromise is probably the "MX" series, also from Logitech (a company I don't like much, but they do manage to get it right now and then), especially the MX-500 and above. The main buttons are very well designed, and the side buttons are reasonable. The scroll wheel and the other buttons are too far back on the mouse, though; to reach them you have to either bend your fingers or move your hand back so it actually rests off the mouse.
And, of course, Logitech's mouse drivers are crap (can't even turn acceleration off completely). Stick to the default OS drivers and you'll be fine.
IT'S A SHINY OBJECT!!!
My wrists have been destroyed by bad keyboards and worse mice. That mouse looks cool, but my wrists start to ache just looking at it.
I want a mouse that is comfortable to use for long periods of time. I need one that has a good 15-30 degree slant up towards the left, like the Goldtouch Mouse. Sure, it's ugly, but I can still hold a beer after a long day of computer use.
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
* those who can't
Apple's mice in general haven't been very good and the last two (the round puck and the new oval one) have actually been too painful to use. I use a Microsoft mouse on my Mac, because it's so much better than Apple's elegant torture device.
Based on the little Microsoft actually shows, this looks like it borrows the key feature that makes Apple's mice suck: the full-body button that makes it too easy to click accidentally and too hard to lift the mouse with the button down if you reach the end of the mousepad while dragging. And now with two buttons you'll click the button by accident just rocking your hand slightly side to side.
And, no, it doesn't look like it's a joke.
*sigh*
I switched to trackballs long ago.
OTOH, there would be one thing that would tempt me to try a mouse again... some time ago--pushing ten years, now--there was a designer mouse that I actually bought. Thd designer was Italian, and the mouse was shaped rather like a bar of Dove soap, with a beautifully contoured shape that the muscles that let your thumb oppose your finger could gently nestle in, and that supported the hand perfectly. (It was, therefore, not ambidextrous; there were right-handed and left-handed versions.)
It was long enough ago that the mouse was mechanical, darn it. If there were an optical version of it, I'd buy one in a heartbeat.
Who is this s+arck guy?! I want a mouse designed by H R Giger dammnit!
This looks like some sort of female alien reproductive organ...
I, too, prefer a good Logitech over pretty much every other mouse on the planet. ;)
It's pretty near impossible to admire it through the flesh of your hand. Instead of inventing a mouse that looks good, why not invent one that feels good?
Maybe one that feels like a vagina? (Let the jokes begin.)
And does it threaten to de-rez if you try to load Linux?
Wait a sec... that was last decade...
A clever way to imply that Microsoft innovates, but history says otherwise. Englebart invented the mouse in the late 1960's, and Xerox PARC used it first almost-commercially in the 1970's. Apple produced their first mouse based system, the Lisa in 1982 which was the first real use of the mouse as an input peripheral by any commercially available system. Microsoft's mouse was then, as they are now, developed and manufactured by somebody else, but marked by Microsoft. Also, the Microsoft mice of that era were almost completely functionally unusable, where Apple's mouse worked well because it had to.
-- Len
One, I'm sure it works fine with a Mac.
Two, your stereotypes of Mac and PC users are ridiculous. Perhaps in the 80s PC users were all drab unfeeling business types, and Mac users were all creative design afficionados. That portrayal hasn't been accurate for years. Nowadays most of the world uses Windows, and this includes right-brained types who simply don't want to pay $2000 for a computer.
the Michael Graves line of products at Target. And those look like total crap.
They're going to have to invent a whole new gadget to make me look stupid.
(My prediction: one day somebody is going to use biotech to manufacture stand-alone super brains. I'll refuse to learn how to use them because they'll seem to "wishy washy" compared to old-fashioned deterministic digital computers.)
also
3) Geeks buying them for linux boxen are skewing the market results, making retailers think that there's more demand for the XBox than there really is (from a gaming point of view) which would make retailers more likely to want to carry any subsquent "XBox 2" abortion.
XBox? just say no!
-ZOD-
why does word suck? how does it suck? i use it everyday, i don't seem to have any issues with it, nevermind to say that it sucks.
please me, have no regrets.
"You get all the fun of sitting still, being quiet, writing down numbers, paying attention...science has it all."
AFAIKT, what it does is print out quarter-inch thick stacks of Gantt charts that are distributed at staff meetings each week. Each week, this flexible program empowers the program manager to slip out the final target date on the printouts by ~1 more week.
Microsofties will choose the blue pill.
Everyone else will go for the red pill.
Wait... s/pill/mouse/g
Yeah, that's it!
--Udo.
Remember kids: that scroll wheel is VERY important!
yes, i have actually used it. and i still don't think it sucks. oh wait... i know why it sucks... it's microsoft, that's why it sucks. seriously though... microsoft isn't all crap. i still love windows 2000, and i love my microsoft optical mouse (not some dumb looking shiny thing). it's more comfortable than any other mouse i've used.
please me, have no regrets.
So Microsoft got a vendor to make something new. Who thought this was great news? To me, it looks like they copied an Apple mouse.
Nothing to see here...
I'm all about functional. I'm not about "museum" pieces. By functional, I'm talking at least 5 programmable buttons, a wheel, and a laser/LED. It better fit my hand too! After that, I don't care what it looks like.
-- No sig for you!
I have the Optical Explorer (Trackball) and the problem is about the same.
The cable has developed a short and moving it, which happens more often than you'd think, turns it off.
Actually killed a computer of mine. I picked the thing up to move it over and it kept going on and off. Well, since the thing is USB powered, drawing power from the power supply through the USB cord, it killed the power supply and then the CPU.
Sounds weird I know - but it's the only thing that could be traced. Tried everything else and swapped every other part out into (now) working PC's.
That was 3 years ago (about right, disected that PC right after 9/11/01)
Get your Unix fortune now!
Well - as someone who used a Mac LONG before using a PC. And used a Mac for many years. All I can say is that I wish Apple had made a multiple button mouse. Just so I could map command and option to buttons. If you are doing DTP or editing or Photoshop or whatever - you will using command, option and control to modify your mouse clicks constantly.
So perhaps those poor old people who don't know what button to click need a one button mouse - not me.
Most of the Mac based designers at my work use Microsoft optical mice for the additional buttons and scroll wheel.
This "the OS is so great it only needs one mouse button" stuff is crap. Power users will be more efficient with more buttons.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
Because Microsoft has had no other successful hardware products right? Let's compare their successful product line to Microsoft Bob and ignore the millions using Microsoft mouse and keyboards...
You want to know who isn't running Firefox 2.x? They spell it "definately" and "rediculous".
M$
:D
Ahahahahahahahahaha!
Thanks, I was the last person on slashdot who hadn't seen that link!
Everyone can finally stop posting it whenever some random idiot says M$ or Micro$oft!
See it as an innocent try to slashdot (and put offline) microsoft site.
-- When did Ignorance Become a Point of View?
That looks like a good keyboard. I was expecting it to be much more than the $30-$40 it's going for.
Gonna have to check that one out, thanks for the link.
It's too bad they don't make a dvorak version...
Danger, Will Robinson!
All data is speech. All speech is Free.
.. this is pre-historic news. I've had this mouse for a month!
. and yeah, it looks great next to my Mac but is really plastic and it feels really cheap to use.
-- http://z80.org - all opinions, all the time --
Two optical sensors.
:p
I love my dual optical logitech. Our two cats tend to leave their hair to everywhere, and with my previous single optical mouse I had to clean the mouse twice a day...
Now with dual sensors, it requires a lot of scrap on the board before the mouse starts to move on its own ways... and I'm not that messy
--
sigs are overrated
For small simple documents, Word is OK, but for small simple documents there are better solutions - like AbiWord. Abiword is faster, more stable, and it doesn't have all the mad features that you don't need for small documents. For larger documents - anything over a few pages - Word is awful. It produces huge file sizes, can crash, goes slowly, has a horribly fragile stylesheet mechanism. For really large documents - when you are using autogenerated TOCs for example - the odd bugs really build up. TOCs that look fine when Print Previewed, but are corrupted when actually printed, character level formatting that changes to paragraph level formatting when using references. The trouble with Word is it tries to be a word processor and a DTP system, and that is too much for one thing to do.
You mean The Artist Formerly Known As The Artist Formerly Known As Prince?
Visit http://ringbreak.dnd.utwente.nl/~mrjb/growingbettersoftware to download your free copy of the book
Wouldn't you like some arrogance with your mouse?
heavy, chrome, guaranteed forever.
;-)
& a keyboard would be nice too.
That's a killer idea! I'm sure there's a market somewhere for mice that can produce fire. The problem lots of smokers have if they leave their lighter somewhere, it goes missing. Having butane storage and ignition on a device tethered to the computer could be one solution.
It might also serve as a handy substitute for a paper shredder.
Divide by zero hurts my brain.
Thanks for the link! And I thank the others that responded to this thread, providing insights about and sightings of these Scrollpoint mice.
;)
I had tried to Google for this type of product, but without knowing the "scrollpoint" brand name, the search was futile. This situation made me realize that there is a fundamental flaw in both search engines and branding --its very hard to search for something that someone else has labeled with an unknown name. Perhaps someone will produce an ontology of brand names (defining each brand name object in terms of other brands names and plain language). Perhaps somebody already has, but I don't know the name of it.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
For a one-button mouse, I really like the design you're complaining about. I quickly got used to clicking with my whole hand and found it much more comfortable. However, I like opening contextual menus and scrolling with one hand, so i dumped it for a Kensington, which I don't love. Maybe I'll snag one of these Microsoft vagina mice.
If you want to use a three button mouse, go on.
I feel comfotable with one button. Long ago I used an Amiga with a two button mouse. The first thin I wanted to buy when I switched to a Mac was a two button mouse. Somehow I missed to buy it, and now I do not need more mouse buttons.
What I wanted to stress is that many people complain about things without having their own experience. I observed PC users not recognising how to deal with different windows and applications on a Mac. The same situation the other way around with Mac users dealing with M$ Windows. The Mac UI is a little different than M$ Windows UI. As a consequence one does not really need three mouse buttons. This does not imply thta some people feel happier with a multiple button mouse using their Mac.
Anyone unfortunate enough to have been bamboozled by his very expensive lemon squeezer that did the rounds of the likes of John Lewis a few years ago will know what I mean.
It is actually terrible at squeezing lemons, and singularly fails to fulfil its basic function at all well, and costs over 40 GBP!! Here's what's wrong with it:
you need a separate container to catch the juice (not included!)
the gap between the legs does not permit the average bowl or cup to fit below it to catch the juice.
its centre of gravity is so high that it easily topples over when any sort of pressure (like actually trying to squeeze a lemon) is applied.
that's assuming you can get the legs on a flat surface around the juice catcher - if not you're totally fscked.
it doesn't catch the pips, so they end up in the juice.
its shape means that the juice runs off awkwardly, often running down the legs onto the surface instead of into the catcher.
Frankly, it's a travesty. I have a plastic lemon squeezer I bought in the local supermarket for 99p that does the job perfectly - it has its own container, it catches the pips, and it is strong enough to take as much force as the lemon will. If this mouse is anything like the squeezer, it'll cost a fortune, won't function well, and will probably just end up in the back of a cupboard somewhere. But there will probably still be some pretentious tossers who'll go for it.
IBM has a prototype of a mouse with trackpoint scroll stick. Because the trackpoint nubbin is a rate-device, like a joystick, it apparently offers superior productivity to a scrollwheel according to IBM's research (PDF of slides).
Has anyone seen any devices like this? As much as I love the scrollwheel, my finger gets tired scrolling through a long document -- I'd rather just pull on a stick/nubbin and zoom along.
Point 1: That trackpoint scroll stick is widely known as a "clitmouse"
Point 2: In both Dutch and Swedish (which I speak), the word for "mouse" also means vagina.
This can only lead me to one conclusion--sex-crazed Swedish cunnilinguists have infiltrated IBM's design teams to subconsciously eroticize the desktop.
I started with Word 2.x -- it was a huge improvement over the dominant word processor of the day, WordPerfect (which didn't support Windows very well). I think the next version was 5.1, then 6.0, then they started into the "95" versioning.
The pinnacle, IMHO, was Word 6.0. I don't think they've added a useful feature to Word since version 6.0, only bloat. Oh yeah, and the ability to save as "HTML" (quoted because it's only readable by MSIE).
I would continue to use Word 6.0, except that the file format continues to be "upgraded," so that prior versions cannot read files written by newer versions.
So if you hate WinME so much why do you still have it on your machine? You've got lots of options dude...leaving an OS on your PC that behaves in the manner you describe probably says more about you than it does MS.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If I had a vagina, a donut and a mop, could you pick the vagina out of a lineup?
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
That's just from your vantage point.
resigned
All I have to say is that while I use a three five+scroll button mouse on my Apple, I appreciate that the OS can be used with only one button. This makes thing a lot less confusing than they are on my win2k box.
Thank you, thank you! Indeed it was the Colani mouse. Googling turned up a picture. Time to email the Colani web site to ask if there's an optical version.
I'm sure that's the mouse I'm using in the office - and I don't think we had to sign an N.D.A. or owt when we got it in for review - it's very shiny, but very light and the long top buttons and small grippable sides give it the same feeling as one of those old round mac mice - you're just confused about what to do with it. I still prefer the logitech range to be frank.
I've been involved with engineering projects since long before Microsoft Project hit the market, and from my vantage point schedules slip equally well either with or without it.
I'll explain my position on the comment "Using the keyboard with a single click mouse is faster than the 2/3 button mouse in a Windows environment."
I work in an enviroment with equal users on Mac and Windows of varying degrees of ambidextrous talent.
I see designers fly on a Mac designing with Photoshop and Illustrator. The App is Adobe and it's the same on Windows except that we have thousands more fonts for the Mac. They prefer the Mac because of it's single click. They think "that one" or "that one with command" and not "that one, left click" or "that one, right click and choose".
It really took me about a year after watching them and having discussions about UI's in general but I really see how the UI is more intuitive in a Mac environment.
Back in the day, I used to point to My Computer, right click, and choose properties. Today, it's far easier to use "Windows - Pause/Break" and then it's a tossup as to whether I'll use the mouse or Ctrl-Tab
I do use the right click intuitively for browsing and web reasearch with Mozilla and it's extensions (Linky, Checky, etc...) but it's a different thought process than manipulating objects on the desktop. With Mozilla, the entire browser is the object instead of an icon.
Don't get me wrong, I like having the right mouse button and I even use the context key on the keyboard or Shift-F10 on those that don't. What I realized through the designers is that right-clicking and choosing a menu item takes your focus away from the object. At first I argued about that but the fact is that you do move your mouse to select an option.
But really, who cares about these silly details.
The wheel does rule, kudos to those brought it in to our interface. I used to like the joystick that IBM mice had but it did get too buggy after a while.
I hate those monster 4+ buttons with 2+ wheels mice. Useless.
if you steal from one source, that is plagiarism, if you steal from many, well, that's just research.
Masamune Shirow's mouse came to mind first. Although apparently getting it to work on a non-Japanese computer might be tricky.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
hey phillepeieee, dude just start innovating instead of redesigning!! Why do companies insist on thinking they will win stock share based on popular designer's. Give the youth a chance!!
I still have a mouse I got in 1991, one of those square Logitech serial three-button mice. The thing is, it's cool.
It functions well, feels good, looks great, the three buttons give full Xwindows functionality (none of this silly 3-button emulation!), and it's noticed because nothing made today bears any resemblance to it.
I'm going to be so bummed out if it ever breaks, it's irreplaceable.
Bob-
The Ludwig von Mises Institute. The reasoning individuals economics