Slashdot Mirror
Laptops w/o Trackpads?
Leave Blank asks: "Are there any laptops out there anymore that -don't- have trackpads? I can't use them properly at all (for whatever reason - my current theory is that it's linked to my severe Raynaud's - some days I can activate a trackpad from a bit under a centimetre above it, other days it just doesn't work at all, so I always carry around an external trackball with my current laptop. Does anyone on Slashdot have recommendations I mightn't have managed to google?"
"A trackpad is just pointlessly annoying for me, because I have to remember to turn it off or I'll 'hit' it accidentally while typing (sometimes just by waving my hand over it, remember), and even if it is off, I'm left with a nagging feeling it's wasting space, which annoys my tender european design sensibilities. So, what are my options? - I want a top-of-the-range in processor/gfx laptop, I quite like the little keyboard, um, nubbins, but I can't find a _new_ laptop with one but without a trackpad, and ultra-pricy tablet PCs typically actually come with a freaking trackpad too. Seems to me a laptop without a trackpad might even be smaller, and I'm quite prepared to live without one as outlined."
For some reason, many of these pads have "tap for click" turned on. This causes nothing but problems: you'll get erroneous mouse-clicks registered just by dragging and moving stuff around the screen. "But I never intended to drag that to the trash can!" Turn this off to make things more bearable.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
And while you are at it, take out all the guts and paint your laptop camo (don't forget the keyboard!) so you can have that "Hackers" look.
Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein
Get an IBM X-Series (just the pointer) or a T-Series and replace the wrist-rest with one that doesn't include a trackpad. It's extremely easy to do and costs $20 or so.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
Get a ThinkPad.
it seems that every late model laptop has a trackpad these days. which sucks because i can't stand trackpads.
thinkpads (and probably most laptops) let you disable the trackpad, in favor of the mouse button, which i greatly prefer, personally.
so while finding one without a trackpad might be difficult, getting a laptop with a mouse "nipple" and disabling the trackpad is definitely possible.
Buy a top-of-the-line laptop and place ducttape over the trackpad. The cost of the trackpad is negligible in comparison to the overall price of the laptop and duct tape is cheap. You can get a roll of white for your iBook, chrome for your Vaio, or manila for your Walmart PC. As long as you cover the pad, your hand brushing over won't be recognized (conductivity is often measured).
I don't have any problems with it registering without touching however, that one seems pretty unique.
Perhaps because you don't have Raynaud's.
Daniel
Carpe Diem
For the majority, you can disable the trackpad in the BIOS.
Trackpads don't work for you because your fingers are too cold. This is a result of you being dead. I hate for you to find out this way, but its true. You've been dead for a while now. There was actually a slashdot story on it, maybe you missed it? It was duped twice. Seems you died after a 36 hour starcraft session at a cybercafe. As your body lay there lifeless, your soul has been carying on and seriously the slashdot posts from the after life are kinda freaking us out here. If you dont mind, just walk towards the bright light and leave us alone. Oh, and give a word up to big J.
Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the
" IBM Invented the trackpoint or whatever they call it."
Not that it matters, but my son-in-law is the engineer who designed it. He's a PhD, physicist, and came up with "negative inertia" to make it work.
Ignorance is curable, stupid is forever.
Actual mice don't have the problem of registering bogus clicks just by using the "point" part of the interface. Why should trackpads by any different?
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.